Dude. Time flies. Whether you're having fun or not. (Good thing it's been mostly fun!)
So in honor of her fifth birthday, since I've moved sites and it's no longer available, I figured I'd repost her birth story.*
Seeing Things Through Different Eyes
originally posted July 8, 2006
It’s a very rough story, I should edit it and re-work it but I’ve been taking long enough to get it out there and (surprise) don’t have the time to edit and be thorough. So it’s long and wordy and mostly fluff, maybe someday I’ll fix it … maybe not.
If I am going to tell the story, I might as well start from the beginning. I was due July 15 and started measuring big a little past half-way through the pregnancy. The doctor ordered an ultrasound at week 32 to find out why. They found there was an excessive amount of amniotic fluid, but nothing to worry about. Because of the extra fluid and all of the extra fluid in my entire body (my feet were as big as my head!), the doctor didn’t want me to carry entirely to term so wanted to induce me a few days earlier than my due date. No problem, that was still over a month away. So there was no problem with Dan going home to Utah for his yearly trip to Steamboat on Father’s Day with his dad. I wasn’t at all worried about anything, there had been no complications, no causes for alarm, nothing to make anyone think that she wouldn’t be showing up in July. Just in case, Dan’s mom planned on coming out for a portion of his trip so that I wouldn’t be alone for over a week being 8, almost 9, months pregnant.
So let’s jump to the night before Dan left – when the universe started trying to tell us something. All minor things, but still crazy things. Thursday night we were getting ready for bed and I went to the bathroom ending in a massive amount of blood in the toilet. Initially, of course, I freaked out. Deciding it was just stupid pregnancy hemorrhoids (which it was), I felt much better. But this is the beginning of the drama of the next few days. Friday morning when Dan left, indicator lights in the Audi went on to let us know that it needs even MORE work done on it when we just got it back from the mechanic. Saturday, Dan called to tell me he was in a bit of a car accident – nothing serious (could have been but wasn’t thank God), but a car accident nonetheless. Sunday I clogged the kitchen sink so bad it about flooded when the dishwasher ran. Monday… oh, Monday… Dan lost his debit card so his bank account got frozen to replace the card number and pin. This, of course, with the big bills due in just a couple of days. Also on Monday, I went to the doctor who informed me that I was already dilated to a 3 and there was no way I would make it to my due date or her anticipated induction date. Everything was still fine, but she said with the progress my body was making and the fluid I had, I only had a few more weeks left. (Note “a few more weeks.”) At this point, I asked Dan if he didn’t feel like the universe was trying to tell him that maybe he shouldn’t have ditched me. On Tuesday, it came down to Dan saying he would be glad if I could just wait to have the baby until he got home. I agreed – but of course I could. She was coming soon but we still had a little while. Long enough that I could spend the next few days with his mom finalizing things and getting ready: packing my bag, finishing up work projects and hiring a temp replacement, finding a pediatrician, working out leave, looking into daycares, getting baby things ready to bring her home to them and so many other things on the agenda.
Dan’s mom got in a little before 8 PM Tuesday night. We went to dinner at Red Robin and then drove home. I had only eaten a little over half my dinner but I was so full. We stayed up and talked for a while and then went to bed. By the time I was getting ready for bed, I was really feeling the food not sitting well in my stomach. I felt like I had eaten way too much. About 11:30 I text messaged Dan to say goodnight and I went to bed feeling rather sick to my stomach. Having just eaten, I was sure it was just digestion issues and I’d go to the bathroom and feel much better. Three bathroom trips later I still feeling pretty crappy. Dan called at 12:20 and I talked to him for a few minutes but had to cut the call short because I was feeling so lousy. Not only was I feeling sick to my stomach now, it was starting to have those nasty digestive pains. That over the next little while just kept getting worse. For the next three hours I was in and out of the bathroom and thinking if I could just go to sleep, I’d feel better in the morning.
So let’s jump to the night before Dan left – when the universe started trying to tell us something. All minor things, but still crazy things. Thursday night we were getting ready for bed and I went to the bathroom ending in a massive amount of blood in the toilet. Initially, of course, I freaked out. Deciding it was just stupid pregnancy hemorrhoids (which it was), I felt much better. But this is the beginning of the drama of the next few days. Friday morning when Dan left, indicator lights in the Audi went on to let us know that it needs even MORE work done on it when we just got it back from the mechanic. Saturday, Dan called to tell me he was in a bit of a car accident – nothing serious (could have been but wasn’t thank God), but a car accident nonetheless. Sunday I clogged the kitchen sink so bad it about flooded when the dishwasher ran. Monday… oh, Monday… Dan lost his debit card so his bank account got frozen to replace the card number and pin. This, of course, with the big bills due in just a couple of days. Also on Monday, I went to the doctor who informed me that I was already dilated to a 3 and there was no way I would make it to my due date or her anticipated induction date. Everything was still fine, but she said with the progress my body was making and the fluid I had, I only had a few more weeks left. (Note “a few more weeks.”) At this point, I asked Dan if he didn’t feel like the universe was trying to tell him that maybe he shouldn’t have ditched me. On Tuesday, it came down to Dan saying he would be glad if I could just wait to have the baby until he got home. I agreed – but of course I could. She was coming soon but we still had a little while. Long enough that I could spend the next few days with his mom finalizing things and getting ready: packing my bag, finishing up work projects and hiring a temp replacement, finding a pediatrician, working out leave, looking into daycares, getting baby things ready to bring her home to them and so many other things on the agenda.
Dan’s mom got in a little before 8 PM Tuesday night. We went to dinner at Red Robin and then drove home. I had only eaten a little over half my dinner but I was so full. We stayed up and talked for a while and then went to bed. By the time I was getting ready for bed, I was really feeling the food not sitting well in my stomach. I felt like I had eaten way too much. About 11:30 I text messaged Dan to say goodnight and I went to bed feeling rather sick to my stomach. Having just eaten, I was sure it was just digestion issues and I’d go to the bathroom and feel much better. Three bathroom trips later I still feeling pretty crappy. Dan called at 12:20 and I talked to him for a few minutes but had to cut the call short because I was feeling so lousy. Not only was I feeling sick to my stomach now, it was starting to have those nasty digestive pains. That over the next little while just kept getting worse. For the next three hours I was in and out of the bathroom and thinking if I could just go to sleep, I’d feel better in the morning.
I didn’t want to go wake up Diana over a stomach ache so I stayed in bed and hoped I’d just fall asleep.
At about 3:00 AM I realized that the pains were getting pretty consistent and would actually go away for a few minutes but would come back closer and closer together and more and more severe. I still had a month to go. Dinner made me sick. I am not going to go to the hospital and have them tell me, “you’re a dork, go home, you have a stomach ache.” Around 3:30 the pain was so bad I could barely breathe through it. Something was NOT right. I waited a few more minutes, really not wanting to wake up Diana cuz I’m a wimp but about 10 minutes later, I was in her room asking her to take me to the hospital if I found out where it was. So she got up and got ready and I used my contingency plan I had in case something happened while Dan was gone – I called 911 and asked them where the nearest hospital was. Their directions made no sense so I just signed online and printed out a map. I called to let Dan know I was going to the hospital, but he didn’t answer so I just left him a voicemail that I’d call him once I knew what was going on. We left for the hospital a couple of minutes after 4:00 AM. I was certain we were going to get there and they would send me home.
Diana asked if I had been timing the pains, which I hadn’t because A – I didn’t have a clock in my bedroom and B – I had no idea what was going on until just a couple of minutes before we left for the hospital. She timed them on the way to the hospital and by the time we had gotten there, she said the contractions were about a minute and 45 seconds apart. We arrived at the emergency room and they immediately wheeled me up to Labor and Delivery. (And this is where things start to get very blurry.) They put me in a bed and hooked me up to some monitors while they took information. Around 5 AM Diana called my mom to let her know I was in the hospital and also tried calling Dan. Shortly after that, they gave me a shot to try to stop the contractions, to try to give me at least a little more time before having the baby. They hooked me up to an IV and gave me some pain medication thinking we would stop the labor. At this point, I was still dilated to a 3. We spent the next couple of hours filling out paperwork, just trying to breathe, telling the story of how my husband is in Utah to all of the nurses, and just trying to BREATHE. At about 7 AM, they decided there was no way they were going to be able to stop the labor and this baby is coming today. At that point, I told Diana to call Dan and tell him to get his butt on a plane. The Dr. came to check me and I was dilated to a 5. All of their delivery rooms were full so I had to wait in the observing room for a while. My mom actually called the hospital and they let her talk to me since I couldn’t use my cell phone in the room I was in. I talked to her and my sister for a few minutes until the next big contraction. The nurses changed shifts and I got the new nurse who would be with me the rest of the day, Jennifer. So we spent some time talking, of course getting her up to speed on my husband BEING IN UTAH! and talking about how things were going in this whole crazy process.
They got me into a labor and delivery room around 9 AM. Diana left to go back to my house and get some things for me since I hadn’t even packed my hospital bag yet. They came in to give me an epidural shortly after that. Women who can do this naturally have all my respect in the world. I couldn’t believe how bad the pain could get. (For the record, getting an epidural is one of the grossest feelings ever. Giving birth didn’t even feel that gross.) So from here it was just a lot of waiting and epidural refreshing and more waiting. The doctor came in around 1:00 to check on me. She broke my water to get things moving. She said she’d stop back by after her shift ended at 5 to see how things were… if I lasted that long. So more waiting, more terrible, miserable, awful contractions, and more phone calls. I talked to my mom a couple more times and my sister. And once my husband finally got to the airport in SLC, he called and talked to me. Up to this point, he had only talked to his mom. I felt terrible he had to miss his trip with his dad and he felt terrible that he wasn’t there with me. I passed the time talking with Diana and the nurses when they would come in. Everything was happening so fast there didn’t see to be time to think it was lasting forever – which, in that much pain, I would have expected. The nurses let me know that since the baby was a month early, they had to make me aware that she may have to be taken to a transition room to make sure everything with her was okay. Right around 4:00 I started feeling the intense urge to push. The nurses checked everything, and sure enough, I was ready to go. So they brought in a few more nurses and let the doctor know. I started pushing just a couple of minutes after 4:00 PM and at 4:32 Madeleine Marie was in the doctor’s hands, eyes wide open, breathing and crying all on her own. They took her to the newborn station to do all their tests and the doctor started stitching me up while the nurses cleaned up.
I remember when I started pushing there were a few nurses and the doctor in the room, when I was finished, the room was filled with people – they just came out of the woodwork to take care of my baby. Just a couple minutes after the baby was born, Dan happened to land in Denver for his layover and called to see how things were going. What perfect timing. I talked to him for a while, telling him how miserable and horrible and awful and painful it was and that it was over and that she was so tiny and they were cleaning her up right now and on and on and on. And while he may not have been there with me, I was lucky enough to be on the phone with him when they put my baby in my arms for the first time. So I told Dan all about how absolutely beautiful she was and that her eyes were huge and she was so tiny and she had so much hair. For him not being there, it couldn’t have been timed better for him to call. She weighed 6 pounds, 12.5 ounces, was 19.5 inches long and didn’t need any of the anticipated preemie care for being so early. She did everything on her own and everything had developed just fine.
She and I stayed in the labor and delivery room recovering until 8 PM that night and then they moved us to our mother & baby room. Diana left to go to the airport to pick up Dan and I spent the next few hours just hanging out with my cool new baby. They had to take her to the nursery to do some tests and give her a bath that night so I sent her off and just tried to relax for a while. Dan and his mom got back around 11:30 PM and we asked that she be brought back to our room so her dad could see and hold her. Through some miscommunication, she didn’t show up until almost 3 AM but given the circumstances, neither of us was very tired and certainly not at all tired when she showed up. We spent the next two days in the hospital. Dan would spend the night and then go spend some time with his mom during the day and then they would come back and we would have dinner in my room each night and she would stay for a while then go back to our place.
So in a nutshell, she was very early, it was all very unexpected, horrible, terrible timing, her Dad wasn’t here, nothing was ready for her or for me, work certainly wasn’t ready for me to leave, I was enjoying being pregnant and thought I’d have plenty of time to get ready and enjoy the last month of just hanging out and getting ready for having this baby. Yeah….. she already has a mind of her own.
*Yes, exact posting time WAS intentional :P
At about 3:00 AM I realized that the pains were getting pretty consistent and would actually go away for a few minutes but would come back closer and closer together and more and more severe. I still had a month to go. Dinner made me sick. I am not going to go to the hospital and have them tell me, “you’re a dork, go home, you have a stomach ache.” Around 3:30 the pain was so bad I could barely breathe through it. Something was NOT right. I waited a few more minutes, really not wanting to wake up Diana cuz I’m a wimp but about 10 minutes later, I was in her room asking her to take me to the hospital if I found out where it was. So she got up and got ready and I used my contingency plan I had in case something happened while Dan was gone – I called 911 and asked them where the nearest hospital was. Their directions made no sense so I just signed online and printed out a map. I called to let Dan know I was going to the hospital, but he didn’t answer so I just left him a voicemail that I’d call him once I knew what was going on. We left for the hospital a couple of minutes after 4:00 AM. I was certain we were going to get there and they would send me home.
Diana asked if I had been timing the pains, which I hadn’t because A – I didn’t have a clock in my bedroom and B – I had no idea what was going on until just a couple of minutes before we left for the hospital. She timed them on the way to the hospital and by the time we had gotten there, she said the contractions were about a minute and 45 seconds apart. We arrived at the emergency room and they immediately wheeled me up to Labor and Delivery. (And this is where things start to get very blurry.) They put me in a bed and hooked me up to some monitors while they took information. Around 5 AM Diana called my mom to let her know I was in the hospital and also tried calling Dan. Shortly after that, they gave me a shot to try to stop the contractions, to try to give me at least a little more time before having the baby. They hooked me up to an IV and gave me some pain medication thinking we would stop the labor. At this point, I was still dilated to a 3. We spent the next couple of hours filling out paperwork, just trying to breathe, telling the story of how my husband is in Utah to all of the nurses, and just trying to BREATHE. At about 7 AM, they decided there was no way they were going to be able to stop the labor and this baby is coming today. At that point, I told Diana to call Dan and tell him to get his butt on a plane. The Dr. came to check me and I was dilated to a 5. All of their delivery rooms were full so I had to wait in the observing room for a while. My mom actually called the hospital and they let her talk to me since I couldn’t use my cell phone in the room I was in. I talked to her and my sister for a few minutes until the next big contraction. The nurses changed shifts and I got the new nurse who would be with me the rest of the day, Jennifer. So we spent some time talking, of course getting her up to speed on my husband BEING IN UTAH! and talking about how things were going in this whole crazy process.
They got me into a labor and delivery room around 9 AM. Diana left to go back to my house and get some things for me since I hadn’t even packed my hospital bag yet. They came in to give me an epidural shortly after that. Women who can do this naturally have all my respect in the world. I couldn’t believe how bad the pain could get. (For the record, getting an epidural is one of the grossest feelings ever. Giving birth didn’t even feel that gross.) So from here it was just a lot of waiting and epidural refreshing and more waiting. The doctor came in around 1:00 to check on me. She broke my water to get things moving. She said she’d stop back by after her shift ended at 5 to see how things were… if I lasted that long. So more waiting, more terrible, miserable, awful contractions, and more phone calls. I talked to my mom a couple more times and my sister. And once my husband finally got to the airport in SLC, he called and talked to me. Up to this point, he had only talked to his mom. I felt terrible he had to miss his trip with his dad and he felt terrible that he wasn’t there with me. I passed the time talking with Diana and the nurses when they would come in. Everything was happening so fast there didn’t see to be time to think it was lasting forever – which, in that much pain, I would have expected. The nurses let me know that since the baby was a month early, they had to make me aware that she may have to be taken to a transition room to make sure everything with her was okay. Right around 4:00 I started feeling the intense urge to push. The nurses checked everything, and sure enough, I was ready to go. So they brought in a few more nurses and let the doctor know. I started pushing just a couple of minutes after 4:00 PM and at 4:32 Madeleine Marie was in the doctor’s hands, eyes wide open, breathing and crying all on her own. They took her to the newborn station to do all their tests and the doctor started stitching me up while the nurses cleaned up.
I remember when I started pushing there were a few nurses and the doctor in the room, when I was finished, the room was filled with people – they just came out of the woodwork to take care of my baby. Just a couple minutes after the baby was born, Dan happened to land in Denver for his layover and called to see how things were going. What perfect timing. I talked to him for a while, telling him how miserable and horrible and awful and painful it was and that it was over and that she was so tiny and they were cleaning her up right now and on and on and on. And while he may not have been there with me, I was lucky enough to be on the phone with him when they put my baby in my arms for the first time. So I told Dan all about how absolutely beautiful she was and that her eyes were huge and she was so tiny and she had so much hair. For him not being there, it couldn’t have been timed better for him to call. She weighed 6 pounds, 12.5 ounces, was 19.5 inches long and didn’t need any of the anticipated preemie care for being so early. She did everything on her own and everything had developed just fine.
She and I stayed in the labor and delivery room recovering until 8 PM that night and then they moved us to our mother & baby room. Diana left to go to the airport to pick up Dan and I spent the next few hours just hanging out with my cool new baby. They had to take her to the nursery to do some tests and give her a bath that night so I sent her off and just tried to relax for a while. Dan and his mom got back around 11:30 PM and we asked that she be brought back to our room so her dad could see and hold her. Through some miscommunication, she didn’t show up until almost 3 AM but given the circumstances, neither of us was very tired and certainly not at all tired when she showed up. We spent the next two days in the hospital. Dan would spend the night and then go spend some time with his mom during the day and then they would come back and we would have dinner in my room each night and she would stay for a while then go back to our place.
So in a nutshell, she was very early, it was all very unexpected, horrible, terrible timing, her Dad wasn’t here, nothing was ready for her or for me, work certainly wasn’t ready for me to leave, I was enjoying being pregnant and thought I’d have plenty of time to get ready and enjoy the last month of just hanging out and getting ready for having this baby. Yeah….. she already has a mind of her own.
*Yes, exact posting time WAS intentional :P
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