Labor and Delivery: Labor bad, delivery okay

I went into labor on Thursday night while watching 'So You Think You Can Dance' with John and Gabe. The contractions were mild, but coming regularly. Over the next 24 hours the contractions got closer and closer together and more and more intense. John and I took a walk through Greer park to try and get things moving, but the contractions never got particularly painful. But, because my contractions had been getting stronger and were 5 minutes apart for several hours, we went to the hospital.

At my last doctor's visit I was 1 cm dilated, and after an exam at the hospital, was stiil 1 cm dilated. They told us that while I was in labor, the contractions were just not yet doing their job and that we should go home and wait it out. They gave me a sleeping pill and some pain medication since the contractions were strong enough to keep me awake and they wanted me to sleep since it was obvious that labor had started.

All day Saturday the contractions continued 5-8 minutes apart. John and I walked down to 7-11 to get slurpees since I couldn't muster the appetite for much of anything but liquids. The contractions were much worse on this walk as we had to stop and sway with each contraction. That night there was no way I could sleep, but I was still convinced that the contractions weren't strong enough to warrant going to the hospital. But, after a few hours of contractions that made me wince, we called the hospital to ask if we could come in for more sleep and pain medication. They told us to come in, so we made the drive.

I was hooked up to the monitors again and examined and told that while I had made some progress (1.5 cm and more thinned out) it still wasn't enough. They told us that sometimes labor drags out like this for several days and that they would give us some medication and send us home. My blood pressure was pretty high at this point (hmmm... 48 hours of labor and we're surprised my BP is up?), so they asked us to stay another hour to monitor it and see if it dropped. It started to, but they were concerned that I had pre-eclampsia and wanted to be sure that everything was okay. So, they took blood and urine and discovered that I didn't have pre-eclampsia, but that I was severely dehydrated. They got all my medication together and were just about to send me home when Starbuck's heart rate started dropping with each contraction. With all of this drama going on they decided to admit me and induce labor with pitocin.

Luckily, Starbuck's heart rate evened out pretty quickly after we were admitted. The pitocin was started around midnight early Sunday. The contractions picked up right away, and at 3 AM I had had enough.

(Not happy about the contractions)

I was really hesitant to get an epidural, since I was only 1.5 cm dilated at my last exam, but the other option only provided relief for an hour, and I needed rest. By 4 AM the epidural was in by a fellow UCLA Bruin Alum who complained through a good portion of the epidural that there weren't enough clubs in Palo Alto and how much better the night life was in Los Angeles. Not exactly the conversation I wanted to be having while he shoved a giant needle in my back, but oh well.

(Yay, epidural!)

I slept for a couple of hours until our nurse came in at 6 AM to do another exam. I lovved our nurse. She was with us during the false alarm Friday night and again when we were hooked up to the monitors on Saturday. She was so nice and encouraging and made the whole process so much less stressful. She told me that maybe since I had gotten to relax for a few hours that I was 8 cm now. I laughed and told her that I would be happy with 3 cm. She checked me and told me that she needed to check with one of the doctor's. The doctor came in and checked me and they agreed that I was already 7 cm! The nurse had wanted a doctor to check and be sure because she didn't want to get my hopes up unnecessarily. Our doctor had apparently been on shift for several days straight and was at home sleeping. They didn't want to call her until they were sure that I was progressing, so they called her at this point to let her know to be on watch.

After about an hour I started to feel a lot of pressure. They checked me and I was fully dilated. John decided to take a bathroom break at this point since things were moving so quickly. Of course, it was at this point that my water broke. The nurse told us that there was meconium in the amniotic fluid (Starbuck's first bowel movement), that I wouldn't be able to hold the baby right away because a pediatric team would have to be present at the delivery to suction out the baby's lungs and make sure that he or she was okay. They called our doctor and told her to cpme to the hospital. The nurse had me do a "practice push" to see how well I did. Her shift was over at this point, but if the delivery was going to be fast she wanted to stay and see us through to the end. I started to push and she told me stop because the baby was so close. I had to wait to push again until the doctor made it to the hospital, which was very uncomfortable. I pushed through two contractions and Starbuck's head was out, one more contractions and Starbuck was out at 7:41 AM. The doctor told John to tell me what the baby was and, as we had suspected, it was a girl.

She was whisked to the side of the room by the pediatricians and examined.

(Emery's first picture)

She was perfectly healthy, weighed 6 pounds, 8 ounces, and was 19.5 inches long. After what was probably only a few minutes, but seemed like a few hours, I got to hold her.

We decided to name her Emery Isabella. Emery because we liked the name, Isabella after family members on both sides. Our back-up name, Olivia, just didn't seem to fit the spunky little girl we had in our arms.

Non Stress Test Version 5.0

It looks like things are changing. Since John had never been to one of my non-stress tests I dragged him out of bed today so he could see what they are like (plus he missed the worst doctor's appointment ever last Friday, so he owed me one). The baby was pretty responsive, although he/she didn't move around at all for the first ten minutes. The new feature of this visit was that I was contracting every 5-10 minutes for the entire appointment. Because I'm getting close to my due date and the contractions are starting to get painful they decided to do an ultrasound to check the fluid levels and make sure I wasn't leaking fluid. I didn't get to see the baby because the ultrasound machine was oriented away from me, but John said Starbuck looks big and strong. My fluid levels were fine, but they told me this may very well have been my last non-stress test.

My blood pressure was up and I'm not sure why this surprised them since I was contracting and that hurts AND they had just freaked me out by telling me I needed an ultrasound. But I have to be on the lookout for any other signs of pre-eclampsia, which would mean an immediate delivery.

Let's just say I was happy that John was around to hear it all and keep me calm, although he looked a little pale coming out of the clinic :)

July Doctor's Appointment

Worst. Doctor's. Appointment. Ever. Avery has been freaking out whenever both John and I leave the apartment, so I gave John his first ever pass from coming to a doctor's appointment. Boy did that come back to bite me in the butt. The waiting room was PACKED when I got in, with standing room only for a lot of very pregnant women. Don't get me started on how angry I was that not a single father/grandmother/child/barely pregnant woman offered to give up their seat for the rest of us. Our regular resident was again unavailable. The system we signed up for was to see the same resident and attending physician every time, but our resident never seems to be around. Most of the time this has worked out just fine, I see a different resident but the same attending, so there is always a little consistency. Not today. Totally different resident, totally different attending. The resident finally came into the room after I'd been waiting an hour, told me that I was measuring 35 weeks (not 37.5 as I should be) and that the baby weighed about 5 pounds, but that I shouldn't worry because that was in normal range. The attending came in and was told this information and completely freaked out, said that the baby was WAY too small, that I'd have to go in for an ultrasound to determine what was wrong with the baby, and lots of scary possibilities I didn't need to hear. The attending finally decided to check me herself and realized that the resident had measured incorrectly, that the baby was just "all over the place", not tucked nicely, and was probably over six pounds, as he/she should be.

Then I got a couple of nice lectures about how I needed to eat more calcium and why in the world hadn't I already figured out what birth control we were going to use after the birth. That latter lecture was a nightmare and a half, but I'll spare you the details. Oh, and as they were walking out of the room they remembered to tell me that they had detected that I was bleeding. But it is probably just a bladder infection, maybe, we'll wait a see a week to see how that develops.

I guess I've been lucky that I never had any real reason to worry about the baby this entire pregnancy. But this last appointment has added more stress than I'm really ready for this late in the game. Everything is probably fine- the baby really isn't that small, and whatever is causing the bleeding doesn't seem to affect the baby as my non-stress tests have always been great, the baby is moving around a lot, and his/her heartrate was normal. The appointment was just handled poorly and left me feeling like I was doing something terribly wrong. I can't wait to see my regular resident/attending, which unfortunately might never happen as they aren't available for appointments until my due date!

Non Stress Test Version 4.0

We're in the midst of unpacking, still recovering from moving, and it is ridiculously hot, so I was pretty exhausted at today's test. I tried really hard not to, but lying down with all those soft pillows for half an hour put me right to sleep. The nurses laughed and said that pretty much everyone had fallen asleep that day, probably because of the heat. But Starbuck was cooperative again, so we were in and out pretty fast.

Non Stress Test Version 3.0

Baby looks great. The nurses said Starbuck was the most cooperative baby of the day.

June Doctor's Appointment #2

Quickest doctor's appointment ever, which actually wasn't so great. My parents were driving up from L.A. and trying to make it here in time to attend the appointment. Of course, while it normally takes us 45 minutes before we ever see a doctor, we were in and out within 20. So they missed the appointment by about 15 minutes. But, the doctor said that everything looks great, the baby is correct size, the heartbeat looks great, I'm gaining weight appropriately... AND the baby is head down! Quite possibly the most exciting news of the month. John had started to get quite freaked out over what seemed like an inevitable scheduled c-section. Naturally, my Mom and I went to Bloomingdales to celebrate. Now Baby Starbuck has a Bloomingdales outfit, while I'm pretty sure Mommy doesn't.

Non Stress Test Version 2.0

I only had to wait 20 minutes to be soon today, so that was a great improvement. Starbuck was very much awake during the NST, so the whole process went much more smoothly. He/she was not at all pleased with the monitors being placed over what is obviously his/her space, so decided to kick at them for the entire duration of the test. So there was lots of movement and lots of heartrate accelerations, indicating that everything is just fine. The nurses said that he/she was being a little showoff as they could hear the movements on the monitor from across the room. They said we are very lucky to have such an active little baby.

Non Stress Test Version 1.0

This is the kind of frustration that is amplified to epic levels with all of my pregnancy hormones. I set up my experiments to run for an hour to an hour and a half, met up with John made our way over to Perinatal Diagnostics. We checked in 15 minutes early and were told to wait in the waiting room. After about an hour and several other couples asking how much longer their own ridiculous waits would be I had to send John back to my lab to finish up my experiments because they weren't going to wait. Half an hour after that I went to complain and was told that we never should have been directed to the waiting room because there are enough beds to accomodate people as soon as they come in. I was finally hooked up to the fetal heart rate monitor and contraction/fetal movement monitor for longer than I should have been because Baby Starbuck just isn't that cooperative. They need to see the heartrate increase at least twice in response to movement and while baby was very active for the 45 minutes after our appointment was supposed to start, he/she decided to take a nap once I got hooked up. Eventually baby woke up and gave them the readings they needed. Everything looks just fine. We're hoping that these weekly tests go much quicker from now on...

June Doctor's Appointment

The baby is perfectly normal again, YAY! The heartbeat is in the 140s, as it should be, and I'm measuring right on track. Because they've been playing with my thyroid medication this entire pregnancy and aren't perfectly happy with where I've stabilized they've recommended that I go in for non-stress tests every week until delivery. They really aren't that big of a deal- monitor the baby's heartrate for a half hour or so, but having to journey over to the children's hospital once a week is going to get old fast. But, with all the worst case scenarios that my endocrinologist threw out at me when I got pregnant, lying down in the hospital for half an hour a week for a few weeks really isn't so bad.

Baby Shower: The Mill Valley Edition

Richard and Regina threw us a lovely shower for the Garcias and friends. We had a wonderful lunch and had a great time seeing family and meeting a few friends that I had never met and that John hadn't seen since his childhood. Baby Starbuck even inherited her Daddy's old rocking horse!

Baby Shower: The Palo Alto Edition

Josh, Evonne, Jay, Lia, Matt and Amy threw a co-ed baby shower for us with our Stanford friends. The air conditioned room was a delightful break from the 95 degree weather, and we got to spend some really great time with friends that we don't get to see too often anymore. Everyone brought something to share, so we had lots of delicious fruit salads, appetizers, cheese, and desserts. Evonne made one of her adorable cakes (carrot cake, our favorite):

Everyone got creative painting onesies and bibs for us:

And John got a new title (photo by Josh Thompson):

More pictures can be found on John's Flickr page: John's Pictures

And on our good friend Josh's page: Josh's Pictures

Baby Shower: The Los Angeles Edition

My Mom and Grandmother threw a "girl's only" baby shower for us with just Los Angeles family and friends at my Grandmother's house. We had a delicious brunch, played a few shower games, and spent lots of time talking and catching up.

Christy tries out the "clothesline game" (you have to hold a baby, hang clothes with wooden clothespins and hold an intelligent conversation with me- the timekeeper!):

A shower gift only appropriate for a "girls only" shower:

And the ever important diapers:

May Doctor's Appointment

We didn't get to see our doctor today as she was in delivery, which is a little sad as she always brightens my mood. The baby's heart rate was normal, although he/she kept kicking the monitor. We definitely have a curious little bugger! I'm measuring just fine, so baby is growing normally. The doctor commented that my belly looks really small for as far along as I am because the baby is lying down instead of curling up. So, my belly takes up the entire front of me instead of sticking out down low like most people's. It's apparently totally normal and dependent on where it is easiest for your body's muscles to stretch- baby takes up any room that is available! I'm happy for that information, though, as I hear frequently: "You're seven months? But you're so small!". Now I have an explanation.

Second Ultrasound: Ten fingers, ten toes, and a normal palate!

Baby Starbuck's anatomical screen was performed on March 4, 2008 at 19 weeks. All body parts were present and accounted for :) Baby decided to hang out really low in Mommy's pelvis, so Mommy had to be tilted back for most of the ultrasound to get him or her to come up to a more visible position. No hiccups this time, but baby was pretty shy about showing his or her gender, so we couldn't have found out even if we wanted to. It took them quite a bit of time to find the baby's palate, but after a few scared minutes they declared that all was well.

Mommy's belly looked like this:

Baby Starbuck looked like this (look how big I am now!):

(Skull baby!)

(profile of baby looking to the left, umbilical cord coming up towards the mouth)

(baby sucking his or her thumb)

(tiny foot)

The screen took quite a long time, so we won't bore you with video from the entire thing. For a "greatest hits" video go here: http://www.vimeo.com/765016

First Ultrasound: Hiccups, heartbeats and happiness

Baby Starbuck's first ultrasound happened on January 30, 2008 when he or she was just 14.5 weeks old. It was during our first visit with our doctor and was completely unexpected. We had hoped to hear the heartbeat, but instead got to see our beautiful little baby. Starbuck had a nice case of the hiccups during the procedure, but that just made it extra cute.

Mommy looked like this at 14 weeks:

Baby Starbuck looked like this:

(the head is on the left with the legs on the right pointing straight down)

(head on the left again with the cutest face ever pointing down)

For a video of the full ultrasound (complete with Mommy and Daddy's relief that there was only ONE baby) go here: http://www.vimeo.com/652019