Moments with the McNamaras: 2016

My due date was April 7^th 2016. From the moment we found out I was pregnant we always assumed we would have a March baby because both boys were early. At 33 weeks, I slipped and fell on the ice while dropping the boys off at daycare. Of course, when you fall when you are pregnant they make you go in to the doctor to make sure everything is still intact and okay. Later that afternoon we were sent United for 1-2 hours of monitoring. It was during this time that we found out I was 3cm and 75% and having a few contractions. They ended up doing a Fetal Fibronectin test and luckily it came back negative so our minds were eased that we had at least another week. The thing is once we knew I was already dilated some our anticipation of when the baby would come grew and grew.

The weekly OB appointments came and went, each week we would joke with Dr. Montague about whether we would see her at the hospital before our next appointment. I had only scheduled enough weekly appointments to get through 38 weeks because I was certain I wouldn’t need more than that. We went to the 38 week appointment, everything was routine. Dr. Montague scrapped my membranes. I was 4 cm, 90% effaced. The baby was measuring right on. It was near the end of the appointment when I casually mentioned that over the past couple days the baby hadn’t been moving quite as much as normal. I didn’t think anything was seriously wrong, but the past couple nights I had to get up and drink orange juice to try and get the baby moving—normally at night it was doing flips to the point where I couldn’t even sleep. As a precautionary measure, Dr. Montague sent me to get a non-stress test done on the baby. Turns out the baby was fine, I however had something else going on. While monitoring the baby they were also taking my blood pressure. To everyone’s surprise, my blood pressure was really high for me (160/95 normally it is 120/80). This then triggered some lab work. The rapid test they ran for protein in my urine came back negative and everyone breathed a sigh of relief. The nurse rechecked my blood pressure it was down to 140/90 so we were free to go.

Friday morning, I woke up with an email from the doctor stating that the second test they ran came back elevated and I needed to go in to the clinic for more lab work and a blood pressure re-check and depending on the results, I may need to get induced. I was still in denial or thinking everything would be fine and I had no plans of giving birth that day. It was Good Friday so I had the day off. Susie and I took the boys to school and headed to the clinic. My blood pressure was somewhere around 150/90—so not great but not awful. We continued on our day as normal as we waited for the lab results. The boys’ school was having a special Good Friday church service and lunch with parents. During the service, I noticed a missed call/voicemail from my doctor pop up. As soon as I saw that the doctor had personally called me, I knew it was probably not great news. Dr. Montague knew I had no desire to be induced—to me one of the most exciting things about pregnancy is not knowing which day you get to meet the little peanut..or where you will be or what you will be doing when you magically go into labor. After the service I listened to the doctor’s message and called her back. We talked about a few things and she suggested we head to United as soon as possible to be induced—they had a delivery room already waiting for me. It was odd sitting in Teddy’s classroom having lunch with him, talking to the doctor about having a baby later that day—after all Teddy was still our baby. Susie and I took the boys home, put them down for naps and grabbed a few last minute things for the hospital. Grandma Morawitz had been staying with us in anticipation of the birth so it was nice to just to be able to leave all the kids at home.

Around 12:30 Susie and I left for United. It was a surreal feeling; I still couldn’t believe we were going to meet our last baby some time later that day/evening. It was a strange feeling to walk into labor and delivery, not in labor, not having severe contractions like last time. My exact words to the receptionist were “I guess I am supposed to come in and have a baby today.” They were waiting for us so we got to our room and got situated rather quickly. I was checked, I was 4.5 cm. Dr. Montague came in and we talked about options. We decided to break my water and hopefully skip the pitocin. At 1:45 PM, they broke my water. There was no big gush, the baby’s head was acting like a cork. We watched Breaking Bad on the iPad. I rolled around on an exercise ball while Susie and the nurse were doing some magic pressure point stuff and rubbing my feet trying to get the contractions going. This went on until about 4 P.M. Nothing major was happening. I mean I was 5cm but no severe, earth moving—get the baby out contractions. Dr. Montague re-broke my water—something about it being 3 membranes and this time there was a big gush and the contractions came on fast and strong. It was about 4:30 when she re-broke my water.

The contractions were 10 times worse than I remember from the boys’ births and they were every 2 minutes on the dot. I remember thinking to myself how in the heck am I ever going to get from 5cm to 10, these are awful! Part of the problem is I am too stubborn for pain medicine and I didn’t want an epidural or anything else. The contractions seemed to last forever and the time in between them hardly seemed like a break at all. Susie would stare at the monitor and I would drill her about how long I had before another contraction and then I would complain that the break wasn’t long enough. J At 5:30 they checked me again. I was 9-9.5 cm. No wonder I was in so much pain, I went from 5-9.5 cm in 1 hour. When I was being checked they discovered the baby’s head was sideways. The next 20-25 minutes, Cheryl (our awesome nurse) worked to get the baby to turn. I couldn’t start pushing, until the baby turned and descended the final bit. After some weird but successful positioning of me and my hips, the baby’s head turned and pretty much instantly descended the last bit. I knew instantly that it was time to start pushing. It’s amazing how your body knows these things.

Around 6:00 P.M. I got back into to bed and the real work started. The first couple pushes seemed so defeating and much harder than I remembered. I actually said “Remind me how I am going to be able to do this again.” Dr. Montague gave me some positive speech and over the next few pushes I gained some ground. I think it was the last push before her head came out I was pleading with the Dr. Montague to just grab the baby’s head and pull it out for me. Luckily, the very next push the baby slid out. 6:18 P. M. 7 lb 8 oz and 19 inches. What sweet relief! I can still remember the feeling of going from maximum pain and torture to sweet, sweet relief as all the pressure disappears in an instant. The pushing only lasted 15 minutes—7 contractions/pushes. It felt like an eternity at the time.

Susie made the call, “It’s a girl!” I was in disbelief. I think we all were. We had assumed it was a boy the entire pregnancy, so she was the perfect surprise to complete our family. Susie cut the cord and they plopped Molly Jo up onto my chest. I could not believe I had a baby girl, I was so happy. I think we were all beaming that it was a girl, including the doctor and nurses. The euphoria for me was interrupted by postpartum hemorrhaging again. I had issues after both boys so I wasn’t surprised this time around but it didn’t make it any less painful. Susie and Molly kangarooed and got to know each other while Dr. Montague and the nurses worked to get the bleeding under control and remove some big clots. It was pretty much awful the things they have to do and knowing what was coming next, having gone through it before, only made it worse. 2 hours flew by and finally I was in a good place where I could hold and snuggle Molly and Susie went out to get us Jimmy John’s. We ate and stared at Molly and talked about how we couldn’t believe she was a girl and how perfect she was.

Sometime around 9:30 we were transferred to our postpartum room. We took turns snuggling Molly and resting. Molly got her first bath. Around 1:00 A.M, I got up to go to the bathroom and had another hemorrhaging episode and a flurry of nurses rushed in. I was given more meds and more IV’s; it became clear that we were going to have to stay until Sunday morning. We ended up getting discharged around 10:30 Sunday morning; we got home just in time enjoy Easter with the rest of the family.

Molly’s birth story is probably not how I envisioned it going but the end result is all that matters. Our family of six is now complete. We are so happy to have her!