Henry's side of the story is that delivery was 2 minutes, 2 pushes.
Before I tell you what really happened, let me just start at the beginning with the labor. My side of delivery is a bit different and if you want to skip to that part - sure. Abigail's due date was February 28th. That's an interesting date because she's trying to crash our wedding celebration on February 29th! We had decided to have a surprise gender up until labor and delivery since we thought it would be fun.
On my 40th-week pregnancy appointment, my OB-GYN noticed that I had a high blood pressure reading and a regular blood pressure reading. My diligent doctor decided to have me come back on Monday, March 1st to see what my blood pressure reading was. She had also checked my cervix to see whether it had dilated and was effaced, but she reported that I was closed shut and that she could hardly perform the cell membrane sweep. That night I had painful cramps and blood so I had been a bit worried, but the nurse hotline told me that's normal after a cell membrane sweep. Okay. I continually had contractions throughout the night on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday and nothing during the day. So annoying. I learned later I was in prodromal labor. It's like being in labor, but not really being in labor at the same time since the contractions were 5 to 7 minutes apart and sometimes 15 minutes. Every night that weekend Henry woke up at least once in the middle of the night half asleep and half declaring that he was ready to go to the hospital because we got the hospital bag ready, then konks out in less than 30 seconds.
Monday came along. My parents had just arrived and I had told them I was going to go to the clinic really quick and be right back for brunch since I had not eaten breakfast and it was only 10 AM. I stood standing hunched over the seat where I was supposed to get my blood pressure read. A morning contraction. Interesting. The nurse says she has a feeling that the baby will come soon. Again, one high and one low reading. The OB-GYN working that day asked me to go to Santa Clara Labor & Delivery to get monitored. The nurse told me not to eat. I go home and tell Henry they just wanted to monitor my blood pressure and then we'll come back and eat lunch.
I'm freezing in the hospital gown staring at a sterile-looking room with nothing but a bed, a chair, and the loud blood pressure monitoring system with Henry. Why is no one checking in on us, it's been 2 hours and I'm getting hangry! A resident walks in and tells me that I had two high readings and two regular readings for my blood pressure. Then she says we recommend you get induced. I said I already have an appointment. She goes no you need to get induced right now. WHAT?! She corrects herself and says, we recommend you get induced right now since the baby is full term and it's more for your safety because you are diagnosed with gestational hypertension. Say what? I'm not ready. My parents are waiting for me to eat lunch. I can't get induced. I hear it's more painful. Okay okay, no drugs let's do the mechanical balloon first. I'm not ready. I haven't even eaten yet.
The nurses were so kind to escort us to the labor and delivery room which was larger than our whole open-concept kitchen to living room floor. It was 3:30 PM. As soon as the doctor walks away, the nurse lets me know that for first-time Mamas, the induction can take up to 4 days in the hospital and to remember to get the epidural before getting the water bag broken if the doctor ever asks you whether they can do it. She had read my record and told me she was certain mine will take at least 4 days because my cervix was closed shut less than 3 days ago. Thanks? WTF how am I going to get through 4 more days/3 more nights of no sleep? I had hardly slept a wink this past weekend! Can I eat? Thankfully they let me order food. It's weird they don't let me order food for Henry. But the nurses are nice enough to let you order as much as 1 person wants to eat which is usually enough for 2.
Henry calls my parents who were patiently waiting for me at our place and asks them to bring us our hospital bag and to also take all the groceries that would spoil in a week of time home and eat it themselves. The nurses hooked me up to all the monitoring machines for the baby's heart rate and my contractions and the IV. That IV hook-up on the vein of my forearm was the greatest nuisance of the entire experience. They measure how dilated I am to prepare for the mechanical balloon and find that I am 4 cm dilated! I am 1 cm away from being admitted into the hospital for labor and delivery! All the OBs were shocked. I guess you have a very sensitive cervix! Your cervix responded to the cell membrane sweep very well. oh REALLY?! It takes 3 days to get to 4 cm?! That's crazy.
The Pitocin goes in at the lowest dose. There are way too many things attached to me for me to move around and not be in pain. I'm so tired. Henry claims he is also tired since he didn't sleep for 3 nights because I had contractions and was moving around too much. You've got to be kidding me. I knew he loved his sleep when I married him. So okay. Hours later, I got annoyed with managing all the cords so just so I could stand up for Henry to give me hip compressions. Just give me the epidural so I can sleep. I refused the epidural earlier because I feared the needle & catheter going into my spine. My fears did not decrease as I got more tired because I could not sit still as every contraction started to get 3 minutes apart. I asked them to check how dilated I was before deciding to get the epidural and when they told me I was only 6 cm dilated after 6 hours I thought for sure this was going to take days.
Yeah, let's just sleep. The epidural was great except for the part when I was numb all the way to the top of my head. I had let the nurse know and they calmly turned off the automatic anesthesia replenishment, sat me up, and put ice on my chest to see if I felt the cold. Nope. I don't feel any coldness. The nurse's look of shock & concern that quickly shifted to a poker face by pursing her lips together and looking away from me would have probably made me anxious, but I was so exhausted from not sleeping for 3 nights that I didn't even think much of it.
Slowly but surely I started to feel all the contractions again, but at a higher speed and I started asking whether I could have the anesthesia back. It took a while for the anesthesia to kick back in since I also got the lowest dosage for the fear of not being able to feel anything and tearing down there when I deliver. I go back to sleep.
The nurses woke me up and find out my water broke and clean me up. Honestly, L&D nurses are the most wonderful caretakers in the world. There was blood and all kinds of bodily fluids everywhere. I was half asleep. I barely woke up since the nurses were quick to clean me up and change whatever my lower body was resting on. Hours pass and it's 4 AM and the nurse and doctor come in to check since they noticed the baby's heart rate dropping. They check how dilated I am and the OB resident that night exclaims, you're ready to deliver, I can see the baby. Suddenly the light went from very dim to less dim a single nurse comes in and positions my legs with this thing where my back is lying on the hospital bed, but my leg is suspended.
As she was getting ready, she demonstrated the "breathing and counting to 6 for the inhale" and told me that I should push during the exhale for the same count duration I did for inhale. I get to count 3 on the exhale and she dropped her gloves and exclaims, "OH MY GOD, I'm Not Ready!", and tells me to "STOP"! The next thing I remember was 4 people rushing in, 2 more nurses, and two doctors. The lights are now fully lit and all the prep work that one nurse usually does was complete and the 2 doctors remain. I asked what was all the commotion about and they said the baby looked ready to come out. At that point after I had initially refused to have a mirror to watch the delivery and myself down there, I excitedly asked, "WHAT?! Can I see?!" The nurses were hustling to get the mirror from the restroom into position. I looked, but I didn't see my baby as the doctor said or the crowning that I was expecting to see similar to the doula youtube videos I've watched. A little disappointed. But I'm okay here goes nothing! I took one breath in counting to 6 and 1 breath out pushing and watching the baby slide out almost slipping out then immediately sliding back in as I inhaled. The second time the doctor was ready with her hand and the moment I counted to 2 on the exhale she slid the baby out. The epidural worked really well because I didn't feel any pain at all. I didn't even break a sweat unlike in the movies. So was it 2 minutes? It was probably less than 30 seconds, but it just sounds better when you say 2 minutes, 2 pushes.
The whole floor was buzzing for two main reasons:
The doctors and nurses exclaimed this is probably a record-time delivery that they had ever experienced and for sure the fastest one in the past week.
We had a surprised gender and told all the nurses that came in to take care of us knew that we wanted a girl, but were also happy with having a healthy baby. Henry's reaction when seeing the umbilical cord made him come over to me with a semi-disappointed look signaling that we had a baby boy. The nurse brought the baby to me for skin-to-skin and I saw a pink hat feeling confused, I looked at Henry we have a girl! His tired expression went from small disappointment to overjoy and laughter. He told the nurses he thought it was a boy because of the long umbilical cord and all the nurses laughed and also had squeals of excitement for us.
Looking back, I always wondered if the nurses already knew the gender due to the fact that it was in the medical records or whether these nurses were too busy to dig into it and just looked at the board in the delivery room that tells the name and gender of the baby. Ours said "SURPRISE" with no name. Then as soon as we knew it was a girl, they erased the word surprise and wrote her name down.
We often don't talk about our labor and delivery experience because it seemed like it was so smooth and easy after hearing everyone else's story. I was naive to think that a smooth and easy delivery experience meant a smooth and easy postpartum experience. Labor and Delivery were only the beginning of a chapter. I was definitely in for a surprise since no one really talks in detail about what it's like with a newborn. At least none of our friends did. Everyone talks about the lack of sleep, but it never dawned on me what not sleeping would do to my brain, my body, and my mood. I wish I had some type of warning or nightmare-like expectation so that it wouldn't have felt so hard, but at the same time, I also realize that I would never really understand without going through this and experiencing this for myself.
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