Planning a hospital stay during the whole COVID-19 Surge in hospitalizations in January in LA was a little worrisome. We were tracking the capacity of ICU beds at the hospital in Downey where I would deliver, and there was only sometimes 1 bed, and my mind jumped to visions of getting turned away because of the overflow of COVID patients and having a baby in an emergency tent set-up in the parking lot. Luckily, Lucy didn't come 3 weeks early, and cases started to drop as did that initial pressure of disaster by the time her due date came closer, January 31st, 2021.
38 weeks pregnant
40 weeks pregnant
"Patient insists to be schedule for induction of labor asap due to tired of being pregnant."
True, Dr. Jing. TRUE. But, not what I said.
It was also nice to be scheduled for a COVID test prior to getting checked in for labor at the hospital. If I had gone into labor on my own, current protocol is to wait until the COVID test came back (positive or negative) so they could assign me to the correct wing of the L & D floor before my support person could join me. I cried a little, imagining having to wait for that result while I was in labor without Brian and possibly having a baby before he was allowed in the hospital. There were so many scary possibilities. My fear of the unknown was real, and valid.
So I laid low and enjoyed the time with my parents and kids, and Brian got a whole work week working from home, while we swam and hung out at the hotel. We went to the beach, the girls had a sleepover in the extra room with G&G Davis, and Brian and I got a last minute babymoon date night to Korean BBQ, the very first night that outdoor dining restrictions were lifted. We're living in strange times.
We made it to Friday afternoon, Hallelujah! My parents got busy cleaning my house, which always makes me feel anxious, but grateful. I was so happy they got down and scrubbed my girls bathroom floor and tub. because Big Mama couldn't handle that kind of scrubbing on hands and knees. I got busy going through checklists and packing and vacuuming and planning and nesting. I felt slightly stir crazy waiting for Friday afternoon, but knew I didn't want to get labor started earlier. Every night that week after the kids bedtime I had some serious Braxton Hicks, and I daresay a few real contractions, but I greatly preferred to not go into labor that late at night when I could waltz in Friday afternoon and have a baby by 10 PM. These expectations however, turned out to be unrealistic.
Last picture as a family of 5.
For COVID-19 safety reasons, I had to check in by myself and call my support person when I had been assigned a room on the Labor and Delivery floor, so we could be confined to that room until discharge. I was so grateful I wasn't laboring like a Lonely Hero and awaiting a COVID test to get in, but they sure took their time. Granted, they were very busy. I could hear a few mommas in other rooms giving some good labor pain moans, but I just sat there bored and half naked wondering if they forgot about me. I had to answer a bunch of questions and sign things saying that I wouldn't sue if I lost my jewelry and was asked what religion I was. When I answered "LDS" or "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints," the check in nurse said, "Ummmm...I'll just mark 'other'." I bet if if I had said 'Mormon' she would have had that in her vernacular, but I was trying my best to be a good Prophet follower, so I didn't even go there.
Hanging out in Triage just waiting for a L&D room in full hair and makeup.
This wound pictured below was probably the most painful part of my hospital stay. I have tiny veins and that triage room was cold, so the nurse had to poke me in each hand to get an IV in. She blew this vein and it bled and swelled a lot. The bruise was tender for the week after. I had an IV in my arm with the birth of Eleanor and my goodness, it was so much nicer than snagging and pulling my hand every time I tried to move or hold something. Add that to the long list of body parts that need recovery after birth. Woof.
I finally was walked to my L&D room at 5:00, and allowed to give Brian the green light to come up. By this time I was pretty hungry since check-in was at 3:30, so I asked the nurse if I had time to eat before they induced me. She replied, "Oh yeah, you can eat dinner and settle in." I had Brian run and get Chipotle and Boba Tea before coming up. We were both worried that he needed to rush, but little did we know that our care team was in no hurry to pump me full of Pitocin.
My nurse hooked me up to monitor baby's heart beat and my contractions. I was already having very irregular contractions at this point. After checking my cervix, she declared me still just 2 cm dilated like I had been on Tuesday, and my cervix was still very thick and hard. At 5:45 she gave me this tiny pill to soften my cervix and told me they would administer one every 4 hours- 6 doses to get it to work before they would intervene with pitocin. That made us realize we were in this for the long haul. The medication also induces cramping, so she said there was a good chance it could start labor on its own.
They let us take hour breaks from sitting with the monitors, so I got up and walked around and bounced on a peanut ball while we watched episodes of the Office and America's Next Top Model. Thank goodness Brian brought the electronic entertainment, because there were like 10 channels on the TV provided and 30% of them were in Spanish. We also had plenty of time to eat our last non-hospital-food meal and read some great stories about Brian's mom from StoryWorth.
At around 10:30 when I was re-checked and hadn't dilated much more, but my cervix was softening, and I was given another dose of cervical ripener. Baby was looking happy, so we sat it out again. About a half an hour later my contractions started to get more regular-about 3 to 5 minutes apart, but still very subtle. Brian drifted off to sleep and I sat there watching Who's Line is It Anyway, staying quiet so my support person could get some zzz's for when I needed him later.
Contractions gradually got more intense, I was counting down the minutes until I was absolutely going to pee my pants and breathing through some pretty intense contractions. I told myself I would wait until midnight to push the call button and have them unhook me to use the restroom. After that sure relief, I told the nurse that I thought I was ready for an epidural. I wanted to get ahead of the doubled-over-in-pain contractions, because I hate trying to bend over for the epidural needle when contractions are coming in hot.
I had to wait for a chain of command between three nurses and the anesthesiologist to get my epidural in. I believe it was around 1:30 when he came in. Weirdly, Brian had to wait in the bathroom during the whole process once the Dr. came in, but he said he was grateful because epidurals always creep him out. It was the quickest, most painless epidural I've had in all my deliveries. I let him know too; he said it was probably because I wasn't the first priority for my first-born and I had Residents at the University Hospital with my other two. Man, epidurals are lovely. I love the cool sensation and I like having heavy, useless legs. Obviously, I'm grateful they aren't always useless, but somedays I which someone would stick an epidural in me and give me no option but to chill out for an hour a two.
2:00-3:00, Contractions were nice and steady now, but I had only dilated a half cm more. We were both really sleepy at this point. I was drifting off nicely, but my nurse kept coming in to shift me to my other side because the baby's heart rate was starting to drop a little with every contraction. They told me it may be nothing to worry about, baby might just be asleep or the pressure on the cord during contractions was causing the drop. They put me in an Oxygen mask to help baby. That woke me right up and I started to stare at the monitors to see what the fuss was about.
3:00-4:00, My OB broke my water ( may have been earlier but the details are fuzzy). I started to show some progress down below. My OB checked me and congratulated me on how fast this was all going (which made me roll my eyes a little) and I think I measured 5 cm at this point.
4:00- 7 cm dilated, still work to do.
5:00- I started to feel serious pressure on my hips. My nurses advised me to not push the administer button for the extra dose of pain relief from my Epidural line because I could be close to pushing and they like the mothers to have some control/feeling of that process. Then she also said, "but I don't want you to be in too much pain..." So I hit that button!
Funny, because shortly after that, she checked me and I was fully dilated or "complete." However, the baby's head was a little far to the side, so she didn't call for the doctor just yet. Instead, we tried a little experiment where she and Brian tilted my heavy, numb lower half to the other side and she told me to push. When that proved quite effective-she seemed fairly surprised-she said we need to go get the Doctor. Baby girl was ready. Of course, there was another momma who was complete who was delivering at the same time, so we had to wait our turn.
5:30 -When the Doctor came in, she explained that she was sorry for the wait. This was her 8th delivery since her shift started that night. "Something's in the water, or the full moon is out tonight." she said. She got ready to catch our baby and told me to push. I gave one lackluster push and she had to remind me to hold my breath instead of letting it go. I really couldn't feel anything because of my glorious last dose of pain med through my epidural line. After I did as I was told, she said, "WOAH, you're very strong! Let's push about 1/3 that intense so we can minimize tearing." Cool.
5:35 AM- Two more pushes and Brian leaned over and said,"she has hair." One more push and she was out, crying angrily and eyes blinking wide.
This was slightly dangerous to hold her this way, because I still couldn't move or feel my lower half, but the room was so sleepy and heavenly
The rest of the hospital stay was very quiet and restful. Due to COVID, no visitors allowed, and the doctors encouraged us to check out early. The OB said it would be fine for me to leave that evening. Once we got into the Maternity wing, the nurse told us that would be fine as long as baby got all her testing done and it looked like she was eating well. She needed to have at least one wet diaper and one dirty diaper before she would discharge.
By Lucy's 1st bath at 7 PM that night, she had had three poopy diapers but no wet ones we noticed. When we informed the nurse she said, "Okay, if she doesn't have a wet diaper by checkout at 8 PM we will keep you another night and discharge in the morning." We were READY to get home, and didn't want to pay for another night's stay in the hospital because of one wet diaper. So, we poured a little water into her diaper when no one was there, and made sure we got the blue wet line as fraudulent evidence. Granted this next level prep turned out to be unnecessary, because she just took our word for it when we informed her that she had peed on her next check in. Finally we started the discharge process. Haha!
One male and 5 females in this household. Its so great. Remind me I felt that way in 10 years.
2 months later and we're actually all caught up on sleep. Lucy is the best sleeper yet, and sleeps through the night consistetly since 8 weeks old! We are flabbergasted but so blessed.
We were so grateful for Grandma and Grandpa's help with our new arrival.
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The oldest three were hanging together, and Brian thought Lucy felt left out, so he curated this masterpiece.
