Announcing Zoë

"Leigh McCuen" leigh@nospam wrote in message
...
Short story:

On June 25, at 9:50am Zoë Lenore was born. She was 8 lbs 5 oz, and
20.5 inches long. The labor lasted ~3 hours with 20 minutes of
pushing. I managed to avoid an episiotomy even with her being my first
child & labor happening so quickly. Thank goodness, one thing went as
I had hoped it would.

Congratulations! I was wondering how things had gone. Glad to hear that
all went well and that you and Zoe are thriving now.


--
Rhiannon
Madison Sophia - 9/6/01
Owen Grady - 6/23/03

"Leigh McCuen" leigh@nospam wrote in message
...
Short story:

On June 25, at 9:50am Zoë Lenore was born. She was 8 lbs 5 oz, and
20.5 inches long. The labor lasted ~3 hours with 20 minutes of
pushing. I managed to avoid an episiotomy even with her being my first
child & labor happening so quickly. Thank goodness, one thing went as
I had hoped it would.



Congratulations Leigh and welcome Zoë! Sounds like everything went nice and
quickly for you. Don't worry, things rarely go exactly as planned. I'm
jealous you only had one week of sore nipples! Mine were sore for 7 weeks!

Nadene

Leigh McCuen wrote:
Short story:

On June 25, at 9:50am Zoë Lenore was born. She was 8 lbs 5 oz, and
20.5 inches long. The labor lasted ~3 hours with 20 minutes of
pushing. I managed to avoid an episiotomy even with her being my first
child & labor happening so quickly. Thank goodness, one thing went as
I had hoped it would.

Congratulations, and welcome to Zoë!

Afterwards:

Zoë's almost a month old now, and it seems she's always been here. Her
birth wasn't as I'd hoped. I didn't want to be induced, I didn't want
to be stuck in the bed, I didn't want an epidural.

Geez, I could have written this line! (I had a Zoë, too, on June 26.
You have excellent taste in baby names!) I felt the same way about being
induced, stuck in bed, etc.

- Jennifer from Delaware

Congratulations on the arrival of Zoë! Sounds like you had a rollercoaster
of a delivery. I'm sorry to hear that you had to have so many
interventions, but pleased that you are both doing well, and that the baby
was born healthy. Must have been nice to have such a quick delivery too.
: )
Take care, Alicia


"Leigh McCuen" leigh@nospam wrote in message
...
Short story:

On June 25, at 9:50am Zoë Lenore was born. She was 8 lbs 5 oz, and
20.5 inches long. The labor lasted ~3 hours with 20 minutes of
pushing. I managed to avoid an episiotomy even with her being my first
child & labor happening so quickly. Thank goodness, one thing went as
I had hoped it would.

Long story:

June 25, 2003.
3am. Wake up, get ready, get everything in the car. The house we leave
this morning as a couple, we'll be returning to with a baby. Scary.
4am. Leave the house. We need to make it to the hospital by 5am, and
we have to gas up the car and everything first. I've noticed some
contractions. Still nothing major, but it's interesting, since I'll be
induced today.
5am. Register at the OB desk, and get settled in the waiting room.
Shortly after we get settled, a nurse comes to get us and puts us in
the birthing room we'll be using.

At this point I lost access to a clock.

There was more paperwork to be filled out, most of it a duplicate of
itself. Seems I had to answer the same questions for 4 different
people. But ok, no big deal. By around 6am, I was hooked up to an IV,
monitors for the baby, and a blood pressure cuff. The IV was a pain.
The first one just stopped up or something, so she had to run another.
It took 3 weeks for the bruises to fade. The second IV was funny,
because she hit the motherload and blood went everywhere. It was
messy. I looked like something had gnawed on my hand, there was blood
all over it. Anyway. IV in, monitors for the baby hooked up.
Unfortunately, being induced meant I was going to have to be
constantly monitored and constantly hooked up to the IV. Annoying,
because I'd been so happy to be strep-B negative, thinking that meant
I wouldn't be tethered to a bed.

They kicked in with the pitocin around 7:00, I think. The contractions
were reasonably mild, but for some reason I threw up. I had enough
time to say "I think I'm going to throw up" and sit up, and my husband
had gone out to the nurse's station, when, well, too late. The nurse
let me know that it's perfectly normal and some people do throw up
during labor, and that I should be aware that some people also throw
up during delivery. Uhm, lovely. My doctor came to check my progress
around 8am, and nothing had really happened, still 5cm dilated, same
as a week ago. They were gradually adding more pitocin.

Around this point I began have convulsive shakes during contractions.
(Which, we all know by now "is perfectly normal and happens to some
people.") The contractions hurt, but I couldn't hack the shaking, it
didn't let me focus on dealing with the contractions, and it was
horrible to just begin spasming and not be able to control it. So I
asked for an epidural, which took some doing since the spasming was
making me stutter to the point I was almost incomprehensible. (Such an
attractive picture.)

The anesthesiologist came in and asked me some questions and found my
spine. He then stabbed me, threaded the catheter, and asked some more
questions. Evidentally my answers meant it was too close to a blood
vessel. Wash, rinse, repeat. Keep in mind that while this is going on,
I'm still spasming convulsively during contractions (which are fairly
close together) -- and they're telling me to be still. Um, I'm not in
control here. So the second tap also evidentally was too close to a
blood vessel. Take three.

This time, the epidural numbed my right half, but not my left. No
problem, it knocked out whatever it was that was causing the spasming,
and I could certainly handle the rest.

(After all this, my husband told me that every time the
anesthesiologist stuck me for the epidural, I spouted blood. When I
got up after delivery, the sheet behind my back was soaked red. I'm
wondering if that couldn't have been a sign that I was being stuck
close to a blood vessel, as well.)

Shortly after this, the nurses noticed the baby's heart rate dipping.
One gets a doctor, the other starts me rolling to the left, or to the
right, depending on some arcane medical something or other. A doc
comes in (I guess the OB guy for the ward), doesn't appear worried,
everything's fine. A few minutes later, my doctor comes in to check me
out, and I'm fully dilated. So the pushing may commence. They get all
sorts of stuff together and ready, and at 9:30am they let me start
pushing.

Since I could feel my left half, I think it made this stage pretty
easy. I pushed. And it wasn't horrible, and it went quickly. Zoë was
born by 9:50am. I had a very slight tear that my doc decided to close
with a stitch, but he could have as easily left it be.

They set Zoë on me while they did the cord cutting, delivering the
placenta (it came right after) and all. Then they took Zoë over to the
warmer and wiped her off a bit. 8lbs, 5oz. 20.5 inches. apgars of 9
and 9. 35cm head circumference. Then they gave her back to me, and she
ate and my husband and I hung out with her for awhile. About noonish
my mom showed up, and they were ready to move me to the post-partum
room. So they took Zoë to the nursery to do some tests & stuff, and
took me to the other room.

I didn't get Zoë back for something like 2 hours. So that's when I
decided we'd leave the hospital as soon as we possibly could. I slept
over that night, and prepared to leave the next day. Since we left
with the baby a day early, we had to get her to a pediatrician within
~48 hours after birth to make the hospital folks happy. We did, and
everything was fine.

Afterwards:

Zoë's almost a month old now, and it seems she's always been here. Her
birth wasn't as I'd hoped. I didn't want to be induced, I didn't want
to be stuck in the bed, I didn't want an epidural. I was really ticked
when they had the baby in the nursery for 2 hours. But the labor was
wonderfully quick, and aside from the spasming not terribly bad. I'd
describe my experience as relatively easy, compared to other's as well
as compared to a previous abdominal surgery I had. I feel fortunate
that the induction didn't lead to a c-section. I think starting out 5
cm dilated helped there. I can't describe how fortunate I feel that as
a first time mother pushing only lasted 20 minutes & I managed without
tearing. Within a week after delivery I was good as new, and never
felt the need for as much as a tylenol even right after delivery.

The first week of breastfeeding though. My goodness. No one could have
explained how horrible it was going to be. Sore nipples. HA! HA! I
say. Thankfully, that's mostly in the past as well.

Leigh

Congratulations, Leigh!

Welcome to the world, little Zo=EB! :-)

--=20
Brigitte aa #2145
edd #3 February 15, 2004
http://www.babiesonline.com/babies/j/joshuaandkaterina/

"Readers are plentiful; thinkers are rare."
~ Harriet Martineau

"Leigh McCuen" leigh@nospam wrote in message
...
Short story:

On June 25, at 9:50am Zoë Lenore was born. She was 8 lbs 5 oz, and
20.5 inches long. The labor lasted ~3 hours with 20 minutes of
pushing. I managed to avoid an episiotomy even with her being my first
child & labor happening so quickly. Thank goodness, one thing went as
I had hoped it would.

Long story:
snip

Congratulations Leigh and welcome to the world Baby Zoe :-)
Well done.

--
Marie
Mum to DD5, DS3 and due #3 July '03

On Sun, 20 Jul 2003 22:47:50 -0400, Leigh McCuen leigh@nospam
wrote:

On June 25, at 9:50am Zoë Lenore was born.

Congrats!! My daughter Jayan was born on 25 June.

--
==Daye==
Momma to Jayan
#2 EDD 11 Jan 2004
E-mail: brendana AT labyrinth DOT net DOT au

Welcome to the World, Baby Zoe.

Regards,
Henrietta
#4's edd: March 22, 2004