The long awaited arrival

After a ‘dry spell’ of nothing coming to mind to write about here, I now have plenty to share! It’s been a whirlwind of activity.

Two weekends ago I got my boys to myself for 3 whole days because of Memorial Day, which I was stoked about. We just hung out and watched 30 Rock, ate a lot and enjoyed each other. I started feeling kinda crampy on and off throughout the weekend, but just shrugged it off, cause that was pretty normal for me. On Memorial Day, I got strapped up for my morning fetal monitoring and my nurse, Robin, had to place the monitor very low down to find his heartbeat. She commented about how low he felt, and told him sweetly ‘don’t come today!’ I had some hard braxton hicks contractions during the monitoring session, but they weren’t showing up on the contraction-o-meter, so we weren’t worried about it, and my nurse said that as long as there wasn’t increased bleeding, and they weren’t close together, they weren’t worried about it. We finished watching season 2 of 30 Rock and ate ramen noodles (don’t judge me) and settled in to bed. I had a few pretty hard contractions, but assumed they were just the ol’ braxton hicks firing up, since I was now 33 weeks, on my 4th pregnancy, and bleeding; all of which make for more painful practice contractions. I fell asleep, and woke up 2-3 times to the random contraction, settling back down quickly after each one was over.
I woke up bright and early at 6am, wondering why the heck I was awake at such an ungodly hour. I went to the bathroom and lay back down hoping to get some shut-eye before the docs came in to make their rounds and would wake me up again. But right when I lay down, I felt a strong contraction - thinking it would just pass and I’d go back to sleep, I relaxed through it and got cozy. 10 minutes later, it happened again. And 10 minutes after that. I called my nurse in and asked her to please hook me up to the monitor to see what was going on. She hooked me up, and Ronan was beating happily away, and no contractions were showing up. I continued to have strong contractions every 10 minutes that were hard enough that I had to lay still and breathe through them. The clock turned 7:00, and the contractions got more intense, a little longer, and now 5 minutes apart. The doctors came in to make their rounds at 7:30. The came in all smiles and asked how I was. I told them ‘Uh...ok....I’ve been having contractions every 10 minutes from 6-7 and every 5 minutes from 7-now’. Their faces turned serious, and they said they’d be in to do a cervical check to see what was happening. About 15 minutes later the lady doctor came in and checked me. I was as 1 1/2 centimeters (1/2 centimeter up from last week’s scare) and almost completely effaced, with Ronan’s head bearing down really low. She said she wanted to have my care transferred to the labor and delivery nurses, and have a birthing room ready just in case. She told me that the fluid felt low, and that his butt was sticking out all pokey. If I was in labor she said, they wouldn’t want to stop it, cause the most time it would buy would be 48 hours, which at this stage wasn’t a significant enough amount of development since I was far enough along to have gotten past the critical stage. Either my water was breaking, or the placenta was starting to shut down and not be able to provide enough fluid for the baby. Either way, they wanted labor to progress. 5 minutes later she returned and told me that word must spread fast, cause the nurses and the room were ready to go. My hubby had woken up my eldest to drive him up to my sister-in-law’s cause we couldn’t get hold of anyone to come get him. They said goodbye. My two new nurses came in moments later and said hi, my sweet antepartum nurse Joanne squeezing my foot and saying goodbye. The new nurse got out her IV kit and took a few vials of blood and hooked up the IV tubes to the vein in my wrist so I could breastfeed without it getting in the way. She told me we were moving into the birthing room, and I asked if I could go to the bathroom first. She got me unhooked from the monitor and I sat down. 3 huge contractions later (moaning through each) I passed my mucous plug. I came out of the bathroom and told my nurse that the contractions were stronger and my plug came out. Immediately she grabs the wheelchair and helps me in. I contract again on the short wheel down the hall (not fun) and I hear the nurse on the phone asking which room we have; number 8, the nice one. So now it’s 9 o’clock.

My contractions the whole time have felt much different to the slowly building, tightening and softening that made up the majority of my first labor. These felt like I was getting poked really hard with something and had someone pushing really hard on my thighs. All the pain was in my pelvis. At the start of each contraction, when my mind would start to freak out and say ‘I can’t do this’ I would force myself to moan and breathe through. The nurses asked if I wanted any pain meds, so I had her explain what all the options were. I decided against an epidural (although, I admit, it sounded realllllllly nice) and was told I probably didn’t have time for one anyway, and the other options were a perineal block which wouldn’t do much for contractions and a drug that would be given through IV, wouldn’t last long, and too much could hurt the baby. I turned them all down, and readied myself to continue au natural. I was a VERY loud laborer. It was the only way I could stay on top of if. Once, when I felt kinda self-conscious about how loud I was, I just thought, ya know, this is MY pain....I’m gonna do whatever it takes to deal with it......screw how it makes anyone else feel. It was really strange to labor without hubby there, I felt almost like I was waiting for him to get back to really labor. But hubby or no, things were progressing.....fast. The doc came in (ironically it was the same doctor who examined me when I first came in 9 weeks earlier) and checked to see how far along I was. I was moaning really loudly through each contraction, now just a few minutes apart. It must have scared the doc, cause mid-contraction he says (despite the nurses telling him I didn’t want drugs) ‘Mrs. Wisniew!! I need to talk to you about an epidural!! You are in labor!!’ No shit. He tells me I’m 5 centimeters, and how helpful epidurals are to handle pain, and how studies have shown how great they are and shit. I knew he wouldn’t stop til he’d said his bit, so I let him finish and as I was starting another contraction, I told him no thanks and let my moaning cut off any further debate. The whole time the nurses were telling him ‘she’s done this before, and some ladies CHOOSE to go naturally....it’s ok!!’ He gives up and lets me labor. With the contraction that beautifully ended the debate, I started feeling really nauseous and shaking violently. This is it. I’m in transition. I moan-yell and feel a hand squeeze mine and a hand warm on my leg. I squeeze hard back, grateful for the comfort, and open my eyes to see hubby!! He’d gotten on the freeway, decided it was crazy to think he could get to Everett, fight traffic and make it back in time. He called my mother in-law who came down immediately and he turned his ass around to come be with me. Sleepy eyed Judah was just looking around and didn’t act scared at all. The nurses said that our stuff needed to be moved out of our room so he went to go pack things up. While he was away I had 2 or 3 contractions and then felt an enormous need to push. I told the nurse that, and she said to breathe it out and don’t push until they could have the doctor confirm that it was ok. I waited for him, at first asking please can I push with every contraction, and then WHY? and then simply informing them that I couldn’t help it, that even though I was trying to not push, he was coming out anyway. The doctor came in and as soon as I was done with one contraction I yelled that I needed to push NOW. He takes forever to decide whether or not it’s ok . Hubby’s back at this point, with Judah being watched by a sweet nurse in the hall, who of course he’s used to cause he’s seen her around the last 9 weeks. Another doctor who’s been seeing me comes in, takes one look at me and tells the undecided doctor to let me push already. Hubby puts his face close to mine and says ‘Corinne! you get to push!!’ What beautiful words. In tears of sweet relief I tell him to pull my leg up.....no....UP!.....I mean...back!! I barely start pushing and he crowns and is out laying on the bed before I can get a full push out. I look down and see his sweet little body being scooped up, and the cord being cut. I start laughing and crying hysterically and all I can say is ‘Oh my God! There he is! He’s beautiful!’ I looked at hubby and told him ‘he’s chubby!’ We’re both crying and can’t believe our little boy is here. I ask if he’s ok, and hubby tells me to listen to the loud crying! He’s loud and breathing like a pro. They brought Ronan over all swaddled up and again I ask if he’s ok. They tell me I wouldn’t be holding him if he wasn’t. Hubby and I both take a turn holding our babe, then he went with Ronan and the docs to NICU so they could put him in the isolette. He was born on June 1st, at 9:37am. 3 hours, 37 minutes of labor. (contractions didn’t show up on the monitor the whole time!) 33 weeks 3 days old.

Meanwhile, I’m shaking like crazy from the pitocin and the nurses are massaging my uterus trying to get it to stay firm and contract. It felt like labor all over again, the pain was so intense! It’s not firming up like they want it to, so the doctor comes back to check it out. He does some uterine massage that hurts like hell. Fortunately Hubby is back and can hold my hand and stroke my hair and tell me I’m doing good while I yell and moan through the vigorous massage. Ouch. He feels some clots that he wants to try to work out, and the nurses stop him so that they can give me some fentanyl to help the pain. He gives me a minute for it to work then goes back at it. Finally it’s done, and I have a little rest. NOW I feel the drugs start working....2 minutes too late. Oh well. I’m given more pitocin, and some pills to dissolve in my cheek that make the uterus contract more. My nice advocate nurse decides to try some gentler massage to see if she can work the clots out, and it works! Man, my nurses seem so on top of things. And I was worried about a hospital birth! They were absolutely amazing. They were more than happy to attend my birth, cause they wanted to assist a vaginal birth, and had a scheduled c-section they were called away from for me. They said I made their day.

After I stopped shaking and had a little something to eat, I got to go see my baby. He was so gorgeous and tiny. From the moment he was born, the Magnificat and every psalm of praise I could think of was running joyfully through my head.

Only 2 weeks earlier, my docs were seriously considering sending me home, but providentially I bled a little more and they wanted to keep me longer to watch me. Thank God they did, because I would not have made it to the hospital after deciding I was in labor, and it would have been terrifying. The Lord has watched over me and Ronan from the time he was conceived. Every threatening situation was kept safe and I had the best of care. Praise the Lord for His unending love!

Ronan is now 2 weeks old tomorrow. He’s growing, healthy, and we’re just waiting for him to mature enough to take all his feeds on his own and put on some weight. Judah adores his little brother and talks sweetly about him and touches him gently.

Ronan Zephaniah. ‘Yahweh has remembered His little oath.’

‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for He has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name. And His mercy is for those who fear Him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty. ‘