Birth story

Cohen's birth was free of serious complications. Here's the long and detailed story...

I woke up on Friday, Aug. 24 (one day after due date) having mild contractions. I had an already-scheduled OB/gyn appt at 9:15 a.m. I called and asked if I should go to the hospital instead, as the contractions were about 6 minutes apart. They said no, come to the appointment. There, Dr. Gisi informed me that I was dilated to 3 and that I could very well have the baby that day. He said I should go to work (yeah, right) or just hang out at home. I chose the latter.

Throughout the day, the contractions got more intense, but their frequency was all over the place (from 3 to 10 minutes apart). Dominic and I toured a day care center that we just learned had an opening, and then Dominic went to work. At about 3:30, I concluded that I didn't feel safe being home alone with such horrible contractions, so I called Dominic and told him he better come home. I think my exact words were "This sucks. Come home or I'm going to the hospital alone."

About these contractions. I didn't know what to expect. People described them as intense menstrual cramps. I was afraid I'd miss them because my cramps have never bothered me much. Well, these geezers were nothing like cramps. It felt like someone was taking a crowbar to my pelvic area and slowly prying my bones apart. I felt it in my hips, back, thighs, the whole region. I seriously thought I would die!

We got to the hospital at about 4:45. In triage, they determined that it was true labor and I was dilated to 5. They admitted me and everything started happening very quickly. Dr. Hoegh was on call that day (YAY!! He is my favorite.) He broke my water and they started giving me drugs. First, a narcotic administered through my IV that made me feel loopy but didn't help the pain. Then, after waiting what seemed like forever for a very elusive anesthesiologist, the wonderful, God-sent epidural. Let me just say that whoever invented this stuff deserves a Nobel prize.

From this point on, I felt like a million bucks, completely relaxed and comfortable. I think I even logged onto MSN games and played a couple games of Zuma. Hey, I never denied that I'm a geek. The nurse encouraged me to sleep but I was too wound up, mentally.

Dr. Hoegh kept coming in to check me. Initially, he was sure I'd have the baby that day, but sometime around 9:00 p.m. he changed his prediction. The epidural made me a little TOO relaxed and my progress slowed down. The contractions spread out from 4 minutes to 6 minutes, and the dilation stopped. They pumped a little pitosin into the IV to get things moving again. It was just a matter of waiting.

At about 1:15 a.m. on Saturday, I was fully dilated and it was time to start pushing. Christi, the awesome nurse assigned to us, gave me a little refresher course on what I needed to do. Whenever a contraction came, I'd lift up my legs and give it my all. Since my legs were mostly numb from the epidural, Christi would help me lift my left leg and Dominic my right. It wasn't bad. The contractions were still about 3-4 minutes apart, so I had plenty of time to catch my breath and re-energize myself between pushes. It was a great team - Christi and Dominic said all the right things to encourage me on. "A little harder, you can do it!" It made a huge difference.

Early in the pushing, Christi noticed the baby's heartbeat was dropping at the end of each contraction. They decided to use an internal monitor (those awful things that are attached directly to the baby's head) to keep a closer eye on it. Me being me, my mind raced to the worst possible case scenario, but it ended up being fine. Apparently Bean got used to what was going on, and his heartrate stabilized.

Fast forward 2 hours. I was getting a little discouraged - not to mention exhausted. Whenever I asked how progress was going, they'd use words like "little by little" and "millimeters." I thought this would be an all-night ordeal. Dr. Hoegh even mentioned using the vacuum device, which I was adamantly opposed to. Maybe it was the incentive I needed to work a little harder, because from then on it went quickly (the episiotomy may have helped too). He called in the delivery troops. Finally, little Bean's head emerged. Dr. Hoegh told me to stop pushing so he could remove the cord wrapped - not once, not twice but THREE times - around Bean's neck. Once that was resolved, one final push and Cohen was born at 3:44 a.m.

Dr. Hoegh put him on my stomach and Dominic cut the cord. It was an amazing moment. The physical relief of being done with labor, the emotional euphoria of looking into my baby's eyes, the pride of seeing what a perfect little miracle Dominic and I created, the gratitude that he had 10 fingers, 10 toes and perfect health. I tearfully said something corny like "Hi Bubby, I'm your mommy." What are the appropriate words at such a life changing moment?

Cohen had an excessive amount of fluid in his nose, mouth, lungs and stomach. They removed as much as possible with an aspirator, but his cry was weak and mucous-sounding. They ended up inserting a tube into his stomach and lungs to remove the rest. At last, he was able to cry hard and "pinken" up.

By now it was nearly 5:00 and I'd been awake for nearly 24 hours. They took Cohen away for a bath, and we asked them to keep him in the nursery for a few hours so we could get some sleep.

And that's the story of Cohen Joseph Moll's birth!