Naomi's birthday

[shoshana]

Ok, I have got to try and write out Naomi's birth story really quick while she is sleeping and Nathan is playing with Daddy. It's really long, sorry. But to me, it's all relevant. Well, as most of you know, since the beginning of this pregnancy we had been planning a beautiful, peaceful waterbirth at home with a midwife. Yeah, that's not what happened at all. I had been having more and more contractions in the week before my due date, which was Tues April 21st. That day came and went like I knew it would. Then on Thursday the 23rd I started having painful contractions and I tried to just ignore them and go about my day as usual. I walked 2 miles in the morning and then just hung out with my mom and Nathan for the rest of the day. Around 5 I started making dinner and they got more intense. After dinner I watched some tv while folding laundry and they were impossible to ignore now. Sonny went to bed a little after 10 and by 11 I went and woke him up telling him I didn't think he would be going to work the next day. We started timing contractions and they were 6 or 7 mins apart and about 30 seconds long. So I called Vicki, my midwife just to let her know what was going on. She said to try and rest and call her back when the contractions were consistently 5 mins apart and 1 min long, or if my water broke. So, I told Sonny to go back to sleep and I laid down and tried to sleep too. Then, just before midnight my water broke. It was in the middle of a contraction and it felt like a big thump right in the front of my belly. So I woke Sonny up again and then called Vicki back. Her advice was the same, to call back when they were more consistent and to try and rest. Well immediately the contractions were much more intense and I absolutely could not rest and had to breath through them. And I had to be up and about because sitting or lying down made them hurt and standing up they were much more tolerable. By 4:30 am we timed the contractions at around 5 mins apart and 1 minute long and we were about to call Vicki back but we decided to wait and see if they stayed that close. I was getting REALLY tired by then and I decided to try again to rest a little. I layed down and after a while my contractions started to space out more and more. First 6 mins apart and then 7 and after about an hour or 2 they were close to 10 mins apart. Normally this wouldn't be problem, but my water had already broken and I had to be in a good labor pattern by midnight (24 hours after my water broke) or Vicki would have to transfer me to the hospital. She called to check on me at 9 am and told me I should try and take a nap. So I slept for a couple of hours.

All of Friday they stayed about 7 to 10 mins apart no matter if I was sitting, lying down or walking around, which is just not close enough together to get a baby out. By 3:00 pm Vicki called back and now was thinking maybe I had been wrong and that my water hadn't broken after all. She asked us to come in (her office is in Pensacola) so she could check me and be sure. I agreed even though I knew it was. We got there at 5 pm and it was definately amniotic fluid. And things were really not looking good for me to be able to have this baby at home since I was only dilated to a 2. She gave me two options. 1) Go to the hospital now and probably end up with a repeat c-section. Or 2) go home and try to get things moving along on my own (with castor oil and my breastpump) in the few hours I had left. And if that didn't work, go to the hospital and end up with a repeat c-section. I really didn't like either of those options, so I decided to cry hysterically for a few minutes. And then we decided on option #2. Although I have to say I was feeling completely hopeless and devastated at this point. I knew a homebirth was not a possibility anymore and I was really doubting whether a vaginal birth was even going to happen. I knew it was most likely that if I had to go to a hospital they would treat me like crap for considering an out of hospital birth in the first place and automatically cut me because of my previous c-section and that my membranes had been ruptured for so long.

Since we were in Pensacola already, we decided to take Nathan to Chuck E. Cheese, since it was his last day as an only child. I was still having painful contractions every 10 mins and I was getting a lot of strange looks and random people asking if I was okay. It was funny because I was perfectly fine between contractions, but during I had to lean on a wall on breath through them. It must have looked pretty strange. We stayed about 2 hours and went by walmart on the way home to pick up some castor oil and hardees for a milkshake to mix it with. Drank that, pumped for a while bouncing on my birth ball (another hysterical sight I'm sure), and nothing. Nothing was working and I came to that conclusion around 10 pm. At that point I figured we should pack a hospital bag and install Naomi's carseat. Vicky Came over at about midnight to check me again and discuss which hospital to go to. We decided on Baptist in Pensacola pretty much because it was the only hospital that would take me. Even Eglin refused, nice huh? That's how much they care about their patients.

We got to the hospital around 1:30 am, 25 hours after my water had broken and I was totally expecting to be prepped for surgery right away. I had kind of resigned myself to it actually. I was so tired and I just didn't have the energy to put up a fight. So imagine my surprise when the nurse came in and said the Dr had ordered pitocin to get my contractions more regular! Vicki had talked to her and they agreed to let me try and have a vaginal birth afterall. I was so happy. I got the epidural around 3:30 am so I could sleep and have some energy for pushing. I slept for a few hours and by 9 am I was dilated to 7 and by a little after noon I was 10. I pushed for about 45 mins and Naomi was born at 1:08 pm Sat April 25th. I could believe I did it! She was 6 lbs 14 oz and 19 inches long. I may not had had my homebirth but at least I got my VBAC!

She wasn't doing too well at birth. She had decided to take a poop while still in utero and had breathed it in at some point. Her first apgar score was only a 3 and she didn't breath at first. The dr had to put a tube down her throat and suction all the meconium out. She had to be on oxygen for a couple of hours. They wouldn't let me nurse her for the first 18 hours, she was being fed by an IV with glucose instead. And she had to stay in the nursery for the first 2 days. After that thay let me keep her in my room. She was treated with IV antibiotics for the meconium aspiration for 5 days. I was released from the hospital after 2 days but Baptist is such an awesome hospital, they let moms stay for free untill baby is released so they won't have to be seperated. How awesome is that? It was so hard being away from Nathan, but I had to be near Naomi so she could eat. There was no way in hell she was getting formula. On the fifth day her chest x-ray was clear and her blood tests were all negative for infection so we were finally able to bring her home! We are really lucky and so thankful she wasn't sicker. The neonatologist said that meconium aspiration can be really serious and even fatal. She recovered so quickly, thank G-d.

She is 3 weeks old today and doing great! she nurses like a champ and is even more of a little piggy than Nathan was. At her 2 week check up she was already 8 lbs 4 oz! Nathan just loves his little sister so much. There is NO jealousy at all, he loves her as much as mommy and daddy do. He calls her Mimi and is always petting her and saying how cute she is. If she cries, he yells at us to pick her up. We are all just really enjoying her and being a family of four.