Serendipity

Seven years ago, today, Greg and I decided we wanted to be together. It only took 4 days of knowing each other and, of course, an amazing kiss to catapult us into a new life of long distance dating. On that fateful Tuesday, I knew I had to skip out on work and he secretly knew that he would miss his plane back to Chicago. The rest is history! It’s quite amazing for us to think of how far we’ve come in those seven years. A new city to call home, new careers for both of us, and an adorable new baby who melts us to the core every day with his beauty. We are truly two blessed individuals.

Lincoln is sleeping right now, a wonderful treat he’s nice enough to give Mommy a couple times a day. After six weeks of his life, I finally feel ready to reflect in writing about this crazy adventure. The other day, I was talking to someone about plans for Mother’s Day. As I was talking about it, all the amazing mothers in my life came to my mind. Of course, my mom, but also Greg’s mom, our grandmothers, my sister-in-law, aunts, cousins and my friends who have delved into this adventure before us and given us countless tips along the way: 1) “If all else fails, find some radio static and turn it way up.” (Natasha) 2) “Talk to your baby and wait for a response, like you’re having a real conversation.” (Heather) 3) "Swaddle, swaddle, swaddle." (Everyone!) It didn’t occur to me until a week after that conversation that I, too, will be celebrated on that day! I feel very privileged to join the ranks.

Throughout my pregnancy, I really enjoyed hearing my friend’s birth stories, so I thought I would try to write mine (or, more accurately, Lincoln’s) down. I hope you enjoy, but this is also somewhat for me, because, as real as the experience was, it is slowly being replaced in my brain with all the fun stuff that has come since.

I awoke with a start on Wednesday, January 28th, to Greg’s alarm clock and a sensation that I had just peed all over myself. Greg stumbled to “snooze” the alarm clock and I said, “I think my water just broke.” We called Dr. Kulie’s office and they suggested going into triage to get checked out within three hours to minimize the chance of infection. This Wednesday just happened to be the first day of Greg’s new semester (he gets a new batch of students each semester), so he jetted over to school to greet his new students and pass off his class to his colleagues until a sub could arrive. Meanwhile, I double checked and triple checked our “go” bag, washed the remaining dishes, and started to feel more and more ready to go to the hospital as some early cramping started. Greg finally came home and we were in triage at St. Mary’s hospital by 10:00 am. The triage nurse, Lisa, did a test to see if my water had broken and it turned out that it had not. The sensation I felt was most likely my bladder giving way due to the pressure of Lincoln’s head pushing down on it. The triage doctor then did an exam to see if I was dilated at all. At first, her eyes got big and she led us to believe that I was very far along already. Then, she realized that it was not the head she was feeling; it was the amniotic sac. She said I was only 1 cm dilated. Greg and I had envisioned most of my early labor being done at home, so we started discussing with the nurse whether we should go home. As we were about to sign discharge papers to go home, my cramping became a lot more severe and regular. Lisa said that this is sometimes just an effect of the internal exam, but she suggested walking around the hospital for about half an hour to see if I progress. When I was rechecked at 11:30 am, I was 4 cm dilated and what I now knew as contractions were coming every 2 minutes. I kicked into high gear just like that.

We were immediately whisked to a birthing suite and I hopped (more like, fell) right into a warm bath. My contractions were pretty strong and it was at this point that I started to panic a little. I thought I knew how to breathe, but I was unable to keep calm during my contractions. Greg was very sweet, but had no clue how to help me at the moment. I didn't want to be touched and I didn't really want to chat. It was Chantel, our first labor nurse, who came in right when I needed her and guided me through my first successful contraction. She described what I was feeling to a “T” and told me when to breathe. This was so incredibly helpful, because I then felt like I knew how to survive the contractions and Greg also picked up some pointers on how to guide me through them. I spent the first hour in the bath. We called my mom and Greg’s parents to let them know that we had started labor. I was able to talk to my mom a little bit from the bath, but had to stop to concentrate on contractions.

After 1 pm, I got out of the bath and went over to the birthing bed. In preparing for the birth, Greg and I wrote a birth plan. It’s kind of funny to read some of that birth plan now, because the labor progressed so rapidly that I didn’t really use a lot of the things I envisioned using. Our “go” bag sat in the corner completely unopened. The music I downloaded onto our computer for the birth didn’t get played. The birthing ball and the squatting bar were not appealing to me. I did walk around through a couple of contractions, but found I could concentrate best lying on my side or back in bed. I found that if I moved around getting into another position, I lost my concentration and would panic through the contraction. So, I just lay there very quietly and breathed through the contractions, one after another, resting as best I could between them. Only one expletive left my lips through the whole thing. I think that’s pretty good! I had a pretty bad headache, so I was given some Tylenol. This ended up being the only medication I was administered throughout the labor. I felt everything!

Greg stood next to me the entire time! I squeezed his hand so hard and I even bit it once, leaving bite marks that were still visible the next day. He’s a trooper. At this time, Felicia started her shift as our labor nurse. Her calm and caring demeanor added to the quiet, calm environment and made both Greg and I feel very comfortable. Dr. Kulie arrived and Chantel popped in and out. I had my very own cheerleading team of four. Wow, did that help!

At about 7 cm, I felt the overwhelming urge to push. Pushing shouldn’t happen until you are fully dilated at 10 cm, so it was kind of uncomfortable. My water had still not broken at this point and Dr. Kulie brought up the idea of breaking it to speed up the dilation. We waited a bit to see if it would occur naturally and then decided at 9 cm to ask Dr Kulie to break it. It was at this point that I realized what the bag of waters breaking is supposed to feel like. Very different than the way I started the day. Dr. Kulie said that there was a green tinge to the water, which meant that Lincoln passed meconium (had his first bowel movement) into the amniotic fluid. This can be a sign of distress, so she told us that the NICU doctors would be present at the birth just in case they were needed.

After my water was broken, I very progressed to 10 cm with some help from Dr. Kulie and was given the go ahead to push. Silly me! I thought that this phase of the labor would take 15 minutes and that I was almost home free. Greg held my head and one knee and Felicia held my other knee and I pushed like crazy. One hour and forty minutes of intense pushing later, my 9 pound 2 ounce “porker” was born. The labor was a little over 10 hours. Unbeknownst to me, the umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck twice and there was also a huge knot in the cord. This was skillfully handled by Dr. Kulie, and in one fell swoop, little Lincoln was free. Greg cut the cord and Lincoln was placed on me immediately. Wow, what a feeling! I’ll stop there (no need to go into delivering the placenta, which is the weirdest thing ever!).

Greg and I spent some amazing quality time with Lincoln and, after some measurements/tests for Lincoln and a shower for me, we moved our unopened “go” bag and our new family to the Family Recovery room. There was a futon for Greg to sleep on and a really cool remote-control bed for me. We stayed at St. Mary’s for two nights, recovering from the birth and learning essentials like breastfeeding and diapering and bathing Lincoln. We are absolutely amazed at and thankful for the stellar care we received from the St. Mary's hospital staff from minute one in triage on Wednesday to leaving for home on Friday.

Lincoln has his next check-up appointment with Dr. Kulie on April Fools Day. At his one-month check-up, he weighed in at 12 pounds and 7 ounces. I did an inexact measurement with our home scale, which put him at about 15 pounds. I’ll be curious to see what the exact weight is in a couple of weeks. Needless to say, he is a big boy. Mommy is getting back into shape just carrying him around! He’s also pretty much completely in 3 month clothing now. To be really stylish, though, we continue to put him in his newborn T-shirts, because we hear that half shirts are coming back in and he has quite a tummy to show off. He is absolutely adorable and we just couldn’t be happier. Hope you enjoy the new pictures!

P.S. This just in….Lincoln slept for 7 hours straight last night!