The short story:Zoe was born by natural childbirth at St. Luke's hospital on Tuesday, 4/24/07 at 6:24pm. She had a nuchal cord (the cord was wrapped around her neck - three times) and the pediatrician had to breathe for her for 10 minutes to save her life - she is doing well now!! She was 8 pounds and 20.5 inches long. She is a 5th generation San Franciscan. We are at home and happily bonding.
The really long, TMI version of her birth story:
I went to the hospital with my mom and dad at 4pm on Monday, 4/23 to that they could give me Cervidil to "ripen" my cervix. Here is more info on that: http://www.birthingnaturally
I had to spend the night in the hospital as it takes 12 hours to work usually and they inserted the medication at 6:15pm. It induces labor in about 20% of patients, but only causes more contractions (that again, I didn't feel). I couldn't sleep very well because the nurse (a closet case former Marine who was very patronizing) kept coming in to take my blood pressure. At just before 8am on Tuesday, 4/24 they started a pitocin drip. Here is more info on that from babycenter.com: "Pitocin is a synthetic form of the hormone oxytocin, which your body naturally produces during labor. Your practitioner may give you this drug through an IV pump to start or augment your contractions. She can adjust the amount you need according to how your labor progresses."
I began to feel contractions an hour later. My parents came to the hospital and so did my doula, Esther. I ate breakfast and at lunch, I still felt hungry. My Dr. - Barbara Nicol came in to check on me and she and my wonderful midwife, Julie thought I wasn't fully in labor since I was still hungry but I said, "No, trust me, I'm a total bitch if my blood sugar is low, so I'm just being on the safe side...." At 4pm, I was still able to joke with staff (telling them I hoped Zoe at least made her appearance by 4:20pm) but by 5pm I was not a happy camper. I threw twice before 5pm and luckily, I just had the coffee banana milkshake dad got for me, and not my full meal at lunch, but it was still gross. A while later, I found Julie (my midwife) was going to be off shift at 6pm and I started to cry because I really, really wanted her to deliver Zoe. She told me if it looked like I was making progress - she'd stay, because she wanted to be there too. That made me feel better, but I wasn't confident it would happen.
Contractions on pitocin have a reputation for being extra brutal and since I have the mouth of a sailor on a good day, by 5pm, the F word was being dropped on just about every contraction. The contractions started out about every 2-3 minutes way back at 9am, and at the end, I don't know how frequent they were, but they were furious and I finally said to my doula, "Ok - let's start talking pain medication..." My doula, midwife and mom were there throughout and others came and went. Julie checked my cervix a bit after I mentioned pain meds and she said I was in transition. Here is more info on that: http://parentcenter.babycenter
Apparently, most people who opt for natural childbirth ask for pain meds (if they do at all) when they are in transition because it is so intense. Well, that was great news. I was feelings like this was going to go on forever, but when I heard I was 7 cm - I knew I could finish the job without meds.
My Dr. was not available and they told me Julie was going to deliver Zoe - I was soooooo happy!
An hour later I started screaming bloody murder and started to push, it was an uncontrollable urge. My doula grabbed my face and said, "Tori, focus - grunt, don't scream." At that point, my water bust. Everybody in the room was amazed at how much water it was. That was at 6pm. I said I felt like I have to poop and somebody said, "That's your baby coming..." Every contraction, I pushed and pushed and suddenly it seemed like there were a ton of people in the room. I remember a Dr. talking to me during a contraction and I couldn't respond to her during that time, but after I said, "Whatever - do your thing..." and I heard people laughing. I honestly didn't care who hooked me up to what, but I do remember they were worried my blood pressure was going up, which is normal when people are in a lot of pain.
I could feel a lot tension in the room - something wasn't right, but I didn't have an understanding of what was wrong exactly. There were just a ton of medical staff in the large room, talking in hushed voices and telling me I had to push, urgently. Julie is usually very light and bubbly and I could tell from her face and how she was telling me to push that something was wrong. My mom held my left leg and Esther held my right and I was on my back, but up, so sort of in a squatting position and I kept pushing, but her head wasn't coming out and I had to rest. A blond nurse came and held my head and they told me to push her out and people were telling me to curl down and get Zoe out. They describe "crowning" (when the head starts to come out) as "the ring of fire" and I remember feeling that was an accurate description.
I was so tired, but trying really hard to push her out and finally, it was the best feeling. She came out really quickly - basically she flew out of me and I remember seeing Julie catch her. Zoe wasn't crying. The cord was around her neck three times and she was white. The pediatrician took her and they started working on her. It was so quiet and serious and scary feeling in the room. Somebody told me she was beautiful and they are doing everything they can and I remember thinking about the still born baby article and just bracing myself. Ok, I could have a dead baby, I kept thinking. My doula said, "Talk to her Tori..." and I told her how much I loved her and that I wanted to see her beautiful face and asked her to hang in there and kept saying her name. She was across the room and all the medical staff were frantically working their magic.
Finally, they came over to me and said she was stable, I could hold her for a minute but they had to take her to ICU immediately. She looked so beautiful to me. I just kissed her face and told her how much I loved her and wondered if I was ever going to see her again. I was just kind of in shock. It all seemed to happen to fast and I felt like I was in an altered state (people have said that natural childbirth is a high like you've never felt, and I also felt that was true of my experience).
Apparently I had some 2nd degree tears and lots of little tears and so they spent a lot of time sewing me up. They all said how well I did and how beautiful Zoe was. During that time, I learned why it felt so serious in the room while I was pushing - my heart rate had gone up a lot and they confused it for her heart rate and realized they didn't have a heart rate for Zoe at times. There were 12 medical staff in the room to attend to me and Zoe, and with me, my mom and Esther, there were 15 of us total. They needed me to get her out and one nurse told Julie I had to have an emergency c-section and she told her, "No - I know she can push her out." She was about to cut an episiotomy when I pushed her out.
I don't know how long it was before the pediatrician came down, but he said Zoe looked like she was doing well. They ran a lot of tests on her and he said, "She's got a future as a gymnast - I've seen one nuchal cord, and even two, but three - that's rare! I had to breathe for her for 10 minutes, but she came through." According to this site: http://www.emedicine.com/med
He said a lot of babies come out looking a little funny for a while, but he said, "She's really beautiful - like a little rose." It was so sweet. So many of the nurses, midwives and Dr.s all said how great I did and how beautiful she was. So I joked, "Yeah, as if you're gonna say I have an ugly baby," but Esther pointed out, usually they say things like, "Oh - he has your husbands nose," or vague things like that if it's a really ugly baby case situation. I just wanted to hold Zoe and start breast feeding. They had to discharge me from the 3rd floor and finally, at 9:30, I got to be with my baby.
These photos are from our first bonding experience together in the ICU. Mom and dad took these photos. I couldn't stop kissing her. She latched on immediately and I was with her until 1:30am. The told me I had to get some rest and even though I asked to spend the night in ICU with her, they wouldn't let me. She was on glucose IV and all the monitors she was hooked up to. I was also on my IV still and we got tangled a few times. There was a lot of annoying beeping going on.
Again, I couldn't sleep well, I was so excited she was ok and I just wanted to be with her. I finally was able to nap for a few hours. They called me at 4am to tell me she was hungry and I was so happy to feed her for the next hour. The Dr. said I could take her in my room in the morning sometime. The staff kept assuming I had a c-section because they said her head looked so perfect and round which is rare following a vaginal delivery. "Wow - she looks great," they'd say, which was nice.
The horrible ICU nurse told me on Wed. 4/25 that they had to keep her for more monitoring and I asked to speak with the new pediatrician who was working. He said, "No - she can be discharged at 11am." I was so grateful for him and finally at 11:30am on Wednesday, I got to have her in my room. She was on me the rest of the time, minus when I took a shower in which case I had her in the little crib next to me in the bathroom. The nurse kept telling me to just let the ICU staff watch her during my shower, but I didn't want her away from me at all. She cried a lot. They warned me she might have a sugar crash after coming off the glucose IV and since my milk wasn't in yet (it generally takes 72 hours for the milk to come in), she was frustrated at only getting some of the colostrum (aka "liquid gold" here is more info: http://www.babycenter.com
On Thursday morning David came in for the paternity tests. I took pictures and hoped to have them in the on-line album, but I don't yet, sorry. I thought it was a fun event and I'm 100% confident he is the dad. She has his toes. ;) We get the official results in 5-7 business days. The St. Luke's staff is also very excited to learn the results of the 50/50 situation, so I told them I'd send them a card when I know.
They finally discharged me on Thursday afternoon and it's soooooo good to be home with her! Today I woke up with her at 7:30am (after not really sleeping last night) and my milk came in. She's very happy about that. We had our first Dr. apt with her pediatrician at St. Luke's, Dr. Michael Treece. He rocks. Karen takes Quin to see him and I liked him when I went to one of Quin's Dr. apts so I could check him out. He wears a button that says, "Proudly serving my corporate masters" because CMPC bought St. Luke's and now they have cut all bennies for part time employees and they just got rid of the homestyle/midwifery program at St. Luke's and it only going to get worse. It's a crime and it makes me so mad. Here is an article about how they are no longer doing VBACs: http://www.sfweekly.com/2007
Michael said that Zoe is healthy and doing well, but I have make sure she gets a little sun every day so she doesn't get jandice.
I'll have more photos soon. Thank you again for all of your support and love - we appreciate it very much and Zoe looks forward to meeting you in the future! Love, Tori
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