Some people love birth stories, others... not so much. So, you've been warned. Feel free to skip this if you want to. I won't include gory details. ;)
My due date with Samantha was May 28. Because of a clotting issue (heterozygous gene mutation of prothrombin and heterozygous MTHFR, to be exact) that was discovered after my second miscarriage, my OB really didn't want to let me go past my due date. I was not eager to be induced, but after praying and discussing, and debating, Christoph and I decided to follow our OB's advice and go ahead with the induction.
We went to the hospital early the morning of May 25th and were admitted. Paper work, IV, fetal monitoring, blah, blah, blah. It was fun to be admitted into the same room where Katrina was born. I hope that was a good sign, Katrina's labor and birth were fast. I was so excited to find out my nurse would be the wonderful Heidi, a nurse I knew from working at the hospital back when Emily was a baby and also one of the coordinators of the grief program the hospital has. She is great!
We had asked the girls if they wanted to be at the hospital during the birth or go to a friend's house. They choose to be there, maybe even in the room if things weren't too intense. Micah went to a friend's house. My Mom got all the kids up and ready, dropped Micah off and then got the hospital a couple of hours after us, around nine. I had already been examined, was 3cm dialated and they put in the misoprostil, my induction tool of choice because it allows me to be up and walking after the first hour with only intermittent monitoring, unlike pitocin.
After the first hour, I tried to be up as much as possible. Gravity always helps, right? So, we walked the halls. Sometimes the girls walked with us, sometimes they stayed in the room playing and coloring. It was nice to have them around, reminding me of the reward coming after the pain was over. Not that I was having any pain. Yet.
Around 11am the girls were getting restless, so my Mom took them out to run an errand and maybe get some food. I was having an occasional contraction, but they were very sporadic and not real painful. About ten 'till noon they had me get back in bed to monitor the baby for a little while. My Mom called right then to say that the girls were eating and wondering if they needed to hurry back. I didn't think so, I'd had a few more contractions, but not much seemed to be happening. Christoph had a different opinion and felt they should come back as soon as possible. Apparently his intuition was better then mine.
At noon my contractions suddenly got more regular and more painful. I wanted to implement some of the Lamaze techniques I had been reminded of in the refresher course Christoph and I had taken and asked if I could sit in a chair instead of lying in bed. My Mom and the girls got back at about 12:10pm and the contractions were really intensifying. At 12:20pm my water broke and I got back into bed so the nurse could check me, ect. I was 4cm dilated.
Then things got crazy. I had some contractions so intense they made me vomit. That about did Katrina in. You know how she feels about vomiting. Christoph made a little barricade for her in the chair with pillows she could hide behind and a movie on the iPod with headphones to distract her. She was set after that. When it was all over it took a little coaxing to convince her to come out and see the baby. Emily sat on the little sofa in the room and turned her back during the messy parts.
Anyway, back to the craziness. They brought in the warmer for the baby and started getting things ready. I think it was around 1pm when I started to feel like I needed to push. mind you, I had only been 4cm 40 minutes before that. The nurse checked me and said I was almost completely dilated. I tried my hardest not to push, to do candle blowing, but my body had a mind of it's own. They hadn't even broken the bed down and I was laying on my side. I heard them saying to call the doctor and scurrying around. I remember looking at Heidi and saying, "I'm sorry, I can't stop." She just smiled and said, "Don't worry, I've delivered babies before. We can do this." A few seconds after that Samantha's head was out. Right then the ER doctor rushed in and took over. I looked up just a Samantha was being born to see my doctor come rushing in. I remember thinking, "She is barely holding herself back from pushing him out of the way and taking over." Then she was in my arms. It was 1:10pm. I stared into her puffy little face and feel in love.
We got cleaned up. The girls got to help with her first bath. We only got video and no pictures. :( Poor Samantha's little forehead is bruised form being born so fast. That's contributing to her puffiness too. So far she has been pretty content and is a good little eater.
Later that afternoon my Mom went and picked up Micah and got some dinner from Del Taco (Christoph's choice). Micah feel asleep during the drive so he was a little crabby. He didn't say anything when I first showed him the baby. Then, when he was sitting next to me eating his french fries, he suddenly held one out to me. I took it and said, "Are you sharing with me?"
"No," he grumbled.
"Is this one yucky?" I asked.
"No!" he snarled.
"I'm sorry sweetie, I don't know what you want me to do," I coaxed.
"It's for the baby!" he said a note of exasperation in his voice.
I melted. You have to understand that this boy shares food with no one. Ever. Ask him for a bite of something and you'd think you'd asked him for his right arm. Yet, here he was, voluntarily sharing with his new sister. i had been worried he was going to have a hard time with this transition, that he would be very jealous. At that moment my fears died and I knew he would be fine. We all would. We are a family.
