Meet Lily

I realize that not everyone wants to read about a birth story. I myself didn’t think much of these stories until I was pregnant. Everyone has a birth story. And everyone that gives birth soon finds out that what you thought you were going to go through is so far from what you actually end up going through. At least,that was the case for me. Read on if you’re interested. If not, just skip to the bottom to find the Flickr link to see more pics. If you are not even interested in pics, then this is going to be a very boring blog for you in the coming weeks.

Part 1: The discovery
1) The husband and I went to bed shortly after 9 p.m., after an evening of disappointing football games (I really wanted the Eagles to win). We are early to bed, early to rise kind of people.
2) At approximately 11 p.m., I woke up. 10 seconds later, I felt lots of fluids leaving my body, in a kind of way that really jolts someone awake. Honestly, I let it gush for a few seconds while I decieded what to do.
3) A few seconds later, I decided it would be a good idea to get up, especially as I didn’t want to get the sheets dirty. Yes, this is why I decided to get up.
4) As I get up, the husband wakes up with a jolt. I say to him, “I think my water just broke.” In my haste to turn the lamp on that sits on my night table, I knocked over a glass of water. I remember thing, hmm. kind of comical.
5) As I am cleaning myself up, the husband says, “So, are you going to call the doctor”? And I think, is that what I’m supposed to do? The husband, reading my mind rephrases this. “Call your doctor”. I page the office and the doctor on call returns the call nearly instantly. She’s probably about to tell me to not sound so panicky until I mention that I’m scheduled for a c-section later on in the week because the baby is in the breech position (also know as Frank Breech, where the butt is where the head should be. No jokes, please).
“Oh!” she says, “Well, then, gather your things and get to triage. You’re going to have a baby tonight!”.
6) WHA???
7) I gather my things. I’ve got a bag already packed, but the last thing I remember thinking is, oh, I’ll need my hair brush. So I took my hairbrush and put it in my coat pocket, where it remained for the duration of my hospital visit.

Part 2: The hospital
1) On the way over, the husband asks me, “Would you like to go on the freeway, or take the backroads”. In my most calm voice (because I do not feel calm), I say, “Honey. I don’t really care.” We take the back route through Capital Hill.
2) Boring boring. The membrane continues to rupture. Monitors are attached. Ultrasound is double-checked to ensure baby is still breech. She is. One unboring part … by the time we arrive at the parking lot (at this point it is around 11:30 pm so at Swedish First Hill you have to enter through the ER entrance. Just FYI). I start feeling what must be labor. And it’s not that bad. At first.

2) 90 minutes later they are ready for me in the OR, the “not that bad” cramps are getting really frikkin bad. I have no idea how deep I am into the entire labor process, but I don’t think I was all that far into it. And all I can think is, “So-and-so endured 27 frackin’ hours of this?? What?”
3) I won’t get into the operating room except for these few memories:

• I was shivering. One, it is unbelieveably freezing in the OR. But mostly because I was so nervous I could barely walk. The anesthesiolgist requires that you be super still for them to implement the spinal block and I was so shivery I freaked that they would miss the mark. They didn’t.
• Playing on radio when they laid me down on the table: Careless Whisper, Wham! At some point I also remember hearing “Manic Monday” by The Bangles.
• The husband was with me the entire time, holding my hand and reassuring my reassurances that everything was okay.

4) BTW, yes, I had to have a scheduled c-section. Maybe sometime I’ll get into the pre-quel of the delivery.

5) About eight minutes after they started, the husband heard them say, “Here are the feet …” and a few seconds after that the rear end and finally the head. I bawled like a, uh, baby. The husband says for the few seconds or minutes after I saw Lily I finally stopped shaking. We were both bawling. And then when they were stitching me up I started shaking again.
6) BABY! Lily was born at 1:30 a.m. on MLK Day 2009. The next day, we watched Inauguration Day coverage together from my hospital bed.  So, while I had hoped that Lily would not have to experience a day, even an hour, during the Bush Administration, the little independent thinker just had to go see what it was all about. Still it was a very special time that I won’t forget.

I am continuing to upload photos to Flickr as I take them (and remember to upload). Just look for the pics tagged “Lily”:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/chattycha/tags/lily/

Yay!