Well (about) a year has passed since I last posted. It is amazing what can happen in twelve months. I am not even sure how to capture each milestone without spending hours on end typing. And since I no longer have hours, if not minutes to do anything, that is not going to happen. What I can do is fill you on the high lights and (sadly) low lights of the last year. Where to begin?
- October 2009 mom was diagnosed with Pancreatic cancer
- November 2009 we found out we were pregnant!!
- December 2009 I lost my mom to the horrible disease
- July 2010 Robbie and I welcomed Melanie Karen Adler into the world
My pregnancy with Melanie was for the most part easy. I never got really sick. I never was in too much discomfort and except for being watching like a hawk due to my previous miscarriages, felt pretty much at ease throughout. I ended up delivering Melanie 2 weeks early because my amniotic fluid levels were low. Although all of the non-stress tests showed that M was doing just fine, the doctors were still concerned. So on July 13, 2010, I was told to check into El Camino hospital. Here is how the next few days transpired. On the evening of 7/13 I checked in an was immediately administered Cervidil. Lets just say that the pain I felt when the RN inserted the rope (yes rope) was so intense, I began to worry how I was going to get though the natural labor that I was hoping to have. The Cervidil was supposed to do its thing overnight and I would ripen and then go into labor on my own. No such luck. I woke up the next morning feeling pretty darn normal. So on came the Pitocin. After I showered they hooked me up to an IV and the Pit party begin. After every 3o minutes, they increased the dosage. Robbie and I walked laps around the hospital, watched TV and chatted for several hours. My Aunt Colleen and cousin Shanthi showed up in the early afternoon. At around noon, I finally started feeling real pain. I can only describe the contractions as really painful period cramps but instead of being centralized in my groin, they radiated through my entire abdomen and back. Soon after the pain of the contractions started to intensify, the RN came in to check me. I assumed I was moving right along. WRONG! I was only 1 centimeter dilated. How could this be? How was I in so much pain and not making any progress? So I continued to walk laps, lay in the hospital bed and move around the room. I was getting more and more uncomfortable. Around 2 PM, I went into the bathroom because my tummy was not feeling right. I did what I needed to do in there and when I stood up, I felt warm liquid dripping down my leg. My water broke! I was so excited to this as I was sure it meant I was moving right along. I came back out to tell the RN. She checked me and I was still 1 centimeter! Now I was getting mad. I started to doubt my ability to naturally get through labor at this pace. I really wanted to give it my best effort, so I sucked it up and went back into the process of walking, bouncing on the ball, leaning on the counter for back rubs etc. It got later in the evening and I was miserable. I practiced all my yoga techniques and did all the pacing I could do. I asked ot be check again around 8 PM. My thoughts were that if I were 6 centimeters or more, I could hold out and not get any pain relief. I really felt like I had progressed because my contractions were closer together and much, much more painful. But to my dismay, I was only 2 centimeters. I was so sad and angry and exhausted. Robbie and talked about it with the RN. She told me that I still had many hours to go. She offered me narcotics for pain relief and that just was not the answer for me. So at 1 AM on 7/15, I asked for an epidural. When the anesthesiologist finally came in I was ready. He did his thing and put the epi in. Or so we thought. It did not take. Yes, you hard me. These things happen to real people, not just on TLC. So he tried again. Success. It is such an amazing feeling to have all that pain go away in an instant. I actually began laughing at myself for waiting so long. But then all of a sudden, I felt sick. I told the Dr. (who was still in the room) that I did not feel well. I could not explain what was wrong but they were able to figure out quickly, that my blood pressure was quickly dropping. The dr. quickly gave me some meds and just like that, I was back to normal. Things quieted down and I was able to relax. The plan was for me to go to bed for the night and that in the morning, I would likely have progressed and I could finally deliver my little girl. Then the RN figured out that the baby had turned to face sideways. Go figure. My nurse Margarite was amazing, She told me that in order to get the baby into position, she would have to come in every hour and wake up to change positions. So every hour, on the hour, she came in and did her thing. At about 6 AM on 7/15, I woke up feeling different. I felt like I had to poop and everything that I read, told me that was the sign that the baby had finally dropped. So I asked the morning RN if she would check me. She told me to hang on because I had likely not progressed that far in the 5 hours since the epi. So I waited in bed for a bit longer but kept telling Robbie that something was going on "down there." I asked again to be checked and was told to wait. Argh! Then, just as the RN was coming in to check me, my OB arrived on her morning rounds. I told her how I was feeling and she ended up checking me herself. Low and behold, I was 10 centimeters and the baby's head was right there! I told you so was right on the tip of my tongue but I held it in. My OB told me that first babies take a while to come out and that she was going to go back to her office (which was literally right across the parking lot) and that the RN would call her when I was ready. The nurses got everything all set up and I began pushing with them. After 2 pushes, they had to get on the phone and have my OB come back over because I was ready to have my baby! Dr. LW came rushing back in. In just 15 minutes I pushed Melanie Karen out. I cannot begin to describe what it was like to have that warm slippery baby put on my chest. An absolute miracle.
Melanie Karen Adler
Born at 9:18 AM on July15, 2010
6 pounds 6 ounces
20 inches of perfection!
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