After feeling a bit better about the breast feeding with the lactation consultant (LC), we just had a horrible, no good, very bad breast feeding experience. I know, that is total exaggeration. (I just like the phrase from the children's book.)
We got home from a pediatrician visit (lots of appointments today!) and Natalia was hungry, so I got out the SNS (supplemental nursing system - see the next post down), found out it was much harder to use at home than at the clinic, where the lactation consultant just put it together and did it all for me. After figuring out how to put it together, though, I was ready to nurse! When I started nursing, Talia just wouldn't latch and I realized that other than having the lactation consultant latch Natalia onto my boob, I really had no idea how to use the SNS and the nipple shield, nor new ideas on how to help her latch and suck.
I was so excited that everything worked at the clinic, I didn't really think about the fact that I didn't "do" any of it. The LC was holding my boob, holding her head, setting up the latch and everything. So, we had a great nursing there, but I have no clue how to reproduce what she did while at home.
Thankfully, though, we have a different LC that does at home support who is going to come tomorrow to the house and help out here! We have talked to a bunch of people who say that having someone come to the house can really help out a lot when you are having problems. Also, she came highly recommended from a post-partum doula.
Speaking of the at-home LC, the clinic LC realized that we were having someone coming to our house, because I had written the person's name in the notebook with my nursing notes, and she just couldn't shut up about it the whole hour long session. She kept on saying how unethical she thought it was that the woman (who works as a LC at a hospital during the day) was charging to come to the house when it's also her day job, and how she disliked this woman so much, over and over.
Alayna and I kept on trying to change the topic, and the clinic LC just wouldn't let go of it. I don't think there is anything unethical about charging to offer a service that the hospital, clinic and health insurance don't offer, like private, in-home lactation services. I think it is unprofessional, though, to look at other notes I have in my notebook and go on and on about a private choice we are making. We didn't ask for her opinion! It was an interesting look into what is apparently the drama of lactation consulting in our city.
So, at the time I thought the lactation meeting was soooo helpful, and in many ways it was: I now have a SNS system free of charge and an awesome hospital grade breast pump, that the insurance pays 80%. But, I am really hoping tomorrow's LC will give me some more concrete skills!
Monday, June 30, 2008
Today
Mateo has started doing this really cute thing when he wakes up in the morning. I guess Sacha has been asking him for a long time if he had nice dreams in the night and now he's started doing it himself. I'll go in to get him and ask him if he slept well and then he'll say "Nice dream?" Then I'll ask him if he had a nice dream and he'll say who he dreamt about. It's always a person and currently it's our friends down the street. "Dream Alesha," he'll say, "dream Steve." It is just the freaking cutest thing ever.
We just got back from a lactation consultation and I'm very pleased to say that no one got sent back to the hospital this time! Sacha and Talia have really been struggling with breastfeeding - mostly latching and sucking, which are pretty major issues - and finally this lactation consultant was able to help. She got Sacha started using a supplemental nursing system and Sacha's own pumped breast milk. We actually have some experience with the SNS from when Mateo was a baby. Natalia's been getting supplemental bottles of pumped breastmilk during feedings when she just won't latch or suck at all, which have been many, and so she's used to having an immediate flow of milk. The SNS gives her that immediate flow while encouraging her to latch on and feed right from Sacha herself.
The best part was the after-feed weigh-in. The scale told us that Talia had gotten even more milk from Sacha than she had from the SNS, which is really good news. It means that all the pumping she's been doing to boost her supply, in the absence of a lot of nursing, is paying off. The LC seemed confident that the baby would eventually be able to breastfeed without all the equipment, so here's hoping!
Also, Sacha's mom is leaving today and my mom is now here for a week. We are so grateful to both of them. I also want to send out a big thank you to Apa and to my aunt, uncle, and two cousins, who watched Mateo on consecutive days so I could visit my girls in the hospital. It meant so much to us. Thank you!!
We just got back from a lactation consultation and I'm very pleased to say that no one got sent back to the hospital this time! Sacha and Talia have really been struggling with breastfeeding - mostly latching and sucking, which are pretty major issues - and finally this lactation consultant was able to help. She got Sacha started using a supplemental nursing system and Sacha's own pumped breast milk. We actually have some experience with the SNS from when Mateo was a baby. Natalia's been getting supplemental bottles of pumped breastmilk during feedings when she just won't latch or suck at all, which have been many, and so she's used to having an immediate flow of milk. The SNS gives her that immediate flow while encouraging her to latch on and feed right from Sacha herself.
The best part was the after-feed weigh-in. The scale told us that Talia had gotten even more milk from Sacha than she had from the SNS, which is really good news. It means that all the pumping she's been doing to boost her supply, in the absence of a lot of nursing, is paying off. The LC seemed confident that the baby would eventually be able to breastfeed without all the equipment, so here's hoping!
Also, Sacha's mom is leaving today and my mom is now here for a week. We are so grateful to both of them. I also want to send out a big thank you to Apa and to my aunt, uncle, and two cousins, who watched Mateo on consecutive days so I could visit my girls in the hospital. It meant so much to us. Thank you!!
Saturday, June 28, 2008
Home safe and sound
Sacha and Natalia came home yesterday, accompanied by Sacha's mom, who had been pulling long days at the hospital and getting up with Mateo in the early mornings. Thanks, Cathe!!
It's so good to have them home and for us all to be together again. Their homecoming launched us immediately back into trying to figure out how to be a four person family, with ups and downs right away. Mateo is quite curious about his new sister and seems to like watching her little movements. Every time she nurses, he wants to nurse, too. It makes quite the picture!
He's also more than a little uncertain about who this new baby is and is having a bit of a rough time making the transition from only child to big brother. He's been whiny, clingy, not sleeping well, that kind of thing. Of course, he's also had some of the sweetest moments with the baby. I guess that's how it's going to go for awhile!
Last night was a crash course in having two kids under age two. Here was our schedule:
8:oo pm: Natalia feeds before we go to bed.
9:00 pm: Mateo decides to get in on the action and wakes up crying for mama's milk before we actually make it to bed.
9:30 pm: Sacha and I fall into a coma.
11:30 pm: Natalia is up to eat again. Keep in mind that her feedings take quite awhile at this point.
1:30 am: Mateo wakes up and wants to nurse. He's been sleeping nearly through the night, but not last night!
3:30 am: Natalia wakes up to eat and then stays up until 5:00 trying to settle down.
5:15 am: Mateo wakes up for the day. Sacha tries to convince him that going back to sleep is a good idea, but no. He is up. I nurse him again. Then, thank God, Cathe gets up with him.
7:30 am: We are up for the day.
All morning, I was hanging on to the idea that I would take a nice long nap when Mateo did. However, he decided to sleep for only 40 minutes, so that plan didn't really work too well.
I know it will be like this for the next couple of months, and I actually don't really mind. I think it might be easier, since we went through this not too long ago and know we'll emerge on the other side. I'm just so glad everyone is here and accounted for!
Here's us from earlier today. It's blurry, but you get the idea:
It's so good to have them home and for us all to be together again. Their homecoming launched us immediately back into trying to figure out how to be a four person family, with ups and downs right away. Mateo is quite curious about his new sister and seems to like watching her little movements. Every time she nurses, he wants to nurse, too. It makes quite the picture!
He's also more than a little uncertain about who this new baby is and is having a bit of a rough time making the transition from only child to big brother. He's been whiny, clingy, not sleeping well, that kind of thing. Of course, he's also had some of the sweetest moments with the baby. I guess that's how it's going to go for awhile!
Last night was a crash course in having two kids under age two. Here was our schedule:
8:oo pm: Natalia feeds before we go to bed.
9:00 pm: Mateo decides to get in on the action and wakes up crying for mama's milk before we actually make it to bed.
9:30 pm: Sacha and I fall into a coma.
11:30 pm: Natalia is up to eat again. Keep in mind that her feedings take quite awhile at this point.
1:30 am: Mateo wakes up and wants to nurse. He's been sleeping nearly through the night, but not last night!
3:30 am: Natalia wakes up to eat and then stays up until 5:00 trying to settle down.
5:15 am: Mateo wakes up for the day. Sacha tries to convince him that going back to sleep is a good idea, but no. He is up. I nurse him again. Then, thank God, Cathe gets up with him.
7:30 am: We are up for the day.
All morning, I was hanging on to the idea that I would take a nice long nap when Mateo did. However, he decided to sleep for only 40 minutes, so that plan didn't really work too well.
I know it will be like this for the next couple of months, and I actually don't really mind. I think it might be easier, since we went through this not too long ago and know we'll emerge on the other side. I'm just so glad everyone is here and accounted for!
Here's us from earlier today. It's blurry, but you get the idea:
Friday, June 27, 2008
Cleared
She's OKAY!!!! No virus of any kind. No one, not even the neonatologist, seems to know what might have caused the sore, but it seems not to be dangerous. I just have to laugh that she was hospitalized for two days over what is probably just a little mouth irritation...but better safe than sorry, for sure.
They'll be home this afternoon!
And, the baby has regained her birthweight in a rather sudden fashion. On Wednesday, at the lactation consultation, she was down 9%. That's quite a turnaround!
Anyway, welcome home to my girls!!
They'll be home this afternoon!
And, the baby has regained her birthweight in a rather sudden fashion. On Wednesday, at the lactation consultation, she was down 9%. That's quite a turnaround!
Anyway, welcome home to my girls!!
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Update
Talia is still in the hospital and doing great. They're treating her and waiting for the test results to come back tomorrow. I think if she does end up having something, we will probably take down these posts and password protect others relating to her health, so as to protect her privacy later on. However, we're holding good thoughts that all is actually well. Sacha's getting lots of needed feeding support from the nurses and doing okay.
I visited this morning and am going again tonight. Poor Mateo is kind of a mess. I think this transition has been really tough on him, especially with Mommy being gone, coming home for a day, and then disappearing again. He's been quite needy all day and my tolerance is at a low point, so we're quite the pair. Hopefully test results will come back good and we'll all be together again by the weekend....
Here's a shot of our one day together at home. How cute are those kids?
I visited this morning and am going again tonight. Poor Mateo is kind of a mess. I think this transition has been really tough on him, especially with Mommy being gone, coming home for a day, and then disappearing again. He's been quite needy all day and my tolerance is at a low point, so we're quite the pair. Hopefully test results will come back good and we'll all be together again by the weekend....
Here's a shot of our one day together at home. How cute are those kids?
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Back, back, back
This was a post I wasn't expecting to make, but here goes.
Natalia got admitted back into the hospital this afternoon.
We took her in for a routine mother-baby check-in and lactation consult and the lactation person found an angry-looking sore on the inside of her lip. We hadn't noticed it before and we know it wasn't there when she was born. They're concerned that she may have somehow caught a herpes virus (although it would have been nearly impossible, since Sacha doesn't have it). Apparently, when there's any question about herpes in a newborn, they have to treat it right away, before the culture even comes back.
So, instead of coming home like we thought, Sacha and Talia and Cathe (Sacha's mom) are now back at the hospital in the special care nursery. They'll treat the baby for 48 hours with IV antiviral medicine, until the culture comes back. If it's negative, which we really hope it will be, then they'll come home right away. If it's positive, they'll stay for somewhere around 10 days for the full course of treatment. I don't know what the long term consequences of that would be.
We decided to have me stay home with Mateo instead of trying to leave him with Cathe for the night. He's struggling a little with the transition and we thought it would be much better to have me here with him. I know it was the right decision, but I miss my girls and am sad for this interruption of our first week together. I just hope something else is causing the irritation in her mouth and that they'll be home soon.
Natalia got admitted back into the hospital this afternoon.
We took her in for a routine mother-baby check-in and lactation consult and the lactation person found an angry-looking sore on the inside of her lip. We hadn't noticed it before and we know it wasn't there when she was born. They're concerned that she may have somehow caught a herpes virus (although it would have been nearly impossible, since Sacha doesn't have it). Apparently, when there's any question about herpes in a newborn, they have to treat it right away, before the culture even comes back.
So, instead of coming home like we thought, Sacha and Talia and Cathe (Sacha's mom) are now back at the hospital in the special care nursery. They'll treat the baby for 48 hours with IV antiviral medicine, until the culture comes back. If it's negative, which we really hope it will be, then they'll come home right away. If it's positive, they'll stay for somewhere around 10 days for the full course of treatment. I don't know what the long term consequences of that would be.
We decided to have me stay home with Mateo instead of trying to leave him with Cathe for the night. He's struggling a little with the transition and we thought it would be much better to have me here with him. I know it was the right decision, but I miss my girls and am sad for this interruption of our first week together. I just hope something else is causing the irritation in her mouth and that they'll be home soon.
Natalia's birth
Since I have all this time on my hands tonight, I thought I'd write out Natalia's birth story from my perspective.
After another day of no labor activity, we left for the hospital around 8:30 pm Saturday night. By 11, Sacha was admitted and checked out and monitored and they had inserted a small tablet of misoprostole next to her cervix. The idea was that it would ripen things up and then they'd start the pitocin the next morning. For some people, that alone is enough to send them into active labor, and Sacha ended up hitting the jackpot.
By 1 am, contractions woke her up (and me shortly thereafter!). By 2:30 am, it was clear that she was going to skip early labor and jump right into the hard work part. We called Rachael to come to the hospital and got down to work. The Bradley classes came in sooo handy over and over again. Sacha had practiced the techniques enough to be able to really use them in many different positions, while I had also practiced my part enough to recognize what might be helpful and try to help her do it.
Sacha labored like a rock star throughout the night and eventually the sun came up. Her contractions were coming strong and steady and usually 2-3 minutes apart. Around 9 am, she started feeling like she had to push. Rachael and I exchanged a look that I took to mean maybe she's almost complete! That turned out to be wishful thinking, but she had made a lot of progress to 5 cm. The way things were progressing, it seemed that our baby might be here by mid-afternoon.
Sacha worked and worked and worked. She was the very model of a laboring woman. She was amazing. Around 1 pm, the midwife came in and checked her - she was 6-7 cm and the baby was still pretty high up. Try to bring the baby down, the midwife suggested. Undaunted, Sacha went out and we walked the halls. We tried different positions. She labored and labored.
I forgot to mention that her waters had broken on their own at 5 am. By mid-morning, some light green discharge was coming out. By early afternoon, it was getting darker green and sludgier. The midwife and nurses seemed unconcerned, as meconium is very common in babies that far past their due dates. However, they were starting to act concerned about her heart rate, which wasn't fluctuating as much as they wanted to see. First, they weren't seeing the accelerations that indicate the baby is doing well. Then, they weren't seeing much variability in the heart rate at all. They stopped monitoring once an hour and hooked Sacha up to the mobile telemetry monitors that would keep tabs on the baby all the time. They started to talk more about being concerned, but seemed confident that the baby was fine and wanted to give Sacha as much time as she needed.
Sacha labored and labored. She had to spend more and more time on the bed, as the nurses and midwife tried to get a handle on how the baby was doing. This was one of the worst positions for her and she still worked through the contractions like she was born to do it.
I'm not sure how much Sacha noticed, but things were slowly getting a little more tense among the medical staff. At one point, the baby had a deceleration that was slow to come up again and pretty soon Sacha had an oxygen mask on and the nurse urgently calling for backup. Then the baby stabilized and things continued on as they had been.
We were both really impressed at how the midwife and nurses handled the whole situation. They had the baby's health as their first priority, but seemed committed to managing risks without overreacting.
At 4 pm, Sacha got checked again. Progress had stalled at 6-7 cm and her cervix was swelling. Baby seemed to be either posterior or in a position with her head cocked slightly. Sacha was exhausted. Baby had been cooking in meconium for at least 7 hours and it was continuing to leak in dark gushes from her uterus. The midwife offered the option of continuing on as we had been and hoping that the baby would turn and descend, but also said she thought that perhaps the contractions weren't strong enough to be productive and a boost of pitocin might help.
Sacha took some time to think this over and decided that she had hit her limit. She wanted the pitocin and an epidural along with it. This turned out to be the best decision she ever made. The anesthetist showed up right away and within half an hour, she was feeling relief. She finally got a nap (after an hour and a half of sleep the night before) and the pitocin started her uterus dilating again. Pretty soon, she was 8 cm and the baby had turned. It looked like she would be able to rest for a few more hours and then she would start pushing. She was even starting to feel pressure, so it appeared that the baby was moving down. The midwife, now acting more concerned about the meconium and the continued flatness of the baby's heartrate, suggested doing an infusion of fluid into Sacha's uterus to give the baby some relief. We agreed to this and it was started.
I went out for a short walk to get some air and got back about 6:45. Rachael and I chatted and then rested while Sacha napped. It seemed like it could be hours before anything happened.
Then, at 7:00, everything changed. After the midwife we had been working with went off duty, instead of transferring us to a new midwife, care was abruptly transferred to the OB on call. He, a rather brusque man with a thick Russian accent, looked over the past several hours of heart rate strips and saw a baby in distress. He was clearly upset at the midwife for allowing this to continue.
He rushed into our room with the nurse in tow, woke Sacha up from a deep sleep, and told her that "the baby is not happy." He kept repeating that over and over. She is not happy and she needs to come out now. Sacha had an oxygen mask on and couldn't understand him over the hiss of the oxygen and his thick accent.
I had been watching the strips since I got back and remembered how the nurses said that if the line was really flat, then it was a cause for real concern. The lines were really flat. The heart rate was hovering around 150 beats a minute and not budging. The baby hadn't moved in hours.
He told her that she would have 15 minutes to push the baby out or they would be doing an immediate emergency c-section. He would help her with forceps.
Once Sacha got the message, we all had a few minutes of panic but she quickly got down to business. They broke down the bed and the room filled with people. The nurse explained that, if the baby didn't cry right away when she came out, they would purposefully not stimulate her to breathe so that she wouldn't inhale the meconium into her lungs. Instead, they would quickly cut the cord and hand her off to the nursery team standing by, who would suction her out before she could take her first breath. They told us that it would look a lot more dramatic than it was and that the baby would be fine.
The doctor got set up and Sacha started pushing. On the other end, the doctor pulled for all he was worth. We literally thanked God that she had gotten that epidural, because there wouldn't have been time for any pain management before the action started. Even with the epidural, she felt like she was being ripped in two.
Knowing that our baby needed to come out now, Sacha pushed like a woman possessed.
She got our daughter out in three minutes. It was the most incredible feat of strength I have ever seen.
First push brought the baby down. Second push delivered the head. And the third push brought the rest of the body out. It was like watching a video of the pushing stage in fast forward. Natalia was born!
Despite the reassuring explanations from before, the first minutes after Natalia's birth were overwhelming and terrifying. She came out with the cord wrapped twice around her neck. She was moving her hands a little bit, but that was about it. The surgeon cut the cord and passed her immediately to the nursery team at the warming table. I went with her. They suctioned her nose and mouth and put a tube down her throat to clean out her airway.
As they pulled out green and brown glop from everywhere, I just stood there sobbing. I knew they had said she would be okay, but it was really scary. Seeing all the people working on her, the tube down her throat, and then them manually bagging her while saying things like "her heart rate is dropping" just totally undid me. I kept trying to tell Sacha she was going to be fine, but I was crying so hard that I probably wasn't very convincing. I still get choked up when I tell people about it.
Then, just like that, things started to improve. She took a few breaths and made a couple of tiny cries. She started to pink up. They stopped working on her so urgently and started wiping the meconium off and cleaning all the vernix off her back. Vernix, people! She had vernix, and a lot of it, at 42 weeks gestation.
Pretty soon, she was cleaned up and wrapped up and they brought her to Sacha to hold for the first time. And suddenly we were having the moment we thought we would have, where we met our daughter for the first time! She did so well that they let her come right with us to the post-partum room and she's never looked back since.
Stats: She was 7 lbs, 2 oz and 20.5 inches long, with a 13.5 inch head circumference. She was/is a peanut! Everything about her just screams full-term baby, not baby who was two weeks overdue. Obviously, our dates are indisputable, but it seems like she just needed a little longer to cook in there.
We love her to pieces. Here are some photos of her and us:
Sacha meeting baby Talia:
The three of us:
Me holding her for the first time:
Just chillin':
Mateo meeting, and petting, his baby sister for the first time:
Cuddling after practicing nursing:
Supplementing with a little of my pumped breastmilk (she's working hard to learn to nurse, but needed some supplementation her second day because she still hadn't had a wet diaper):
Snoozing with Bubby:
Homeward bound!:
After another day of no labor activity, we left for the hospital around 8:30 pm Saturday night. By 11, Sacha was admitted and checked out and monitored and they had inserted a small tablet of misoprostole next to her cervix. The idea was that it would ripen things up and then they'd start the pitocin the next morning. For some people, that alone is enough to send them into active labor, and Sacha ended up hitting the jackpot.
By 1 am, contractions woke her up (and me shortly thereafter!). By 2:30 am, it was clear that she was going to skip early labor and jump right into the hard work part. We called Rachael to come to the hospital and got down to work. The Bradley classes came in sooo handy over and over again. Sacha had practiced the techniques enough to be able to really use them in many different positions, while I had also practiced my part enough to recognize what might be helpful and try to help her do it.
Sacha labored like a rock star throughout the night and eventually the sun came up. Her contractions were coming strong and steady and usually 2-3 minutes apart. Around 9 am, she started feeling like she had to push. Rachael and I exchanged a look that I took to mean maybe she's almost complete! That turned out to be wishful thinking, but she had made a lot of progress to 5 cm. The way things were progressing, it seemed that our baby might be here by mid-afternoon.
Sacha worked and worked and worked. She was the very model of a laboring woman. She was amazing. Around 1 pm, the midwife came in and checked her - she was 6-7 cm and the baby was still pretty high up. Try to bring the baby down, the midwife suggested. Undaunted, Sacha went out and we walked the halls. We tried different positions. She labored and labored.
I forgot to mention that her waters had broken on their own at 5 am. By mid-morning, some light green discharge was coming out. By early afternoon, it was getting darker green and sludgier. The midwife and nurses seemed unconcerned, as meconium is very common in babies that far past their due dates. However, they were starting to act concerned about her heart rate, which wasn't fluctuating as much as they wanted to see. First, they weren't seeing the accelerations that indicate the baby is doing well. Then, they weren't seeing much variability in the heart rate at all. They stopped monitoring once an hour and hooked Sacha up to the mobile telemetry monitors that would keep tabs on the baby all the time. They started to talk more about being concerned, but seemed confident that the baby was fine and wanted to give Sacha as much time as she needed.
Sacha labored and labored. She had to spend more and more time on the bed, as the nurses and midwife tried to get a handle on how the baby was doing. This was one of the worst positions for her and she still worked through the contractions like she was born to do it.
I'm not sure how much Sacha noticed, but things were slowly getting a little more tense among the medical staff. At one point, the baby had a deceleration that was slow to come up again and pretty soon Sacha had an oxygen mask on and the nurse urgently calling for backup. Then the baby stabilized and things continued on as they had been.
We were both really impressed at how the midwife and nurses handled the whole situation. They had the baby's health as their first priority, but seemed committed to managing risks without overreacting.
At 4 pm, Sacha got checked again. Progress had stalled at 6-7 cm and her cervix was swelling. Baby seemed to be either posterior or in a position with her head cocked slightly. Sacha was exhausted. Baby had been cooking in meconium for at least 7 hours and it was continuing to leak in dark gushes from her uterus. The midwife offered the option of continuing on as we had been and hoping that the baby would turn and descend, but also said she thought that perhaps the contractions weren't strong enough to be productive and a boost of pitocin might help.
Sacha took some time to think this over and decided that she had hit her limit. She wanted the pitocin and an epidural along with it. This turned out to be the best decision she ever made. The anesthetist showed up right away and within half an hour, she was feeling relief. She finally got a nap (after an hour and a half of sleep the night before) and the pitocin started her uterus dilating again. Pretty soon, she was 8 cm and the baby had turned. It looked like she would be able to rest for a few more hours and then she would start pushing. She was even starting to feel pressure, so it appeared that the baby was moving down. The midwife, now acting more concerned about the meconium and the continued flatness of the baby's heartrate, suggested doing an infusion of fluid into Sacha's uterus to give the baby some relief. We agreed to this and it was started.
I went out for a short walk to get some air and got back about 6:45. Rachael and I chatted and then rested while Sacha napped. It seemed like it could be hours before anything happened.
Then, at 7:00, everything changed. After the midwife we had been working with went off duty, instead of transferring us to a new midwife, care was abruptly transferred to the OB on call. He, a rather brusque man with a thick Russian accent, looked over the past several hours of heart rate strips and saw a baby in distress. He was clearly upset at the midwife for allowing this to continue.
He rushed into our room with the nurse in tow, woke Sacha up from a deep sleep, and told her that "the baby is not happy." He kept repeating that over and over. She is not happy and she needs to come out now. Sacha had an oxygen mask on and couldn't understand him over the hiss of the oxygen and his thick accent.
I had been watching the strips since I got back and remembered how the nurses said that if the line was really flat, then it was a cause for real concern. The lines were really flat. The heart rate was hovering around 150 beats a minute and not budging. The baby hadn't moved in hours.
He told her that she would have 15 minutes to push the baby out or they would be doing an immediate emergency c-section. He would help her with forceps.
Once Sacha got the message, we all had a few minutes of panic but she quickly got down to business. They broke down the bed and the room filled with people. The nurse explained that, if the baby didn't cry right away when she came out, they would purposefully not stimulate her to breathe so that she wouldn't inhale the meconium into her lungs. Instead, they would quickly cut the cord and hand her off to the nursery team standing by, who would suction her out before she could take her first breath. They told us that it would look a lot more dramatic than it was and that the baby would be fine.
The doctor got set up and Sacha started pushing. On the other end, the doctor pulled for all he was worth. We literally thanked God that she had gotten that epidural, because there wouldn't have been time for any pain management before the action started. Even with the epidural, she felt like she was being ripped in two.
Knowing that our baby needed to come out now, Sacha pushed like a woman possessed.
She got our daughter out in three minutes. It was the most incredible feat of strength I have ever seen.
First push brought the baby down. Second push delivered the head. And the third push brought the rest of the body out. It was like watching a video of the pushing stage in fast forward. Natalia was born!
Despite the reassuring explanations from before, the first minutes after Natalia's birth were overwhelming and terrifying. She came out with the cord wrapped twice around her neck. She was moving her hands a little bit, but that was about it. The surgeon cut the cord and passed her immediately to the nursery team at the warming table. I went with her. They suctioned her nose and mouth and put a tube down her throat to clean out her airway.
As they pulled out green and brown glop from everywhere, I just stood there sobbing. I knew they had said she would be okay, but it was really scary. Seeing all the people working on her, the tube down her throat, and then them manually bagging her while saying things like "her heart rate is dropping" just totally undid me. I kept trying to tell Sacha she was going to be fine, but I was crying so hard that I probably wasn't very convincing. I still get choked up when I tell people about it.
Then, just like that, things started to improve. She took a few breaths and made a couple of tiny cries. She started to pink up. They stopped working on her so urgently and started wiping the meconium off and cleaning all the vernix off her back. Vernix, people! She had vernix, and a lot of it, at 42 weeks gestation.
Pretty soon, she was cleaned up and wrapped up and they brought her to Sacha to hold for the first time. And suddenly we were having the moment we thought we would have, where we met our daughter for the first time! She did so well that they let her come right with us to the post-partum room and she's never looked back since.
Stats: She was 7 lbs, 2 oz and 20.5 inches long, with a 13.5 inch head circumference. She was/is a peanut! Everything about her just screams full-term baby, not baby who was two weeks overdue. Obviously, our dates are indisputable, but it seems like she just needed a little longer to cook in there.
We love her to pieces. Here are some photos of her and us:
Sacha meeting baby Talia:
The three of us:
Me holding her for the first time:
Just chillin':
Mateo meeting, and petting, his baby sister for the first time:
Cuddling after practicing nursing:
Supplementing with a little of my pumped breastmilk (she's working hard to learn to nurse, but needed some supplementation her second day because she still hadn't had a wet diaper):
Snoozing with Bubby:
Homeward bound!:
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