Friday,
June 28, 2002 - AKA - Birth Story
After
visiting Michele and John at the hospital the night before, labor dust must have
rubbed off on me! At 4:30am, I had a bloody show and contractions slowly
started.
At first, I
wasn't sure if labor had started. My mucus plug had been slowly coming
out, and random contractions had been happening all week. So I stayed in
bed until the contractions were more regular and stronger before I got up.
More and more blood showed and I knew that something was brewing. At
5:30am, after an hour of regular 5-minute interval contractions, I called
Kaiser. The nurse (Cindy) said that I should stay home until they get
stronger or if my water breaks. I mentioned to her that I know Mary Ann
(the most awsomest midwife) and let her know that I might be coming in before
she leaves work (she told me she was working until 8am).
So I labored on and did some walking hoping not to wake Greg up (because
it will be a long day for us!).
During this
kind of exciting but boring time, I decided to repack my hospital bag, check my
emails one last time and call my mother. At around 6:30am, Greg woke up
and asked me what was going on. I told him that I think I'm in labor and
he was so excited. He said "whoo hoo, we're going to have our baby
today!" I told him not to get his hopes up since it can be a long labor for
me as a first timer. We both then showered, ate breakfast and at 8:30am, I
decided to let Kaiser know that I was coming in. Cindy said that Mary Ann
was leaving and that the next midwife is Susan.
Susan is the chief of midwives. (Greg
was hoping that I could wait until the barber opens at 9am so he can get a good
haircut - to go with the daddy outfit of course). By this time the
contractions were still about 5 - 8 minutes apart but much stronger. Not
that I couldn't stand the pain, I just didn't want to have something happen,
like my water breaking, and no medical attention.
Greg packed
our stuff in the car and I was going to the bathroom one last time before we go.
I almost got to the bathroom and I felt a good amount of water coming out of me.
I checked, and sure enough, it was my water breaking. Ah, just what I
didn't want happening at home!
So we got
into the car and off we went. We were 2 streets over and Greg decided he
didn't remember if he had turned off the stove. Since it would not be a
good impression to bring a new baby to a burnt down house, we decided to turn
back and make sure...
Anyway, off
we went again and it was exciting to be doing "the drive" to the
hospital. Of course we managed to follow every big dump trucks by where
they are building a new Target (yippee). Even when we get to the hospital
garage, we followed a very slow driver that drove at the pace of a very wounded
pedestrian. So we managed to park on the third floor (that driver parked
at a handicapped parking - which were plentiful on the first floor). We
climbed down the stairs through my contractions and walked across to the
hospital building.
Finally we
were at Labor & Delivery (L&D) and it was 9am. I talked to a nurse
and told them that I talked with someone on the phone and was advised to come in
and be checked. The nurse behind the counter said that since it's now 9am
(past their normal advice hours), the clinic (where I normally see my midwives)
should check me since L&D was at the time very busy. I think I
screamed, "I have to go to FREMONT?"
"Oh,
you go to Fremont? I guess I can check you out over here then." The
nurse seemed annoyed.
I was
relieved until she took me to this really crappy labor room. Labor Room
#11. It had no door, just a curtain. And everything looked old and
the avocado green plastic chair that Greg sat on had a big rip on the side.
I changed
into the gowns and waited seemed like forever for the nurse to come back.
A different nurse (Kathy) came in introduced herself and placed the fetal
and contraction monitors on my stomach. Kathy
told me that a midwife – Susan – would come in and give me an internal exam.
Mainly they wanted to make sure that my water did break and not just my
imagination. Susan also explained
exactly what Susan was going to do to check if it is amniotic fluids that I had.
She was really nice.
Susan came
by and did exactly what Kathy said. The
tests came back 2 out of 3 positive that it was my water breaking.
Susan explained that she would not check how far my cervix had dilated
until much later because that area is now not sterile and is at risk of
infections. On the same note, we
need to monitor the progress of my labor to make sure it is moving along
quickly. The range is within 24
hours of my water breaking that they want to see the baby gets delivered.
Kathy came
in to check on me and asked if I needed anything.
I told her that I didn’t feel comfortable in this room since it
didn’t have a door and such. She
said that it actually did have a door, but the room was not a very good room.
So she was very nice to move us to labor room #5 - A much better room
with a lazy boy type chair and our own bathroom.
So I
labored on not knowing how far along I was.
Around 2pm, John and Michele came by to visit us.
Michele just had her baby 10pm the night before and was resting at
Postpartum. I couldn’t believe
she walked all that way to see me. She
looked great. She asked how far
along I was and I told her they hadn’t checked me still.
She reminded me that hopefully I was dilated enough to get the “happy
drugs”.
At 2:30pm,
Susan came in to check me. By this
time, I had to breathe hard through my contractions.
She reported that I was at 4cm. At
4cm, I have the option to get the epidural. She said that if I need it, they can arrange it now and the
wait isn’t long. I said sure.
Although the pain was manageable, I didn’t want to miss the window when
the anesthesiologist isn’t busy. By
3:10pm, I met Jake, the anesthesiologist, and boy was it one of the most
scariest thing I’ve ever done.
He was
really nice, and Kathy was there to hold my hand through the contractions.
I obviously couldn’t see what he was doing, but I’ve seen the
procedure done before. I was so
nervous and felt a few weird sensations through my spine.
Once he was done, I immediately felt tingly on my legs and some
occasional shaking through my whole body.
3:30pm,
Susan came in to check on me again. I
was still at 4cm. Bummer. Kathy put a catheter in for my urine since I can’t walk to
the bathroom with the epidural.
At 5:45pm,
I was dilated to 6cm. Whoo hoo!
Around 7pm,
my mom and sister came to visit. They
ate (while I only had water) and watched me labor on.
At 8:30pm,
I was feeling a lot of the pressure and started to breathe through the
contractions again. I had to ask
Greg to find me a nurse because I felt like pushing.
Since Kathy’s shift was over, Paula took over. Paula said that I was dilated to 10cm and she was going to
find Susan for me. In the mean
time, I can push if I needed to.
Greg and my
sister each grabbed a hold of one of my legs and I pushed. It felt good. Releasing
the pressure that I felt. At 9pm
Paula came back with Susan and Carol. Susan’s
shift was over and Carol was taking over as the midwife.
Carol examined me and told me that the baby was facing up, which is a
very difficult position to deliver. They
plan on helping me turn the baby around to face down – toward my back.
Paula
stayed and helped me continue pushing. I
could feel Paula helping me stretch the canal while Greg and my sister hold my
legs back. She also had me
push on my sides and checked occasionally to see if the baby has turned.
I pushed from around 9pm to almost 11pm.
It seemed like forever and I was getting tired and delirious.
I remember asking in the beginning how my progress was and if I was close
to getting to the delivery room because I knew they only let women labor in the
labor room. Once you are close, you
get to go to the big scary delivery room. I
was disappointed every time I asked because I was only making progress slowly.
I guess my wish for 3 pushes didn’t happen.
When Paula
said that it was time for me to go to the delivery room since the baby is real
close, I was too tired to act excited. Greg
repeated, as if I didn’t hear, “we are going to the big room now Mei, we are
real close!” By this time, Greg
and my sister were able to see the baby’s head.
Unfortunately, the baby was still facing up. They put a blanket on my legs and wheeled me into the
delivery room next door.
We went in,
just me, Greg and Paula, and more people came in.
I was still pushing through while everyone else prepared.
(I occasionally looked at the mirror and it was not as gross as I thought
it would be.) I remember an Asian
nurse, Carol and Paula there. I
pushed for a couple of times and I started to feel a lot of pain and the baby
crowning. I immediately told them
that I could feel the pain and they need to pull the kid out.
They said that it’s the epidural wearing off and that I am real close,
2 pushes away. I didn’t believe
them and was literally crying a river. They had been telling me the “good job,
keep pushing” routine for too long now. I
thought if I were real close, everyone would be paying close attention to me.
But everyone seemed to be doing his or her own thing.
So Paula said to me, “you see that guy right there?
He’s the pediatrician. If
you weren’t close, he wouldn’t be here.
So I pushed and pushed. I
felt the head coming out and the body slid out.
I also saw the body come out from the mirror.
It was the most amazing feeling.
It’s a
girl everyone started yelling. Greg
was so excited he kept screaming, “it’s a girl, it’s a girl!”
I was still in shock and was kind of upset that everyone’s seen her
except me. I watched Greg take a
million pictures of her and I hear her cry in the background.
I finally asked, “Is she okay?” Paula said that since I was running a
high fever, they had to examine the baby and make sure she didn’t get an
infection. This is probably due to
my water breaking so early on and it’s just a precaution.
They finally brought her to me and Greg immediately said that she looked
like me. I thought, wow, she has
very fair skin and I didn’t think she looked like me.
I sobbed that they had to take her away.
Seconds
later, Carol shouted out “the placenta is coming”.
Then she pulled the cord a little and the placenta just dropped out.
It was like a gray pouch the size of a personal pizza.
They
whisked the baby away and Greg followed (after he gave me a quick kiss).
It felt like it took Carol hours to suture me up.
I asked if I tore real badly and she said no.
She gave me a standard episiotomy and I was just really swollen from the
pushing. Paula put an ice pack on
the stitches for me and I was then wheeled to the recovery area.
As
they put another wristband on me, they reported that baby girl Chan was born
11:11pm, June 28, 2002 after 18 hours of labor.