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In honor of Ronan’s first birthday I have written down his birth story. It contains some slightly graphic details. You have been warned.

September 2008

The week before Ronan was due: My mother arrived to help with Anders during my hospital stay. Cal-Trans made some small but crucial changes to the freeway under construction between our house and the hospital adding at least an extra hour to the 20-minute drive. The worldwide financial system suffered a major collapse, and former President Bush called on Congress to put together a massive bailout.

Friday, September 19, 2008

I had my last OB appointment. Baby was doing well. I was officially past due and was told to call the office on Monday if I didn’t go into labor over the weekend.

Monday, September 22, 2008

No baby. I called the OB office and was told to call Labor and Delivery at the hospital and set up a Non-Stress Test. I called and was told I could come in the following day for the test.

I told Jonathan I might need him to come with me to the NST if he could make it… you know… just in case.

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

My NST was scheduled for 1:00. That was perfect! I could swing by Jonathan’s office on the way to the test and pick him up and then have him back at work in less than an hour. I spent the morning with Anders and my mom and grabbed a snack before it was time to go to the hospital. I gave Anders a quick kiss goodbye and said, “I’ll be back soon.” He was watching the Wiggles with Grandma and didn’t really notice that I left.

I pulled up to Jonathan’s office and called him on my cell to come down. He got in the passenger seat, and we drove to the hospital. I realized once we arrived that I really had no idea where to park or how to find L & D. I told Jonathan, “I guess it’s a good thing we have this dry run so we will know where to go when the time comes.” After a few wrong turns we found L & D, and we were shown to a room for the test. The entire time I felt the urge to tell people, “Don’t worry! I’m not in labor.”

The nurse did a quick ultrasound to check my amniotic fluid and assured me that everything looked fine. She hooked me up to the monitor and handed me the button to push whenever I felt the baby move. I settled in for a little while and nothing much happened.

Jonathan and I chatted away, and I assured him that we would be done soon. I would have him back to work in no time. He mentioned that he would like to stop on the way back to work to get something to eat. “No problem,” I assured him.

I felt a little twinge – maybe a BH contraction- and the nurse asked me if that was a contraction. I said, “Yes. I think so.” She stared at the monitor. After a while she said the test was over, and now she was just going to go call my doctor. Could I please wait here while she spoke to my doctor? “Sure”, I said. Hoping this wouldn’t take long…. Anders was waiting for me, and Jonathan hadn’t had any lunch yet.

So that nurse did not return. Instead a different nurse entered the room and introduced herself as “my” nurse. I thought how odd – I’m going to be out of here in a few minutes. She said she needed to check my cervix. I took off my clothes to oblige, and she proceeded to give me the most painful check I’ve ever had, including when I was in active labor with Anders. It turns out she was under the impression that I hade been checked at my most recent appointment (I had not.) and that I was 2cm at the time. I had only ever been checked at my 36-week appointment, and then I was not dilated at all. So maybe that explains it. I don’t know.

After we cleared up the confusion she gave me the bad news. The baby’s heartbeat had dropped when I had that contraction, and they really didn’t want to let me leave. Since I was already at the hospital and past due, they would go ahead and admit me and induce labor right then and there. Since this came as a complete shock my reaction was to immediately burst into tears. Jonathan took the news a bit better. I had been through two pregnancies and up until this point had never had anything but stellar test results. I pulled myself together enough to find out that we were going to change to a labor room where they would start pitocin.

We made our way to the labor room and the nurse gave me a gown to put on and left us for a short time to get some paperwork. I called my mom to let her know I would not be back. I had taken the car with the car seats so she and Anders would be stuck at the house until Jonathan could go home to drop it off and swing by work to pick up the other car.

When the nurse returned she took my medical history and tried to place an IV in my arm. Her first effort failed, and I began to wonder if this nurse just didn’t like me. The one advantage to having large and protruding veins is that you usually don’t have to worry about a second attempt to get an IV going. I asked the nurse when I would get the epidural if we started pitocin now, and she looked at me as though I had asked for a massage and pedicure. She said not to worry. We would start with a very small dose of pitocin and I probably wouldn’t even feel the contractions for a very long time. I asked how long and she thought I would be fine for a couple of hours at least.

In that case, I mentioned that Jonathan needed to run to the house to drop off the car and get some lunch so maybe he should go right away before things really got going. Again she looked at me like, “Are you nuts?” Finally she agreed that it was probably safe for Jonathan to take off for a little while but he should be back as soon as possible. It was decided that Jonathan would drive home, pick up my mom and Anders, then they would all drive to his office so he could pick up the other car and then they would all come to the hospital to hang out until things got to be too much to have a fourteen month old around.

So Jonathan left and the nurse continued with the medical history, hooked me up to another monitor and started the pitocin drip. I turned on CNN to see what was happening with this worldwide financial meltdown business. It was really hard to watch though because then nurses were constantly in and out checking the monitors and cranking up the pitocin.

After about an hour Jonathan returned with Anders and my mom. Around the same time my OB stopped by to check in with me and to check my progress. (Surprise! Didn’t hurt a bit.) I was already two cm and she told me things would probably go quickly from that point. The next step would be getting me some pain relief as soon as I needed it and move to a delivery room. For the time being, though, I wasn’t in much pain so I asked if I could walk around. The nurse hooked me up to a wireless monitor, and I began to wander the halls with my mom, Jonathan and Anders in tow. After spending some time trying to get Anders to be quiet in the hallway outside all those poor laboring women’s rooms I realized that the rooms were empty, and I was actually the only laboring woman around.

After walking for another 45 minutes or so the contractions were getting pretty strong. We decided to send my mom and Anders home for the evening and said we would call to let them know when the baby arrived. Jonathan went to walk them out and help get Anders into the car. I went to use the restroom and while I was in there the monitors started going crazy.

The nurses came running and I explained I was just using the bathroom and, really, everything was fine. However, they made me get into bed and sit around until the doctor could be consulted. Sitting in the bed made the contractions feel dramatically worse, and I began to long for the epidural.

Jonathan came back and found me confined to bed. Finally they said I could get up again. However, the contractions were getting stronger and faster, and I was ready for the epidural. I walked down the hall to the nurse’s desk and let her know that the pain was getting really intense. I was ready for the epidural. She said, “Oh but the pain is good! You need to wait so the epidural won’t slow down your labor.” I was beginning to think I did not like this nurse. I wanted to reach across the desk and strangle her. This is not the thing to say to a woman being induced against her will. She offered to have me walk around some more or use the shower.

I said I would try the shower and get the epidural in a half hour. The shower was horrible. The water fluctuated from warmish to cold back to warmish again. The pain was nauseating. My arm was wrapped in a plastic baggy to protect the IV. I got out as quickly as I could and attempted to dry off my enormous body through the contractions and marched back out to the nurse’s station as soon as I could get dressed. I told her, “OK. I’m ready for my epidural NOW.”

So they began to get ready and moved me to the delivery room. Fortunately the anesthesiologist was available since I was the only one there. I had my epidural in about 15 minutes. Then the mean nurse said her shift was over and introduced me to the nice nurse who would be there for the rest of my delivery.

Since I was settled and not in horrible, pitocin-induced agony anymore, I told Jonathan he should run out and get a bite to eat. He left and I turned the TV on to House. (Probably not the best thing to watch when one is actually in the hospital.) It didn’t really matter though because within a few minutes I began to feel my contractions again and let the nurse know I was having pain. She called the anesthesiologist and he came immediately to give me more medication. She said that was a sign things were progressing more quickly than expected and thought she had better check me again. I was already dilated to 7 cm. She said she would check me again in another twenty minutes or so. I might be 10 cm by then. I said I hoped Jonathan would be back soon. (Sending him out to get some food seemed like a good idea at the time.)

So the nurse came back to check me and announced I was 10cm and midwife would arrive shortly so we could begin pushing. Then Jonathan walked in and got the news that we were just about ready.

So when the midwife arrived she checked me and said that although I was 10 cm, the baby was still pretty high and we could either wait and labor down for a while or do a trial push to see what happened. Having long since given up on trying to watch House I told her I didn’t really have anything better to do than try to push. As it turned out, the baby didn’t care for pushing. Monitors went off and nurses appeared out of nowhere.

It just happened that the midwife was not fully certified to deliver babies at our hospital on her own yet so the on-call doctor had to be summoned as well. After consulting, the midwife and doctor decided to let me labor for a bit longer to see if that helped the situation. The midwife decided to put in an internal monitor so they could keep better track of the baby’s heartbeat during the final stages. (If you haven’t seen one, an internal monitor is a long wire with a corkscrew like end that is threaded through the cervix and attached directly to the baby’s scalp.) Everyone reassured us that nothing was wrong and they were just being careful.

So we waited longer. Periodically I was asked if I felt the urge to push. I never did feel the urge to push, but eventually I was ready.

Another push, another set of alarms and nurses showing up out of the woodwork. At this point my OB also stopped by just to join in the fun. And this continued for quite some until the on-call doctor gave me an ultimatum. “We don’t want to continue like this much longer. You need to either push this baby out with the next contraction or we will have to pull him out with the vacuum.” By now there were ten or twelve people in the room just waiting for something to happen. Jonathan held my hand. So I pushed with all my might and our baby finally emerged. He immediately gave a good cry to let us know he was ok.

Ronan’s umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck, around his arms and around his waist. And he was perfectly healthy and beautiful. The midwife had never seen so much blond hair on a newborn in her life. He was able to latch on and nurse right away and has really been the most wonderful baby ever since.

Happy Birthday Ronan! Mommy and Daddy love you more and more each day. You are the most wonderful surprise we have ever received.