The Birth Survey Booby Traps

Birth Stories
Jessica Barbara Ling's Birth

baby foot pink

greetings all,

'tis barbara ling here, along with the latest and greatest ling, jessica barbara, and my oh my, do we have a story to tell - a tale of adventure, amazement, and of course, the 'if it will happen to anyone, it will happen to my daughter' foreshadowing by my mom. so without further ado, here is the story of my daughter's birth!

on saturday morning, 2/24 (the original due-date of jessica), i noticed some rather minor crampies which began at around 5:00am. with visions of finally meeting the person who enlarged my shape to an eggplant crossed with a watermelon swirling about my mind, i told the husband that 'perhaps this will be it', and suggested that if we have breakfast, we find a diner local to the hospital for the anticipated dash over. well, by 7:00am I informed him that breakfast is nixed - let's zoom to the hospital! by this time, the contractions were between 5-7 minutes apart and still defined by me as crampies - nothing too major.

i arrived at the hospital at 8:20am, and was admitted and secluded in the LDR room by 8:45. at this time, a fetal monitor was strapped to my belly, and yes indeedy, i was pronounced in labor. how nice! my doctor arrived, and discovered that i was only 3 cm dialated and 80% effaced - i actually remember thinking, oh goody, i can anticipate and enjoy the ensuing moments. sheesh. anywhos, by 10:00 i hadn't progressed to anything, and so the doctor broke my water in an effort to speed up labor. that did have some effect, and my crampies could now be defined as somewhat painful contractions (but again, not too severe).

around 12:00pm, i decided to try the wonderful shower in the bathroon - gad that felt heavenly for at least 10 whole blissful minutes. the doctor then showed up around 12:30pm or so, examined me, and pronounced me a whole 3 cm! with no descending whatsoever by the baby! this was a wee bit distressing, to say the least. so! the pitocin was turned on, and the contractions started coming every 3-4 minutes. actually, let me amend that - the contractions started steamrolling over me every 3-4 minutes.

after an hour or so of this joy, the contractions were so agonizing that i asked for the epidural (yes! i've redefined natural childbirth to include an epidural!) which i received. that's the good news. the bad news is that after an hour or so, the epidural cathedor fell out (!) and i began discovering the real meaning to the word 'pain'. thing is, nobody realized this was the problem, so the anethesiologist just pumped in more eppie - it worked for about 5 minutes after he had left, and then dissapated. it's tough to describe the ensuing pain - i remember thinking it's like being caught between two cement mixers which were slowly grinding me in opposite directions (it's amazing how the mind works during times like this - i remember deciding that i must figure out a good analogy for my birth story later!)

>from 4pm to 5pm i was in dire ouchness, and moaning with each breath - i had my father holding one foot, my mom holding the other foot, and my husband holding my hand while i went thru this. at 5, the problem with the eppie was finally diagnosed, and its insertion redone. oh joy! no more pain! that was the good news. the bad news was (you guessed it) i had not progressed at all whatsoever!!

by 7:00pm, the doctor told me that a c-section would be needed. by this time, i was willing to be filleted, sliced, diced, anything to get this baby out! and wheeled down to the operating room i was.

the prep for surgery was another amusing adventure (in hindsight, of course :-) ). i remember hearing the anethesiologist discussing with the doctor 'i've never seen this before!' turns out that yet again, my cathedor had gone exploring, and it took 20 minutes to position it properly again.

surgery commenced at 8:02pm with my husband by my side. i had asked to view the process, but of course wasn't allowed (wah!);however, the hubby watched everything. the doctor did give me a running commentary on the proceedings - 'now i'm moving past the fatty tissues and making an incision...' and at 8:22pm, i heard a 'WWWWAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!' as jessica finally made her way into the world. (my first thought was 'gee, she wahs just like her mother!')

well! one thing this taught me was that no matter what you plan, expect the unexpected. i learned that jessica was a posterior baby (sunnyside up), which explains why my cervix just plain stopped dialating past 3 cms. i'm certain grateful that all the accoutrements of eppies, pitocin, c-section, etc. exist! and that my doctor, dr. goldberg, was simply superb - the very next day saw me up and about, even with the c-section surgery. and for some weird reason, the cut never bothered me at all after saturday - even when the pain medication was turned off, i didn't feel a twinge (and so sunday i was up and about, shuffling down the hallway at various hours for exercise).

i first laid eyes on jessica at 12:30am on sunday, when she was brought out for breastfeeding. and thus began the next major set of problems for me - she seemed to be taking it okay, but i discovered later on that she wasn't latching on properly at all. you know how babies lose about 10% of their birth weight after a couple of days? well, jess lost hers after 1.5 days! so i called in a lactation consultant (who was absolutely wonderful! drop me a line if you're in central nj and need one - she made all the difference), who showed me the proper way to latch her onto my nipple. by this time, of course, my nipples were scabbed over with lots of sucking blisters - i'm happy to report that now they have almost healed completely.

jessica was born at 8 pounds 2 ounces, went down to 7 pounds 5 ounces, and on 3/2 was 7 pounds 12 ounces. so it looks like she's gaining her weight back again, which relieves my paranoia just a wee bit.

our latest problem is that her internal clock is somewhat messed up - she wants to sleep lots during the day, and stay awake at all hours during the night. wah! at first, i had put her bassinet in our bedroom, but after a night in which my hubby achieved only 3 hours or so of sleep, i've decided she'll now sleep in her room and in her crib (we bought a baby monitor so we can hear her from different rooms). i'm certainly in hopes that within a week or so, she'll start sleeping more than 1.5 hours a stretch during the night...hence, i'm waking her during the day every two hours for a nursing session. wish me luck!

in hindsight, i'd say i'm pretty darned lucky in the way it all turned out. the hospital staff at st. peters was extremely considerate in all things, jessica was born healthy, etc. i have experienced some crying jags, mind you - my hormones must still be so wired that i'll start thinking, eeek, there is this new person in my relationship with my husband, will she need to be nursed for the next 30 years, how will i deal with college, what about paying for her wedding, etc. i'm also very blessed in that my husband is extremly understanding of my pingponging mood swings - sometimes I look at my daughter and wonder, why did i ever consider becoming pregnant, but more often, i look at her, and realize why I did.

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