Birth Story

So here goes - In the peak of my pregnant frustration I went in for an appointment with my doc to have a stress test done on the baby to make sure she was still comfortable in there and to check on my 'progress' if any.

Dr Kobelin talked to us first about the options for induction and then gave me the internal exam. The exam she gave me was a bit more 'vigorous' if you know what I mean. When the exam was over, I noticed a warm trickling of fluid and I asked, 'am I bleeding' she said no - you broke your water. She was just about to say that she could feel the amniotic sac starting to come thru my 2cm dilated cervix anyway and that I would most likely go into labor very soon. So anyway she said there was no reason not to help labor along by going to the hospital and getting some pitocin. She did give me the choice of going home to see if labor would start but I was like, no I want my baby out! After changing into a pair of depends (to catch the trickling fluid) we were on our way to the Beth Israel.

They decided to watch me for a few hours to see if contractions would start but nothing more than menstral like cramping was registering on the monitor. So I was started on the pitocin at 3pm. I was a pretty annoying patient asking all sort of questions about the dose, the plan for increasing it etc. I sort of felt bad for the nurse, but that is just my nature, I like to be fully informed.

So real contractions started pretty soon after the pitocin went in, and the nurse would turn up the dose every 15-20 min. When I started to feel real contractions I started pleading with her to just leave the pitocin as is.. cause well I didn't want more pain, but she said powerful contractions is what I needed. At about 5pm I started to tell her I could feel something pushing towards my bowels like I needed to 'go' and she decided to check me stating that she would be really suprised if I had made any progress. When she checked I was 3-3.5 cm dialated and she declared me officially 'in labor' and said lets get you that epidural.

Tighe went downstairs at this point to have a sandwich as they do not allow him in the room for the epidural placement. A good looking young anesthesia doc came in to do the deed and about 10 min later it was in. I had almost no pain with the placement and I can't say enough about how great the epidural was. My only side effect was some low blood pressure that made me feel pretty light headed, that and they make you drink this nasty antacid before hand that tastes like drinking salt water.

Every thing went quickly from there, they checked again at 7pm and I was ~5cm, and when I started complaining that I felt enough pressure to push at 9pm they checked again and I was ~7cm. After that they gave me some more epidural medicine so that I could more easily fight the urge to push. By 10pm I was fully dilated and saying that I was really ready this time to push. It was amazing, I was not in pain, I could still feel my legs, feet everything, but I had this profound urge to start working to get the baby out.

I started pushing at 10 and by 11:28 Abigail was out. What a weird feeling to have the baby inside you one minute and her whole mass outside the next. I can't describe it but it was odd - and great feeling at the same time. I had to have a small episiotomy but that is really the only complaint I have. All in all I think my childbirth experience was completely do-able and I'd not be afraid to have to do it again. Abby was cleaned up and brought over to us and in that moment I was like woh - I'm a mom :-), cool!

Here's some photos of the day, and some more recent pictures of Abby.

Abigail is here :-)

Here is our little girl.
Abigail Sougnez Hawkins
Born Feb 20, 2007 - 11:28pm
8lbs 1 oz, 21 inches long

I just love her like crazy. I'll post details about the birth someday soon when I have had more sleep.

I ordered a baby

Ring....... Ring.......

Thank you for calling the Baby.com customer service line. Please listen carefully to the following menu as our options may have changed. For quality assurance purposes this call may be recorded

If you would like to place an order for a baby please press 1
If you need assistance with an internet order please press 2
If you would like to check the status of your order please press 3
For all other inquiries please press 4 or hold on the line for the next baby.com customer service representative.

ME: 3--------

Please enter your 8 digit account number after the tone:

ME: 02182007

Please hold while we transfer your call to the delayed shipping department.

Shipping department.......... can I help you ? (imagine the overly nasal sounding voice here :-))

ME: Yes thank you, It seems something is delayed with my order for a Baby to be delivered today. I have not yet recieved my package.

Baby.com: Yes I see that your package is overdue. Your baby is on backorder.

ME: BACKORDER!!!!????? Um, I ordered this baby 40 weeks ago.... how can it be on back order????

Baby.com: You have ordered a very popular model, the Sougnez-Hawkins_Girl.01 model - the healthy, happy, smiling all the time, never crying model with bonus future happy teenager module installed. Several other women are also waiting for thier super babies. Oh - I see you also opted for the 40+ week pregnancy, so officially your delivery is not delayed.

ME: Ok... can you give me an estimated ship date?

Baby.com: Sorry my records at this time do not allow me to provide any additional information. Thank you for calling.

Dial Tone.... ehhhhhhhhhhhh.

He He :-)
Yep - Today is my due day and Yep, I'm still pregnant. All of those online pregnancy calendars end at 40 weeks because they figure the baby will be here by now. Come to find out as much as 20% of first time babies are late to arrive. Ugh, why am I always in the annoying symptom minority? I have to say it is getting frustrating to continue waiting with no signs that the baby will arrive anytime soon. At least I can laugh about it :-). I came up with the little dialog above last night when I was awake with the usual late pregnancy discomforts.

Anyway - on to continued waiting. I see the dr again tuesday and she said we could discuss some 'intervention' options then if I still have not gone into labor.

Baby Out

How do you convince a baby that it is time to be born? Tomorrow marks my 39th week of pregnancy and the baby still seems comfortable in there and shows no signs of wanting to come out. I never realized how impatient I'd be in this end stage to just 'get on with it' and have the baby already. Of course I've never been blessed with the virtue of patience but seriously - 40 weeks is a long time to wait for something so big, exciting, and life changing.





Other news besides my impatience: Tighe and I figured out the daycare situation which is a huge stress off of my mind. We found a woman Maureen who runs a home daycare not far from our house in medford. After I go back to work - Tighe is going to stay home an additional month, and then the baby will start going to Maureen's 4 days a week for the summer. I plan to do 4 day weeks for much of June, July and Aug and we will figure out the plan for the fall later on. I'm hoping that we can get a spot at one of the cambridge/MIT centers by then. Maureen can keep caring for the baby, but I'd need to figure out something for fridays because well.... - I can't work 4 days a week forever -though it would be nice wouldn't it?

I've been really focused at work lately. I have no time to spare as one of my projects is in a critical phase and I want to get it finished up (and pass off what I need to pass off to others) before the baby arrives and I'm not there for 10 weeks. Everyone at work has been really awesome offering to step in where necessary to cover things and I'm confident my projects will go ok while I'm off on leave.

Anyway back to the home front, in the attempt to coax the baby out of my belly Tighe and I went for a walk in the Fells today (they say walking can help bring on labor). Here are some photos from our hike as well as the latest (and maybe last?) belly shots. 39weeks.