We had waited a couple years after getting married before we tried to have
children. Then we were afraid that we would have trouble since I only had
1/8th of one ovary left. I had dermoid cysts a couple years earlier which
necessitated the removal of one ovary and most of the other. My surgeon
was
unable to give us any predictions of my fertility. All of our worry was
needless as I became pregnant one month after we began trying!
I was attending a business conference when I started feeling really
nauseous.
I thought I was coming down with the flu since many people at work had
been
out that week sick. I went home thinking I was nursing the flu all
weekend.
I went back to work on Tuesday, but still felt sick. Finally by Wednesday
I
thought maybe I had better get a pregnancy test. I didn’t rely on the
regularity of my periods as my hormone levels were unpredictable. The
little
stick showed I was pregnant, so I called my husband at work to tell him the
good news. Hooray!
The pregnancy went fairly smoothly. I had morning sickness for the first
couple months and a mild case of sciatica, but nothing debilitating. My
AFP
test came back abnormal, so we were rushed into an amnio to see if there
really was a problem. Naturally we had a whole weekend between the test
results and the amnio to worry about what could be wrong. The amnio was
not
fun, but we survived. The next week we learned that our baby was fine and
that it was a girl!
Our baby was due June 5th. However the due date came and went with no
baby.
I was quite effaced and dilated a cm or 2, but had been for weeks.
Finally
the night of June 7th I found a little of the mucus plug was coming loose.
I
told my husband and hoped that labor would soon follow. Just a couple
hours
later at 2am I woke up feeling like I had wet myself. While I was in the
bathroom trying to clean myself up the contractions began. They were strong
and about 5 minutes apart. What happened to the light widely spaced
contractions that were “supposed” to start out labor. I woke my husband up
and made him call the doctor. She advised us to go to the hospital.
Before we left I had to throw up my
dinner. Then with a handful of towels to soak up the leaking fluid, we set
off for the hospital. I had worried about traffic being a problem as the
roads to the hospital frequently have heavy traffic. However at 2 in the
morning we made the trip in about 15 minutes.
Once we arrived at the hospital and were in our room, the nurse tested the
fluid I was leaking to be sure my water had broken. There was no doubt in
my
mind, but she checked anyway. The contractions continued very strong and
close. I tried getting in the shower. The water felt great, but any part
of
me not in the spray was freezing. So back to the bed I went. I spent most
of my labor lying on my left side trying to breath through the
contractions.
I asked for drugs and was given Nubain in an i.v. It helped for about
half
an hour and made me a little groggy. I also asked for an epidural, but
couldn’t have one because my blood platelet level was too low. By the time
they finally told me I couldn’t have one I was ready to push anyway. This
was around 6am I think. The nurses told me not to push as the doctor
hadn’t
arrived yet. Yeah right. My body continued to push while I tried not to
help. The doctor arrived to find the baby crowned. They told me to touch
her head. It was so soft! With just a few pushes (and an episiotomy I
didn’t want) our sweet little girl arrived! They put her right up on my
tummy where I could see and touch her. She was beautiful even with her
crooked little nose. We named her Katia Rose. She was 19 1/2 inches and
7lb
1 1/2oz. She was born at 6:55am. She started nursing in the delivery room and didn’t stop until
she
was 17 months old. She’s now 2 years old and big sister to our second
daughter, Cassie.
Copyright 1997
Used by permission of author, Carol.
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