When 1 + 1 = 3

August 18th, 2011 we were blessed with the arrival of our little girl screaming her lungs out as she made her grand entrance.

It all started on the 17th when I felt crampy and different. I knew it was most likely near...but I guess I was sure it would happen within the next 26-28 hours. I was timing some inconsistent contractions between 5-10 minutes apart for the later portion of the day on the 17th. I woke up at 2 am and couldn't ignore them anymore, while sleeping and started timing. This time they were about 5 minutes apart. So I called Dr. J...and he told me to go in and get checked...

We were at the hospital from 2:30-7 am with very little progress, but some was made. I was ordered to walk the tiny hallway of the 3rd floor for an hour straight before I could be rechecked and admitted or discharged. My doctor told me to come to the office at 9:30 that morning so he could actually check me and in his office he said if we were ready (since my water hadn't broken yet) we could head to the hospital around 2:30 pm because he'd be there doing a procedure on someone...but if we showed up we weren't leaving and baby girl would be entering the world. Wow, a flood of emotions: uncertainty, excitement, anxiousness, elated, relieved, and thrilled...

So as I sat at home with Tim, my mom, and Peter for 4 hours before we headed to the hospital I was breathing through contractions as they began to get more intense and I was having a harder time. 2:30 pm came and we left for Labor & Delivery, ah! Nerves!

4:30 pm...By the time the doctor showed up I had already been there for 2 hours (my least favorite part of the entire labor because it was miserable to be hooked up to monitors for those two hours while in moderate pain). Once Dr J arrived, he checked and saw I was 4 cm and 80% effaced (more progress - I started as a fingertip and 50% effaced at 2:30 am). He then went ahead and broke my water. They noticed meconium in the fluid which meant that NICU would be on call once the baby delivered and I wouldn't be able to hold her right away. He then asked if I wanted anything and although I thought I could try natural I really just wanted to get some sleep since I had 3 hours of sleep in the past 36 hours. I said, "Yes, please - get me the epidural."

6 pm...I was petrified, almost in tears when the anesthesiologist came in because I just didn't want to be the 1 in 2,000 women cases of things gone wrong. I could have cared less that it was an enormous needle. I got the epidural and it worked immediately on the right side and took a little maneuvering of my body to get the left side to work. The right side was much stronger, but I couldn't feel ANYTHING! It was heaven.

7:30 pm...I figured I should try and rest my eyes, especially before Big Brother. Dr. J had anticipated Claire's arrival around midnight, so he left to go get dinner, shower, rest (remember, I woke him up that morning at 2), etc. My new nurse, Meghan, had just come in and met me as the shifts changed. And I rolled over to my right side to try and close my eyes. As I rolled over I was face to face with the heartrate monitor machine and as I am looking at it I am noticing the wide range of bpm...from 200 all the way down to 50, nothing really seemed normal or consistent. So another nurse came in and checked to see if they couldn't readjust the monitor to get a good reading. Sure enough my nurse comes running in and is somewhat panicked. She grabs the oxygen mask faster than I can think and holy sh** I am wide eyed, panic stricken, with 15 nurses in my room, an emergency OB on call as they are hurrying to call my Dr J in...although there would be no way he'd make it in on time if it ended up an emergency C section. One nurse was on my right leg the other on my left, I was tossed and turned from my right side to my left (thank God I had an epi because all I could think of after the fact was holy crap if I had a contraction at that point - I was about 8.5 cm dilated). I kept hearing "emergency C section", "anterior lip", "we think it can be corrected"...I have the oxygen mask on and I am just trying to focus on slowing down my breathing and getting my body under my control. I am shivering like crazy, freaking out and scared to death that something terribly wrong was going to happen. My poor hubby was dead asleep at the time this all started and he woke up startled with all 15 nurses and chaos in the room as they are yelling at him to fold up the bed and get out of the way. He looks as if (so I'm told later) that he's going to pass out.

7:45/50pm...The "I think it can be corrected" comment I overhead worked with some pushing by me and hands in low places...but her heartrate immediately got back up to 135-145 and things were perfectly fine. I just was praying my doctor would be arriving soon before it would happen again. I asked everyone in there probably 3 times is it going to happen again, and they kept saying no. Was that the truth or just a satisfying answer to calm a panic stricken pregnant lady?

8:20pm...Dr. J arrives smiling and saying "Geez I can't get away from you two today" - we've been very needy all day! He walks in like nothing happened, looks at the heartrate records and just goes on his business checking me (I'm now about 9 or 9.5 cm). I push 2 contractions to see where we were and he says he's going to have me relax for an hour and let her move down a little further, but we're almost ready.
WHAT? Almost ready, I though you said around midnight and it's 8:30. It then hits me as very real! Very, very real!

8:30-9:30 pm Tim and I spend it holding hands praying and hoping everything is smooth from now on. We actually put Big Brother on for about 30 minutes before I started to push. I could feel the pressure with every contraction, but still felt wonderful with the epi. I knew she was ready to come out!

9:30 pm...Dr. J arrives again, Meghan comes in and Tim is there. I push through 2-3 contractions, and Meghan calls NICU and an additional nurse. By 9:55 pm baby Claire Elisabeth enters the world SCREAMING, strong, and pink. Her cord was wrapped around her neck which could have been part of the issue earlier. She was moved to the table where NICU checked her out and made sure the meconium was not effecting her in any way. OH MY GOSH, we have a daughter. I did ask, "does she have 10 toes and 10 fingers?" because one of our ultrasound pictures showed 6 toes on a foot and I was a little worried about it. But to no avail, she's perfect, beautiful, and healthy!