Giving Birth

I wanted to put in a few words before the experience fades in the mind.

12/1
My last day at work before maternity leave. I joked with coworkers that they lost the bet that I will give birth before my scheduled leave. I had all these plans to finish my half finished projects with my time off, such as my wedding album (4 years late), and the sanding of the sewing machine base.

12/2
I lazied around. Afterall, this is my first day off. No need to hurry.

12/3
I lunched with Y, yapped about pregnancy and girly things. Afterwards I headed to Ranch 99 to pick up some stuff for my mom. It was then I started feeling mild cramps. Since I have been feeling Braxton Hicks contractions for a few weeks, I wasn't worried. In fact, I was trying to decide if I should stop by Trader Joe's to pick up some ingredients to make spaghetti for dinner. On the drive back though, I changed my mind. That was 3pm. I got home and simply couldn't sit still. Finally I decided I should take a nap. I lumbered into the bedroom, and just as I sat down on the bed, an uncontrollable gush of water came out. The first thought in my mind was, "I guess there really is no way not to know your water broke." The rest was a bit of scrambling to the bathroom, calling zDog, calling KP to find out the next step. zDog ran around packing up the bags (because we are procrastinators), my mom ran around putting things away (she was cooking) and getting ready (packing food for snack and post delivery soup). I stayed in the bathroom and took a shower. Afterall, the water just kept coming and I didn't want to stand in a puddle. We checked into the hospital around 7pm. By the time I was having fairly regular but manageable contractions. I remembered doing my breathing techniques and congradulating myself for being so good. My mom though, fretted over the danger of having water break without strong contractions. Turned out her worries were right. I gotta thank my mom for being so vigilant in watching over me. She is ever pushing the nurse to make sure I have adequate care. By 9pm, I continued to lose water, my contractions were a little stronger, and my mom noticed baby's heart rate dipped according. But, I was only 1cm dilated. The midwife finally called for IV to replenish the water I lost. Unfortunate for me, I got a student nurse, who had no skill. She attempted three times, each attempt was more painful than my contractions. Finally I was all hooked up and wrapped up, and the midwife wanted me to walk around to speed up the contraction.

12/4
By 12am, my contraction finally gained momentum. I was trying to breath through them, but finally gave up and called for epidural. It was just too painful. Plus, finding out I was only 3cm dilated was very discouraging, even though the midwife was very upbeat about the progress. I was also given medication to stop the contraction for a bit due to the concern over baby's heart rate dip. Epidural is certainly magical. I fell asleep soon after. Next time I became conscious was 3am. The nurse came in to give me pitocin to get the contraction started again. I didn't feel anything but within 5 minutes more nurses came in and even the doctor came in. Apparently, the baby's heart rate dipped again with every contraction. It was alarming enough that even the doctor showed up. She informed me that baby is not toleranting the labor well. Without contraction, there will be no birth. So, my only option is a c-section. Even though I didn't have any issue with c-section, but I didn't realize how unprepared I was. I was scared and started crying. Everything happened really fast. I was prepped for the surgery, wheeled into the operating room in no time. It still seems surreal to me, I remembered hyperventilating (the anasthesiologist yelled at me to breath for the baby), trying really hard to breath normally, and the feeling of coldness in my entire body. I was so scared. Scared of the numbness, my inability to subdue the uncontrollable shaking, the blue screen that blocked me from seeing anything, and the feeling of being alone and bereft because zDog was not allowed in until the baby was ready to pulled out. The sense of comfort zDog brought was short lived. I remembered him standing up to see the baby's entrance to the world. I remembered relieve when I heard baby's first whimper. zDog brought the baby for me to kiss but then had to leave with baby.





Everything seemed surreal. The only reality was the coldness and shaking that I wanted to go away. I threw up all over myself as they wheeled me back to the labor/delivery room. The nurses were none too gentle. One shoved a towel onto my face to soak up the puke, but left it on my face and neck. Then, because I was shaking so badly, my mom was concerned. So the nurse yelled at me to control myself. I was discharged to the recovery room after awhile.




The rest of the day was rather uneventful. If anything, the discomfort of being in a hospital stuck in my mind. People came in and out constantly to check my and baby's vitals. I started breastfeeding attempts soon after delivery. It was really hard at first. One, I had to get in a comfortable position to support baby, two, get baby to latch on, three, I only had a few drops of colostrum at the time, and lastly, the pain from c-section even with pain killer. An interesting observation from zDog. Every nurse had a different opinion on how to breastfeed. One of the lactation nurse was totally horrible. All she did was tried to shove baby's face onto my breast. Then she left after three minutes of unsuccessful attempt.

Since I was still on IV, the only food I was allowed were juice and jello. I had more jello in one day than I ever had in the past five years. Fortunately, I started passing gas (yes, that detail is required) late in the night, which meant my digestive system is ready for some regular meals.

12/5
We were interrupted in the wee hours in the morning by the night nurse. She was concerned with baby's constant crying. She thought the baby was simply not getting any thing from me (which is very true...I only had drops of colostrum at the time). She brought out the scale and weighed the baby at 5 lb 11oz. The weight loss had us in panic. So, we decided to take her suggestion of supplementing but with finger feeding with syringe (I was very concerned about nipple confusion and I really wanted to make sure I have a fair chance of making breastfeeding work). Everything worked out well. I got to understand how a baby sucking feels like (on my finger). We even had a couple other lactation nurses who knew what they are doing, introduced nipple shield and the SNS method (still with formula), and it really helped with the breastfeeding down the road.

We were surprised at lunch time. Instead of the typical microwave fare (I got that for breakfast), we got something nice. It was a celebration luncheon, hamburger with champagne glass and Martinelli apple cider. There was even a tray for zDog. We were warmed by the sweet gesture.


This ended up being the last night of our stay. It was marred by one terrible nurse trying to boot my mom out of the recovery room. This nurse was obsessed with the fact that my mom stayed in the room and slept on the floor. I got a double occupancy room, meaning it can accommodate two recovering moms. However, since there was not another family, we got it for ourselves. The nurse who shown us the room thought it was be okay for my mom to stay. So, stay we did. But, according to this nurse, my mom was not allow to stay per Kaiser policy, "only one guest can stay over night." Finally, when she came by to pester us again at midnight (baby was crying from my attempt to feed, Warren and my mom were all worn out), I finally yelled at her. The rest of that night, both Warren and mom slept upright on chairs.

12/6
We were determined to leave KP today but our ordeal was not quite over. Apparently, the state of California requires all newborns to take a blood screen test for evidence of certain genetic diseases or inborn errors of metabolism. The blood sample is taken from the baby's heel by means of a heelstick. This is a procedure in which a small blade is jabbed into the baby's heel so that drops of blood will collect and drip onto the test paper. The test paper has five one-inch circles which must be filled with blood. Lucky for us, we ended up with a student nurse who didn't know what she is doing. She had to take several cuts and took forever with the blood collection. Poor Kirdan cried and cried. He ended up with one very bruised foot and several cuts. (It took 3 weeks for the bruise and scars to fade.)

We left the hospital around 2pm in a hurry. I was wheeled out in a wheel chair with baby in my arm. I cried, not because I want to stay another day at KPH, but because after the ordeal, we are going home with a sweet little one in tote. A new life. A new chapter for this family.

P.S. Postpartum...My very swollen feet!