Our birth story wasn't much like what you see in a movie. I went in for a regular check up, one Tuesday afternoon, August 24, 2010 to be exact. I mentioned to my OB/GYN that I thought I might be leaking fluid, and she said she would run a test but that it was probably nothing. She took a sample and came back and said she was looking for "ferning" in the sample to determine if it as amniotic fluid or not, and the results weren't very clear. We were told that we would have to go to the hospital for some more tests.. Our doctor left the room to go consult with another doctor, poked her head back in and said, "Nope, you're going to the hospital!" In my head, I was like, "Yea we already knew that..." but instead asked if we should bring a suit case with us or not and she said, "yes" and then I was confused about why we were going to the hospital. On our way out everyone was congratulating us and smiling such heartfelt smiles that I knew we must be on our way to the delivery room!
The arrival was a bit early so clearly we had nothing packed. We rushed home and started throwing stuff in a suitcase. Clothes. Erik's guitar. Camera. Video Camera. Laptop. Carseat. We actually weren't freaking out at this point because we were still kind of confused about what was happening. I called my mom and told her we might be having the baby but I wasn't sure, but be to be prepared and I'd call her later.
So we go to the hospital at around 6 pm, to the Emergency entrance, which was where we were told to go in our Childbirth class. It was super weird because I felt totally fine and the security guard looked so skeptical when I told him I needed to go to the birthing center. He kept asking if I needed a wheelchair. I should've just ridden in it for fun. Next time..
We walk up to the birthing center, and I tell the receptionists that I think I am here for some tests or something, and tell them my name and that my doctor said they would be expecting me. They lead me to a room and gave me a hospital robe which I proceeded to put on backwards, and then laid me in the bed and finally I ask the nurse, "Okay so I am having my baby now?" and she laughed a little, and said YES and THEN we started freaking out a bit! I got hooked up to the monitors, one for Lyla's heartbeat and one for my contractions. It turned out that I had been having contractions but just couldn't feel them. How nice. Labor is a breeze (haha). I was also 4 cm dilated when I arrived at the hospital (you need to be at 10 to deliver). So the doctor came and broke my waters the rest of the way since they had been leaking, and gave me pitocin to speed up the contractions. Shortly after, I really started feeling them, and oh my, was it awful!! Apparently, Lyla's head was positioned in such a way that I was feeling all my contractions in my lower back. It felt like my back and my butt were going to explode. Erik sat with me and held my hands tight, and let me know when we were in a peak of a contraction and when it was almost over and that really saved me, I think, knowing that the pain was almost over (for the moment).
Finally I had had enough of the pain and asked for the anesthesiologist. I was told in the beginning that it might take him over an hour to get there if he was at home. Fortunately, he was downstairs eating in the cafeteria and was up in a jiffy. This was at about 10 pm. I got a big uncomfortable needle poked into my spine in the midst of my contractions and then... nothing! Well, almost nothing. I still felt a bit of pressure from the contractions but nothing painful. It was so weird to see giant mountains of contractions on the monitor and yet feel close to nothing, I actually laughed I think, I was so relieved.
At around 12:15 or so, I started feeling a lot more pressure again and called in the nurse, who then gave me a button for access to more epidural medicine. Huh? Patients can have those??? Anyway, so I pressed the button while she checked out what was going on, and she found that I was 10 cm dilated.. showtime!
The delivery went really fast. It felt like the contractions were doing most of the work and I honestly didn't even break a sweat, if you can believe it! At one point, the nurse said that Lyla was coming too fast and I had to stop pushing so she could go wake up my doctor, who was fast asleep in the hall. That was probably the hardest part actually, just NOT pushing!
1:12 am, Lyla Soo was born into this world, crying before her legs were even out, letting us know she was finally with us! 6 lbs, on the dot, just a little shrimp! Many tears were had (mostly by Erik, hehe) and even more smiles and laughter and hugging.... Our little family was together, in each other's arms at last!
