THE BIRTH

On the morning of May 17, I woke up EARLY at about 7:30 (it seemed early then) and felt a very light twinge in my lower abdomen. I thought that was weird. When I felt it again, I glanced at the clock and it was exactly 5 minutes apart. Somehow, I brushed it off again, it didn't hurt, and Ithought I was constipated. When It happened a third time, I panicked a little, Somehow, I convinced myself it was just from being constipated and went back to sleep.

Around 11, we sat down to watch 8 HEADS IN A DUFFEL BAG. I started feeling the twinges again. I told Al if it is still going on in 1/2 hour I'm calling the dr. I put my feet up and drank a ton of water, like I'm supposed to if I think I'm contractimg. Well of course I waited an hour and, by then I was in real pain. (I think they tell you to drink the water so that if it is real labor, you'll really feel it :-) )

I guess I was in denial -- It struck me that I was in labor when I was sitting on the toilet and felt relaxed and the pain subsided. I had read a ton of birth stories and knew that a lot of times women in labor feel better sitting on the toilet.

We called the dr and it took her 1/2 hour to call me back. By then, I was in serious pain and was crying and scared (Al was freaking too.) When we were getting ready to leave for the hospital, the dr finally called and told us to go (duh). Right before we left I saw blood for the first time. I freaked, but tried to stay calm.

At the hospital, we heard the heartbeat (what a relief) ,discovered I was 2 cm (the farthest you can get with a cerclage in) and I was contracting every two minutes (they sure sped up quick!) I realized that early that morning, the little twinges I felt inside me was probably my cerclage being tugged on.

They gave me the shot (can't remember what it is called) at 2 pm and 3 pm. They slowed down the contractions, but didn't stop them. Then, I moved to labor and delivery and we tried the magnesium sulfate drip. I started contracting harder on that. As a last ditch effort, the put in the epidural. What a relief.

I think I handled everything OK until the catheter was put in to wait for the epidural. For about an hour, I had the catheter in without the epidural. The contractions were coming hard and fast that hour and I was contracting on a catheter YUCK.

As you can guess, the epidural did nothing to relax my uterus and the dr took out the cerclage -- we were having her that night. At about 8 pm, I fell asleep hard and Al went home to check on the pups and did the dishes!

Amanda arrived at 2:21 am. Al cut the cord. Considering he didn't even want to be in the room when I first got pregnant, he was very helpful. |The hospital staff was impressed -- he went looking for a towel for me and they thought that was wonderful. They were stunned.

The only time he annoyed me was when he kept telling me to breathe "I AM BREATHING" earlier in the day. I think that's the only time I came very close to yelling at him. The rest of the time, we worked as a real team -- He seemed to know when to support me and let me rest.

I'll never forget the first thing he said when he saw Amanda "Oh My God, Mel, we have a little girl". She did a little grunting cry and I said "Oh Listen to her cry." I knew she was breathing if she was crying.