A New Arrival

After 6 weeks of false alarms involving regular contractions that weren't strong enough to make me dilate (looking back, they were as strong as my contractions got when I was 4 or 5 cm dilated, so I wasn't completely crazy), we had a date for induction of labor for our first (and probably only) child: August 24th, 2009. We called at 6am to get the all-clear for coming in; since Aviano doesn't have a large facility, even one other person's already being in labor could have postponed the induction. We arrived at the hospital around 6:45 and went over paperwork and procedure until they started the pitocin at 8:30 or so. While they were trying to insert the IV(it took longer because the first vein he used blew and he had to try another), I got overheated and puked. That was embarrassing. Shortly after, Jess came by to see how things were going and to make sure she knew where to come later in the day after picking up my mom from Venice. Jess left, and Corey and I watched Firefly while the contractions did their job. I was admitted at 3 cm, and when I was just 4 cm at 11, Dr. Allen broke my water. Up until that point, the contractions hadn't been bad at all, and I was optimistic about making it through childbirth without painkillers. Within 15 minutes of my water breaking, I knew I wouldn't make it without something. Within 30 minutes, I could barely talk well enough to ask for the pain medication. Since I'd initially expressed my desire to avoid pain medication if possible, they first offered me the IV medication instead of an epidural. The relief from that lasted about 10 minutes, and I asked for an epidural around 11:45, right around the time Jess called to say she and my mom were on their way from the airport. I was 6 or 7 cm dilated. By the time they arrived, I was 8 cm, and I still hadn't received my epidural. Sometime after I was admitted, another laboring woman arrived, and she asked for the epidural before me, so I had to wait until hers was finished. By the time the anesthesiologist arrived from the room next door (which we later found out was occupied by someone Corey had worked with before), it was about 2pm, I was 9 cm dilated, and I'd been sobbing from the pain for the past hour and a half. Most of that time is a blur, honestly. I think it hurt too much for my brain to process anything else. I remember asking Mom how her flight was, but I think I was trying not to scream by the time she answered--my contractions were that bad and only giving me about 30 seconds recovery time in between. As the anesthesiologist asked all the required questions about allergies and medications while I hung over the side of the bed trying not to bang my head on the railing until I passed out just to get some relief, it occurred to the nurse that she could probably turn down the pitocin and slow down my contractions some. That might have been nice a little earlier. By this point, I was too much in pain, and I had to pee so badly during contractions I kept telling them I was going to wet the bed, and I'd started involuntarily pushing during the worst part of the contractions. When the nurse noticed this, she interrupted the anesthesiologist, who was then focused on drilling me about why I'd stopped my blood pressure medication to get pregnant and whether I'd had my doctor's permission (I really don't see what a prescription I'd had 12 months earlier had to do with the epidural), and basically told her to hurry up and get me something to stop me from pushing too early. I finally got the epidural, and the urge to push let up enough to ignore, and I was feeling amazing. Of course, the nurse checked me again after the anesthesiologist left, and I was dilated to 10 and allowed to push. It was about 2:45, I think. Mom said it might have been 3:45, but in that case, I lost more time in pain than I thought.

If I hadn't had the epidural--if the nurse had realized I was 10 cm instead of only 9 and just let me push--I might have delivered very shortly after this, but it was a little bit longer. When I started pushing, Baby started showing some signs of distress, so I had to lie on my left side for a while and wear an oxygen mask. Pushing was slow. I could feel enough pressure to know when I was having a contraction, at least, but not enough to really tell what muscles I was pushing with. The staff set up a mirror so I could see as Baby's head got closer and closer. The nurse was in and out of the room helping the other woman. Eventually, another RN was brought in so that each could have one patient; we were both pushing at this point. It was 4pm or so when we could see her head a little while I pushed. It wasn't until after the nurse gave Jess a sheet to pull on while I pulled the other end, kind of like a tug-o-war, that she started staying low enough to see even when I wasn't pushing. While she was down there, the nurse was still distracted and kept staring out the window at a formation that was mandatory for all but the busy L&D staff. She did pay attention long enough to lower my epidural dosage after I said I'd like to feel more so I could push better. She was still in and out of the room 15 minutes later when Baby crowned. When I said it felt like the head was going to come out, the nurse got the doctor to come up, but she told me I could keep pushing. I stopped for a minute or two anyway, luckily--when the doctor came in, he took one look at the head, said "Stop pushing!" and rushed to get dressed as I panted to keep from pushing. When he told me I could push, I did, and out came the head with that very next push. He told me to keep pushing, so out came the rest of Baby with the second push. What a feeling of relief! And then there was a crying, beautiful baby girl, Tabitha Kathrine Spoke. It was 17:35. Placenta was delivered 5 minutes later.





She was put on my chest, and we got to admire her while the nurse and the tech did assessments--her first APGAR was a 9--and the doctor stitched me up. I had a 2nd degree tear, a notch in my labia, and a hematoma. The stitches hurt a good bit, but I was too entranced by our beautiful little girl to say anything, so they kept hurting until the nurse told him he should probably numb me. They didn't hurt as much after that, but then he had to leave to deliver the neighbor's baby. He was gone for an hour, during which I was stuck in delivery position and my legs got progressively more sore. Since at this point they had Tabitha across the room, my sore legs ended up bothering me more than the non-numbed stitches had. He returned and finished stitching me after a total of probably 45 minutes, saying that the notch in my labia might never heal cosmetically correctly, and that I could come back in after it healed to be made to look better if it bothers me.

Right after Mom and Jess left around 7:30, they moved us to another room about the size of a closet because they had two patients scheduled for C-sections the next day and only have 3 delivery rooms. Most of the rest of the stay kinda all blends together for me. It seemed like we were there forEVER, but it was only 45 hours after delivery when we left, and they usually keep first-timers for at least 48 hours. The first night, when the tech brought Tabitha back from her first bath at 10pm (that hour she was gone seriously seemed like it took days), the tech goes "Oops, she's got the wrong crib card," and took the ID from her bassinet thing and went to bring it to its rightful owner. Since she'd not even double-checked to make sure it was the wrong card instead of the wrong baby, I turned on a light after she left and made sure it was our Tabitha. It sure was. I'd been afraid I'd not know for sure, since I'd only seen her in light for about a couple hours, but I knew. She has my feet, hands, and chin, and she has her daddy's hairline, facial expressions, and eye/eyebrow shape. The nose is still a toss-up.

For visitors during the hospital stay, we regularly had Mom and Jess (who I can't say enough how big a help she was with everything). Corey stayed the whole time, with the exception of a couple errands, and when he had to do those, he always made sure someone was with me. Kristina came to see us first thing the next morning. The next visitor (I'm not including Mom and Jess in this) was Corey's supervisor, who showed up while I was in my dirtied gown with Tabitha on my chest. After he left, I showered and changed before anyone else could show up. Later visitors included the rest of the library staff in two groups, Sandra and then Joe (they couldn't come in together because children other than siblings aren't allowed and someone had to watch Nathan and Joe II), and Aimee, though I missed Aimee's visit, unfortunately, during the best half hour of sleep I got the entire stay. Jess's friend Roni came and took some beautiful pictures for us.



I wasn't very mobile for the stay. Though I twice mentioned how much the hemorrhoids were bothering me, none of the staff realized I hadn't been given anything to put on them or on my stitches to reduce swelling and discomfort, so I didn't get any of that until right before discharge. Corey was amazing and took care of Tabitha, all except the feedings, for which he'd hand her to me and put her back in bed afterward.

Since getting home, Tabitha has been wonderful. Neither of us feels sleep deprived. She's seriously the best baby ever, waking every three hours for a feeding, and awake and alert and quietly watching everything for 30-60 minutes each afternoon.

Friday morning, when getting ready for our follow-up to weight and measure Tabitha, I started bleeding from my butt, a LOT, so I got checked when we brought her in. When the nurse, the same one that had remained unflustered by anything in my delivery, got nervous at the amount of blood, it made me a good deal more nervous than I had been. It turned out to be a ruptured hemorrhoid, or something like that. The OB/GYN doctored it up by cauterizing it with silver nitrate, though he said that if the specialist was present it probably would have been done differently. However, with the specialist on leave, I was given go-home instructions that included not sitting long, not standing long, not laying on my back much, and going to the ER if it started bleeding heavily again. And, poor Corey, he has to put medicated gauze on the hemorrhoid for me after each time I pee.

So, this long post is a result of having spent 2 days longer than I'd have needed to just doing NOTHING. Mom and Corey have been wonderful, but hopefully tomorrow I can be more active--the don't sit and don't stand only extended through today. They said if it didn't start bleeding again by now, then it shouldn't. Depending how I'm feeling, we may even try to see a movie tomorrow, but that'll depend whether my sore bum feels up to sitting for that long. This blog will be used for rambling about Tabitha. I'll try to update it regularly. Maybe tomorrow I'll add how her first bath went, but I'm all written out for now.