Yes! We had a baby girl, Maanya on May 1st, 18 days ahead of schedule! I know you are wondering how it all happened, all in the blink of an eye.
Well, Thursday evening was a fun day for me - spent an hour of so in our backyard watching hubby dearest pull out weeds and do other chores around the yard. I must admit that I trimmed some rose bushes as well - of course, no bending or squatting or anything remotely similar to that. A relaxing bath and a foot massage followed suit. As we hopped into bed trying to organize our weekend plans, I figured we had more tasks on our list than that could be accomplished in those 2 and 1/2 days! Plans were as follows:
- Friday, May 1: Visit a close friend and her new born baby, and eat all different varieties of chaat possible.
- Saturday, May 2: Swim in gym, buy the sweet lime plant from Home Depot, a final trip (before Baby's Day Out) to Babiesrus for some remaining shopping and Jesudas' concert in the evening. We even had the tickets for this.
- Sunday, May 3: Lunch at a cousin's place.
So, it was around 11:15pm when I suddenly felt a pop. Yes, a pop. Must have been a powerful kick from the little one. That's what I told Sanju. But wait, I felt something flow out (water?). I woke up Sanju and told him that either the baby kicked real hard, or my water broke. We looked at each other for a second, and then jumped out of bed. Actually, I got out very gingerly...if my water indeed break, the last thing I wanted to do was mess our mattress and the carpet. Headed down to the loo, and I couldn't believe what I experienced...my water had broken! I WAS GOING TO HAVE MY BABY in the next day or so! I was shivering from head to toe, even a warm hug couldn't stop the shiver. I prepared to head to the hospital while Sanju woke up my parents. I was grinning ear to ear, and shivering all at the same time. There was no point changing out of my PJs...I would leak anyways!
Hospital bag. Check.
Baby bag. Check.
Camera bag. Check.
Car seat. Check.
Ipod. Check.
Towels ( a bunch of them) to protect the car. Check.
We were on our way!
I called my doc and he sure was surprised to be woken by me -- in fact, the same morning he had mentioned that my baby would be on schedule, he or she would not be out for another two weeks!
11:45pm. At the hospital, checked in at Emergency and waited for some one from L & D to come get me. That was the first time I sat in a wheel-chair! I could have substituted for Niagara Falls - the water continued to gush out, thought I'd drown in my own amniotic fluid! Once in the triage, I changed into teh hospital gown. The nurses got all the necessary paper work done to get me admitted. An IV was administered, monitors were setup to track my contractions and the foetal heart rate, my blood pressure. I was 1 cm dilated and 80% effaced. The plan was to check my progress again at 5am. The contractions had begun. I was smiling, sometimes grinning, exchanging private jokes with Sanju. The nurses were convinced that I was not having any contractions. We were waiting for a L & D room to be cleaned up. Oh, another thing, only one person is allowed in the triage. So my parents had to "wait" in the waiting room.
12:30am. Finally, I walked down the ailse to the room where I would soon have my baby. My parents came in there as well. Once were all settled in, the nurses turned down the lights so we could get some rest. Well, I was still shivering with excitement, running a temperature of 99.4 (could be a cause for concern if it went above 100). The contractions were getting stronger, but still bearable and were 5-7 minutes apart. Sanju sat by my side, holding my hand while trying to get a few winks.
5am. Status Quo - 1 cm dilated and 80% effaced. I had not progressed in 5 hours. Doc decided to get me started on Pitocin. They wanted the contractions to be stronger and closer. My plea for walk in the garden, well, at least the corridor was declined. Reason? My baby was dozing off a bit too much and needed to be active at this time. So I had to be on the monitor at all times. We bargained for a walk to the bathroom and a 5 minute walk inside my room before being strapped down again...No idea what happened then! My tummy started tightening like crazy...the contractions had gotten really strong now...I could barely stand, let alone walk! Hoped they would not do away with Pitocin, but nope, the plan was still on.
6:15am. Once Pitocin got into my blood stream, it ensure that I moan and groan and bite my teeth every 2-3 minutes. That was not all, I was having back labor since the little one was sunny side up. No amount of counter pressure that Sanju applied seemed to help. We breathed in and breathed out, my hubby, my coach, constantly encouraging me. It was painful. I thought I had a pretty high tolerance for pain, but I seemed to have crossed that threshold. I was preparing to ask for epidural.
6:30am. The doc came in to check on me. Another cervical exam revealed that I was 3-4cm dilated..yippee, some progress at last. However, I was told it would take anywhere from 4 to 6 hours for me to be completely dilated. The nurse was again going to check at 9:30. So the logical part of me decided to take epidural..it made sense to conserve my energy for the final push than to get pooped out only to have a C-section. A vaginal delivery was the goal.
7am. The anesthesiologist was there, and before I knew, I could no longer feel the contractions. I could not feel my legs even! They were dead. Somebody had to move them for me. The only thing that told me i was having contractions was the little tightness I would be at the top of my tummy/ uterus. I was back to smiling again. I got my ipod out and decided to listen to some Adobee music and get some shut eye now. Parents and Sanju headed down to the cafe for some breakfast. My breakfast was all of some apple juice, that too before I was given epidural. It was going to be ice chips only here on.
The next hour went in me being turned from left to right and right to left every 10 minutes. They claimed to be losing the baby's heart beat every now and then. So much for trying to sleep, or barely drifting off into dreamland.
8am. The nurse decided to check my cervix 1.5 hours earlier than my doc's plans. She believed that the baby was decending very rapidly and that would be the only reason why the heat beat was being missed. The next thing I heard from her - "Guess what, you are ready to have your baby!" Wow..I had progressed to 10cm dilated and 100% effaced all in a matter of 1 hour! The baby was at 0-station. The doc was there in 5 minutes, smiling and soon started to get ready for the big moment. All the nurses were in position, the baby warmer all set. Only one missing was my husband! His phone was turned off, I didn't know where my cell phone was. Finally, one of the nurses went down to the cafe herself to get my hubby. I was not going to have my baby without him being in the room!
8:30am. My feet up in stirrups. Doctor all set to help the baby out. Sanju by my side. I was wearing my glasses again. The mirror was positioned for me to see the little one make it's grand entrance into the world. Soon I had the word I had been waiting for: PUSH! With all my might, I huffed and puffed, and pushed with every contraction, ever so obediently. Suddenly, I could see a head ful of hair...did I need more motivation? All along, I saw a calm face before me, my doctor. He sat there patiently, silently encouraging me. At last, he decided to use vacuum to help the baby out. He said I would have a tear anyways.
9:06am. It's a GIRL! Maanya came out in one slick motion with the help of vacuum and one final push from me. She was so pink, cherry red lips and oh so alert, taking in everything and everyone she saw.
