Here are some photos of Cassidy a few minutes after she was born, a few hours, a couple of days. I'm sure by now most of you have heard the story of how it happened, but for those of you who have not.... on Tuesday, May 12 I was hanging out with my friend Terri (who just had a baby boy two days ago!) and she said she had heard that red raspberry leaf tea could cause contractions.
By this point, I was so done being pregnant that I had gone to yoga classes and walked miles and miles over the weekend and was bouncing on an exercise ball and had felt not a twinge! I like tea. So Tuesday night I had 5 cups of tea. I'm not saying that's what did it, but hours later on Wednesday, May 13 I woke up at 1:30am and felt something. Then I felt it again several minutes later. I woke Matt and told him I thought I might be having contractions. He looked at me and said, "Just Breathe." Then he promptly fell alseep! He doesn't remember this two sentence conversation.
I waited and counted and about 30 minutes later they were coming 5 minutes apart but not too
painful. So I woke Matt again and this time he sprung into action. He was packing his clothes
and food and looking online at random stuff and then he realized I wasn't ready to go to the
hospital yet because my water hadn't broken. So we hung out. He rubbed my back. I took a bath. Read a magazine.
At about 3:45am it started to hurt more and they were more like 4 minutes apart. So we headed to the hospital. We made it there by 4am thanks to Matt running red lights. That was fun! I think he was disappointed that we weren't pulled over by anyone so he could tell them he had a pregnant wife!
We hung out in triage in labor and delivery for a bit and it was there I realized my water had broken but the baby's head was slow I was just leaking and thinking I was peeing on myself! T
he nurse there was adamant that we were having this baby soon so we got a room just in time because suddenly it was packed! There were people all over the place having babies. My dr, Dr. Mellum, who randomly used to be an RA in Nye hall back in the mid-80s for those who know what I'm talking about!- came on at 8am and he was attended by nurse Erin. By this time it really hurt. Enough to the point that I took a shower there and then walked and rocked and was on the floor on all fours and doing whatever felt good and relieved the pressure. Matt was great
and trying to anticipate what I needed and was quiet when I glared at him and talkative when I needed him to distract me. When we first arrived at the hospital I was 4cm dilated.
By 8am when Dr Mellum checked me I told him and anyone who would listen that if we had not progressed I wanted drugs...any drugs...I didn't care if they were legal..whatever he had in his pocket I would take. Luckily he told me were 7cm dilated. I thought alright! We can do this!
He checked me at 8:30am, a mere half hour later, and we were 10 cm! Then he said ok let's push. Now I don't know what I had envisioned,
but I surely did not expect him to say let's push and nurse Erin popped open the stirrups and away we went. There was a second nurse there whose name I did not know...and really at that point was not caring who she was...
So the stirrups were not working. My legs were too long. We had a few practice pushes. I was not happy. I was at the edge of the bed and looked at Matt and requested we take a break. He
said no. Then I asked Dr Mellum if we could continue tomorrow. He said no. Then I asked the nurse if we could just stop and talk about it and she said no! Then I said I don't know about this and Matt half picked me up to prop me up better on the bed and then Matt and nurse Erin
became human stirrups and we were all much better for it!
So the real pushing finally commenced and it felt so good to scream with each contraction! Kind of like how one may grunt while in the midst if some athletic activity. So that's what I did. Dr Mellum would count to 10 and I would say let's go for 15! Or he'd say do you want to take a quick break and looked at him crazy and said no. Then came a point where he stood up, walked over to my side of the bed and explained how I was about to feel serious pain, funny how I thought I already was, and used his hands to show
how much I was about to stretch. Mind you, this little visual of his was not comforting and I told him so then told him to get back to his side of the bed and let's just do this. Nurse Erin suggested I not scream and use that energy for pushing...then I screamed in her face. Sorry nurse Erin.
And finally, after 5 hours, at 9:20am, Cassidy made her appearance. She was gorgeous. Full head of dark, fine hair. All fingers and toes. But she was white. White like Matt on a cold, sun-less December day. So I asked Dr Mellum if she was mine. For some reason he and nurse Erin found this funny. But I momentarily was confused. Then Matt cut the cord and Dr Mellum
placed her on my stomach. She looked at me and I looked at her and then she began nursing. Now I was sure she was my child. She could eat. Well!
Her AGPAR score was 9. She weighed 6lbs, 15ozs, was 19inches long and perfect. She was very alert and bright eyed. I don't believe she slept for a good 30 minutes or so. We were left alone for close to 2 hours. I was real glad Matt packed snacks. Nurse Erin came back and helped me from the bathroom to a wheelchair and we were all moved to a different room where I took
my 3rd shower of the day! and Cassidy went with Matt to the nursery where they started their barrage of tests and whatnot. Our first visitor was Jen Hilbert at about 11am! Then Heather Turk!
Then lots of folks till about 8pm. It was fun having visitors all day. Cassidy slept with us that night. Then began more tests and poking and prodding at 5am on Thursday for both of us. We were let go by 4pm on Thursday and were home by 4:30pm.
And I would recommend Dr Mellum to absolutely anyone!
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