Alice's birth story

Well, Alice was born. The end.

The way my memory has been going lately, I'd better get this written down before I forget. It's been almost four weeks already. I can't believe it.

I was so ready to have this baby. I'd been ready for a month. I wanted to be done. I was uncomfortable, irritable, and tired of doctor's visits. Because I had not just the regular OB visits, but for the last few months I was also making weekly visits to my hematologist's office for CBCs. And Jan, the lovely NP who I usually see there, and whom I used to like, made me take drugs that made me uncomfortable, irritable, and tired of doctor's visits. I no longer like her.

I was scheduled to go in Monday for another IV infusion of a ridiculously expensive drug, and I was mad about it. Who prescribes such expensive drugs for medical non-emergencies? And my OB, once my platelet counts were up after this ridiculously expensive drug had done its magic, wanted to induce. I wasn't very happy about this either. I prefer to let my babies choose their own birthdays. Call me old-fashioned (it's really just indecisiveness).

So, all that was going on, and I was just itching to get this baby out of me. And then our executive secretary called--would you say the prayers on Sunday? And I thought, I can't promise we'll be there. But, there's no way we'll have a baby by Sunday. It's way too soon. So I agreed.

And then Saturday afternoon I went into labor. Sunday morning she was born. Take that, doctors. Ha! Thanks for cooperating, Alice. And sorry we weren't to church, Kenny.

I'd had contractions for a while early Saturday morning, but they didn't last. So we went about our day. We went to an Easter brunch at my grandma's. I'd planned to weed the flower bed in the back yard in the afternoon, but I took a little nap instead. When I woke up, I had just tiny baby contractions. More of the same, I thought. So I cleaned the kitchen, tidied a little, and sent Levi off on his way to help my brother move.

And the contractions never went away. They got a little bigger. My sister called, and talked to me for a long time to distract me. We read cookbooks on the phone as we decided what to make for dinner. I was a little distracted, and when Clara climbed on a chair to help me cook waffles, I forgot to warn her not to touch the waffle iron. Her poor little hand got a tiny blister, even after the lavender oil. After dinner I turned on The Sword in the Stone and timed contractions, which were still all over the place.

Levi got home, we put the kids to bed, watched some TV, and then went to bed. I still wasn't sure I was really in labor. But they were getting harder, and I didn't get any sleep. By two I figured we ought to go to the hospital, so we called my parents and finished packing.

At the hospital, we went in through the emergency room where I got to say hi to my friend who was at work. After a phone call to my doctor, the nurse made us walk the halls. Between Friday and early Sunday, I'd dilated from a 2 to a 5, but my doctor didn't really believe I was in labor either. 

Eventually we got checked in and I reluctantly agree to an epidural. I didn't think my platelet count would be high enough for one, and I was all psyched up to have a natural birth. Just to prove I'm tough enough? I don't know. But doctors liked epidurals when you're doing a VBAC. And Alice's heart rate wasn't what they wanted it to be (turns out she was just asleep). But if it hadn't improved a C-section might have been necessary. Of course, when they tell you something like that, it's pretty convincing. And my platelets had gone up enough in the last couple of days that the anesthesiologist agreed to do one.

Once I got the epidural, my water broke, and Alice's heart rate perked right up. And it was nice to have a couple hours of rest. I'd been awake since about 4 Saturday morning.

As for the birth, I only had to push for about 15 minutes, and had only a small tear. Easy easy compared to Nathan, the 8 lb posterior baby (3 hours). Now just to decide on a name (it took us more than 24 hours to sit down and finally decide on Alice Margaret Barton).

My parents brought the kids up to visit that evening. Since it's still flu season, they couldn't come into my room and see Alice. But I could go out of the wing and see them, and the nurse held the baby up at the window so they could peek at her. Nathan said on the way home, "Dad, my baby sister has short boy hair." He was a little perplexed.

And that's that.