Adjusting to motherhood is my excuse and I'm sticking with that. Even though we have been lucky to be blessed with, dare I say it, an almost perfect child, it has still been quite a difficult adjustment to say the least. One that seems to be getting the slightest bit easier everyday (some days are better than others)
So here goes...
Giuliana Joyce Pepe: The Birth Story
Funny how a mother's intuition seems to work even before the baby arrives. For weeks I kept telling anyone who would listen that she would be making an early appearance, but no one believed me.
As a matter of fact, it was Thursday Oct. 7th when I told a few friends that I "just have a feeling" the Dr. would be sending me straight to the hospital the follow day at my weekly Friday appointment.
And so the story goes.
Thankfully my father drove me to Dr. that Friday morning, I could not have imagined the scene had I gone by myself. I would have been a wreck! OK, I'm getting way ahead of myself here.
At first it was a normal appointment, nothing out of the ordinary. Sono tech did her measurements, we saw the baby's heartbeat, saw her kicking around, it was business as usual. Then Dr. K walks in after waiting for him for what seemed like an hour, at this point I had an idea something was wrong-he never makes me wait that long, even though the nurse came back to reassure me that everything was ok, he was just in his office on a call- yeah right!
OK, so he walks in, starts doing the sono and says, in the calmest voice, "you are having this baby today or tomorrow" I literally laughed and said "haha you're kidding right?" "no" he said, "we don't joke around about things like that"
That is when my heart sank and a panic came over me, a panic like when you're in elementary school and you have to get up and speak in front of the whole class( I was never good at that), a panic that I never want to experience again.
I was NOT ready to have the baby...
I had 4 more weeks to go.
Four more weeks to prepare for her arrival.
What if she wasn't ready to come out yet??
They gave me a second to compose myself and use the ladies room, as I needed to get an amnio done right away to check the baby's lung maturity.
Cord compression, that what they told me it was, the cord was wrapped around her neck and in between her legs and she was not getting what she needed from it, so she had to come out.
The second I walked into the bathroom and called Frankie, who was at work... in the city... 2 hours away... I lost it.
He, of course, was completely confused by what I was telling him, but managed to understand that he needed to come home ASAP.
As I walked back to the room, tears falling down my cheeks, I was trying to get the attention of my father, who wanted nothing to do with sonogram, something about it freaks him out. Anyway, I was trying to get his attention as he was sitting patiently in the waiting room, he had no choice, he needed to come in and hold my hand... I was scared.
They did the amnio, which by the way hurt way less than my lovenox shots, and told me to go home, pack my bags, and head to the hospital.
Of course word spread like wildfire, and before I could even get a chance to understand what was about to happen, everyone was calling me with panic in their voices.
I, at this point was calm, surprisingly. I think I was in denial or something... or maybe shock...one of the two.
My sister in law Cheryl was waiting for me on my stoop when I arrived home. Now, if there is anyone you want with you in a time of crisis it's Cheryl, simply for the fact that she will make you laugh when all you want to do is cry. She yelled at me for not having my bags packed, but let's face it, she yelled at me for not being as organized as she is (she would have had the bag packed the minute she found out she was pregnant), and proceeded to help me pack.
"A loofah, what the hell do you need a loofah for". For some reason those words stick in my memory, and she was right I didn't need the loofah.
My mother and sister also arrived at this point.
My mom brought me about 100 pair of pj's as if I was about to move into the hospital permanently, and continued to bring me a new pair every time she visited, but that's a whole other story.
We all waited for Frankie, who took FOREVER to get home.
Oh did I forget to mention my in laws were in CANADA, yes that's right, Canada, as in, out of the country, as in, they had to drive all night if they wanted to make it back in time for the birth of their 13th grandchild ...stay tuned to see if they made it or not.
Finally Frankie gets home and we head to the hospital.. Good Sam here we come.
We go to labor and delivery and as my luck would have it there are no rooms available, so I get a nice little set up in the hallway- yeah that sucked!
My memory on the exact time escapes me now, but I think I was in the hallway for about 12 hours, alright I'm exaggerating it was probably about half that, but still.
They hooked me up to a fetal monitor and asked a bunch of questions like does my husband beat me, do I feel safe at home..blah blah blah.
The plan was to monitor the baby and if it came down to an emergency we would deliver that night, but ideally we wanted to wait for the amnio results which would arrive sometime Saturday morning. Fortunately her heart rate was great all night long.
I finally get a room with a comfy bed and a TV so the rest of the night went a little faster.
Frankie and I "slept" and woke up Saturday morning in anticipation of the news.
Everything came back positive with her amnio, but all the nurses were still telling me she would most likely have to spend her time in the NICU. I had to mentally prepared myself for this.
C-section was scheduled for 7:30pm...petrified is the word I would use to describe how I felt about having a "section" as all the nurses called it.
Frankie was so excited to put on his little surgery uniform.
They pushed me down to the OR where the anesthesiologist was waiting, and then the fun began.
My spinal took a REALLY long time, and it hurt REALLY bad, but once it was done I felt nothing from the waist down, which was a good thing I would say. Strange to not have any feeling in your legs.
I'll spare you the details, which were not that pleasant...but at 8:28pm my little girl was born.
She cried right away, as did Frankie and I. People say it's the most beautiful sound you will ever hear, and it truly is. I was staring at her on the table waiting to hear how she is, and then they said it " She's going the the nursery" I was so overjoyed by that. Finally they give her to Frankie, he holds her little body in front of me and all I could think was that she is absolutely beautiful, has her daddy's full lips, and we FINALLY have a daughter.
Giuliana Joyce
October 9, 2010
6lbs 6oz 19 inches 8:28pm
Frankie and her leave to go to the nursery, I had to hang back and get sewn up lol.
I asked my Dr. to make sure he gives me my 20 year old belly back. Funny how you can joke around while you are completely cut open..gotta love modern science.
I head to recovery, meanwhile Frankie went to tell everyone the great news
Everyone was there, patiently waiting her arrival, and yes her grandparents were able to make it back in time..I had a feeling nothing was stopping them from being there. Boy do they have a story for her when she's old enough to understand.
I guess we all have a great story to tell her.
Plus we were lucky enough to get an extra four weeks to love her:)
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