Well, she's here! She's finally here!!! And here's how it happened...
After 30 minutes of sleep, my water broke Wednesday, at midnight (exact same time as Grace). We called my mom and she came out to stay with Jack and Grace. Maggie's c-section was scheduled for early Friday morning, so we just made it (31 hours early). Grace's c-section was scheduled for 12 hours after my water broke, so I guess I should be grateful that Maggie came a little "earlier." When we arrived at labor and delivery, the nurse had to be sure that my water had broken. I knew they wouldn't just take my word for it, but I didn't expect to stay in triage for more than 3 hours. The microscope in L&D was broken and they had to wait for the family practitioner on call to check the slides. Jeez - that took forever! When she did check me, I was only at 2-3 cm and slightly effaced. That whole time, I was having mild contractions, but they weren't regular or anything. So before Dr. Roca went off duty, he got me to reluctantly agree to having them administer Pitocin. This was one thing that I really did not want. I would really like to know what labor without Pitocin is like, but doctor Roca really didn't think that I would progress in time and it really did feel like it had already been forever. So Pitocin it was. They didn't end up getting me the Pitocin until a little after 8. Seven o'clock is the shift change and nothing happens around then.
There wasn't anything wrong with my first nurse, but my second nurse was AMAZING - perhaps an angel! Seriously! She was great. She knew that I wasn't looking forward to the Pitocin and I knew that if I had to have it, then I would want and epidural. So she stayed close by and checked me after the first 30 minutes. I was only at 3 cm. I was worried, because I was already having trouble with the pain. But she waited a few more minutes and called the anesthesiologist without even checking again. I think getting checked during labor is a horrible thing, so the fact that she skipped that step really eased my pain. The anesthesiologist got there right away and he was the nicest one that I've ever met. After the epidural, my nurse checked and I was at 8cm! After the delivery, they joked that they should have saved my bag of meds for someone else because moments after she checked, I was ready to push. From the time they gave me pitocin, until the delivery was done, it was two and a half hours! So fast!
But back to the story...when I got the epidural, only half of me started to feel better. The nurse had me lay on the side that still hurt so that the epidural could flow that way. But, when we did, she said that something happened and that we needed to move back to the other side. Come to find out, after the fact, when I moved, the baby's heart rate would drop and then when they moved me back, it would return to normal. She did such a good job of staying calm because we didn't realize the severity of the situation until after. Once it was pretty stabilized and it was time to push, she stayed with us through the first contraction and then told us we could handle the next one, she was going to go get the doctor! Jeremey and I just looked at each other - we totally did not feel like we knew what to do! But, Dr. Leong came in - super chipper, talking about what a great day it was to have a baby and how she was so happy that we were there- and I pushed through one more contraction. She told us that she had blonde hair and had me stop, did an episiotomy and pulled the cord out from around Maggie's neck. It was wrapped twice, which explains the drop in heart rate. The drop in heart rate had gotten even worse during the pushing and I guess that's why the nurse left us to get Dr. Leong. Yikes! Everyone was so calm, we didn't have any idea about how severe the situation was. But, there was just one more contraction and Dr. Leong pulled out our perfect baby girl!
Miss Maggie Ellene Lindstedt arrived on June 22, 2011 at 10:41 AM. I held her for a bit and then they took her to cut the cord and do the stats. I couldn't wait to find out how much she weighed because I could tell she was small (for me).
Maggie weighed 7lbs and 10oz and she was 20.5 inches. We got and hour or so to bond and breastfeed and then Jeremey took her to the nursery (which was packed). But she got to see her first visitors.
And lots more followed...
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On the second day, she became a little jaundiced, so we had to stay an extra night. Jeremey went home to be with the kids (Gracie called crying that she missed me)
