A Whole Lotta Drama For This Baby and Mama!

If you haven't heard the news yet, there is a new baby on our block! Henry (Hank) Nicholas Martin was born on Sunday January 3rd at exactly 10pm with all the drama and fanfare one might expect from a Lifetime movie plot! If you're new to this blog (most likely directed here by my dad's clever birth announcement email) then be forewarned- this post may not be for the faint of heart. My intent is to document the story of Hank's birth before I forget it and I'm not going to pull any punches. If you're still interested in reading after that disclaimer then sit back and enjoy the drama!

Sunday morning started out just like any other in the Martin household. We were all running around trying to get out the door by 9am in time for church at 9:30. Matthew is usually the last one ready so my parents and I had a few extra minutes to take some pictures with Ally before we left which turned out to be my last official 'belly shots'!

Ally has been having a rough few weeks with lots of eating difficulties so we decided to forgo our usual brunch after church with friends and come home instead. While Ally was taking her afternoon siesta the rest of us busied ourselves with some sort of mundane activity or another- I honestly can't remember how I spent my afternoon- probably napping or laying around on the couch. It was a pretty slow afternoon suffice it to say and after feeding Ally her afternoon bottle we started talking about our big plans for dinner. It was decided that takeout from PF Changs was the most appetizing bet so I pulled up their menu online and was walking from the kitchen with a notepad to take orders when my water broke at 4:30 pm.

It was different than the last time with Ally though... there was no audible pop and no big gush- just a slow and steady trickle which made me wonder if I'd just lost control of my bladder or suffered some other pregnancy related indignity. I excused myself to the bathroom and spent a few moments trying to determine what was going on. Shortly afterwards, I called Matthew in and told him that I 'thought' my water had broken but I wasn't sure. He couldn't quite understand how I didn't know if it had broken and was frustrated with me for being uncertain at a time like this. I told him we'd just have to wait and see what happened and that if necessary, I'd call my doctor and go get checked out. We informed my parents that we thought my water may have broken and I busted out my tattered copy of What To Expect When You're Expecting to brush up on my ruptured membrane knowledge. As I vaguely remembered from last time, only a small percentage of labors actually begin with ruptured membranes (as opposed to those beginning with contractions) and women who experience spontaneous rupture generally have anywhere from 8-12 hours before the onset of contractions and active labor.

My craving for PF Changs got even more intense when I realized that Sunday dinner would likely be my last decent meal before a few days of hospital food so my dad and Matthew took off for the restaurant to pick up all my favorites. Although I was feeling fine at this point, my little angel was not. Ally clearly picked up on the fact that something was happening because for over an hour she was crying nonstop and clinging to me like the world was coming to an end. It was very unusual behavior for her and it made me feel awful about the prospect of leaving her. Thankfully she perked up a little bit once her daddy returned home and we were able to eat our yummy dinner without incident. After dinner I bathed Ally and got her ready for bed since I knew it would be my last chance to do so for a while. I was still feeling well and was contraction free at this point. I fed Ally her bottle and Matthew and I put her to bed together at 7:30pm.

While sitting around the dining room table sharing a piece of PF Chang's Great Wall of Chocolate with my parents and Matthew, I had my first contraction just after 7:30pm. It was only 20 seconds long, but it was enough to prompt me and Matthew to get out butts in gear and start getting cleaned up and packed. I had another contraction 20 minutes later that lasted for 20 seconds and assumed we still had plenty of time since my doctor and my doula both instructed me not to go to the hospital until the contractions were 3-5 minutes apart. I should mention at this time (in case you're new to this story) that I had to have a cesarean section delivery with our daughter Allison in March of 2008. She was in the breech position and was stuck in my pelvis in a pike position. It was my desire to have a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean) with this pregnancy and I really wanted to do it with no pain medication. Matthew has accused me of being a bit of a hippy in this respect and he's totally correct. I am a firm believer that women's bodies were made to birth babies and that modern medicine provides way too much intervention into such a natural process. Although Matthew was skeptical of all my opinions and beliefs, he agreed to support me in this quest and together we hired a wonderful doula, Elizabeth, to help up pursue this goal.

Back to the story... I got into the shower to clean up around 8pm and was enjoying a nice long soak when suddenly I had another contraction only a few minutes after my last. I didn't really panic at that point since I knew we'd need to see a pattern of several consistent contractions before we'd even consider heading to the hospital, but I did holler at Matthew and tell him that if he wanted to take a shower he should go ahead and do it just in case things were starting to happen more quickly. He jumped in with me and was encouraging me to hurry the heck up because he was starting to get nervous as I had a few more contractions while we were in the shower. They were still only 20 seconds long so as soon as I dried off I called our doula to see what she recommended at 8:35pm. She advised me that the type of contractions that bring a baby are usually at least a minute in lenghth. We agreed to check in with one another in another hour or so and hung up. Literally seconds after putting down the phone I started having another contraction and this one lasted for 59 seconds!

Here's where it starts to get graphic folks..... the only place I felt comfortable was on the toilet so I had a seat and tried to ride out the contraction. It was much more intense and painful than those I'd experienced over the past hour or so. Meanwhile, Matthew had gotten out of the shower and after one look at me on the potty, knew that we had to get moving quickly. He started barking at me to get off the toilet and get dressed but I couldn't move- every time I tried I had another contraction that sent me hobbling back to the toilet. He started trying to pack up toileries for me all the while urging me (in increasingly frustrated tones) to get up, get dressed and get into the car! At 8:51 I told him to call Elizabeth and ask her to come over right away because it was definitely time to start moving and I wasn't sure how accomplish that since I couldn't stand up long enough to do anything. The next contraction I had was so strong that I found myself involuntarily pushing while still sitting on the toilet. I instructed Matthew to call an ambulance because we wern't going to make it to the hospital. I can't remember his exact words.... but they weren't for sensitive ears!

Thankfully, his calm head took over and he took charge of the situation since I had lost all control by this point. He stayed on the phone with the 911 operator giving them my background information and an overview of the situation. They informed him that I had to get off of the toilet if I wasn't able to stop myself from pushing since we didn't want Hank to be born into the bowl! He somehow managed to put a tank top on me and manhandle me off of the toilet even though I was completely uncooperative. I was now laying on the bathroom rug screaming my head off with ever contraction and pushing with all my might.

Our doula, the firetruck and the ambulance all arrived at approximately the same time (roughly 9:10pm) and within a few seconds our bedroom and bathroom were full of EMTs. I had my eyes closed for most of the time and was screaming loudly enough to drown out much of the conversation, but I was able to gather that they weren't going to be able to take me to Portsmouth to the hospital where I'd received all my prenatal care because it was outside of the Norfolk city limits so we were given the choice of riding in the ambulance to DePaul hospital or getting in our car and driving ourselves to Portsmouth. I was paralized by indecision for a moment becasuse I knew my doctor was waiting for me at Portsmouth, but I couldn't imagine trying to get there on our own- especially since it's about 25 minutes away from our house! Thankfully the decision was taken out of my hands- I had a particularly nastry contraction at that moment that caused me to unleash a totally primal scream and one of the EMTs said "She's going to DePaul!"

From that point on things are a bit blurry. I got carried out of the bathroom and loaded up on a stretcher. It was a cold night here, temps in the upper 20's, and I was wheeled out of the house to the ambulance wearing nothing but a tanktop and a sheet over my legs and all I remember thinking is how good it felt because I was so hot and sweaty from all this hard work! I had an IV started and got some oxygen in the ambulance. Matthew and Elizabeth were able to ride in the back with me. I continued to push uncontrolably with every contraction and Hank started to crown before we made it to the hospital so the ambulance pulled over in front of Granby High School because we thought he was going to come out right then. (I later learned that all the EMTs wish he would have come in their ambulance so they could have earned thier Stork pins!)

My doula informed the EMTs that they still had a few minutes so they drove the rest of the way to the hospital VERY SLOWLY! When we arrived I was wheeled straight into the ER because there wasn't time to get up to the Labor and Delivery wing on the 3rd floor. There were no less than 20 people waiting for us! Seriously- it was crazy how many people were there! I have no idea if that was normal or not, but even the EMTs were standing around watching the action! An awesome midwife named Tara took charge and taught me the proper way to push since all my screaming was causing lots of damage and not helping to get Hank out.

From that point on things progressed really quickly. I don't have any idea how many pushes it took, but with a few more contractions and a particularly nasty episiotomy, Hank was here! He arrived at exactly 10pm on 1/3/2010. A mere 2.5 hours after my first contraction! The doctor put him up on my chest right away and the first thing I said was... "Oh, he's so tiny!" I was so disappointed becasue I'd really been hoping for at least a 7 pound baby. One of the doctors said "Honey, he isn't tiny! He's probably over 8 pounds!" Imagine our surprise to find out that he weighed in at a whopping 8lbs and 4oz and 20.5 inches!!! That's over 2 pounds heavier than Ally was! How crazy is that?!?

The next 60 hours in the hospital were fairly routine I guess. Matthew stayed with us the first two nights and went home during the day time to be with Ally and to catch a nap while alternating sets of grandparents visited us. I'm totally sleep deprived and exhausted, but happy to be home and absolutely elated that we were successful in our quest for a drugfree VBAC. Breastfeeding is going much better this time around so we're hopefull that our experience with Hank will be different from Aly's first few months in many ways.

As for Ally- she is totally fascinated with her little brother! She loves to watch him eat and has even learned to say his name! (Although it sounds more like "Ank" right now.) She's going through a very rough spot with her eating at the moment, but all her docs and therapists tell us that's to be expected after all the changes that have occured in her life in the past month. (Daddy returning, new baby, lots of grandparents, holidays....etc!)

Unfortunately it's about time for me to feed Hank and for Ally to be getting up from her nap so I'm going to wrap this up for now. Pictures coming shortly- I promise!

Thanks for checking in and for all the well wishes!
Love,
Wendy, Matthew, Ally, Hank and the boys!

P.S. I'm posting this without rereading it so please excuse any typos and incoherent sentences!