From: shams@astrals.portal.com (Sharon Zakhour)
Subject: Birth Announcement (LONG)
Organization: Astral Software
Date: Sun, 22 Nov 1992 10:45:42 GMT


Maya Biocca Zakhour
November 5th, 1992
4:58pm
8lbs 8oz
21 1/4 inches
Apgars 9 9
Head circumference -- 13 3/4 inches  (ouch)
Dark brown hair with blond highlights -- 1-2 inches long!
	(and yes, I had massive heartburn)
	
On November 3rd, Election Day, my water broke at 6:30am (I was 40 weeks  
pregnant, to the day).  After waiting to go into labor all day and all  
night, my OB ordered me to check into the hospital at 6am on Wednesday to  
be induced.  This was rather a drag for me since I was Bradley trained and  
was hoping for a natural childbirth.  (On the other hand, I was EXTREMELY  
ready to have this kid and was not obviously going into labor anytime  
soon.  I was mildly effaced and 0cm dilated on Wednesday morning.  The OB  
predicts that I would not have gone into spontaneous labor for one more  
week (if not longer).  In fact, when my water did break, it came out in  
small periodic gushes.  I wondered if it was my hind waters, but the OB  
confirmed via exam that it was my fore-waters and they came out like that  
because I was not dilated.)

So I was hooked up to a pitocin drip on Wednesday (Nov 4th) at 6am.   
Things were rather uneventful that day.  By about 3pm the contractions  
were starting to get uncomfortable and I was really using the relaxation  
techniques to get through them.  Throughout the latter part of my  
pregnancy, my OB was concerned that my baby was large for my size and that  
I would have trouble pushing her out.  (I'm 5' 4 3/4".  In fact, she  
didn't want me to go too far beyond my due date because of this -- this  
had been a point of contention between us.)

So they turned off the pitocin about 6pm that evening so that I could get  
a good nights sleep.  It was odd to be going out of labor -- at this point  
(after 12 hours on pitocin) I was 50% effaced and fintertip dilated.  They  
put in some prostaglanden gel to help ripen my cervix further overnight.   
So that evening I was able to eat dinner (they restricted me to a liquid  
diet while on pitocin) and I watched Star Trek (miserable episode).  Both  
my husband and I got a good 5 hours sleep (there was a chair in the room  
that converted to a cot).

The pitocin was turned back on at 6am on Thursday.  At 7am, my OB came in  
to check on me.  A small bag of fore-waters had formed overnight.  She  
broke this bag, stripped the membranes and QUADRUPLED the pitocin to speed  
things along.  By 8am I was in active hard excrutiating labor.  She  
predicted that the baby would be born between 3 and 5 that afternoon.  I  
worked really hard to relax through the contractions from 8 until 11am  
when I decided it was time for drugs.  I was throwing up and having a  
really hard time relaxing.  I was also very demoralized thinking I would  
have to suffer this for 6 more hours.  (I couldn't have made it even this  
far without drugs without my husband's support.)

The nurse asked me whether I wanted narcotics or an epidural.  I didn't  
want anything going into my blood stream to affect the baby (not to  
mention the fact that I wanted something to REALLY kill the pain) so I  
requested an epidural.  Good choice.  The anesthesiologist was in my room  
in 5 minutes and by 11:30 I couldn't feel any pain any more.  At 11am I  
was 3cm.  For the next hour I was a very happy person.  (By the way, no  
one ever encouraged me to take drugs;  when I requested them, the nurse  
asked me if I was sure before getting the anesthesiologist -- then she  
summoned him immediately.  I don't regret the decision.)

So I'm happily chatting away with the anesthesiologist about computers and  
midi and Apple and NeXT.  I spend some time watching the monster  
contractions on the monitor.  My husband sits in the corner and tries to  
read the paper -- though he's pretty completely drained.  At 12:30pm the  
OB comes in to check my progress.  I'm 10cm!!!  I went from 3 to 10cm in  
90 minutes.  We couldn't believe it.  However the baby is posterior and  
the decision is made to let me sit for another hour in hopes that the  
contractions turn the baby.  (During this time the baby's heartbeat got  
slightly weird and they gave me oxygen via an oxygen mask.  This  
definitely bothered my husband but the baby responded well.  By this time  
I was hooked up to every contrivance available in The Family Birthplace  
and nothing bothered me.)

At 1:30pm I'm checked again and the baby has turned.  Time to start  
pushing.  (Meanwhile the epidural has been decreased so that I can feel  
the contractions for pushing.)  I start pushing.  I keep pushing.  I push  
some more.  Everyone tells me how great I'm pushing and how much progress  
I'm making.  After two hours I stop believing them.  But I keep pushing.   
Meanwhile the epidural has completely stopped working.  It gets harder to  
push because of the pain and because I'm getting very tired.  As I'm  
pushing the 12 doctors and nurses in the room are going on and on about  
all of her hair.  It's hanging off her head.  No one can believe it.   
After listening to this for an eternity, I didn't want to hear about her  
hair anymore -- I wanted to hear that she had crowned.  After 3 1/2 hours,  
I push her out.  Once she finally crowned, I pushed her out in two pushes.   
No episiotomy, minor lateral tear.  (The doctor did massage the perineum  
-- ouch!  The hemmorhoids have been MUCH worse to deal with than the few  
stitches I had.  I guess those zillions of kegels paid off.  By the way,  
my OB knew I did not want an episiotomy and does not routinely do them.)

She was completely alert when she came out.  I got her to breast pretty  
soon after.  (However she pooped on the OB on her way out -- a direct  
bulls-eye in the center of her chest -- so they had to cut the cord and  
aspirate right away.)  She has a vicious suck -- somewhere between a  
Barracuda and a Great White.  (In fact, I'm not sure which was worse.   
Giving birth or breastfeeding.  At least labor ended...)

I guess one thing that surprised me about the experience is that I always  
thought that once the head was out, the rest was a piece of cake.  After I  
got her head out with a mighty push, I couldn't believe how much it hurt!   
I was so astonished that I forgot what I was doing and I told the doctor  
to pull her out.  After a few moments I realized that I still had control  
over this (no one thought to tell me to push again -- I guess they were  
too busy suctioning or something) and it took an equally mighty push to  
get her shoulders out (and I could really feel them dragging through the  
canal).  Afterwards she had some nasty lumps and bruising on her left  
upper arm.

As for other physical sensations:  I experienced vomiting and extreme  
shaking -- both before the epidural and after it wore off.  Two nurses did  
pummel my fundus afterwards despite the fact that I asked them if I could  
do it myself (they said no).  I had been given morphine to dull the pain,  
but it didn't (and it hurt like hell).  I was finally able to take  
advantage of the jacuzzi bath in my room the next day.  That bubbling warm  
water was heaven on my hemmorhoids!!!  (The ice chips in the latex gloves  
were also helpful to the whole area.)  We went home Friday evening.  It  
might have been sooner but they were dosing me with IV antibiotics because  
I had a slight fever after delivery -- there was a concern about infection  
since I had premature rupture of membranes and did not actually deliver  
until almost 3 days later.

I was also shocked when I looked into a mirror on Friday and saw that my  
eyes looked as though someone had poured blood into them.  Bloodshot is  
not the word.  They were a solid red from the pupil down.  No one could  
doubt that I pushed that baby out with everything I had.  Two weeks later  
the redness is still not completely gone.

I was very happy with the hospital (we toured 5 hospitals and had  
carefully chosen this hospital even before choosing an OB).  The nursing  
staff was excellent and despite some concerns I had about my OB late in my  
pregnancy, I was extremely happy with her during labor and delivery.  (I  
can give recommendations to anyone living in San Francisco.)  Our hospital  
does allow video taping, and my husband audio-taped the actual delivery by  
setting the video camera nearby and leaving the lens cap on.  This was a  
good compromise for me, since I was not really comfortable with actual  
video of the event.  (I would have liked to have seen it, but I didn't  
really want a permanent record.)  It is pretty special to listen to the  
audio of the birth and he video-taped me breastfeeding her soon  
afterwards.

Both my husband and I have very good feelings about the birth experience  
despite the fact that it didn't go exactly as we wished.  The main reason  
for this (other than having a healthy baby) is that we were really  
educated about the whole process.  Nothing ever happened during labor and  
delivery that we didn't understand.  We understood our options at every  
point.  We also knew that my OB is extremely competent, if a little  
preemptive.

Maya is completely precious and wonderful.  And I do love her masses of  
hair -- especially the blond highlights.  I've been accused of putting a  
Beatles wig on her.  :-)

I also want to say how much I've enjoyed everyone's birth stories.  I've  
been collecting them since I started reading this group last January (when  
we decided to start trying).  In fact, I took them to my Bradley class  
where the other students also enjoyed reading them.  I've learned a lot  
from the experience of other couples and from this newsgroup in general.   
Thanks!!

Can't wait to do it again.  :-)


Sharon Zakhour
shams@astrals.portal.com  <-- while on maternity leave
sharon@next.com  <-- after March 1st, 1993
Newsgroups: misc.kids,comp.sys.mac.apps,comp.sys.mac.wanted