Baby #4!!

Baby #4 made her arrival into the world yesterday (8/30)! She was born at 12:52pm, weighed 6lb 2oz and measured 19 in. We decided to name her Gavriella Esther. The name Gavriella comes from Shmuel's aunt (his mother's half-sister) Geneva. The name Esther comes from my father's grandmother Esther Faigl.

Gavriella's birth was just as quick as her older sister Tzipora's, but the birth story starts just about a week earlier. On the evening of Fri the 23rd I started to have some irregular contractions and thought "oh boy this is it!" But it wasn't. I went to sleep and they totally stopped...for several days. But that was the beginning of the sleepless nights. I would have a hard time getting comfortable and getting to sleep only to be woken up within hours to go to the bathroom or with a random contraction. Then it would take me forever to get back to sleep...only to wake up again a few hours later. It was horrible, and by the following Thursday (the morning of my 39 week midwife appointment) I was at my wits' end. I took herbal supplements, did acupressure and even saw someone who does shiatsu just to try to get things started, but nothing made even the slightest difference. I was starting to get nervous because with the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashana coming next week I did not want to be in the hospital alone over that holiday. So, when I saw my midwife on Thursday I begged her to strip my membranes. She did and also told me that I was a "stretchy" 3-4 cm dilated, so we knew that it wasn't going to be a long birth once things finally got started.

I went to bed on Thursday night a bit defeated that nothing had happened, since I was convinced that if I didn't go into labor at night that I for sure wouldn't go into labor in the morning. But when I did get up in the morning (around 7am thanks to Dovid looking for the Kindle Fire - and I got SO angry with him for waking me up since I was running on very little sleep) I noticed that I was having some contractions. They were uncomfortable, but I didn't think they were particularly regular. And I could still do other things during and between them - like run after Dovid screaming and finish my biochemistry project (which I did). Around 8:15am I called my friends Joanmichelle and Melanie who were going to be my doulas for the birth. Joanmichelle headed over to my house and Melanie went to work, knowing I would probably be calling her soon. It wasn't until about 8:30am that I decided to actually time them, and they were about 10 mins apart.

Joanmichelle arrived around 9:30am, and she was helping me through contractions, though I still thought they were somewhat irregular - they would speed up when I was walking around and then slow down if I sat. But they were still less than 10 minutes apart. By 10:30am I had gotten quite uncomfortable during contractions and knew that we had to leave. They were pretty close together - maybe every 5 mins or so - and I was not relishing the idea of doing them in the car any closer together than that.

We arrived at labor and delivery about 11am, and they took us into a triage room. I changed, got hooked up to monitors and then got checked around 11:30am. All the while the contractions were still about 5 mins apart or so and concentrated mainly in my back, which was not pleasant. Some of the time it would also migrate to my thighs, but at least that I could use hypnobabies to take care of - the back pain, not so much. When the midwife checked me I was already at 6cm, fully effaced and -2 station. I knew from experience that it would not take long for me to become fully dilated from this point - with Tzipora I went from 4 to complete in about an hour and a half. So, they took me into a room and I got situated there around noon.

By now the back pain was really terrible, so we tried everything. I already had a heat pack on, and whoever was closest to me would press on my back, but it was getting to be even too much for that. So we tried to put on my TENS machine. That helped maybe a little bit, but if the baby would move during a contraction, it would send me screaming about my back. Oh goodness I was having flashbacks to Tzipora's birth and not liking it. In contrast to Tzipora's birth, however, my contractions never really got much closer than every two minutes apart, I never got that "I've lost total control" feeling or had double-peaking contractions. I could easily talk and function in between contractions, and I never had the feeling of "oh just give me a break!" the way I did with Tzipora. But, from experience, I knew that I might feel better sitting on the toilet, so I headed over there just before 12:30pm. Sitting there was actually a bit better, but my midwife didn't want me sitting there for too long. She suggested that if I wanted things to pick up that I should get back on the bed and lie on my left side. I grumbled but obeyed.

As soon as I got on my side, the back pain during contractions was unreal. I was basically screaming for people to press on my back and whimpering (deja vu to Tzipora's birth!). The midwife had finally found another midwife who would do sterile water injections, but then said that I was probably complete and ready to push and to try and give her a good one. I was not convinced but did it anyway. She then checked me again, and I actually was fully dilated! Oops...no sterile water injections again - the exact same thing happened with Tzipora. By now it was 12:48pm. So I started pushing, but unlike with Tzipora it was agony. I was very confused since I remembered pushing being so easy and much better than contractions, but the back pain wasn't going away and now I also had lower abdominal pain with it. So I pushed as hard as I possibly could to get the pain to go away, and I could feel her sort of slip right down. So now instead of the back pain I had the abdominal pain and the "head crowning" pain. At this point I really couldn't control pushing vs not pushing even though the midwife was telling me not to. lol She's telling me to slow down and blow, and I'm yelling back "I can't! I can't!" Luckily the pushing didn't take very long, and she was born at 12:52pm - 4 minutes after I started pushing. My water broke as she was crowning, and she was born in the caul - something very, very lucky and unusual. We also realized why I was having such back pain as well as pain during pushing. The baby was turned sideways - so her nose was facing my inner thigh vs my tush - and she had a hand up by her face! Crazy baby! But since she's such a little squeaker, I was able to birth her quickly and without trouble. If she had been an 8 lb baby with a big head I don't think she ever would have come down that way.

Here are some pictures of the little cutie and the family:



Gavriella's birth by numbers:

6 hrs after waking up in the morning
4 hrs after beginning timeable contractions - though even at 9:30am it was hard to time them...
2 hrs after arrival at the hospital
1 hr in the labor & delivery room
4 mins of pushing

But here's the really cool part... The twins were born on a Wednesday on the Hebrew date the 22nd of Adar. Tzipora was born on a Thursday on the Hebrew date the 23rd of Teves. So I bet you can guess what day of the week and Hebrew date Gavriella was born, right? ;) Friday the 24th of Elul.

She's Here!!

Tzipora Sara was born at 5:13am on 12/30/10. She weighs 6lbs 7oz and is 20 inches long.

After having the "real fake" contractions all day on the 29th, I was getting annoyed and discouraged that it was going to go on forever. So, I convinced my hubby that he needed to help me get things started (and I'll leave the rest to your imagination there.) I passed my mucus plug/bloody show around 11pm after the hubby and I, well you know. Then I was up for a bit being semi-excited that I had even passed the mucus plug. I finally laid down for bed a little before 1am and was having slightly more regular and painful contractions when I was laying down. Then, around 1:15am, my water broke. It was just like everyone had said. I felt/heard a "pop", knew exactly what it was and jumped up for the bathroom. lol I woke up the hubby by accident because I banged the bedroom door on my way to the toilet. I had a bit of fluid leakage, so it just confirmed that it was my water, and then I went to wake up Shmuel and tell him to get ready. We still had a few things we needed to finish packing, so that took us time. As for labor, well, good L-rd ladies...that was it. Having my water break caused contractions to come fast and furious!!! Every 2-3 minutes and they hurt like nobody's business. Because I was contracting so much and we were still packing the last few things into the bag (and the car), we didn't actually get to the hospital until around 2:15am. Then it took time for us to get up to triage and get everything hooked up, so my midwife didn't come in to check me until nearly 3am. And yes, I had my favorite midwife!!!!!!!!! I was 4cm dilated and fully effaced, but she said that the ferocity of my contractions probably meant it wouldn't be a long haul...and boy was she right. I got into my room probably around 3:15 or so and *really* wanted to try getting into the tub. I was willing to do nearly anything to get the pain to lessen up. Unfortunately the tub did nothing... So we got out and I tried a few other positions...nope, still writhing in pain. My doula got out her TENS machine, which definitely helped, but there was nothing touching these bad boy contractions. Everything was made worse by the fact that each time the baby moved was excruciatingly painful and would then cause another contraction. I didn't have almost any rest between them, and it was quite overwhelming. I was in so much pain that Shmuel even got a bit queasy and had to excuse himself. (He's so sensitive and just couldn't watch me in that kind of pain.) By 4:30 I was begging for mercy and any kind of pain relief they would give me (except I didn't want a narcotic). My doula suggested a sterile water injection in my back, and I was like "sure...whatever you want...just make them HURRY". While I waited, she suggested I try going to the bathroom, as a full bladder can make contractions worse. I didn't really feel like I had to go, but I went anyway. Once I got on the toilet, I relaxed and my body naturally wanted to bear down. Gee...all of a sudden the contraction didn't seem as bad and it felt really good to push. Uh oh...but I was only an hour and a half from being 4cm...I couldn't imagine that I was actually complete and ready to go. I told the doula to call for the midwife to check me before I started accidentally pushing on a semi-closed cervix. But honestly, the urge was so intense that not pushing through a contraction was a zillion times worse. The midwife was actually in the middle of delivering another baby, but soon came into the room. I had already pushed a little bit through a few contractions while she was gone, hoping I wasn't screwing things up. She checked me and (you guessed it)...fully dilated with the baby halfway down the birth canal. Woo!!! I pushed for just about a half an hour (including the few pushes I took before the midwife got there) and POOF! There was my little girl at 5:13 am...only 4 hours after my water broke! Compared to the incredibly painful contractions prior to pushing, I would say that pushing was the easy part. I only had two very, very minor tears (one superficial tear on the labia and one that the midwife called a "dimple" on my vagina). I think she gave me a grand total of 3 stitches and then was all set. So there you have it! My baby made it in time for the tax deduction AND I got to deliver with my favorite midwife (who called me a birthing goddess). Soooo perfect. :-) Enjoy these pics!!

Birth Story

Sorry this has come so late, but I had a really horrible day yesterday until we finally found a pain medication that works. :-) And now I'm a new woman! So, here's what went down Wednesday morning. This is not for the faint of heart.

I was having contractions late Tuesday night. They were somewhat painful and coming somewhat regularly, but nothing I couldn't handle. I finally went to bed around 2am and woke to more contractions at 5am. I was doing fine until 6am when I experienced the most horrifying pain I've ever had to experience. I thought that maybe I was going through transition (already??) but I had no relief in between contractions. The pain was worse (if that's possible) during contractions, but it was still a "30" on the 0-10 pain scale. I was also very dizzy & lightheaded. I woke my hubby and we were out of the house by 6:15am. I was taken right up to labor & delivery where they hooked me up and tried to find the babies heartbeats. They had a very tough time getting the heartbeats, so they brought in an ultrasound to help. My blood pressure was also quite low (70/40). Meanwhile I was begging for pain relief...it was just too intese. (And this from the same person who was planning for a natural, vaginal birth.) When they got the babies' heart rates, Baby A was at 110 and Baby B at 95--normal is in the 140 range. The OB basically said that they needed to do a C-Section immediately and I was like "where do I sign"? (This once again coming from the same person who was planning for a natural, vaginal birth.) My husband had gone home where he had forgotten the cord blood kits (which were never used), so he didn't realize I had gone in for the C-Section until he got back.

In the C-Section room they tried to give me a spinal, but they were having a hard time and the OB had a feeling that Baby B's placenta had separated from the uterine wall (aka abruptio placenta), which means mandatory general anesthesea. (That being the one thing I wanted to avoid most of all, but I had no choice in the matter.) So while I was sleeping, the doctors were in hell. I was bleeding a lot, but the first thing they had to do was deliver the twins. They were born within a minute of each other (7:28 & 7:29am), but Baby B wasn't really breathing for almost 5 minutes. Baby A's APGAR scores were 3 and 8, Baby B's were 1 and 7. Not so good. And I was bleeding...a lot. Dr. Testa (aka the man who saved at least 3 lives on Wednesday) thought maybe my uterus had ruptured. Thank G-d that was not the case, but there was an artery on the outside wall of the uterus that was bleeding into my abdomen. My OB (Dr. Rabin) said that this ruptured artery was a complication of surgery and not of the pregnancy/birth, but I lost a ton of blood in either case.

Anyway, they worked on me for about two hours after the twins were born trying to get the bleeding stopped. When they finally closed me up, I was sent to general anesthesea recovery. Later on they transferred me to the ICU, then to labor & delivery and finally to a postpartum room. The doctors were surprised that I was doing so well seeing that I had lost about a pint & a half of blood and receieved 4-5 units of blood. Thank G-d I'm fine now and the babies are doing great! I'll have more updates with pictures later, but it's time for Shabbos soon and I must be off.

Check out my brother-in-law's blog if you'd like to see pictures now.

The Post You've All Been Waiting For

I'll post a much longer birth story when I'm not exhausted, but I wanted to let you know that the babies are here!!! They arrived this morning @ 7:30am via emergency C-Section (I had general anesthesia...) I'll just tell you now that my story rivals Nancy's, that's just how scary it was.

Baby A--GIRL, 5lbs 1oz, 17 3/8 in, 7:28am
Baby B--BOY, 5lbs 4oz, 18 1/4 in, 7:29am