The Wittenbergs: October 2010

When we found out I was pregnant back in February, having only lived in Ruby Valley for a little over a month and experiencing snow like we'd never seen before (and having to drive 4 hours round trip to town for groceries, gas, whatever we might need), one of our first concerns was what the weather would be like in October, when our little one would be due. Would the snow be covering the roads already? Would Harrison Pass, the shorter route into town (only 2:40 round trip), be open? Could it be possible that we'd become snowed in and not be able to get to the hospital? We began polling our neighbors, and heard everything from "We've had snow on the 4th of July - we could definitely be snowed in by then" to "Nah, you won't have to worry, it will be beautiful in October still". Well, that was helpful.

So, over the next months we jokingly talked about what if Rod had to deliver this baby out here in Ruby Valley, or on the roadside, due to our inability to make it to the hospital? I even made Rod watch an emergency childbirth video (courtesy of Mom, who is a certfied nurse-midwife for those of you who don't know) "just in case" (which he found horrifying - "more gory than the worse slasher-flick" in his words).

Well - that is exactly what almost happened!

Rod can tell this story much better than me (if anyone gets the chance you should ask him to tell it), and you don't get the full effect reading it, but here goes my version of our birth story.

I went to my midwife in Elko on Monday October 18, my due date. After checking me, she said I was no where close to having this baby. She scheduled me to come back on Thursday the 21st for fetal monitoring and to schedule an induction for early the following week, and sent me on my way. Wednesday night, October 20, Rod and I took the dogs on our nightly walk - I was feeling pretty good, able to keep up a pretty brisk pace (which was a rare event for me in those final weeks - he loved to call me "Shrek" due to my waddle, and had a hard time matching my super slow pace on these walks). It was like any other night.

I woke up at 1:30 am to go to the bathroom (a 3-4 time/night event by now), and as soon as I laid back down, the cramps started in. After laying there for about 30 minutes, unable to fall back to sleep, I went back to the bathroom and had some early labor warning signs. Rod woke and asked if all was okay - I told him yes, something was happening, but I wasn't sure what yet. He said "Do you wanna go to the hospital?" but I assured him I was fine, and he should get some sleep for our 9:30 am appointment into town. We'd planned to leave extra early to take photos of the beautiful fall colors on our way over Harrison.

I pulled out my birth books and read the parts on true versus false labor - inconclusive. Perhaps this was the real deal, perhaps just my body preparing itself (which can occur up to 4 weeks prelabor). However - these "cramps" were getting a lot stronger. I hadn't had any identifiable Braxton-Hicks my whole pregnancy, but this is what I'd imagine they feel like. I decided to take a hot shower to see if that would relax me. As I was heading back to the bathroom, Rod woke and asked if I was okay. I informed him I was having some contractions, and was going to take a hot shower. He asked again, "Do you want to go to the hospital?", but again I told him to go back to sleep.

Once in, I started counting through the contractions - they were lasting consistently about 15 seconds, but were coming about every 5 minutes. I stayed until the water cooled off - the last 2 I had were 20 and 25 seconds. I got out and drank a big glass of water, and laid down on the couch, thinking since they were irregularly spaced (between 5-10 minutes apart now) and not incredibly intense, they may slow or stop. No such luck - lasting between 30 - 80 seconds now, and getting a bit stronger. I waited until 4:00 (6:00 am Mom's time) and called her to describe my symptoms. She said it sounded like I was headed that direction, but probably not time to go in yet. She advised me to take a hot bath.

So - I sat in a hot tub, until I had the overwhelming urge to go to the bathroom. While on the toilet, my water broke. Well - guess this was the real deal - no question now! I headed to the bedroom and said "Rod, we need to go to the hospital, my water just broke". I have never seen that kid move so fast! He flung off the covers, leapt out of bed, and began throwing any clothing item within reach into a bag. The next several minutes were frantic. He was a nervous wreck, and I was trying to make sure we left the house with all we needed. I managed to get him to take the dogs out to potty while I loaded some things into the car. He decided to call the hospital to tell them if we'd not made it in 1.5 hours we were somewhere on the roadside having a baby and they needed to come find us - that's my smart boy. They told him they wouldn't do that, to call 911. When 911 was busy, he became even more frantic - but finally made it through to them. They needed to play 20 questions, getting our address, phone number, health history, dogs' names, etc. etc. Finally they decided they'd send an ambulance to meet us halfway.

We crawled into the car and Rod was so worked up he couldn't get his seatbelt on (you know, if you jerk them really fast and hard they lock up and don't tend to pull out - he yanked it about 12 times before I convinced him to relax and slow down, and we'd get out of the garage quicker!). We pulled out at 5:27 am. My contractions were really strong by now - about 2 minutes apart, and I told Rod when I was having one he wasn't allowed to talk to me. The drive was miserable. As I'd feared, the bumpy dirt road that is Harrison Pass was excrutiating when in the middle of a contraction. I gritted it out, however, and we hadn't been on the pavement long when we were met by a sheriff. (We also had to avoid a large black cow lying down in the middle of the road, and a miner driving like 90 mph in our lane head-on). He escorted us to the grandiose town of Jiggs - population 3 ranchers and 7 cats, establishments 1 room school house and Jiggs bar. Lo and behold, that was our rendezvous point. The sheriff led us into the bar parking lot, and we saw the ambulance approaching from the north. After loading me onto a stretcher in the back, the 2 young men decided they needed to take my vitals, hook me up to an IV, have a conversation with me as though we were meeting for lunch... I tried to convince them they needed to wait between contractions to do all of that, but they weren't having. Nor could I convince them I didn't need that IV just then, we just needed to get going. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity (Rod said it was about 10 minutes) we were on our way. One man stayed in the back with me, and as soon as we headed out he said "I need to check you to see if you're crowning". He raised the sheet, quickly peeked in and pulled it right back down. "Nope". Sheesh, I could have told him that! He seems more embarrassed than I did.

On the way, he kept rubbing my belly, feeling one spot and saying "Feel here - is this the baby?", then saying "Yeah, it still feels really, high, I don't think it's dropped yet so you're probably not that close". That was my biggest fear - we'd get to the hospital, they'd check me and say cheerfully with a smile, "You are one centimeter dilated!" This was pure hell - if I wasn't far along, I was going to die - there was no way I could do this! I prayed he really was as inexperienced as he seemed.

My biggest mistake was getting in that ambulance - it was so much worse than our Hyundai. They wasted 10 minutes at the bar, the ride was incredibly uncomfortable, and I had a guy poking, prodding and TALKING TO ME (the one thing I'd forbid Rod to do) the whole way. Well, not the whole way - at one point he asked "Do you just want me to shut up?" and in the midst of convulsing with my eyes clenched shut I nodded yes. At the hospital he said to Rod "I don't think your wife likes me very much". FINALLY we pulled into the hospital - my contractions had become unbearably severe in the last few minutes of the ride, and I had a couple of overwhelming urges to push. It was all I could do not to. Everything was a blur as I was pulled out of the ambulance and whisked into the ER. Suddenly Rod was by my side again, though I was only vaguely aware of him. He was rubbing my hair and walking beside me. I'm sure he was surprised at my current state - I could at least have moment to talk between contractions when we arrived at the Jiggs Bar, and silently bore each one by writhing and convulsing in pain. Now I was one solid contraction - there was no talking, only screaming. Yes, I was that woman. I always thought "Why do those silly women need to scream like that?" - well, I screamed like that! And moaned, and wailed - it was awful. And then - the moment I'd waited for. I don't remember who, doctor or nurse, but someone checked me and said "She's fully dilated." Ahhhhh, music to my ears. "Can I push?" I managed to get out. No, not yet they said. Rod asked "Is it too late for her to have an epidural?" Oh yeah, they said.

There was some debate among the ER and L&D nurses about whether there was time to get me up to a labor room or if they needed to do it right there, and they decided to put me in an elevator and take me to a labor room. I gutted out 5 or 6 contractions en route - and through them I'd clench the sides of the stretcher, which inevitably resulted in my hands getting slammed into various items as we passed by. FINALLY we'd arrived, and they told me I could start pushing. I wasted no time. It took pushing through about 4 contractions, and we had a baby. Rod was super - he was comforting me, he actually held one of my legs while I pushed, he had his other hand behind my head, he was right there in the fray. He was wonderful! Here's where I wish someone had been videoing (of course, with the way things went down, we had no camera of any sort on hand), as I'll never remember exactly what Rod said, but it was too cute. He looked at me with wide eyes, looked down, looked back and said "Oh my gosh - there's a baby - right there on the bed - there's a baby!" I said "Is it a girl or a boy?" and he looked at me kind of bewildered. He looked down, looked back perplexed, looked back down, and as though he were asking a question said "Ummm, a girl?" Yes, a nurse said, it's a girl. Ah, a little baby girl. "Is she okay? Is she healthy?" I asked. The nurses assured me she was, as by now they'd whisked her aside to check her over. I breathed a sigh of relief. Poor Rod - they cut the cord, never asked him if he wanted to, though I don't think he feels too deprived. He'd just been through quite a harrowing ordeal, and could finally breathe a sigh of relief. We had a healthy, baby girl!!!

Rod loves to tell this part of the story, which at the time was pretty inconsequential to me, but now seems pretty relevant to our whole birth story. As soon as we got to the labor room, a (in his words) "tall, dark-haired doctor, like the kind who'd be in a daytime soap" walked in, gloved up and checked me. Rod walked out in the hall and asked the nurses when our doctor would be arriving (WHICH doctor was a bit of a question, as we'd been going to a practice with 2 docs and a midwife - I'd wanted the midwife to deliver me, and a part of this reason was that she was female and it weirded me out to think of going through that process with a male doctor), and they informed him that Dr. Winch was on the way but was 20 minutes out. It was clear to everyone that was probably not going to cut it, and Rod expressed to them that although he had watched an emergency childbirth video (and wished now he'd paid more attention!) he did not feel ready to deliver this baby. They assured him that every nurse in the room had delivered on before, and I was in good hands. Content with that reply, he came back into the room. This soap star was still standing there with me, and Rod asked if he'd done this before. "Yeah, a few times" he replied - and that was about the last thing he ever said. Once they told me to start pushing, this fella, with a calm, cool, collected demeanor, never said a word, never looked me in the face, just proceeded to take care of business while Rod and the nurses comforted me. Once baby was out, he removed his gloves and proceeded to exit the room. At this point the nurses all looked at each other and the conversation went something like this: "Who was that doctor?" "I don't know!" "I've never seen him before" "Me neither....". Great - the janitor? Some guy on a smoke break at the right time? A guy who stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night? (This is Rod's version of the story - again, if you ever get the chance, ask him to tell it!) So, we have no idea who delivered our little girl.

Pretty soon in walked Dr. Winch. "Okay, I'll deliver the placenta now" he announces. Rod and I looked at each other perplexed, and Rod said "Uh, I'm pretty sure he already did that." There was some debate, and then Dr. Winch looked beneath a towel and said "Oh yeah, there it is". Rod said for a moment he was worried, if that wasn't my placenta he watched Doc pull out, then they better get it back in me ASAP! He had to mend a small tear and he was on his way. Pretty soon Marian, my midwife, ducked in on her way to another delivery to say congrats. Relief - it was all over. And the whole thing about me wanting a female to deliver me? Ha! I'd been looked at by three different men in an hour and a half, and let me tell you, I didn't care WHO was looking at me by that time! The ambulance guy even stayed to watch the delivery!

So - I woke up to use the bathroom at 1:30, and she was born at 7:09 - less than 6 hours! NOT what I'd expected for my first baby! We left our house at 5:27, arrived at the hospital around 6:45, and had a baby by 7:09. Sheesh, talk about cutting it close! Of course, I'd always said the perfect labor would be short and sweet - no drawn out hours long ordeal. Guess I got my wish!

October 18 - I am now 40 weeks pregnant. This is the day we've been waiting for since we found out we would be having a baby back in February. And now, at 8:48 pm, the day is drawing to a close, and still no baby!

Well - I said in my "Pregnancy Part 1" post that I would miss being pregnant. I take that back!!! The first 30 weeks was GREAT! The first 32 weeks were pretty good. The first 34 works weren't so bad. The last 6 weeks??? Ugh. I am done being pregnant!!! Nights are the worst - I cannot get comfortable, wake up frequently, and sometimes getting back to sleep is a lost cause so I get up a read a while.

Come on Baby W! We are ready for you! I had an OB appointment today - nothing happening. I go back Thursday for monitoring, and my TENTH ultrasound of this pregnancy. If all's well, I'll be allowed to go a few more days, but if baby doesn't come by next Monday, I'm looking at an induction.

In the meantime, I figured I would chronicle the last 2 months of my pregnancy here - which will likely be my last post until our new one arrives! Hopefully then you'll all check back in to see updates - I'll try to stay on top of it!

Here is baby's 32 week ultrasound: