The Delivery

The doctors’ plans were to start labor induction the night of September 2, and they said “hopefully you will sleep through the night and the ‘real’ pain will begin tomorrow”. I found this quite amusing – after all, how does one get a good night’s sleep when they are told: 1) You are about to have a baby (one month early) and 2) You will soon be in a lot of pain but “don’t worry”. Also, the nurses come in and out all night to check vitals, so a sound sleep is unlikely. At least Mr. Mingle was able to sleep in the room with me on a little pull-out couch so that was comforting throughout all of the other ‘activity’ swirling about.

The induction started (and I will spare you the details) but I was not in much pain throughout the night and was able to catch a wink here and there. My smaller belly was proving a problem for their monitors however and they were not able to track the baby’s heart rate consistently, and they were never able to accurately monitor the contractions throughout the entire labor. If the baby’s heart rate dropped off then they would race in, wake me up to turn me on my side, and give me oxygen. Within seconds the baby would be fine, and I’d go back to trying to sleep.

By the morning, I had dilated to 4cm with very little pain so the doctors were happy with my progress. (10cm is the goal.) I, however, in classic Mingle fashion, was starving and was concerned that they would not let me eat since many of the books said that you wouldn’t want to eat while in labor… My nurse told me that I should listen to my body since no one knew exactly how long this would take and if I was hungry then I should eat. (Which I did.)

My mom showed up around lunch time to bring Mr. Mingle food and visit us. I still was not feeling much pain but was hungry again. (surprise, surprise). So, we all ate a little lunch, and then watched “Little Miss Sunshine” which seemed like a good way to divert my attention from the labor contractions I was now starting to feel, as well as give us something to look at other than staring at each other with total shock at what was soon to come. The contraction monitors were still not picking up anything, so they gave me a manual button to push every time a contraction started. ‘oh, there’s a little pain.. [CLICK]’. It was strangely satisfying to be able to click each time a labor pain started because it was my way of conveying to the nurses and doctors that I was in fact starting to feel pain. “See, see?! [CLICK] I am starting labor!!” I also wanted them to know this because I had concerns that if they thought I was going nowhere, then they would up the medication (which would then up the pain…). It was all a little game….

By early afternoon I had progressed to 6cm, again with little pain – another good sign.
Pop and J stopped by for a visit in the early afternoon, and then we sent everyone away at 5pm or so to get dinner because we started to think the baby would not come until the next morning and there was no reason to hang around.

I ate a little more, and then started to feel regular contractions around 6pm (click, click, click). Sometime between 7-8pm the “real” pain kicked in (CLICKCLICKCLICKCLICK) at which point I barely had time to breathe to say to Mr. Mingle, “IT IS TIME FOR THE EPIDURAL NOW.”

For the next, what seems like 30-45 minutes is a blur. The anesthesiologist came to administer the epidural “oh, I see you have a nice tattoo on your back…” “SHUT UP AND RELIEVE MY PAIN” (but I didn’t say that) “uh-huh… it means l-l-l-o-o-v-vee…” The contractions were coming non-stop and it seemed to me like it was taking for-ever for the medicine to take effect.

Within minutes of it taking effect, the baby was ready to come out. All of a sudden the room went from having 4 people to at least 10. There were doctors, nurses, and pediatricians all rushing around. I could hear everyone but had my eyes tightly closed because my single job was to push. This, by the way, is not that easy! Mr. Mingle was great, as were the doctors and nurses, all quietly encouraging me – “That’s it Mingle, you are almost there” (but I didn’t really believe them); “Just one more” (yeah right), “there you go..”

And then I heard these words “Mingle, open your eyes and look at your baby”

Wow…both relief and trepidation flooded through me. Trepidation because at this point it was not clear if the baby was breathing… “Is he breathing??” cough, cough – yep. Sigh….

And then they swept him over to the pediatricians, but at this point no one had told us yet if it was a boy or a girl. “Is it a boy or a girl??” The main doctor had just assumed it was a girl, but hadn’t actually checked so called over to the Pediatricians, who responded,

“IT’S A BOY!!!!”

After they cleaned and wrapped him up, they brought him over to us and set him on my stomach. And it’s true - when you first see your baby, all of a sudden, the pain, the trepidation, the pregnancy - it’s all worth it.

Baby Jingle was born on September 3, 2008 at 9:30pm:

The Day Our World Changed

On Monday night, September 1, Mr. Mingle and I were enjoying a leisurely walk along the Municipal Wharf in Santa Cruz admiring the fantastic weather and the barking seals down below. We were staying in a nearby B&B, figuring it would be our last night as a duo, instead of a trio, since the baby was due in a month or less. We even took a picture to make sure to show my pregnant belly, which still didn’t look very big, and would often elicit comments of “you don’t look pregnant at all!”

We had been warned a couple of weeks prior by our Doctor (Dr. Eager) that it was likely our baby was to be born ahead of the scheduled due date of October 5. However, based on the last appointment we had with her, it seemed likely that we’d be able to at least make it to the next appointment with Dr. Eager on September 10, without having the baby first. This was comforting to us because by that point he would be 36 weeks old.

In the meantime, the hospital had become a second home and I had to go in two, sometimes four times a week for close monitoring. Both my health and the baby’s health was good, however the baby was tracking smaller than ‘average’, which, based on our prior experience with the first pregnancy, made the doctors very sensitive to everything. In our opinion we found them on the alarmist side because it seemed as if they were looking for problems, and so it was hard for us to ever feel completely at ease.

They were monitoring the baby’s amniotic fluid, the baby’s heart rate; the baby’s growth (smaller in the abdomen then Dr. Eager would have liked); and my blood pressure (95% spot on). These monitoring appointments were with a group of very kind nurses who were always so positive and cheery. If they wanted the baby to move so they could see if his heart rate increased they would literally clap and cheer “Come on baby, let’s do some moving today!!” I would leave most of those appointments feeling good that the baby was doing well and we would at least make it to 36 weeks. However, they were also under strict orders by Dr. Eager, who also happens to be the head of the department, to track me closely so any change in either my condition or the baby’s had them sending me over to Labor and Delivery for further monitoring. Two Friday’s prior they had tracked me with one single high blood pressure and sent me over to Labor & Delivery, where I then had to sit in a little room for hours where they discovered that it was one single instance of high blood pressure. But just to make sure, they had me come back on both Saturday and Sunday for 3 hours each… but I digress…..

On Tuesday September 2, when we got home from Santa Cruz we went over to the hospital for what we thought would be a normal cheerful monitoring appointment. After all, I was so relaxed from our night away – how could I possibly have high blood pressure? And the last amniotic fluid check had been off the charts high for our little one, so we thought we were sitting pretty, and may actually make it out of the hospital in an hour. Ha ha. Ha ha ha ha.

During the appointment, the nurses thought the fluid was too low, and they were not happy with it. They called my doctor, who just happened to be the one on-call in Labor & Delivery for this week, and she said “send her over!”

We get over to the other hospital, waited about an hour until Doctor Eager showed up.

“Well Mingles, I think it’s time to deliver”.
“What? Now?!”
“Yes, I think we shouldn’t wait anymore. Your baby is strong and healthy and will survive the birth, which most likely will be a [non C-section] delivery [although induced]”
“Well.. can we at least go home to get things?? Can we come back tomorrow?? Or do you literally mean NOW?!”
“Mr. Mingle can go home to get things, but you have to stay here. We will start induction tonight”

Dr. Eager left the room at this point and Mr. Mingle and I just stared at each other. “What did she just say?” we were stunned. “but, but, but I left work on Friday with every intention of going back tomorrow…”

Already it was clear that our lives were now out of our control, and was in the hands of our baby kicking within…

To Be Continued….