Born June 16, 2009 (written June 18th)
Since I wasn’t blogging back when Sophia was born, I have never posted her birth story (I may one day), and though both ended up with a Cesarean Section, they were quite different indeed.
Isabella is a precious little piece of God’s creation, tiny (just over six pounds), with blondish brown hair and seemingly dark eyes. Here is how she entered the world…
I had been having contractions on and off for a week, none that were productive, meaning, I was not dilated at all. On Sunday night, the 14th, they got consistent through the night, not allowing me to sleep, but then dissipated the next day. We went in for a routine appointment and assured me I was not in labor.
Since I had gotten no sleep, I took a nap that afternoon. Later in the evening (the 15th), I started feeling the tightness again. Between 10 pm and 4 am the contractions were about 10 minutes apart, not too painful, but still keeping me from sleep. By 4 am they were about 7 minutes apart and lasting almost a minute, a little less maybe, and were a little more painful but still quite bearable. At this point I knew I was probably not progressing, but I also knew that this was probably the real thing. Because we were trying for a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean), the doctor wanted us to come in when they were about 8 minutes apart just to have me close by (the risk with VBAC is uterine rupture so you need to be more closely watched), otherwise we would just try to labor at home as much as possible, which we did with Sophia.
I tried not to have any expectations when we went in that morning at 6 am. I knew that in the past two days I had a total of about 4-5 hours of sleep if that, I was already exhausted, and already it seemed slow going. My prayer was that God would give us the wisdom for the right decision needed in the moment and that we would not doubt it, the decision about another C-section or pressing for the VBAC (which was looking slimmer by the moment).
A nurse put me on a monitor, and only silence came. The sound of the machine echoed, but no heartbeat. She kept trying. Still nothing. I looked at David, his face was slight pale with fear and my eyes filled with tears, he grabbed my hand and started praying. I told him I had been feeling her move all morning, I didn’t understand. It was a very long 3 minutes or so. Finally the nurse went to get a different machine. And OH the sounds of the precious life beating inside! Praise the Lord.
At ease now, I stayed on the monitor for thirty minutes. I really was in labor, but very early stages. My doctor came in and did an exam. Cervix not open, baby way up high (way up high!). He kinda frowned and said: ‘to be honest…this will be a long drawn out process from what it looks like. At least another 12 hours (possibly 24) of labor probably more. IF you were having productive contractions, possibly 8 hours, but it doesn’t look that way. It is entirely up to you.” And he gave us some time to think and talk about it. I looked at David and said ‘no way.’ It wasn’t even the pain, I was enduring fine, I could eventually get pain meds if I wanted, etc, etc. (inducing also an option but not a very good one when you have the possibility of the uterus rupturing, I really wanted to avoid the ptocin that speeds up labor). My ‘no way’ was to the time frame and my extreme exhaustion that had already taken over. It was a little like Sophia’s situation all over again, without the 30 hours of painful back labor before hand. I even would have been willing to endure the 12-24 hours, that is standard labor, but only if I had had sleep the previous two days. So, we praised the Lord this was really a no brainer for us. We decided on a second C-section and he said it would happen at 9 am (an hour from that time).
Now for the interesting part as we enter the world of anesthesia. It was the same little Thai lady anesthesiologist that I had for Sophia (when I got that epidural I could still feel everything on my left side). She was chipper as always as she explained everything to me. David went to go check me into the hospital and they rolled me to the OR to start the numbing process (epidural). I was quite coherent for Sophia’s birth and remember it well, the only thing I felt at that time was a pushing/pulling sensation on my stomach, but no pain, that is how it is supposed to work…
About twenty minutes before nine she gives me the epidural, it always makes me feel a little sick and faint, I told the anesthesiologist this, she said: ‘okay, you sleep for five minutes’ and I guess gave me a sedative of some sort. Whoa, grogginess. I remember asking for David and the buzz as the room got full of doctors and nurses, but I was not nearly as coherent as I was with Sophia….I don’t remember hearing Isabella crying…I don’t feel the tugging and pulling and pressure…but I do begin to feel pain, different pain, as they stitch/staple me up. Actually now I don’t remember the pain that I felt, but I remember the conversation, my moaning, and my doctor looking over the curtain at me in shock as he tells someone to go get the anesthesiologist back in there. I kept saying, ‘I can feel that, it hurts, moan, moan’ quite a few times. The pictures they were trying to take with David, the baby and me all show my distress. I would have certainly been screaming if I could feel what they were really doing to me, but I could definitely feel some of it. And then the sedative, more drugs that knocked me out completely. Looking back, I can say I really do not remember that pain (the doctor said these narcotics can cause amnesia, scary), just all the drama that surrounded it, David is quite thankful, he was sure I would want no more kids after that if I could remember it well.
As they wheeled me out of the recovery room David was waiting, “How do you feel?” “Very drugged.” I replied. I was so out of it. And so thankful. I had already nursed Isabella once while in recovery and couldn’t wait to see her again. She was so tiny and so cute.
God has answered all of our prayers in regards to the birth of Isabella. A safe, healthy delivery (not without drama, but that is expected), and provision of great care, and loved ones with us to share the joy (the kudos due Poppy and CC are a different story altogether).
Sophia has done extremely well in her new world with a baby sister. This is in large part (or possibly completely ) due to Poppy and CC and David and how they have taken care of her and served me by making sure she was aware of everything. She has come to the hospital everyday to visit and then has had a good time with the grandparents and good alone time with Daddy as well. She loves Isabella but I know it will still take some more adjusting. She always wants to hold her and cries/throws a fit if she cannot. Tomorrow will be the true start of transition as we leave the hospital…
