Friday, February 6, 2009

The Birth Story, pt. 1

Wow. It's been an amazing week.... We are now officially parents!
Wilhelmina Grace Wiatroski was born February 1st, 2009 at 10:40 am. We love our little Mina!

The Birth Story

We went to the hospital on Tuesday January 27 in hopes of turning the baby with an External Version. The ob tried 2 times to get her head down, once clockwise once counter-clockwise (widdershins). The 2nd attempt had her 90 degrees in the proper direction, but she moved right back to the original place of comfort right afterwards. We were hooked up to a fetal monitor and ultrasound the entire time and her heart rate remained strong and consistent throughout the entire experience. Experience it was.... discomfort, for sure!!! G & the doula were there to give support. G was great - coaching me with breathing while the 2 docs were manually moving the baby. I was not worried about myself or the pain, just concerned about stressing Ducky out or injuring her or something awful. It was easily on my mind since the room we were in was right next to the OR, in case we went into labor. The anesthesiologist had consulted with me prior to the Version and I signed zillions of forms regarding surgery. Just in case.


<------- Me prior to the Version.

After our unsuccessful attempts at turning our little gymnast breech baby, we gave in and made an appointment for her birth with an ob at UCLA. The same ob that delivered Jasper, our friends Viviene & Matt's baby boy, last October. It felt kind of strange to have an appointment for the birth, but after consulting an ephemeris and determining all the potential astrological combinations for that day it seemed like a good day to us. Yup, we talked ourselves into being ok with it. Knowing exactly how much time we had left to get our act together at home, etc. They like to deliver the baby (note I say deliver... instead of take, but really that's what it is) a week before due date to minimize the chance of labor happening. That way it's easiest on all parties - babe, mom, doctor. We were scheduled for February 9th. Saturday, January 31st we went to dinner then to Target to pick up a few baby related items. In Target I felt off... an urgency to either pee or poo but not really having to, either. At one point I was tired and sat down on a relatively empty display rack in the kitchen goods area. I figured I was just exhausted - carrying around the extra 38 lbs of baby and water and blood is hard work! We left Target to grab gelato, and I was feeling fine. But by the time I got home I knew something was up. After checking things out I realized I had lost my mucus plug. No bloody show for me, just a bunch of something different. I called our doula and she said it was fine, yes I could take a bath, sometimes it's weeks before labor starts after losing the plug and to get some rest. I took my bath and rested. Then put a waterproof pad on my side of the bed. Better safe than sorry. At 3am on Sunday February 1st I woke up & rolled over. Then water rushed out. I gingerly hopped out of bed - ha! - I flopped out of bed and stood there bent over listening to the water hit the floor. G & I both knew it wasn't pee.... my bag of water had broken. Good thing I put that pad down earlier in the evening! G called UCLA and spoke with the midwife on duty - she told us to come to the hospital immediately. We called our doula, grabbed the already packed suitcase, our brand new laptop and a few snacks and off we went. Driving thru Hollywood at 3am on a Sat nite/Sun morning is quite interesting... no traffic, lots of transexual prostitutes. We called The Moms - luckily the 3hour time change was to our advantage at this time - let them know that we were starting labor and the baby was soon to be with us, somehow. Of course we hoped she had somehow flipped and would have a full labor and vaginal delivery birth.

At UCLA we were admitted and quickly put into a room in Labor & Delivery. The same room and bed where we were only a few days earlier for our External Version. They hooked me up to IV and fetal monitor. All was ok. Then the ultrasound. Still ok, still definitely breech. I was queued up for c-section. After that it was a million questions and forms and doctors and residents. Oops, a bit of a snag. I had eaten 1/2 a Lara bar and drank water on the way to the hospital. No surgery allowed for 6 hours to avoid any risk of asphyxiation due to meds or whatever. So there we were. Me and the babe, G & our doula... waiting it out. The fetal monitor showed I was having regular contractions but I never felt any discomfort. The baby's heartbeat was very strong. I was dying of thirst but remained patient and calm. It really wasn't that stressful, probably due to G being so calm and the doula there as well. Eventually the time came and they wheeled me in to the OR.


I had a spinal for the pain and they gave me anti-nausea meds as well. It was fairly painless to get drugged and prepared for the surgery, the bummer was that G couldn't be in the room until we were totally ready. Finally they hung the curtain (blue paper towel thingie) so I couldn't see the gory stuff and let G in with me. He sat to the left of my shoulder and was there the whole time. I never really felt anything but a bit of pressure at times, although G said it seemed like my whole body was jerked a few times and he could tell that things were definitely moving around. A few moments were emotional, I recall tearing up once or twice. I expected to hear a slushy exiting sound when they 'delivered' the baby, but it wasn't like that.




















---Mina is awake. To be continued.....

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