IT'S A GIRL!!!

Alexa Elizabeth was born Saturday, June 14, 2008 at 6:50 AM. Here's the birth story...

Friday evening Ray and I were getting ready to grill hot dogs for dinner. I walked outside, put Lily on her chain and sat down on one of the patio chairs. As soon as I sat down, I felt a gush of fluid seep through to my pants. I jumped up, went inside, pulled my pants down in the middle of the kitchen and told Ray, "something just happened". We inspected my pants and decided that it was a clear fluid that had seeped through, that’s when I went upstairs to go to the bathroom to make sure that I hadn't peed myself. As soon as I sat on the toilet I got an even bigger gush of water coming out and decided that it was not me peeing my pants, but my water breaking. First thing I did was to call the doctor, and because it was after hours, I had to wait for the doctor-on-call to call me back. In the meantime, my second call was to my mother who had asked me to call her at the first sign of labor so she could jump in her car and make it here in time for the birth. To my surprise she did not answer her phone or her cell. While I was waiting for the doctor to call me back, I also called my cousin Dawn to get her opinion as to whether that was my water breaking, since I knew she had been through it two months before. Dawn agreed that it sounded like it was my water breaking. After we finally heard back from the doctor, we were told to come to the hospital because it sounded like it was the start of my labor. My mother finally called us back and explained that she had been at Happy Hour and couldn't hear the phone ring. She was leaving and on her way to Philly already.

Upon arrival at the hospital, I was 2 cms dilated and they verified that it was my water that broke and it was around this time that I started feeling painful contractions. I started asking IMMEDIATELY about the epidural and they explained to me that I had to be 4 cms and have a complete bag of IV fluids before they would give it to me. So they started me on the IV fluids right away and told us to start walking the halls to speed up the labor process. The insertion of the IV needle ended up being the most painful part of my labor. As Ray and I were walking the halls, the contractions got to the point that I couldn't talk through them, and I had to keep yelling at my husband to stop asking me questions as I was in no mood for conversations. By 10pm I was ready for the epidural. It wasn’t that bad and the anesthesiologist was awesome. He told me exactly what to expect and what I would feel. The epidural was a godsend and kicked in after about 10 minutes. The nurse told me that she would be back to check on me at midnight and “see how I was progressing.” At midnight she came in and was extremely surprised to find that I was already dilated to 10 cms. She told me that I could start pushing whenever I was ready. I asked if I could hold off until my Mom arrived; she was still an hour and a half away. So we waited and when Mom arrived, everything was ready for Peanut’s entrance. Ray’s family that was there left myself, Ray and Mom in the delivery room and we were all kind of figuring that the baby would be out in no time.

After 2 hours of pushing, still no baby. If anything, Peanut hadn’t moved any further down the birth canal at all and my contractions were getting further and further apart. The epidural prevented me from feeling anything, so that made it hard too. The nurse decided that we would take a break and she would start me on pitocin. After an hour of rest and pitocin, I tried pushing again and again nothing. We took another hour break and tried again…still nothing. By 5am, the nurse decided to get the doctor and have him make a decision. The doctor came in and had me push a few more times. By this time I was super frustrated and delirious. He assured me that I was doing everything right and that the baby was just “stuck” and did not appear that it would be budging. He told me that I needed a c-section. I was upset, I had really wanted a vaginal delivery and wanted to avoid surgery. But I agreed that it was time and that I would do whatever the doctor thought would be best.

The c-section was so incredibly easy. Alexa was born within about 5 minutes of the initial incision. Turns out that once they opened me up, it was obvious as to why Alexa would not come out vaginally. She was "face up", which prevented her from being pushed down the birth canal. Her head was down and in the correct position but because she was facing up, my pushing kept butting her against my pelvic bone, not under it. Both Ray and my Mom were in the OR with me and we all cried. My Mom practically flirted with the doctor to let her in the OR, as only Ray was initially permitted to go in with me. Nothing about the surgery was painful and again the anesthesiologist talked me through everything that they were doing. Right before she was born he told me to get prepared for a lot of pressure in my chest. I knew she was born when I heard the loud crying, moments later the doctor told my Mom to get the camera ready and then he held her up over the sheet and announced, “It’s a girl!” It was the most surreal thing and I was completely shocked that it was a girl too! After a few moments, Ray brought her over to me and I got a very quick glance at my screaming daughter, gave her a kiss on the cheek and then she was whisked away. Ray followed the baby and Mom stayed with me while they put me back together. Both Ray and my Mom later told me that they caught a glimpse of the doctor actually holding my uterus and stuffing it back inside the open body cavity. So incredibly weird!!

All together from start to finish the whole procedure took about 30 minutes. I waited in the recovery room for Alexa for a half an hour. But when they brought her to me and I could hold her for the first time, I was overcome with happiness and relief that I was finally holding my little healthy, beautiful girl. She is perfect. I know that I’m obviously biased, but she has got such a pretty face and cute little features. No one can decide who she looks like quite yet, but she’s got a full little head of dark hair. She received all 9’s on her Apgar tests and the pediatricians here at the hospital tell us that she is has healthy as can be.

Alexa is doing fantastic...she is such a good baby and she is breastfeeding very well already. Ray and I are over the moon and feel very blessed. I am recovering nicely from the surgery and becoming more mobile everyday. We are still in the hospital and leaving tomorrow. More later…!