Abby Lee

The Story:

I made a deal with Abby while in utero that she had to wait until after the Bears game on Sunday before she decided to pop out. Well, true to daddy's request, Emily started having her first real contractions on Sunday at about 4:30 p.m. We did the whole bit of timing them and what not and made a call to the on-call midwife at UNC medical center that Emily was in early labor. At about 10:00 p.m., Emily's water broke. We got the things we needed, jumped in the car and started that hour and a half trek to UNC. When we arrived the midwife did some tests to make sure her water had actually broken. Sure enough we were mistaken, her water had not broken and she was only 1 cm dialated. They had us walk around the hospital for about an hour and then Emily got checked again. She was still only 1 cm dialated, but her contractions were steadily becoming more painful. The midwife gave her a sleeping pill called Ambien and instructed her to take it about a half an hour before we got home so that she would be able to get some sleep despite the contractions. I found this strange, but not being a medical expert or anything I kept my mouth shut. Little did I know. We left the hospital at about 2:00 in the a.m.

As instructed, Emily took the pill 30 minutes before we got home. When we got there the contractions were coming about every 7 or 8 minutes and seemed even more painful. Apparently the Ambien had the adverse affect than what was intended. Rather than helping her sleep, it seemed to increase her awareness of the pain and seemed to make her more anxious. With each contraction she would almost start to freak out. Throughout the night I had to coach her through each one, reminding her to breathe deeply and slowly. The next day Emily described the halucinations she was having. She said that various pieces of furniture were giving her pain; that when she went into the bathroom, there were small brown mechanical things that were giving her pain, and that at some point a hot dog handed her some pain. She also vomited twice. Needless to say, this was a rough night.

We were up early the next day and it was clear that Emily was in a lot of pain. I timed them for about an hour and called the on-call midwife (a different lady now). She said she had spoken with Cathy, who saw us the previous night, and that they thought she was having a long labor. She suggested that Emily soak in a bath, drink water and eat something. While Emily did this, I took a short nap. When I got up, she was getting out of the shower. She stated that she felt like her body was telling her to push. "O.K.," I thought, "It's time to go." She was in so much pain that she could barely walk. Again we called the on-call midwife and she said that we should take her to the Emergency room to check her in. I asked to make sure she knew we were an hour and a half away from the hospital. "Oh," she says, "well you should probably go to the nearest hospital to get her evaluated." Yeah, thanks a lot.

So we arrived at Mariah Parham Hopital (about 10 minutes from our house) at around 9:00 a.m. Emily had originally gone here at the beginning of her pregnancy, but she didn't like the doctors very much and she had had bad experiences with this hospital before. That is why she decided to make the longer trip down to UNC. They took their time admitting her while Emily was practically falling out of the chair in pain. I even had to sign her name on some documents. Apparently the old ladies with the wheel chair got lost, which made it take even longer. Finally they got her up to a room and she was evaluated by a nurse. Very quickly the nurse called that they needed someone in there right away because she was fully dialated and ready to go. I guess this is why she kept telling them she felt like she needed to push! Without any medication or anything, Emily went through the process of pushing our little daugter out of her womb. As I said, we arrived at the hospital at around 9:00 a.m., and Abby was born at 10:36 a.m.

When they put Abby on Emily's belly, I was the first person in the whole world that she saw. Through my tears, I said hello to my little girl and welcomed her to the outside world. I cut the cord twice and was able to carry her to the nursery so that she could be weighed. It was the happiest moment in my life as I carried this small person in my arms. I couldn't stop smiling.

As one of the nurses put it, I am absolutely smitten.

posted by Jason  # 5:04 PM