We get to Kaiser around 9:30 pm and check in. I am nearly 4 cm dilated and not going anywhere without a baby. Gid calls the family and my mom starts to come down. What a blessing this is; we missed her during Joaquin's birth and although I had great help, it's just different having you mom there. This time, no one else decides to come down and this is also a great blessing. I just have Gid and my mom in the room along with a great staff and the experience ends up being very peaceful. We are checked in and moved into the room at the end of shift. I have one nurse who seems a little...out of it? She doesn't engender great faith. At one point she tells me she is going to stick my heart monitor below my 'boobies'...really? Boobies?
My epidural is called for and Gid is sent out of the room. This ends up being the worst part of the entire birth for me as the nurse anesthetist can not get the epidural in. She blames it on my mild scoliosis and tries at least 6 times...my guess is more like 8. Of course, you continue to have contractions during this time and even though they give you a local numbing agent, I am still getting that giant needle stuck in my back. I've still got my favorite nurse with me and she's not doing anything to help or change it and I start to cry. I don't think they are related, but the nurse anesthetist finally calls in the attending, who gets it in one try and then explains to me that I might be 'a little sore' because they had to try so many times. Gid had run into my mom in the hall and saw the attending and knew that could not be good news (he was right, of course). After some corrections for nausea, I am feeling fine and actually end up with a very good epidural...not too much to not push, but enough where I am not feeling pain.
My doctor is actually on call that night and comes into see me. The shift also officially changes and we now have an awesome nurse. We're instructed to try and get some sleep while I labor...ah, the joys of an epidural. When the nurse comes in an hour or so later though, I am having different kinds of contractions and she checks me to find my water bag is just hanging on the outside. It looks like a white silly putty container and they decide to let it break on it's own while they get me ready to push. All the lights come back on and our night of sleep becomes a short nap. I finally start pushing at about 3:30 am and after getting over the initial weirdness find the mirror very helpful in knowing 'where' to push. After an hour of pushing they put a bit of pitocin in as the baby's head is having a hard time coming out. Rhiannon (or baby girl Garcia as we didn't have a name yet) is born at 5:03 am on Thursday, July 28.
We had just our awesome nurse, the doctor, and a surg tech in the room with me, my mom, and Gideon. This time, they followed our birth plan and put her on my chest immediately with the blood and the gook and everything, which was wonderful. I expected her to be slimy, but she was actually a little sticky or tacky. She stayed on my chest for about an hour before they came in to do her tests and clean her up. Because I had gestational diabetes during this pregnancy, they tested her blood sugar which was dangerously low and had to give her formula, which was a little sad for me. After she was ok, she weighed in at a whopping 8 lbs. 10.1 oz. I say whopping because everyone had guessed what she would weigh while I was in labor and once we saw her. Because Joaquin was only 7.2, most guesses were far lower and everyone, including our nurse, was a bit shocked. With that we were finally released and sent to our room at about 7:30 am to get some sleep. We didn't have guests until much later in the day when Shirley, Bobby, and Estella came by and then later still when Gid went to go pick up Joaquin from pre-school and bring him in. We went home the next day at about 3:30.
This experience seemed much 'quieter' than Joaquin. Less people around, late at night, the same crew for the most part. Besides the botched epidural, a very nice experience again and less hectic.
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