Oriana's Birth Story

I know a lot of you have been waiting for me to write Oriana's birth story but with all the new changes it is hard to sit down for any length of time. Thanks for waiting....and here it is.

Oriana's birth story actually begins on Friday, October 19, which was her due date. I went in for my normally scheduled appointment with my midwife. Upon taking the usual urine test and weight check my midwife informed me that there was protein in my urine and I had gained a considerable amount of weight since she saw me a week ago. She was concerned because these are symptoms of pre-eclampsia. She sent me to go get some immediate bloodwork and also sent me home with the huge jug to so a 24 hour urine screen. Talk about embarrassing. I asked the midwife what would happen if I did have pre-eclampsia. She said that the best thing since I was past my due date was to have an induction. I was not too happy with this possibility. Anyway, on my way home I stopped to do the bloodwork and then called my husband who was out of town at the time to tell him the news. He was very calming and just told me to wait and see what happened.

I got the news on Saturday that my bloodwork was fine but we still had to wait for the results of the 24 hour urine test. I decided to start that on Sunday so that I could take it first thing Monday morning. Luckily, my husband was scheduled to be back at home that evening so if induction was in the cards, he would a least be in town for the birth. For those of you who don't know my husband travels quite a bit and one of the stressing points as we got closer to my due date was whether or not he would be in town when I had the baby. My mom was in town just in case, but I really wanted my husband to be there too.

It was Monday night, just about 5pm and I had just announced that the urine test must have been okay because I had not gotten a call from the midwife when the phone rang. Yes, it was the midwife telling me that the protein level was high and that they wanted me to come in and if the bloodwork and blood pressure was high we would have to induce. Not exactly the type of news I wanted to hear. So, my husband and I took our time discussing what we wanted to do. I called my doula to tell her what the midwife said. She mentioned that she was 98% sure if I went into the hospital they would keep me. So, we went back and forth about what we should do. I felt fine but if I truly went into eclampsia I could start to have seizures and things would not be good. We also discussed the fact that my husband would need to go back out of town on Friday for a couple of days. What if I went into spontaneous labor while he was out of town. He was going to California so it wouldn't be easy for him to get back to New York. In the end we decided to go to the hospital. However, since I was feeling fine we thought that they would let me go home after checking me. So, we did not take "the bag" or anything. We arrived at the hospital around 9:30pm.

Once I got there, they checked me in and I was informed that I would have to stay. I was not thrilled so of course I asked if I could leave. They said I could if I signed a waiver saying that I denied hospital care. At this point, I figured well, I guess they got me there. They did some tests and so forth and determined that now my blood pressure was also high. So, now I became a little high risk and they started me on magnesium sulfate to reduce the risk of a seizure. (Can I say that the IV hurt sooo bad) They checked me to determine that I had 0 progression. I was having contractions but I could not feel them and they were not regular so they gave me some choices. I decided to go ahead and have them admit me. We were going to wait a couple of hours and then if I still did not have any progression we were going to do the foley balloon which is a balloon that they insert and it helps to dilate you and hopefully put you into labor.

At this point, I am not happy. My whole idea of the birth was slowly unraveling. I was now hooked up to an iv which meant that I had to be on bed rest. One of the side effects of magnesium sulfate was that it caused your extremities to become very heavy so I needed to be monitored so I would not fall. This made going to the bathroom a virtual parade of people. It was so funny because at first my husband was too shy to come into the bathroom with me and he would lead me in and then leave me in there. But toward the end, he had to help me sit and get up and he rose to the occasion even though it kind of grossed him out a bit. I was going for a natural childbirth and was hoping to get to use the birthing ball and be able to move around. But it seemed that this was not to be the case. We called the doula and let her know what was going on once I got settled into my room. She decided since I had not progressed any, she would come the following morning. So, we settled in.

I was checked every couple of hours and I was still not progressing so they put in the foley balloon. This was mostly uncomfortable but it went quick. At this point it is in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. They let the foley balloon do its work until about 4 in the morning. The next time they checked I was 4 centimeters but still was not feeling any contractions. So, I begged the midwife to give me a couple more hours to see if I would progress any more. She checked back in about 3 hours and I had not progressed at all. You are supposed to progress about 1 centimeter an hour give or take and I was no where near that...so we had to start pitocin.

I must admit when I heard that word, I was scared. I had heard all the horror stories of women having pitocin and there labor starting so quickly and severely that they had to get an epidural to control the pain. So, I was not a fan. So they decided to start it off slow at a 2 and wait a couple of hours to see where I was. The hope was that my contractions which were all over the place would become consistent.

The 2 went to a 4 to a 6 and then an 8. Luckily, the labor never to a point when it was too unbearable. However, my doula had warned me that there would be a point where I would say that I could not do this any longer but that just meant that we were in transition. So true to her word there was a point where I announced "I can't do this". I don't even now where that came from. But I do know that not being able to push is definitely worse than pushing.

Once I was able to push, the process just moved along. Since my perception of time was really skewed it is hard for me to determine how long I pushed. I felt like it was about 15 minutes but I am sure it was about an hour or less. Then out she came. My husband wanted to cut the cord and he was all ready with his gloves to do the deed but the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck pretty tight. So the midwife had to cut the cord but my husband got to "catch" the baby. He was pretty excited about that. After catching her, he had to give her to the pediatrician right away because she wasn't breathing right away. However, after some massaging she finally gave a little cry. Interestingly enough, I did not panic when I did not hear her cry right away. Somehow I knew that everything was okay and she was a perfect specimen.

After doing there check and putting that vitamin K in her eyes, even though I told them I wanted them to wait, she was placed in my arms. Such an amazing experience. I still to this day think that they had the baby in a draw underneath the bed and they just presented it to me. Labor was not as horrible as I thought it would be. I consider myself very lucky indeed. Even that day I said, I would do all over again without question. I didn't even curse or try to kill my husband or anything. It was all just fine and without an epidural. I was really proud of myself and my husband was in straight AWE of what I had done. He kept saying what a warrior I was and how he was incredibly proud he was of me. That really meant a lot to me!

I had to be knocked out while they stitched me up and then they wheeled me into my recovery room. It was such a world wind and nothing like I expected but it could not have been better. Now I am part of a great new club! I just want to tell all of those people out there who are about to become a mommy that this is one of the rare things that cannot be planned. However, not matter how it happens it is a truly amazing experience.