Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Today was our due date. 40 weeks pregnant, and still not a sign of any action. My doctor sent Jerome and I to get yet another ultrasound to check Averie's size and position, since Dr. Lai was very concerned that Averie was too big to fit in my pelvis, and perhaps that is why she had not dropped in to position. The ultrasound went well, but proved our suspicions. Averie was now in a transverse position (laying across my uterus from hip to hip), and was measuring in the range of 9lbs, give or take 2. Everything else looked great, so we went home awaiting our doctor's appointment on Friday, when we would discuss our next step with Dr. Lai.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
I woke up feeling surprisingly energized today. I got dressed quickly, and headed out to grab breakfast at Starbucks. Following my decaf latte and banana bread, I headed to South Coast Plaza. I had some gift certificates for Macy's and Baby Gap, so I wanted to buy some clothes for Averie, look at diaper bags (we still haven't purchased one), and I also thought walking the mall would be good for me. While I was shopping, I started getting some Braxton hicks contractions, which weren't painful by any means, but were definitely stronger than usual. Even a couple times I had to stop in my tracks until the contraction ended because my belly got so tight. Since they weren't painful, I didn't think anything of them. I continued my shopping and walking for nearly 2 hours, and then headed home. On the drive home, I decided to take the 55 to PCH. On the drive I passed by Hoag, and immediately burst in to tears. Even though I drive by Hoag almost daily, seeing the hospital on this particular day made me realize the reality of our situation. We were going to have a baby, and this was the place it was going to happen. I was overcome with emotion, and cried the whole way home, and then some. Once home, I opened the front door to find a package from my amazing husband, sent to me. I opened it, and it was a pair of the Tory Burch grey flannel "Reva" flats that I had been wanting for months. Jerome got them for me as a little "I love you" gift in hopes of lifting my spirits (I had been a weepy mess all week). Seeing the shoes sent me in to another emotional meltdown, and I cried..and cried...and cried...tears of joy, of course. The rest of my day was spent organizing some drawers, cleaning, writing in Averie's baby book, and downloading music for my "Labor" play list. I didn't really stop and sit down all day, and even more surprising, I wasn't even tired. I didn't even take my daily nap! I was still having some contractions, but they were painless, so I assumed they were just Braxton Hicks, and nothing to worry about.
Around 3:00pm, I got a call from Dr. Lai. She was looking at my ultrasound files, and she felt that there was no way my little body could take a chance on delivering this child who could be rather large, and let alone in the wrong position. We were going to do a planned c-section. Dr. Lai said we would meet tomorrow morning for my regular appointment at 9:15 am to set up the c-section, which would probably be happening this weekend. I hung up the phone relieved. An end was in sight! Even though I had been worried about having a c-section, I was happy my doctor had made the decision to do one before I had suffered through a long labor, only to find out it wouldn't happen. I was also relived that I could stop bouncing on that yellow yoga ball, since clearly it was doing me no good. I got on the phone and let the family know that I would have the birth date tomorrow, and I'd let everyone know as soon as I found out.
I continued to have some "belly tightening", as I referred to it, all through the rest of the afternoon and evening. Jerome came home from work and I cooked dinner, as I usually do. I was having some lower back pain, that was pretty intense at times. Jerome joked that it was "back labor", to which I said, no way! We are having a planned c-section. I am not going to go in to labor on my own! ha ha
40 weeks and 1 day,
taken at 9:00pm.
Who knew this would be just hours before our little girl was born?
We spent the rest of the evening catching up on TV. Around 9:30 pm, I called my mom, as I usually do at night. I told her that I had been having some Braxton hicks all day, but that they weren't really painful. My mom was a little alarmed by this, and insisted I start timing them. I said, uh huh whatever. I wasn't concerned. Remember, I am not going to go in to labor. We are having a planned c-section. Duh! Around 10:30, my mom called back and insisted that I time them and call my doctor if they continue. I decided to lay down, and started timing them. They were coming about every 7 minutes. Around 11, I got up to use the restroom, and to my surprise, my mucous plug came out. I went back to bed, and started texting my friend Megan, who told me to keep my eye out because this could be the beginning of labor. I kept timing the contractions. They were starting to get painful, and were now about 5 minutes a part. I got up to use the restroom again, only to be greeted by my bloody show. This was alarming to me because I hadn't seen any blood in 10 months, so it totally caught me off guard. I woke up Jerome and told him I was going to put a call in to my doctor, since I was now bleeding and the contractions were very close and more intense. It was after hours, so I had to leave a message with the on-call doctor (it wasn't my doc, but one of her colleagues. We waited a half hour, and still no return call yet. The contractions were getting stronger, so we decided to go ahead and head to the hospital. Jerome quickly grabbed our bag and we were out the door by 11:55pm.
Friday, March 25, 2011
We pulled into the valet at Hoag just after midnight, and Dr. Flora finally called me back. I explained my situation and that I had actually been scheduled to meet with Dr. Lai to set up the planned C.
Dr. Flora didn't seem concerned about that, and told me to go ahead and head to labor and delivery to get checked. She said I could do a trial labor, and if it wasn't working, we could talk about a c-section. This alarmed me because for weeks now we had been talking about a planned c, and yet here I am, going in to labor on the night my real doc is not on call, and this lady is telling me I will do a regular labor??? I was not happy.
We got to the 5th floor L/D, met our nurse Suzanne (who was fabulous), and headed to our "suite". I got changed in to a gown, and after several failed attempts to find my cervix (it is very far back and to the right), a second nurse checked me, and much to my surprise, I was dilated to a 3 and Averie was head down vertex. The nurse assured me that all the "bloody show" I was seeing was normal, and told us that she would come back in an hour to see if I had progressed. So, we settled in to our room, and I powered through the contractions, which were now even closer and stronger. Jerome was glued to the monitors, watching Averie's heartbeat and my contractions come and go.
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| In our room, ready for action |
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| watching t.v between contractions |
At 1:30 am, the nurses came back again to check me and I was still at a 3, and now Averie had moved moved out of her vertex position, as was slightly diagonal (oblique) across my belly. The nurse explained that they would not admit anyone until you are dilated to a 4, and since I was not officially in the books as a planned c-section, I would have to have a trial of labor before getting the c-section. If I did not make progress, they would have to send me home. I was not thrilled about this, but didn't let it get me down. Our nurse, Suzanne, was awesome, and said she would let us stay another hour, and check me again, in hopes that something would change in our favor. In the meantime, she brought me some cranberry juice (which brought on some lovely acid reflux), and had me walk the halls.
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| walking the halls |
By this point, the contractions were coming every minute, and were definitely longer and stronger that I had imagined feeling. I must say, I am so proud of myself for the way I powered through them! Despite my usually low tolerance to pain, I kept my cool and breathed through them. Along our walks, I gripped the handrails at times, and once even had to grab Jerome's hood to squeeze. But, amazingly, no tears! This was a huge deal for me, and I am so proud of my strength. At 2:30 am, Suzanne and another nurse came back to check me. I was still at a 3, and Averie was oblique (diagonal). Suzanne explained that since I hadn't made any further progress, they would typically send me home. Jerome and I were immediately freaked out by this. Yes, we live very close to the hospital, but I was already having contractions that were intense and 1 minute apart. How much closer and painful did they need to be for me to come back? Suzanne agreed that this wasn't ideal, so she said to stay a little longer, and she'd go call Dr. Flora. About 30 minutes later, she returned, and said, "So it looks like we're going to have a baby tonight!". She spoke to Dr. Flora, and given my contractions and Averie's position, we were going to go ahead with the c-section. Jerome asked, "when do you think we'll have c-section? How long until we do it?", and the nurse said, "oh, we'll get things moving within the next 30 minutes". 30 minutes?? Holy crap. We were really going to have this baby tonight.
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| OMG! We're having a baby! |
Since Jerome and I were alone at the hospital, he immediately called our family members to let them know what was happening and to tell them that things were moving very quickly. We really had no time to prepare our minds the surgery, which turned out to be a huge blessing for me. I am always a huge worrier, especially when it comes to health, and I know had I had more time to let the c-section run through my brain, I could have sent my mind and body into full panic mode. At this point, I was ready for these dang contractions to be over (remember, I thought I was not going to go in to labor!), so I was excited to get this show on the road. The nurses came in and prepped me for surgery. I survived the I.V, which I had been most terrified about (I had never had one before). Dr. Flora came in (she was adorable- a little blond surfer chick), gave me the run down on c-sections, and then it was time to head to the OR. I decided to walk to the OR instead of using a wheel chair. We made a few pit stops along the way for me to ride out some contractions. I kissed Jerome good-bye (he was going to change into scrubs and meet me inside), and then Suzanne walked me in to the OR. I was surprised at how bright the lights were in the OR and how small it seemed (it seems so much bigger and darker on Grey's Anatomy...haha). Suzanne had me sit on the table, and the anesthesiologist prepped me for a spinal block. At the same time, I had one of the worst contractions I'd had all night. I broke in to tears, but Suzanne was great, and held me close, while the spinal was inserted. They had me lay down, and within a few minutes, I was numb. It was the weirdest feeling! I could feel the pressure of them touching me, but there was no real sensation to it. The anesthesiologist kept asking me to move my legs, and of course my mind wanted to, but I couldn't do it. This made me laugh. They had a stereo playing some crappy ballads on KOST 103.5. Dr. Flora came in, followed by Jerome, and before I knew it, they had begun. The radio was playing "The Heart of the Matter"by Don Henley, and I remember being so disappointed that this was the song I would always remember giving birth to. Not my ideal choice, considering I had always envisioned Averie coming out to some Kaskade beats. Oh, well! It could have been worse!
In just a few minutes, Averie was out. At the time, I had no idea what was going on, but Dr. Flora later told Jerome that Averie had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck, had a bowel movement in the womb (due to the stress of the contractions) and had not been breathing because she was full of 15cc of meconium. They suctioned her 3 times, and then finally we heard the most beautiful sound in the world, The sound of the cries of our beautiful newborn daughter, Averie Rose Boroff. She was born at 4:23 am on Friday, March 25, 2011. Just 2 days late. She weighed in at 7 pounds, 13 ounces (not anywhere near the 9 and a half the ultrasounds had predicted), and scored a 9 on her Apgar test. While they finished sewing me up, Jerome got to cut the cord and snap some pictures. He brought her to see me, and I couldn't believe that this was the little girl living in my belly for the past 10 months. It was the most surreal moment of my life.
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| Cutting the cord |
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| Daddy and his little girl |
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| welcome to the world! |
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| Mommy seeing her baby for the first time |
Soon I was moved to recovery, where I got to have some skin to skin time with Averie. She immediately latched on the eat, and then snuggled with me in my hospital gown. We spent a little over an hour in recovery, and then it was time to head to our room in the mother/baby unit.
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| "The golden hour" |
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| Our first family photo |
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| Little Miss Averie Rose |
When we made it to our room, we were greeted by Jerome's family and our dear friends George and Vanessa. We told everyone the story of how things moved so fast, and everyone took turns holding our little princess.
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| Auntie Tiff and Uncle Nathan |
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| Auntie V and Uncle George |
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| Gramps and Grandmere |
After a few hours, Jerome's family left, and we settled in to our new family of three. Despite having zero sleep, we were amazingly energized. We spent the next 3 nights at the "Hotel Hoag", as many refer to it. Please see
Jerome's Blog for the details of our first few nights as parents.
We had some amazing nurses, and overall fabulous care. In the end, the c-section turned out to be awesome. Recovery has been a breeze. I have had very little, if any, pain, and the incision itself is barely noticeable. I definitely look forward to the next one without any fear!
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| Mommy, Daddy and Averie |
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| snuggled in my robe, watching the Amazing Race |
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| Ready to go home! |
As I sit here, 16 days later, it is still hard to believe that we really are parents. It is the most amazing gift that anyone could ever get, and the true testament of believing in God. We are so blessed to have a beautiful, and healthy daughter. She is amazing and we couldn't be happier (well, maybe we could if it meant more sleep...haha). I look forward to sharing our new journey, as parents, with you!
