Pay For What You Get

This has been a tremendous week - capped off by the arrival of our new daughter Audra Claire. She arrived after a few speed bumps at 8:50pm on Thursday, November 2nd. This 8 lb 13 oz, 20 1/2 inch long beauty has got to be the most amazing girl I've ever met, aside from her mother - who was a champion every step of the way.

We went to St. Elizabeth's a lot earlier than we had planned. We were scheduled for induction Thursday night but there were signs that Lex's water broke mid-afternoon Wednesday. After consulting with our doula (Marsha Dvorak), she advised calling our midwife's office which ultimately led to our departure for the hospital. We packed the mini-van with the bags that had been diligently waiting for two weeks and headed out.

Once at the hospital, Lex was tested, and subsequently confirmed, for amniotic fluid. We were there for the night. By 1am, Lex was waking up to contractions but able to sleep between them. By 3am, she wasn't sleeping at all. We finally saw Joanne Bronson (our midwife) at 7:30am. She determined that the bags of waters did not completely rupture and was causing Lex's labor to creep along at a very slow pace. Since we were already scheduled for induction, she ruptured the waters at 8am, and the journey really began.

Marsha began working her magic - making us walk laps of the hospital, play cards as Lex bounced on a birthing ball and change positions frequently. Contractions quickly became more frequent and intense and her dilation quickly progressed.  Come noon, this came to a crashing halt as baby became lodged on Lex's pubic bone creating a massive amount of pain that increased with each contraction. After almost an hour of non-productive pain and discomfort, our midwife gave Lex two alternatives - continue down this path for one more hour then have a C-section or get an epidural and relax and hope that her body becomes more productive. We chose the latter with fantastic results.

At 2pm, the epidural was administered and brought her almost instant relief - which is very rare with such anesthetics. She was relaxed enough that she was able to sleep comfortably for 3 hours while pitocin allowed her body to progress to complete dilation (with a little help from our fabulous nurse Bryana) by 6pm. By 6:25 the pushing began. As she slowly gained some feeling in her lower body the pushes became more productive.

However, baby once again became lodged on the pubic bone. After another 30 minutes of unproductive pushing, we were given the option of vacuum extraction or a C-section. As we had already committed over 24 hours to this birth, we weren't about to allow this roadblock to stand in our way. Our midwife (who, herself had been up for 36 hours at this point) returned after calling the MD with the ultimatum: "The doctor will be here in 25 minutes. If you want a chance at avoiding a C-section you have to move this baby and prove you can push it out of there." This was all the threat that Lex needed and began pushing harder than ever.

By the time the doctor arrived at 8:25, Lex had moved the baby somewhat. The doctor was not optimistic at our chances of avoiding a C-section and shared that with us. He agreed to allow us to try the vacuum extractor three times. If at that time the baby wasn't out he was ordering a C-section. At this point, he changed and the nursery crew prepared the room for the baby's arrival. The first contraction after applying the vacuum extractor got the head out. Another push got the shoulders and the rest of our baby quickly followed. Lex shouted to ask what the baby was. It took several seconds before it registered that the baby was out and I had no idea what it was. A quick look down from my station holding her left leg showed it was a healthy baby girl. A complete surprise as we were guessing that it was a boy and, as Mimi would say, "the Morrison men only have boys"...and had for five generations prior to me.

It was 8:50pm and we had a brand new daughter.

Comments

[Jenn Dunn]

Congratulations to you both and bravo Alexia for making it through the delivery!!
Audra is beautiful and blessed to be a part of your great family. I hope we can see her in person soon.

Jenn Dunn

[jenn bernard]

congratulations to both of you!!!

[Sean]

Thank you both for your thoughts...and for maintaining our "jenns only" comment privileges.

[Lea Ann Ford]

Congratulations! Absolutely gorgeous little girl (but of course).