From pregnant to not pregnant...

So, last you talked to me, I was on bedrest at Duke, and now,
here I type in my living room at HOME! How did that happen?
Well, on Thursday, January 14, I woke up at 5:30AM with a mild
contraction. And, then, 3 more followed by 6:30AM. This met the
criteria for "calling the nurse" - which was 4 contractions in an hour.
They hooked me up to the monitor and we watched and waited.
Nothing major was happening and the contractions were irregular
and not getting any more painful. I calmly called Mike and told him
that I was being monitored, but, that he didn't need to come to the hospital.
At 9:00AM, I had a longer and more painful contraction while, simultaneously,
the baby's heart rate dropped. When I saw this happen, I knew the medical types
would come running and sure enough they did. So, off we went to Labor & Delivery (L&D)
and I called Mike and let him know that he might want to come on over to the hospital,
"just in case" because I was sure it was a false alarm.
Monitoring continued and they were still irregular for the morning. Around noon time, the
contractions started to get longer and more painful (but still nothing major).
By 1:30PM, they were 6-7 minutes apart and baby had 2 more decelerations
in her heart rate. NOW is when I knew the doctors were leaning towards delivery.
Sure enough, Dr. Laske & Dr. Gunatilake conferred and agreed that it was GO time.
Then, things went along pretty quickly! By 2:45PM, I was off to the OR and the spinal
was in place by 3:20, they brought Mike in at 3:25 and little miss Rachael appeared at
3:40PM! She wimpered in the OR and when they whisked her to the observation room,
I could hear her wailing from inside the OR with the door shut-- THANK GOD! What
a beautiful sound! Her APGARS were 8 and 9! Amazing....absolutely amazing.
The numbing from the epidural is a trippy experience. Logically, I knew he was slicing in
to my skin,but, all I could feel was a light touch of his fingers. I had the shakes from the
anesthesia as well as tears welled up in my eyes for most of the process. Mike talked to
me through the procedure and the nurses and doctors would ask me questions from time
to time. The delivery of the placenta and general clean-up took twice as long as the birth!
By 2 1/2 hours after delivery, I was back in my room on the 7th floor and settled in
for a long night!
I managed to visit the baby for the first time at 11pm that night, but, I was in quite
a bit of pain and was exhausted, so, I didn't stay very long.
There's the story of Rachael's arrival...it is truly a miracle...birth of any kind...
and I can say, that she is, in fact, a COMPLEX miracle!