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.
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Friday, March 04, 2005
Molly Zander Franklin
Molly Zander Franklin was born on March 4th, 2005 at 12:35 am. She weighed 6 pounds 7.5 ounces and was 20 1/2 inches long. She happens to be delicious.
Tuesday, March 01, 2005
no more teachers, no more books ...
Yesterday was my first day on Maternity Leave. (School's out!)
I had planned on working through this week, but after getting sick (again!) last week, and just generally slowing down a whole lot, we decided it was a good time to make a break. Plus, I wasn't working on projects any more (somehow, folks don't like putting 8-month pregnant ladies on projects. Go figure).
So far (does one day count as very far?) it's been nice. I can take it slow, but there's enough to do around the house that I'm keeping busy. Aside from not making money, my only fear is that this baby will push the limits of the due date and I'll be sitting here three weeks from now going stir-crazy.
Well, happy March to everyone & I welcome any positive birth thoughts you can send my way (c'mon little one! come out and play! we all want to meet you!).
I had planned on working through this week, but after getting sick (again!) last week, and just generally slowing down a whole lot, we decided it was a good time to make a break. Plus, I wasn't working on projects any more (somehow, folks don't like putting 8-month pregnant ladies on projects. Go figure).
So far (does one day count as very far?) it's been nice. I can take it slow, but there's enough to do around the house that I'm keeping busy. Aside from not making money, my only fear is that this baby will push the limits of the due date and I'll be sitting here three weeks from now going stir-crazy.
Well, happy March to everyone & I welcome any positive birth thoughts you can send my way (c'mon little one! come out and play! we all want to meet you!).
Sunday, February 27, 2005
some interesting sites...
What a baby sees...
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/episode1/infantvision/flash.html
(courtesy wendy chaney)
What a baby name does...
http://babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html
(courtesy barnali ghosh)
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/brain/episode1/infantvision/flash.html
(courtesy wendy chaney)
What a baby name does...
http://babynamewizard.com/namevoyager/lnv0105.html
(courtesy barnali ghosh)
Labels:
pregnancy
Thursday, February 17, 2005
Tuesday, February 15, 2005
On being 37 weeks pregnant
Technically speaking I'm not 37 weeks pregnant until tomorrow. But interestingly (so I think) today was filled with questions and comments that led to my unilateral decision that basically I'm 37 weeks pregnant now. For those of you that have been paying attention, you'll remember the significance of hitting 37 weeks. For those of you (like me) that need a reminder it is at this point that the potential birth of the child is no longer considered premature.
Of course, the past week has been filled with reassurances that most first pregnancies hit the 41-42 week mark no problem. In fact, until today, almost every birth story I had heard involving a first pregnancy had also involved threats of induction (ie. pregnancy gone long). Even the doctor calmly smiled and confirmed that yes, first pregnancies tend to go past 40 weeks, she saw no reason why ours wouldn't, and so we should settle in for the long haul.
Today, oh today, all that changed. With no prodding whatsoever I got no less than three stories of women delivering their first child before 40 weeks and two of them at (gasp!) 37 weeks. Um. Yeah. That's this week. This has also been accompanied by an interesting shift in belly comments - suddenly I'm "huge", "ready to pop", "bigger every day!", etc. One person even decided that I'd "dropped", which I would argue against, but there it is.
But, the reality is I'm more likely to deliver later, rather than sooner. Which basically means that I have up to 5 long weeks ahead of me, with each day a new wave of anticipation, fear, excitement, and the realization that more than half our house is in complete disarray at this point.*
* disarray - On Saturday evening, with dinner plans canceled, Zach and I debated going to a movie, but instead decided to... paint our living room. Now, to our credit (or not), we had decided to do this months ago. In fact, we had already bought the paint and the gear but had never gotten around to the actual painting. So, we figured, why not just do it now? Except now the living room is torn apart, the "dining" room is a combination of living room furniture and baby gear that we started to sort through, and the 2nd bed room (aka kid's room?) is full of unsorted baby gear. Now would be an excellent time to deliver.
Of course, the past week has been filled with reassurances that most first pregnancies hit the 41-42 week mark no problem. In fact, until today, almost every birth story I had heard involving a first pregnancy had also involved threats of induction (ie. pregnancy gone long). Even the doctor calmly smiled and confirmed that yes, first pregnancies tend to go past 40 weeks, she saw no reason why ours wouldn't, and so we should settle in for the long haul.
Today, oh today, all that changed. With no prodding whatsoever I got no less than three stories of women delivering their first child before 40 weeks and two of them at (gasp!) 37 weeks. Um. Yeah. That's this week. This has also been accompanied by an interesting shift in belly comments - suddenly I'm "huge", "ready to pop", "bigger every day!", etc. One person even decided that I'd "dropped", which I would argue against, but there it is.
But, the reality is I'm more likely to deliver later, rather than sooner. Which basically means that I have up to 5 long weeks ahead of me, with each day a new wave of anticipation, fear, excitement, and the realization that more than half our house is in complete disarray at this point.*
* disarray - On Saturday evening, with dinner plans canceled, Zach and I debated going to a movie, but instead decided to... paint our living room. Now, to our credit (or not), we had decided to do this months ago. In fact, we had already bought the paint and the gear but had never gotten around to the actual painting. So, we figured, why not just do it now? Except now the living room is torn apart, the "dining" room is a combination of living room furniture and baby gear that we started to sort through, and the 2nd bed room (aka kid's room?) is full of unsorted baby gear. Now would be an excellent time to deliver.
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