Alexa's birth story

It's been almost a week since Alexa was born. And I still can't believe this miracle that she is. Every time I look at her, I am in awe that she grew inside me! I look at her long fingers, her tiny toes, her eyelashes and slightly curved eyebrows, her tiny ears and steely blue/grey eyes and just marvel at how perfect she is...

But before too much time elapses, I wanted to share her birth story.

My baby daughter, Alexa Leilani, was born on 9-9-09 at 5:14 p.m. weighing 7 pounds, 12 ounces and measuring 19 3/4 inches. She popped out via c-section with a very hearty scream, getting an Apgar score of "9" in the 1st minute of life and a perfect "10" at 5 minutes, prompting the doctors to all comment on how rare and amazing that was... I was in an epidural fog, but I thought that was pretty cool. My little Alexa, acing tests from the first few minutes of life. :-)

As most of you know, I never went into labor. She was late and did not want to come out! I had mixed feelings about an induction. I was open minded about whether I'd end up delivering vaginal or c-section, but I always thought I'd at least GO INTO LABOR NATURALLY..... Well, I talked to my doctor last Tuesday and I was still just 1 cm dilated. He said since she is 1 week late, induction was not inappropriate and in his medical opinion, she was ready to come out, no matter what my body was or was not doing about that.

So I checked into the hospital at 7 p.m. Tuesday night. I was put on an IV and hooked up to a fetal monitor and contraction monitor, two belts around your belly. Then my doctor came and inserted the Cervidil, which is a shoe string that is put into you like a tampon. The medicine is on the end of the string and that is placed next to your cervix. You then keep that on all night and it's supposed to soften the cervix and get you ready for induction. At about midnight, I was allowed one last snack: I ate 2 Luna bars, a fig newton, some Chex cereal and drank an Izze soda. I had eaten a hearty meal of enchiladas my mom had cooked earlier, so I wasn't that hungry.... I wish I had eaten more though...

I barely slept, because the nurse kept having to readjust the fetal monitor... But she woke me up at 5:30 am to shower, which was nice. After the shower, I got back into bed and never got out for almost 2 days. My doctor came by and removed the Cervidil string. He then checked me and announced happily that I was now 3-4 cm dilated. He said that was great and we'd get the party started with Pitocin and see what happens! Yay!

By this point, I was feeling mostly just an intense back ache. Pain was rated at a "4" since it was "tolerable." Papa Bean put on "The Rookie" and we watched the movie to pass the time. My doctor kept coming in and out inbetween his scheduled c-sections to check on me. I remained at the same 3 cm dilated position tho. So he had them stop the Pitocin for an hour and restart it, hoping to jumpstart some contractions.

Up until this point, I was just feeling the back ache and some cramping. I couldn't tell when one contraction started and the next one ended. It felt like continual menstral cramping. I never did feel a REAL contraction... My doctor said, honestly, that he didn't know why this was happening to me but that it was a problem. He said I was feeling very minor contractions every minute or 30 seconds. They wanted me to be feeling LARGE, BIG contractions with rest inbetween spaced out about every 3-4 minutes. Those are the kind of contractions that help to dilate the cervix.

So the day passed and even with the "restart" of Pitocin there was no change. By this point, it was around 4 p.m. So I had been in "labor" for 10 hours already, not including the 12 hours spent at the hospital for the pre-induction Cervidil procedure. This time though, when the nurse asked me to rate my pain, I said "5." She asked me, what changed to move it from a "4" to a "5"? I was like... "Well... It's been TEN HOURS... I'm getting a little tired of this backache and these cramps and I'm FREAKIN STARVING!" She was like, OK, I'll mark it a "4/5."

Then my doctor came in and said if I wanted the epidural, I could have it. He had told me that all day and I had kept saying, no, let's wait until it gets bad.... I was scared of the needle in my back thing..... This time, he told me it was entirely appropriate for me to get one now and I should not feel bad. He also wanted to check dilation again and said if I got the epidural, he'd wait and check afterward so it wouldn't hurt. I was tired. And I didn't want another painful check. So I was like... Sure, give it to me.

When the anesthesiologist came in, I asked him if the epidural would also take away my hunger pains? He laughed and said if I was making jokes, maybe I was not in enough pain for an epidural! I was like.... Oh baby I am, give it to me! But pain never was really TOO BAD... I was just tired mostly. The needle thing still freaked me out, but I leaned over like a yoga pose and soon it was done and WOW.... LOVED IT!!!!!

Then when I could no longer feel my legs, my doctor came back and checked me. I was STILL ONLY 3 CM DILATED! WTF?!

As my doctor explained, we had 3 options:

(1) Stop the Pitocin and then restart it. Same thing we already tried, but maybe it'll work a 2nd time? But he said since we already tried it, he didn't think it would work, it would just prolong the process.

(2) Now that I had the epidural, we'd crank up the Pitocin REALLY HIGH and HOPE that my contractions came in the pattern they wanted. The danger would be if they did not and they were too strong and too close together... It could put the baby into distress, she could pass meconium, and we'd have to be rushed into more of an emergency c-section situation. But if I wanted to go for the vaginal delivery, this was the best option and my doctor said he'd support trying it if I wanted.

(3) The third option was to just do the c-section now.

He left the room so Papa Bean and I could discuss. It was a short discussion. We agreed that the GOAL was a healthy baby. Not a vaginal delivery. And we agreed that we'd rather deliver that baby when she still had a good heart rate and NOT when she was under distress. So we told my doctor..... Let's do the c-section. Let's have this baby. Honestly, I was terrified of either a ceserean section or a vaginal delivery, either way would be painful... But I wanted to give my baby the best start possible.

It was about 4:45 by now. They prepped the operating room for the c-section. It was FREEZING. I had to lay on a table with my arms out on either side. They put a warm blanket over my arms. There was my Doctor, some guy who was his assistant, David theanesthesiologist, my replacement nurse since my primary nurse had dumped me to go have a baby with another patient, and a couple pediatricians. I was spread eagle in front of all of them. I asked for them to crank up the epidural. Then they put up the curtain and brought Papa Bean in. I was SO SCARED.

Then my doctor said the procedure had started and it was going perfectly. He kept saying that it was going perfectly. And I felt a tugging on my belly. And then I heard my baby crying! And I started bawling. I was crying so hard Papa Bean asked if I was OK and all I could think was... That's our baby.... Alexa was delivered at 5:14 p.m.

In what seemed like forever (when she scored the 9 and 10 Apgar scores), they brought her to my side to show her to us for a second. Then she went back for more checks. Then they handed a bundled up baby to Papa Bean to hold as they wheeled my bed back from the OR to the delivery room.

Once back in the delivery room, they gave her a sponge bath and I could see her dirty two diapers in a row with meconiun. Then they handed her to me to try breastfeeding. To my surprise, she latched on right away! Then I took a few pictures of Papa Bean posing with Alexa in his operating room scrubs. He looked so handsome holding Alexa! He was totally smitten and it was the most adorable thing ever. He took a few shots of me and Alexa as well.

Then Papa Bean went and got my parents and sister and my two friends who were in the waiting area also.... After the visit with family, they moved us to the postpartum unit and transferred me into a bed there. They kept me on the epidural until about 4 p.m. the following day, so I had to stay in bed. It was good because I could drink all the fluids they told me to and I had a cathetar so I didn't have to get out of bed. Haha. I kept practicing breast feeding and holding Alexa.....

I was taken off the epidural Thursday afternoon and got out of bed breifly. Friday morning, I took a sponge shower and we attended a breastfeeding class for new moms and dads in the hospital. I did more walking... Like walking down to the cafeteria with my sister for an ice cream! By Saturday, I felt MUCH better and was up and walking normally. Then on Sunday, we took our baby home.

And that is the story of how our life as a family started...