The alarm went off around 5 a.m. We had called the hospital Monday and they told us we could call as early as 5 to check the list for induction. I made my way to the bathroom as Tiffany got her phone together to make the call. By the time I came out she already knew that there was no room and we wouldn’t be leaving to be there by 7 a.m as we had hoped.
Already awake, I headed to the gym and Tiffany laid back down. As I mentioned before, she wasn’t able to eat or drink anything but clear fluids so we were concerned about waiting too long to head to the hospital. Tiffany gets a little shaky when she’s hungry or needs some sugar. Anyway, they told us to call back at 9 if we hadn’t heard from them.
I stopped at Starbucks on my way back from the gym anticipating a long day and also picked up some apple juice up for Tiffany. We had a LARGE meal ;) the night before at one of our favorite restaurants (Pappadeux) which included a complimentary dessert since we were celebrating a birthday. We had told he waiter what we had planned for the next day and he immediately offered it up, which we thought was very nice. Point being, Tiffany was not starving when she woke up.
We called back at 9, no dice, our next time to call was 11. Meanwhile Tiffany began to have contractions on her own. The mild contractions had started again Monday, but by morning they were stronger, albeit 20 minutes apart and pretty inconsistent. Still we were holding out hope that our girl would come on her own so we headed to Target, which is a short drive away to stroll around, and also to stock up on some more clear liquids with sugar in them. We had completed about three laps around Target and had stopped to browse when TIffany’s parents and brothers and sisters showed up. They were getting antsy too.
We walked some more and when Tiffany called back at 11 they said they could take us, knowing it would take an hour to get there from where we were. We headed back to the house to grab our bags and I packed a sandwich and some water and we were off.
Hitting no traffic, we arrived at the hospital just shy of 12:30. We headed right to Labor and Delivery where Pam (our first nurse) met us and took us to our LDR room. I have to say it’s a pretty efficient operation. All of our paperwork was ready to go, and there was plenty of it, and Tiffany changed and they started her IV. That was important because the IV solution acts pretty much like sugar water so while she was still hungry, she didn’t get any shakes.
Pam gave Tiffany an initial exam and determined she was 2 cm dilated, a little disappointing considering our efforts all morning. No matter, the IV was in and by this time I had already paid so they weren’t kicking us out, we would be meeting our baby girl at some point in the near future. I had planned on a long day and nothing about our initial exam suggested otherwise, but soon the pitosin (spelling??) was on board and the contractions picked up....and kept picking up. I had brought several magazines, a book, my laptop, thinking that there were going to be long periods of inactivity. Soon after Tiffany’s parents and siblings arrived things really picked up. I left the room for a short time and her water broke on her own. By this time we also had a new nurse, Erin, Pam’s shift had ended at 2. The nurse plays a big role, at least at this hospital. She NEVER leaves the room. There’s a station right there with a computer and she sits there watching the monitors. By the time I had come back in, Tiffany’s pain had increased. She was having pretty hard contractions every two minutes or so and I was rubbing her back and holding her hand while her mom helped with the breathing. Needless to say, no time for a book or magazine. She was trying to tough it out, but soon the epideral was administered. Her mom and I had to leave the room for that. That guy was quite the character, I’m not sure it wasn’t a good thing I didn’t see that guy operate a foot long needle. Since I was asked to leave, I used the opportunity to scrounge around for some coffee. They have automated machines in the waiting area but by this point in the day creamers were hard to come by. We found some and by the time I finished we headed back in. At this point it was getting close to 5, activity in the hospital had slowed considerably and I was just hoping it would be before midnight. To my surprise, I walked in and the epideral had taken Tiffany to 9 cm’s.
Erin said that it can relax people and speed things along. Clearly it did. It also put Tiffany in a much, much better mood. She wasn’t being difficult by any means before, but her mood certainly changed. As an added benefit my massage was no longer needed. I didn’t mind giving the massages but the angle and location made it pretty hard on my fingers and I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to keep doing it very much longer.
We were getting in the home stretch and Erin’s shift ended at 7 and she wanted to see the baby born because she was impressed how fast things were moving. The contractions became harder to track because there wasn’t any pain associated with them and the monitor was not doing a tremendous job. But an hour later Erin checked and determined it was go time.
Dr. Thompson was paged, yes they still use pagers, and she said she was en route. Melanie, our next nurse also arrived 15 minutes before 7 and Erin gave her a briefing and said she wanted to stay and would be the second nurse. There’s always two in the room for delivery. Melanie wanted Tiffany to push to see how long it would possibly take so she held one leg up and I held the other. We did this a few times and she was ready to go. You could see the tip of her hair little head and after the last push without the doctor in the room, Melanie told Tiffany to relax because she was VERY close.
Meanwhile at this tim I’m wondering what role the doctor actually plays. She had checked in twice in person, but the nurses are there the entire time now she was coming in for the last out and was going to be named MVP??? Talk about the ultimate closer.
Sure enough Dr. Thompson entered the room and it was showtime. The stirrups came out and after about four good pushes, Natalie Christine Pirone entered the world at 7:01 p.m. Another assistant, outside the two nurse,s clamped the umbilical chord and she handed me the scissors. I cut, and promptly had blood shooting at me. I was able to safely dodge it so it hit me direct in the forehead, rather then the eye. It also got all over my hand. I didn’t mind it, but how about some warning folks. Nobody even said anything like, “Can i get you a paper towell or a wet nap.? Thankfully, Tiffany’s mom handed me a spare sheet and I wiped my face and then I saw where OBGYN’s earn their money. I didn’t take a close look, nor did I want to, but Dr. Thompson was fully engaged in tending to Tiffany, calling out orders, asking for instruments, certainly worthy of MVP honors. I carefully navigated the foot of the table and did not look closely and headed over to the warming table where they were getting Natalie cleaned up.
Some calls were made so folks could hear her crying. Then there’s a feeling that comes over you that can’t really be described. For example I’m not sure how anyone could witness a child being born and doubt the existence of god, it’s truly a miracle. I’m sure it’s unique in it’s own way to every individual. At 7:00 a.m. on 1/11/11 I was leaving the gym after another routine morning workout and 12 hours later there was this little person looking up at me like, “Who the heck are you and what happened to my water bed?”
After Tiffany was put back together, Natalie made her way over to Mom for her first breast feeding attempt. It went well and before we knew it she was off to the nursery for more measurements and a bath. I followed just to see where they were taking her and by the time I got back it was time to get our stuff together and move to the post-partum room where we are now and where we will most likely stay until mid-day Thursday.
The post partum room is smaller, but large enough for the three of us. It’s not the Hilton, but the day bed in the corner for me is just fine and there is a pretty comfortable chair. I slept okay the first night, Tiffany did not. The one thing people are right about is the parade of people that come in and out of your room. Just when you think there is no one else that could possibly come, here comes the woman that submits the information for the birth certificate, or the tech to check blood pressure, or housekeeping etc...
Dr. Thompson was back in our room at 7:00 a.m. this morning and I don’t think we’ve gone 45 minutes without someone coming in. It’s hard for Tiffany to get a nap and I think I started this blog post at 8 and it’s now almost 2:30. I did get down to the cafeteria for breakfast and to the gift shop for some balloons and gifts for Natalie, but I haven’t accomplished much today other then change a couple dirty diapers. More on that later....
