Beginning of New Life: Ava & Emma, Part II

This past Sunday at 7:21 & 7:36 in the morning, my wife gave birth to two beautiful baby girls: Ava Grace & Emma Ryleigh. Considering that the story started last Wednesday, there’s a lot of details in between. This is the second part of the story (out of three). If you missed the first part, catch it here.

Saturday, June 12th

8:00am We wake up and begin to move to the Labor & Delivery (L&D) room where our journey to parenthood would begin. The room is much nicer than the motel feeling at 1 West, and we move in and get started soon after with the induction process.

9:30am Our doctor from Greenville OB/GYN has arrived, and inserted what is called an “Easy Cath”, which basically begins the process of tricking the uterus into dilation and contraction. From here on out, it’s mainly just a waiting game. We have plenty of visitors during this time, mainly family, that helps the time go by, since we’re waiting until well after lunch to begin the next step.

2:00pm Our doctor tries to break Miranda’s water artificially. And fails. It hurts bad, from what I hear. Sorry, babe.

4:00pm The next step begins: the administration of oxytocin, the hormone that begins the labor process in female mammals. You have probably heard of the branded version, Pitocin. They begin the IV drip into my wife, who is expecting the worst: immediate full labor contractions. She is thankfully disappointed, although within a couple of hours, she is feeling the contractions get tighter and tighter. Still, she isn’t doubled over in pain, and she takes everything like a champ.

10:00pm Miranda is on IV pain meds now, and our doctor is back to artificially break the water, which she says will speed up and intensify the labor process further. It works, Miranda feels it slightly (but nothing near as bad as the first time), and we wait some more.

This block of time brought to you by Hope Proctor, who stayed with my wife and I at the hospital for 8 hours, massaging her back, talking to her, getting her water, and being an overall awesome person. It was so nice to have a woman there with her. Thanks, Hope!

Sunday, June 13th

2:30am No longer taking labor pains like a champ. After 10 hours of labor, Miranda asks for an epidural. I don’t blame her: her contractions are literally off the chart.

3:00am The anesthesiologist arrives, fashionable late. He is very curt, and at first gets on my nerves (mainly because I’m concerned for my hurting wife), but he turns out to be a pretty cool guy. Miranda buries her head into my stomach, steps on my ingrown toenail, and gets a 4 inch needle stuck in her spine three times. A pretty eventful hour goes by.

4:30am Miranda and I fall asleep. She’s in the middle of full labor. Despite what the hippies tell you, an epidural is a Godsend.

6:00am I awake to about 4 people in our room, one of them vigorously shaking me (so I’m a hard sleeper, get over it). I saunter into some clothing, and then suddenly realize what’s going on: we’re headed to the delivery room. By the time we turn the corner and enter the delivery room, it’s exactly 6:13am. That’s the last time I remember until Ava and Emma show themselves.

The process begins quite slowly with our doctor coaching Miranda through the process of pushing. It seemed pretty difficult, particularly sense Miranda couldn’t feel her legs at all (the epidural, again). Eventually, the doctor got creative, knotting a bedsheet at both ends and playing tug-of-war with Miranda, who, lying flat on her back, would simultaneously pull with her upper body and push with her lower body. After a while of pushing, Ava’s head finally crowned, and it was a pretty quick process after that.

7:21 am Ava is born, whisked to the NICU people (there were at least 15 people in the delivery room, no exaggeration), and examined. She scored a 5 on her APGAR test immediately, and a respectable 8 after 5 minutes (out of 10). Not to be outdone, Emma is coming rather quickly after Ava, considering Miranda still has no feeling from her midsection down.

7:36am Emma is born, also whisked to the NICU people, and examined, scoring an 8 at the one minute mark and then a 9 after five minutes. Miraculously, we are told that they are headed to the newborn nursery. We knew for sure that they’d head straight to the NICU with respiratory problems or something else that would be traumatic. Nope. To the nursery with them. Meanwhile, Miranda is catching her breath, plopping out placenta, and we’re headed back to our room like it was a nice walk in the park.

Little did we know that we’d be in and out of the hospital for another 8 days…