Labor & Delivery

On Sunday, November 28, 2010 Eric and I welcomed a beautiful (AND HEALTHY!!) baby girl name Elizabeth Ruyi at 2:36 p.m.

Up until this point whenever a friend had a baby I would listen to the story about how the labor went. I never really fully understood their story until now because I have experienced it for myself. I admit, I was scared to death about delivering a child. Now that everything is done and over with I would have to say my labor and delivery experience went pretty smoothly.

At my 38 week check up my doctor told me he was guessing that the baby was 6 pounds and that by my due date the baby would be at 7 pounds. I felt that with this guess I would opt to go for a natural delivery without any pain medication.

So how it started...

Eric promised me a Christmas tree on Saturday even though I protested and wanted one a week ago for fearing that the baby might come. He reassured me that if she did come early he would go get the tree himself and decorate it. So Saturday came and we went to Ted Drewes to pick out the perfect tree. We opted for the Frasier Fir because of the scent and that they apparently hold their needles better. Eric brought it upstairs and I started decorating it realizing that we didn't have enough lights and lost our tree skirt. So we took a trip to Target to get the rest of our supplies. We finished decorating at around 11:55 p.m (according to the camera).

Eric and I decided it was time to go to bed. I was sitting in the living room couch reading through a magazine and he was cleaning the rabbits cage when I felt a gush of water. I paused and then started to frantic, how am I going to clean this up? Luckily and I'm not sure why there was a towel sitting on the couch that I was able to get under me before it made a mess everywhere and then I told Eric my water broke.

I went to the bathroom and saw that the water also contained green and brown colors which I knew immediately was meconium. I also knew that the cause of this meant that the baby was at some point in distress. So trying not to freak Eric out I told him what it was and poor Eric going into shock mode but doing great by working as fast as he could to prep the rabbits their meal and then to finish up packing the hospital bag.

I started having painful contractions as we went to the hospital. I knew this was the real deal as I had not experienced any until this point. When I checked in the nurse checked and said I was 5 cm dialated. At around 4 a.m. I was checked again and was at 8 cm dialated. I just had two more to go and she told me that when I started having the urge to push that I needed to let her know so she could call my doctor.

At 7 a.m. I had fallen asleep and my contractions were sporadic. This was also the time a new nurse came in and she allowed me to sleep for a couple more hours (on and off). At 9 a.m. she stated that I have not changed in five hours and that it was time to start moving things along since she didn't want to check me due to my water breaking already (more risk of infection) and that the baby had been in distress. So at this point I opted to go for the epidural and start the induction.

My experience with the epidural procedure was positive. In fact the nurse commented that she was surprised that it was so easy because everything was closer together. I didn't wait long for the nurse anesthetist and the procedure was quick. Immediately, the nurse started the oxytocin to start the labor process and this also gave me some time to sleep.

When in labor I felt like the time flew by so quickly. Before I knew it, I was waking up from some incredible contractions. I had a button that I could press for more epidural but I was afraid to do so because my friend who recently had given birth could not feel the urge to push. However, towards the end I could no longer take it and would push the button every 10 minutes. Then I knew it was time to have the baby as my other friend told me the sensation was like needing to go to the bathroom to poop. It was definitely there and I told the nurse. She checked me and said I was 9 1/2 cm and that things were going well. I asked if she was going to call the doctor to have him in and she said no that they don't call until I am starting to push. I remember feeling so disappointed.

However, the baby then started to go into distress and they gave me an oxygen mask to wear. Then she said that I couldn't start pushing until the doctor came and that she was giving him a call now.

When the doctor entered the room I was so happy. He checked and said that I could start pushing. After the first round he said he would be back in a minute and then I was able to push for two more rounds. During my second and third round, the doctor got pulled into another delivery that was more urgent and I was asked to lay on my left side. I'm not sure how long I laid there but I felt terrible. I wanted to push so badly but was told to relax. Finally he came back and a few more rounds of pushes, Elizabeth arrived with a lot of hair. I was told beforehand that because there was meconium that she could have swallowed it or it could have gotten in her lungs and that the pediatrician would take a look at her first instead of allowing me to have her. Surprisingly, I was not disappointed that I was not able to be the first. They took her and everyone marveled at her hair and her weight. Stating that luckily I had gotten the epidural. People played the weight guessing game and the woman who weighed her stated "she's at least 8 pounds."

So that's pretty much the story of the labor and delivery of baby Elizabeth. I finally got to hold her after she was cleaned off and weighed. Eric was great throughout the whole process and even stayed by my side after Elizabeth was born but I urged him to be with her to see what they were doing and to take pictures. He did cut the umbilical cord and got her footprints in our baby book.

To see pictures of the first days of her life, please visit our photo website.