Jessica Barbara Ling
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.