room 16 - labor and delivery: monday, april 20, 2009

so this would be my home for the next 20 hours or so. i stopped taking pictures at this point, but the calvalry would arrive at about 11pm to take up the task. i'm working on getting some of those posted.

my first nurse was kathy ann. she called the on call doc to let her know that i had been admitted (two nurses helped speed through the admitting process for us). and they advised me to walk... walk, walk, walk to see if i could trigger the labor process on my own. so that's what we did. up and down the same halls - just changing directions to get a different vantage point. but the nurses at the desk and the security guard ignored me after about lap 10. this continued until 1am in the morning, when i went back to the room to check in with the nurse, a new one this time... sandra... and she said i should try and get some rest if i could. at this point, still no painful contractions.

but THEN... as i laid down to try and catch some z's - things changed and it began. slowly and steadily the strength and amount of pain i was feeling increased. and i was in and out of bed all night. i knew that the next check in with the doctor was at 6am, and at around 5:30am... i laid back down, to try and rest. sandra came back in and said i had made some progress... 1 cm dilated. she said she would call the doctor and let her know that she didn't think i needed to be induced.

7am... stronger and longer, new nurse. nurse patty.

8am... even more, the on call docter - dr. eisenberg comes in to intro himself and let me know he'll be around, and that he wants to give me until noon to see how things progress on my own.

9am... grandma and grandpa fongo arrive... i try different things, the birthing ball (works for about 20 minutes) then the shower... same thing.

10am... i ask for something for the pain and get back into bed because i need to get hooked up to the IV for the fentanyl. half a dose, seems to do the trick. contractions are less intense. second dose comes about 20 minutes later.

11:05am... i remember the time and the moment very vividly. i tell my mom and p that they need to call the nurse in, because i don't think i can make it to noon. so she comes in, and not more than 5 minutes later... so does the doc. dr. e says "remote monitoring, looks like you are progressing pretty quickly, so let's get you checked out". and after the moment of truth (he gives this look to the nurse, and i'm thinking it could go either way) - he says "so, you are fully dilated and ready to go". he was SUPER surprised at how fast it had gone.

11:20am... by this time, i look at nurse patty and say... "oh no, does this mean i can't have an epidural"? and she said, of course you can... we'll call the anesthesiologist now. and 5 minutes later, there was dr. perry lee... and 5 minutes after that... i was GOOD TO GO.

12:45pm... pushing begins, mama fongo on one side, b on the other, papa fongo filming from the most ideal vantage point for filming and p ready to catch. yep, that's right... p had the opportunity to actually deliver our baby. (lil' man patiently waited for us all to get the show on the road. unfortunately i could only have 4 ppl in the room at any one time, but i also think i spared him some details that would make him not look at me the same way twice - every again :)!)

1:45pm... the last few minutes. p gets into position (the dr. position) with the gown and the gloves on and dr. e walks him through the process again. two fingers to put pressure on the baby's head as he emerges. once the head comes out face down... everyone stops (even me) and they suction out his nose and mouth. then... turn the head to the side, let the shoulders slide out, slightly pull to help baby work his body out, and as i reach down... p hands him up to me and i pull him straight onto my chest. it's really quite an amazing delivery at alta bates. i highly recommend it...

1:50pm... CAB makes his arrival into the world, text book. it couldn't have gone any more smoothly.

and then... it begins. the paparazzi captures some of the very first moments under the warmer.