Labor and Delivery Details

Connie first started having contractions on Wed around 3 pm during her midwife checkup. They remained brief and irregular until around 9 pm. For the next hour, they became quite regular and more intense. We contacted the hospital, and they said we should come in as soon as possible. So we dropped off Emilia with the nanny, and arrived at the hospital around 11:40 pm. The midwife checked out Connie, and she was already at 9 cm!

Things were happening very quickly so the midwife was even concerned about me leaving to get our things from the car. When I got back, Connie was getting close to having the pushing urge. It came and went a few times, and I was beginning to think that this might go on for a while. But then it came back strongly, and before you knew it, the midwife said the baby was crowning. With a couple more pushes, the baby was out in less than a hour after we had arrived at the hospital.

The baby was immediately given to Connie for the mother/baby skin-to-skin bonding. At that point, we knew this baby was very different from Emilia. He cried only briefly, and was quickly calmed and even nursing. We've found that it takes quite a lot to rile him up, and he prefers to lounge and sleep. Even the Vitamin K shot only elicited a brief cry unlike Emilia who screamed as if she was being unbearably tortured. Yes, these do seem to be two very different babies.

We're waiting now for the pediatricians to arrive who will exam the baby, and let us know if there are any concerns. The hospital requires a minimum 24 hr stay so the earliest we can be discharged is presumably around 11:40 pm on Thursday. If everything looks good, we'd like to get out earlier than that; otherwise, we spend another night here.

Connie's doing great, and trying to catch up on some sleep when not working on nursing the baby. The biggest challenge in nursing him is keeping him awake - he loves to sleep!

Labor & Delivery Recap/Trivia

Timeline of Connie's Labor and Delivery:
2/26/10, 5 am:  Early Labor Starts
2/26/10, 2 pm:  Midwife Checkup (UCSD La Jolla), Dilation at 1 cm
2/26/10, Midnight : Active Labor Starts
2/27/10, 2 am:  Arrive at Hospital (UCSD Hillcrest), Dilation at 4 cm
2/27/10, 5 am:  Dilation at 6 cm
2/27/10, 7 am:  Dilation at 8 cm
2/27/10, 9 am:  Dilation at 10 cm, Start Pushing
2/27/10, 9:36 am:  Baby Out

Other Items of Note:

• Connie did not take any drugs during the labor and delivery.  Impressive!
• The amniotic sac did not break until mid-delivery.  This is good in that there is less chance of infection.
• They didn't wash off the amniotic fluid from the baby for 2 days to help minimize skin rashes. 
• The midwife inspected the placenta post-delivery, and said it was extremely healthy and provided a good O2 supply.
• There wasn't any need to remove excess mucous/fluids from baby's mouth or nose.  It was effectively removed by the movement through the birth canal.
• Baby was skin-to-skin with Mom immediately after delivery, and latched in about 45 min.
• Baby didn't have a conehead.  They say that this is due to her being breech (before the ECV), and then spending little time in the pelvic area.  She never "dropped" until sometime during labor.
• The umbilical cord is surprisingly tough to cut.

 

Emilia on Day 3

Getting Closer

At 7 am, Connie was at 8 cm.  Things are suppose to progress faster now so she should be pushing fairly soon.  She's had a strong urge to push, but they really want her at 10 cm first.  It's getting close, really close.  But I don't think I've convinced her of that yet.

Hard Labor

Connie's been in active labor since about midnight on Friday.  We headed to UCSD hospital in Hillcrest at about 1:30 am.  By about 5 am, she was at 6 cm.  The doula (Diana) says she should be in the transition stage now which is 7-10 cm.  When she gets to 10 cm, they'll allow her to start pushing.  It's been an incredible ride so far, and I'm amazed at Connie's tenacity.  Diana has been a tremendous asset as there's no way I would know how to deal with this myself.  Connie's "lounging" in the tub right now after it took literally hours to get it filled with water.

More to come...

First Stage!

Officially in first stage of labor... 10 minutes apart, 40 seconds of discomfort, past several hours. Piece of cake, no problemo right now. I'm even still blogging!

Time? Maybe?

I've been having on and off Braxton Hicks (practice contractions) for the past month now.. they are painless, short and just feel like a muscle tensing up. The past two nights, they have become a lot more frequent and regular, but no pain. This morning however is a little different. The contractions are definitely not comfortable now and have become regular ~20 seconds long, and roughly ~8 minute interval apart. Hence, I am up blogging this since I can't go back to sleep. However, this is still considered irregular and not labor yet... so, now we just wait and see.