9:56 p.m. - 19 July 2004
Vadin's birth story
Two and a half weeks ago, I fell head over heels in love with another man. Meet my son, Larry Vadin, II, born July 1, 2004, at 8:14 p.m.
So when I last wrote, I was still pregnant and beginning to wonder if I would ever give birth. I had a doctor�s appointment the next morning, though, at which my blood pressure was up slightly and my doctor decided that it might be a good idea to induce. I was having lots of contractions, just not in any identifiable pattern, so the plan was to start with prostaglandin gel first thing in the morning and then break my water around lunchtime and see where that went.
While I have spent much time decrying the high rate of inductions (well, not here, but in my head, anyway), I was very relieved when it was suggested to me. Just knowing that there was an end in sight made me feel 1000% percent better: it was as if a huge load had lifted off my shoulders and I slept better than I had in several weeks. Wednesday was my last day at work, and I can�t say I was terribly productive: I cleaned up my desk and got everything ready for my substitute, but that was about it. Lee had the digital camera, so he took lots of pictures � of me and of his pregnant co-worker, who was also expected to deliver in the next couple of days.
That night we kind of took it easy; we made sure the house was at least reasonably presentable, that the birds were fed and watered, and that we had everything ready so that we could just pick up and leave in the morning. I took a couple of Tylenol PMs so that I would be sure to sleep; I�m positive I would have just laid awake without them, even though I did get up to pee a couple of times during the night.
We got to the hospital just a few minutes after 7 a.m., and I got changed into a gown, provided a urine sample, and strapped to the monitors. We hadn�t brought anything upstairs just yet, figuring that Lee could go and get whatever we needed when he went to make some phone calls. My doctor came by around 8:30 and checked me; I was still a good 3cm, so she administered the gel and said she�d be by later on. The nurse said I had to stay on the monitor for another 20 minutes, but then I could get up and move around if I felt like it. Lee went to go get my birth ball and call my mom and his parents; Mom told him that she�d be leaving Georgetown around 1:30 or 2, so she�d get to the hospital by 8:00 or so at the latest.
There was a student nurse who was following my nurse, too, and she got me unhooked from the monitors around 9 a.m. I immediately moved to the birth ball, since the contractions were coming a little more regularly, and the rocking felt much better than lying in bed. They checked Vadin�s heart rate every half hour or so by holding the little transducer against my belly, and everything looked fine.
The doctor came back around 11 a.m. and rechecked me, at which point I was 4cm, so she broke my water. That definitely got things going, and I asked for a shot of Nubain shortly thereafter, which the doctor and I had already agreed was okay � she knew I wanted to avoid an epidural if possible, mostly because I didn�t want all the other interventions that come with one. The Nubain helped a lot: I didn�t feel the contractions nearly as much, but they were definitely stronger and more regular. The birth ball was a huge help, too: we put a chux pad on it and I sat and rocked and held onto the end of the bed with each contraction. Lee was a huge help through the whole process: he kept my mind off the pain as much as possible and sat with me the entire time. I started to feel a little fuzzy-headed from the drugs and got back into bed because I was afraid I�d fall off the ball, but that didn�t really help with the contractions.
The Nubain lasted about two hours, and I asked for another shot just as soon as it wore off enough that I started really hurting again. The nurse warned that subsequent shots usually weren�t as effective, though, and she turned out to be very correct: the second shot took a lot longer to kick in, and it wore off a lot sooner. I told Lee while I was waiting for some relief from the second shot that if it wasn�t going to help as much, I wanted an epidural. He asked me if I was sure, because he knew that it was a big deal for me, and I said that I was hurting pretty badly, and I couldn�t focus on anything but the pain.
We told the nurse the next time she came in, and she went ahead and got things ready: she started an IV and got me hooked up to the EKG and the pulse oximeter, thinking that the anesthesiologist would be up soon and I could get the epidural as soon as possible. This was probably about 2:30 that she did that, thinking that I�d have drugs by 3:00 or so, which was when the second shot of Nubain was supposed to wear off.
Little did we know that the anesthesiologist would be stuck in the OR, and it would be 4:30 until he arrived. That�s not an hour and a half that I�d care to live over again: the contractions were not only very strong, but nearly constant. I barely had time to get over one before the next was coming. The saline that was going in via IV was cold, so I got the shakes which really worried Lee: he went and got me a warm blanket, which helped some, but I could tell that he was very concerned. I can�t say that I was very good company then, either: I was holding on to his hand for dear life, squeezing hard with each contraction and just trying to breathe through each one. He kept murmuring supportive things and threatening to hurt the anesthesiologist if he didn�t get there soon.
When he did finally get there, the nurse and Lee helped me sit on the edge of the bed and curl into a ball. The doctor kept giving me instructions, and I could hear him just fine but responding with anything other than a brief nod was impossible. Lee acknowledged him, though, and I got my drugs without much trouble. They started working almost immediately: my legs went numb and tingly, like they were asleep, but the pain from the contractions went away completely. I could still feel them a little at the top of my uterus, but really only enough to tell when one was beginning.
The nurse checked me as the anesthesiologist was getting set up (around 5 p.m.), and I was at 6cm. I was a little worried that the epidural would cause things to stall, but I tried to just relax. I felt a million times better, though: I was alert and could carry on a conversation for the first time in several hours. The nurse checked me again at 6 p.m. at my doctor�s request, and she said I was almost 7cm, but not quite. She encouraged me to try to rest as much as possible, and I ended up dozing off a little. We�d had the TV on all day, mostly on the Food Network (which the nurse had commented on and we�d told her that it was pretty much the default channel for us, which is true), but Lee changed it to Fox News so that he could watch the Round Table � a nightly habit.
Shift change was at 7 p.m., so the nurse came back to check me one last time before she left (for a 12-day break, she had told us earlier). She sat on the edge of the bed and said, �Huh. That�s interesting.� I told her to please not tell me I was still at 6 and she informed me that no, I was completely dilated and just about ready to push. I was gobsmacked: the epidural had relaxed me enough that I dilated the last 3+cm in an hour. She started getting everything ready for the delivery and called the doctor to come on in. I looked at Lee and wondered if Mom was going to make it in time.
The nurse I�d had all day ended up leaving around 7:15 p.m.; she was sorry that she wasn�t going to be there when I delivered and said she�d call later to find out how things went. The new nurse got the bed broken down and waited for the doctor to arrive, which happened around 7:30. I know that I changed the channel on the TV at that point to Jeopardy!, even though the sound was off, because I�d been following Ken Jennings�s run. Not that the fact that the sound was off prevented me from answering questions as I saw them, even after I started pushing. Yeah, I�m a geek all right.
Pushing actually went pretty well; I generally pushed three times per contraction, the first two for a ten-count and then the last one for as long as I could. The nurse was in charge of watching the monitor to tell me when the next contraction would start, but I admit that a couple of times I just started pushing on my own because I wanted him out. I started out pushing while holding the handholds, but about halfway through the pushing they asked me to hold my legs back, with Lee helping on one side and the nurse on the other. Lee was cooperative, but he stayed facing me as much as possible. I remember the doctor telling me that she could see he had a headful of black hair, and I touched the top of his head a couple of times. Mom got to the room around 7:55; I had kept checking my watch and silently urging her to hurry up, because I didn�t want her to miss it. The nurse and doctor were convinced Vadin was just waiting for her, which turned out to almost be the case.
At 8:14, the doctor told me to reach down as she handed me my son and laid him on my chest: all I could do was cry and hold him before they put him in the incubator. His Apgars were 8 and 9, but I could tell they were a little concerned that he wasn�t crying and seemed to be holding his breath. The doctor told me that the cord had been around his neck, but she was sure that wasn�t the reason behind his silence. They ended up taking him to the nursery for a few minutes � Mom went with him and Lee stayed with me while I delivered the placenta. I had a first degree tear that required two stitches, and the doctor took care of that at the same time.
When they brought Vadin back to the room, they handed him straight to me and we tried nursing for the first time. It went okay; he was pretty sleepy and didn�t want to cooperate, but we kept at it for about an hour. Lee went to call his parents, and Mom stayed with me. I ended up calling my department around 10:00 or so to let them know that I�d delivered; we actually had visitors around 10:30 to come see him.
And it turned out the doctor had been wrong about his hair: there was indeed a headful of it, but it�s bright red, not black at all. Lee and I are still a little hornswaggled by that: of everything we could have imagined, red hair is about the last thing we�d expected. I kept asking Mom what the odds were that both of her grandchildren would be redheads with blue eyes, although we�re not sure if Vadin�s eyes will stay blue.
Anyway. Shortly after the visitors left, one of the nurses from the nursery came down and asked if Lee wanted to give Vadin his first bath; I told her he did, and so the two of them and Mom went to do that. The L&D nurse came back and helped me to the bathroom � which required a wheelchair since my legs were still numb from the epidural � and got me ready to transfer to my room on the maternity ward. I said something about being hungry, and the nurse told me that my options at that point were a frozen dinner or to send Mom to get something. Since Lee hadn�t eaten all day either, we decided to send Mom to get something once we got settled in the new room. Lee and Vadin were in the nursery when the time came to move me, so Mom got all our stuff packed up and transported it while the nurse took me to visit them. Vadin was spread-eagled in the incubator, holding on to Lee�s finger, and doing just fine.
Lee came down to my room just a few minutes after I got there, and we sent Mom for Wendy�s since they were a) still open and b) very close by. Vadin stayed in the nursery as required until after she got back, although Mom went on back to our house right after that. The nurse from the nursery brought him back to our room, along with a ton of paperwork for me to fill out, which she left, telling me to call her when I�d filled it out and/or I wanted some help getting him latched on. I know I ended up eating most of my frosty and fries while I signed everything, and as soon as I got done eating I called her and Vadin and I worked on nursing a little more. It must have been around 1 a.m. when we got done, and I�m pretty sure she took him back to the nursery when we were done so that Lee and I could get some sleep. I think I called for the maternity ward nurse at some point around then, too, since I had to have help going to the bathroom the first time � plus my leg was still a bit numb.
Friday is a bit of a blur: we had a ton of visitors, from my department, Lee�s department, and various other departments. I know Lee had to chase one of the VPs away relatively early in the morning because I was still asleep; I know he had to stall the same VP later on when he�d come back with the CEO and one of the other VPs since I was in the bathroom that time. My dad called, as did Lee�s parents, and Mom came and stayed most of the day, although she did go back to the house at one point for a nap. Lee went back to the house for a shower in the afternoon; I got my own shower at some point but I�m not sure when. My doctor came by in the morning, but decided to wait until the next morning to circumcise Vadin since I was nursing him at the time.
I know Friday night was rough: Vadin wanted to just nurse and nurse and nurse and around midnight decided to start screaming because he was hungry. Lee kept asking if I wanted him to go home and get some formula (I had a bunch of samples) but I finally told him to go to the nursery and ask for a bottle, which he did. The L&D nurse from the night before actually came down and helped us and reassured me that one bottle while he was in the hospital wouldn�t confuse him too much for nursing later. He ended up eating about 0.5-0.75oz before finally calming down enough to go to sleep. By that point, we agreed to send him down to the nursery so we could get some sleep, although I�m pretty sure Lee was awake most of the night since he got up and left the room for long stretches of time (I think he went down to his office and checked his email).
Saturday was better; the pediatrician came back by to check him and okay him for discharge once he was circumcised, which my doctor was performing at the time she talked to us. She said he was a little jaundiced, but we should keep nursing him and if he was still acting hungry, to give him a little formula to encourage him to pass the rest of the meconium and break down the bilirubin. My doctor brought him back after the circumcision and said everything had gone well and that we could go home after the requisite four hours for Vadin. We checked him every hour, and after two hours he was still bleeding a little, so one of the nursery nurses took him to put something on the wound, which helped a lot. Mom came by just long enough to take a few pictures and put most of our stuff in her car so that we could just take ourselves home when it was time.
By 2 p.m., four hours had passed since his circumcision, so we could go home, even though he hadn�t had a wet diaper yet. We got him dressed and swaddled � although we generally refer to it as �spring rolling� him, since that�s what he looks like � and we headed home. I was still pretty tender and sore, so I didn�t do much other than sit in the recliner for most of the afternoon. Lee made a grocery list and Mom went to do that; Dad arrived while she was gone. He stayed until Sunday afternoon; Mom stayed with us until around lunchtime on Tuesday. Lee stayed home from work that whole first week, which was a tremendous relief.
At this point, Vadin has already gained back his birth weight and then some, so I know he�s getting enough to eat. We saw the pediatrician on Friday, and she said that he looks great: I agree. It�s going to be hard to go back to work, but I knew that would be the case before he ever got here. I may be a bit biased, but I�m pretty sure he�s the best baby ever.
