Take My Breath Away

whew. I had a baby girl last Saturday. Vitals were 7lb 10oz, 19.75 inches, APGAR score of 9.9 out of 10. That's really good. The kid is INCREDIBLE. must restrain myself...I'd like to give an all-inclusive account of the delivery, laboring, hospital experience, etc. - from this father's point of view.

A bit of pertinent background information - my mother-in-law wasn't able to deliver her first naturally. Her cervix wouldn't dilate like it needed to, even after chemical induction. There, all done.

Cast of characters:
Dr. Fareed Kadum - Was great to accept us as new patients when we were having a lot of trouble getting in at the other offices. We had initially made an appointment with another very capable OB doctor in town, but Jess kept getting sick and dehydrated from all the vomiting, and our appointments was too far out. We needed to try some medicine and didn't want to end up in the ER overnight every two days (we were there twice), so we had to find a doctor to admit us. Kadum's office made us an appointment within one or two days, and he was pretty nice. He'd been practicing in Cartersville, GA for some 20 or 30 years, which sealed the deal for my wife, as her all-time favorite music artist (Butch Walker) is from there, as well. We only saw him once or twice, but he also encouraged questions, and was willing to entertain any questions you could come up with, instead of dismissing them as many docs do.
Cynthia Wallace - midwife at Dr. Kadum's office (St Marys OBGYN). We had our first appointment with her on our third or fourth visit, and saw her for evey other one but the last. She is a delightful person to be around, encourages questions, and likes for the dad to be involved. I didn't know how she'd respond when I asked her if she could show me how to check the cervix for dilation - she responded by giving me 5 or 6 pairs of gloves and a bunch of sterile lube to take home, and talked me through doing it there in the office. The woman is wonderful. I can't say enough good things about her. She is a true asset to the St Marys OBGYN office.
Dr. Steve Kang - New OB in the office. I believe he worked with Dr Kadum for some time before coming here, but this was his first weekend on rotation. The nurses all told us that they didn't know anything about him because they hadn't worked with him yet. He's terribly nice, and did an exceptional job delivering my baby, and then cleaning my wife up/out afterwards. I have much confidence in this man's abilities.
All the nurses at SGHS - I don't remember all the names - Maria Villinauve (sp), Trish Woods, Belinda Smith, and the others who stopped in. They were all different, but a perfect combination. One had been there a long time, and did things her way, another was new and did things strictly by the book, another helped us with making the baby breastfeed, etc. They were wonderful.

So at 40 weeks, my wife was getting pretty upset. She still looked great, didn't have the problems that plague many women, such as the swollen hands and feet (she wore her wedding ring set throughout the pregnancy) or the stiff back, etc. At our 40 week appointment, Cynthia checked and said that her cervix was still only 1cm dilated. She hadn't really had any real contractions at that point, either. By the end of week 41, we were both pulling our hair out. We had our weekly appointment at 40 weeks and 6 days. Dr. Kang (I'll talk about him later - he was wonderful) checked the cervix, and it was still thick and at about 1cm. For those of you who haven't been through the childbirth experience yet, and don't remember high school anatomy class, the cervix is the "opening" to the uterus that the baby has to squeeze through before it can enter the birth canal. Kang said that he would have Jess admitted to the hospital on Friday (not what she wanted to hear), and that they'd give her a drug called Cytotec to "ripen" the cervix. They could do this every four hours. If her cervix responded to the Cytotec, then at some point they'd administer Pitosin and get the contractions really going. If she didn't respond too much, they'd send her home for the weekend to hopefully labor on her own and come back Monday and have the baby either naturally by induction, or via a c-section.

Cytotec was administered at around 8am. By 1pm, her cervix had effaced (thinned out) a great deal, but was still only at 1 cm. Positive change, but not much. We found out later from the night nurse that usually one pill is enough to make the necessary change, and then they begin the Pitosin. Well, they gave her another pill, and started the Pitosin drip, which was increased every 45 minutes or something. After the contractions started, they increased to the point where she was having them about every 30 seconds, and they were hurting her pretty good. I've always called her my "pain baby," because everything hurts her. Anyways, this stuff was hurting her pretty badly.

Doc came back in and checked on her around 11pm. She had dilated to about 1 1/2 cm, but that wasn't very good. He ordered the Epidural. The anesthesiologist showed up around 1am, and was great. I don't remember his name (maybe Woodruff, Wood-something), but I believe he's the same one who did the anesthesia for Jess' sinus and my hernia surgery. Anyhow, he was smooth, and the process took just a few minutes, after which she felt great. She was actually able to go to sleep and labor through the night painlessly. Many times, the epidural can stop the contractions if they had to be induced and weren't coming naturally. But hers continued, and Saturday morning she was at 3 1/2 when Dr. Kang came back in. He told us that we should expect to have the baby sometime on the near side of midnight. A nurse checked after he left, and said she was at a "good" four centimeters.

Some visitors came by, time passed, and my inlaws went to lunch. When they came back, I went to lunch with my parents. This was around 3 o'clock. We went to Ruby Tuesdays, and I got a HUGE salad with pumpernickle croutons in abundance. I sat down at the table and felt my phone vibrating. I looked at the caller ID and it said "Georgia" (my state), so I silenced the call. It vibrated again about 20 seconds later, and I looked at the number this time - it was my mother-in-law. I picked up the phone and she said that Jessica was at 10cm, and the doctor would be in in 1 hour to begin delivery. I finished my salad (albeit with shaky hands) and rushed back to the hospital. Found out that the nurse had went to put the fetal heartbeat monitor under the baby's scalp, and the crown of the head had already presented itself...you could see it between my wife's legs. It was gray and wrinkled, like a little brain.





So doctor Kang showed up and got his scrubs on, and we got down to business. I say "we," because at one point he looked at me and said, "Hey, dad...put on some gloves." "wha...okay." I put on the gloves, and he tells me to interlock my fingers and keep them in front of my chest - basically "keep sterile because you're going to be delivering the baby." Then he tells me to come around to the other side. The first this I do is grab Jess' leg, and Dr. kang says, "No, can't touch her leg. Put on some new gloves." So I reach over and grab a pair off the table the nurses have set up for him with all the necessary instruments for childbirth. Dr. Kang says, "No, can't touch anything on the table. The nurses will give you a new pair." I get a new pair of gloves, and when the baby is ready, he has me catch her head, and then with his hands over mine, guides the baby down and then up to gets her shoulders free. At that point, she slipped right out. Daddy (I refer to myself as "daddy" quite often now, which is kind of weird) caught her bottom end as it came out, and lifted her up. Doctor Kang told me to put her on Jess' chest, so I did, and Jess was - as I hope all new mothers are - compeltely overcome with emotion, and relief, and joy, etc. Here's a pic after they got her cleaned up a bit...

I intentionally left out someone from the "cast of characters" at the beginning, and that is God. He was as involved in this as Dr Kang, or even myself. Looking back at the marvelous way in which things came together, it could have only turned out as smoothly as it did through His leading. God has blessed us with so much, when we don't deserve anything. And now with this baby, we are overwhelmed, in a good way. In the best way. Sometimes it almost takes my breath when I really think about all God has given us and done for us. But that's for another post. For now, suffice it to say that God gets all the praise for everything good in my life.