It Happened One Night...

Well we've been home for a few days now, recovering, adjusting, and trying to sleep, and wanted to post a few details about the birth since folks had been asking. Today is actually Molly's due date, so things happened almost a week early. We had a preview when we went into a "routine" prenatal visit on March 1st and the doctor said that Sofia was already 3 cm dilated! She had no idea. By Thursday the contractions were starting to be significant, but still irregular. By evening they were getting stronger, and at 9:15 Sofia heard a "pop" and her water broke. After that it was fast and furious. Our wonderful doula Stacia Biltekoff came over and helped Sofia labor at home for a bit, but it became pretty clear we needed to go to the hospital. By the time we arrived at Kaiser Oakland, Sofia was yelling pretty loud! ;)

We got to the triage area, where she was 5 cm dilated & 90% effaced, and progressing fast. The contractions were so strong that even just doing intake and taking her vitals was hard - at one point they were struggling to take her blood pressure and Stacia had to tell the nurse to stop, because they were cutting off her circulation and her hand was turning blue! (Kaiser was a bit chaotic and had some bureaucratic confusions, but generally the care was good and professional and we had everything we needed.) After about 45 minutes of trying to do intake as Sofia shouted and shook, they realized she was now at 7 cm and needed to go to a delivery room quickly or she would give birth right there. There were a few more problems now with getting the room, which still needed to be cleaned from a previous birth (lotsa babies tonight!). There was another room open but the heating system had gone haywire in that one and it was a bit of a sauna. No thanks!

Finally they get Sofia into a room and set up with everything, and she's now 9 1/2 cm dilated and 100% effaced! The challenge now is to hold back from pushing until that last 1/2 cm dilates, which was no small feat given how hard Molly was coming and how low she was. The concern was that it could get swollen and block passage of the baby, a potentially major problem. Finally the doctor decided to reach in and push that last 1/2 cm "lip" behind Molly's head, and had Sofia push Molly forward to hold it into place. It worked! After that Sofia let out an amazing gutteral scream, and with one massive push, all of a sudden there was the top of a head! Quickly out came the rest of Molly, the cord was untangled from around her and cut by dad, and she brought right up to Mom for introductions, a quick cleanup, and a first breastfeeding.

From water break to delivery it was just 3 hours 15 minutes! No pain meds or anything ended up being needed; while this was Sofia's preference from the get-go, there was never time for them anyhow. Certainly this quick delivery was a blessing, although what it lacked in duration it made up for in intensity. I am truly in awe for how she handled it all. All in all an amazing experience.