Rainey's Birth Story

We are so glad Miss Rainey is finally here. After a bumpy pregnancy it feels so good to be holding a very healthy girl in our arms. Her newborn jaundice is gone and never got too terrible; she's also regained and exceeded her birth weight of 6 lbs 7 oz. Monday she was 6 lbs, 2.5 oz and Friday she was 6 lbs 10 oz. She's a champ at nursing and based on weighing her before/after she's eating about 3 oz at every feeding. So much about her pregnancy/delivery was different than with Sam and how well she's eating is no exception.

At her 34 week interval growth scan they picked up a couple soft markers for downs syndrome; that, combined with my being high risk, a subchorionic hematoma, and her being small for gestational age meant that they wanted us to be monitored even more frequently than the once a week we were already doing. So on Tuesday's we would schlepp to my OB's office (who was always reassuring me that the odds of anything actually being wrong were microscopic) and Thursday's I would go the perinatologist to have biophysical profiles done. At 37 weeks they decided that although she was still measuring small she was growing and there wasn't any reason to deliver her early.

Having spent week 22 on contracting anywhere between every 2 to 7 minutes consistently my Dr. and I both thought that for sure I would go into active labor before my due date. When 38 weeks came and went we were both surprised and at that point ready for anything. I'd always joked that after all the fuss she'd come late and be a November baby and suddenly it seemed like that might actually be what happened.

At my 39 week visit we decided to induce on my due date of October 20th if she didn't come on her own before. My Mom had already bought a plane ticket for the 20th thinking that for sure she'd be here by then; and her work schedule was planned accordingly. There were lots of reasons for wanting Miss Rainey to appear before the 20th: my Mom's visit, David's work, I had been in labor for essentially 4 months and I was done, and going into labor naturally would be easier on my body than an induction. I had a postpartum hemorrhage with Sam and NO desire to repeat the experience; a more natural labor would decrease my odds of a repeat PPH.

There were several times that last two weeks where I thought I was going into labor. Each time I dilated more but it always backed off. We were worried that I was going to be so used to my body crying wolf that I'd miss the real cues until it was nearly too late. Well the night of the 18th was one of those times. I went to bed wondering and hoping I'd wake up in plenty of time if it was real but not really expecting it to pan out since it never had before. When David woke me before he left for work the next morning my back and belly ached more than usual but I just pushed it out of my mind. He asked me if I thought we would have a baby that day and I said "maybe" and both of us were still thinking "yeah right". I got Sam his breakfast and went to get dressed for my weekly OB appointment and lo and behold there was blood. Apparently the aches and contractions every 5 minutes meant something else this time; I called my Dr. and she cancelled my appointment and told me to go to the hospital when I was ready. I called David who cancelled his day at work and turned around to come back home for Sam and I. Nonnie and Bubbie also packed up and headed into town to help us with Sam. We got things ready and rolled into the hospital at about 10:30. They took me back, checked things and put me on the monitors and admitted me for L&D. I got to the room and settled in around 12:30 still wondering how much of history was going to repeat itself and still in a bit of shock over the fact that the day before my induction I had gone into labor after all. My brain was all set for the induction on the 20th, I had even gone to the grocery store the night before to get stuff to make dinner that night.

My contractions were there, but irregular, so they decided to break my water and then augment labor with pytocin so that they were consistently every 2 minutes. For whatever reason my bag was nonvolatible (they couldn't break it) and so here came the pytocin. Fun. Not being able to break my water was actually a bit of a relief for me, it just seemed like keeping nature's shock absorber intact as long as it wanted to be would help keep things from rupturing/abrupting which they were concerned about. The only issue really is that without the increased hormone that comes when your water breaks I was facing a longer labor. Sam came in 6 hours and I had already been going that long with Rainey and was only at 5 cm. I waited as long as I could before getting the epidural, but around 5:30 I was 6.5 cm and concerned it wouldn't be placed in time to be working for the delivery. (with Sam once I hit 7 cm I went from 7 to 10 cm in less than an hour) For me getting it was more for the afterbirth in case I had a PPH again though by then I was hurting pretty badly and ok with getting some relief.

Getting my IV in had taken a few tries and thanks to my messed up back it took a few tries and lots of discomfort to get the epidural in as well. But eventually it was in and running. Around 6:30 I started to have this terrible pain in my left side and some serious shudders; the anesthesiologist came back and boosted my epidural temporarily which didn't do any good, he also tested me with ice to make sure it was working and it was and so puzzled he left. I tried laying on my left side which only made it worse. My inlaws left to take a nearly comatose with exhaustion Sam home at about 7:15; my Dr. came back at 7:30 to check me and the pain in my side. She saw the shudders and told me that probably the pain was my needing to push but the epidural was so deep I couldn't tell and my body was translating the feeling as the pain in my side. As soon as she checked me she new it was time and in the same 10 seconds my water broke and Rainey started crowning. Seriously?!? Sam had JUST left. Oy. She, the resident on duty that night and the rest of the birth team scrambled to get suited up because nobody thought it would be go time that quickly. A minute or two later it was push time and after 2 pushes Miss Rainey came right out. Dad never knew the gender and actually had begun to think she was a boy and was surprised to see he had a girl. They put her on my chest for a bit and let me get some snuggles while they tended to...things...and miracle of miracles, no hemorrhage. Sam's birth was this busy, crowded, frightening thing once they saw I was hemorrhaging; this time there was blood set aside for me just in case and I didn't need it. Praise God!

It's amazing how different an experience childbirth is when nothing goes awry; I wasn't throwing up, dizzy, and in general feeling like death on a plate. There were only 4 people in the room besides David, Rainey and I and my Dr. and I were just chit-chatting while she wrapped things up and Rainey got weighed and footprinted. It was quiet, calm and honestly I was so awestruck by how peaceful it all was that I didn't have the "I had a baby!" crying episode until the middle of the night while I was holding her as she slept.

When they brought her back she nursed right away for a long time (another huge difference between her and her brother) and so we had a nice long time in recovery just David, Rainey and I before it was time to go to our real room while Miss Rainey got her first bath. I was still dumbfounded by how great I felt, I ate dinner and went for a little walk and bumped into the nurse bringing Rainey back to our room. By then it was going on 10 pm so we called it a night. Like her brother Rainey pretty much hated the bassinet. She also was still gagging on mucus fairly often so I settled in for a long sweet night just holding her. I'm never sleepy after I have my kiddoes, too excited I guess, I did the same thing with Sam. Plus between nursing every couple of hours and the staff waking you around the clock there just isn't much sleep to be had. All the grands and big brother met her the next morning and were all just as smitten as David and I. Sam adores her and always wants to hold her or pet her. It's so precious. Since I delivered in the evening we stayed at Hotel Hermann until Friday morning (again, much improved from the 4 days we camped there when Sam was born). We got home, settled in, and the rest is too rapidly becoming history. :)

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