Savannah Smith

Savannah Joy Smith arrived October 5, 2012 at 10:35a.m.

The week before we had gone to the hospital actually, thinking it was time! After a few hours, it was clear that Savvy just wanted to make sure we were ready. Yes, of the many nickname combinations and options available, Savvy is one of our faves. I'm so glad we had this practice run through!

We found that we were not really packed with things we needed and logistically getting from our apt to the parking garage in the middle of the night is a challenge! It's too long of a walk for a gal in labor, too cold, creepy and long for a sleep-eyed three year old, too long for a sleepy Daddy to carry bags, supplies and a three year old, but you can't park in front of our building for long and you can't leave the car unattended! Whew! A strategy was to be created later. Not to mention, when arriving at the hospital you don't take the pleasant walk through the newly renovated and serene entrance to L&D that was highlighted on your original tour, but you do get to experience the real entrance through the aging ER with broken wheelchairs, shaky elevators and staff that don't speak to you as they wheel you through gritty, dark hallways to reach triage. Yeah, that was not on the tour!

Put in perspective we are blessed to have insurance, a place to go to have a safe delivery, and great friends and family for support. But while experiencing contractions every couple of minutes and trying to get Cass situated, perspective was not present in that moment. So once again, having this run through was quite "savvy" of our unborn at the time.

Fast forward to October 5. At 12:19.a.m I told Matt I had a contraction. These had been happening all week with no consistency. Some strong, some not, others lasting two minutes, some only 30 seconds.  But this one felt different. Matt started timing. One hour later, we called our midwife Mary. She asked me how I felt. I told her they were about 6 minutes apart. I asked if I could just labor at home for awhile and this was not an option. With Cass I tested negative, but with Savvy I tested positive for some random bacteria GBS-Strep B. It is one of many bacteria that can reside in your stomach that is a helpful thing! But with babies, it produces not good things so if you test positive for it, you have to get antibiotics.

And now begins our strategy!

All bags were packed. My ingenius hubby stacked everything in our portable shopping cart ( a must for city dwelling!) and rolled out to the parking garage. It's about a 12 minute brisk walk- beware the buses and rogue cabbies. I woke Cass and had snacks at the ready. In between each contraction was a task. Put shoes on. Contract and breathe. Get Cass' coat and snacks. Breathe. Hit elevator button. Breathe. Reach lobby. Breathe. What normally takes a few minutes took me about 22 minutes. In the lobby there were students who were en route to a night of Chicago entertainment we'll say, and it was a funny thing to try to be quiet in labor out of their view. My cover was blown by security working the desk though. Our building security are the nicest people! I enjoy chitchatting with them daily. And they had bets going on when this day was going to happen. Security was all excited and loud once they realized what was happening. And poor Cass was in varied states of sleep next to me. Just as we were to be swarmed with questions by the small smoke-infused crowd of slightly intoxicated, half dressed onlookers, Matt pulled up! Hooray! The students scattered with well wishes, I'm sure we were forgotten as quickly as we were discovered.  Good thing too because if you smell like you just had a cigarette or alcohol I was likely to tell you to back off for multiple reasons and not be nice about it. Unless it was tequila. Like with Cass I sometimes craved the smell and taste of tequila during this pregnancy! Maybe it's the cactus? And y'all know that I am not a big drinker, or even a medium one! I am looking forward to chips, salsa and margaritas/sangrias some day soon :-)

I digress...

We're on our way! It's 2:15am-ish by now and 290 has never looked better! No semis, no traffic, just cruisin' at whatever speed we like. Matt has chosen a comfortable 5 miles under the speed limit. We pull into the ER and now know exactly what is coming next thanks to last week's preview. Alzada is already there and Joe is on his way!

(Who are Alzada and Joe you ask? Well, feel free to read through previous posts sometime to see them and hear of adventures with them, but for today's quick snapshot, Alzada and I co-teach an FYS class and Joe is Julia's Daddy and Laura's hubby. )

Joe picks up Cass and takes her home. Cass was so excited to spend the night/morning at Julia's house. A huge thank you to the Wilmarth Tyna family for taking Cass home! And spending the day with her! Especially when Laura is herself preggers, due next month :-)

Alzada and Matt are going to help me stay sane for the duration of labor. Thank goodness! We're waiting to be checked in officially to the ABC room when my midwife says we have a waiting game to play that will determine the rest of our morning. At 4am I get my first dose of penicillin. If my water breaks before the second dose, we will be required to stay in he hospital for a few days to watch the baby and see if the bacteria in me, has transferred at all to her. If I wasn't positive for it, we would have just broken my water right then and gotten down to business! But they really want me to have the minimum requirement of two doses.  So we wait four hours, then get the second dose of penicillin. After that we can break my water. And, after two doses, they are more certain baby is protected so we don't have to stay as long! Now this game is not my favorite. Obviously I want baby to be safe. But I also did not want to spend days in the hospital. And I was ready and anxious to get this labor moving! Part of me hoped my water would break on its own while the other part of me wanted both doses. Thankfully in this waiting game I have no control over what happens so no decision to make.

What does one do for four hours while waiting to get a second dose of antibiotics? We forgot cards or board games. So Matt and Alzada napped for a bit while I walked the halls. How is this possible you ask? That is the beauty of the ABC room! The midwife group we went with delivers at a hospital. They have three Alternative Birthing Center rooms (ABC) on the same floor as the rest of the L&D rooms. L&D and Recovery are all on the same floor at the hospital we were at. To qualify for the ABC room you have to be super low risk, not having multiples, and ready for no drugs. We had Cass with no drugs and I loved it. Not the pain part, but everything up to and after. So it was an easy decision for us to make this time around too. The ABC room is huge and luxurious! Outfitted with a comfy queen bed, gigantic jet tub, couches, tables, tvs, exercise balls, and a bathroom that should be on a Kohler commercial, warm paint tones, hardwood floor (probably laminate), a fridge, LCD TV, DVD player and everything to test and take care of a newborn- this room is worth the no drugs! So there was room on the couch for Alzada and the bed for Matt, allowing both to nap.

I had prepped by Ipod with a "Having a Baby" playlist and spent a few hours walking the hallway, dancing between contractions to the likes of Nelly, Jason Aldean, Metallica and Gloria Estefan. If it has a beat it is much easier to concentrate and block out pain. By 7am, on a scale of 1 to 10, the pain is about a 7. Stop you in your tracks super uncomfortable, but not intolerable. That comes later.

We finally hit 8am! In goes the penicillin to a handy dandy contraption on the side of my arm, not my hand or inner elbow but in the middle- weird but not bad!  Ten minutes later midwife comes in to break my water. And now the pain goes up to 8.9. Immediately. Around this time too I get to soak in the tub and Matt and Alzada alternate lending me a hand or arm to squeeze or shoulder to scream into or  put counter pressure on my back. It is labor for everyone! Also, one of our awesome babysitters is a nursing student who wants to go into L&D and has never seen a baby born. I offered for her to experience ours as long as she was good seeing me practically naked and she was super excited. Gianna joined us and that was a blessing as later it would take four people to move me.

By 9:30am-ish we have seen so many nurses! It was either really busy or changing of the shifts. I kid you not, Alzada started keeping track of them for me in my journal. She was helping me record everything that I'd want to share with Savvy later and just to have. I couldn't remember my middle name much less hold a pen. The midwifery has three midwives, two of them had to get all dressed up and go present to the city because the practice was expanding to Elmhurst (go figure) so Mary left, and MaryBeth has been there for awhile. Around 10am MaryBeth told me whenever I felt like it, I could push. I was a little confused because she hadn't checked me or anything. With Cass, Dr. Mellum would check and say how far along we were and how much to go and then counted with me when pushing. With MaryBeth it was more of a do what you feel. Well, I needed more of the former, so I asked her to check things out. Pain hit a 10+ and as she is checking, THE contraction hit and I started screaming for them to pull me up and give me space. I hear MaryBeth say alright we're having a baby and a bevy of people come running in, setting stuff up.

Somehow I am precariously poised simultaneously on the bed, off the bed, on someone's arm and on the exercise ball. I can't imagine what this looked like but it was the most comfortable position for me to be in to handle the pain and nobody else seemed to understand that. I came to this realization when several people were telling me I had to move for fear the baby would not be caught properly or I would fall on the floor. This was not making any sense to me- couldn't these people see that I needed to be in the most awkward unhelpful position to everyone else? :-)

As I'm saying "no, (breathe), nope, (scream), I'm not (breathe) MOVING (scream), uh-uh, no."  the four of them, MaryBeth, Matt, Alzada and Gianna, each grab an arm or a leg and move me to a position on the bed better suited for someone to actually catch the baby. Ok, I got it now.

WARNING- Graphic order of events to follow...WARNING- Graphic order of events to follow...

The baby's head comes out. What a relief! The hardest part is over. Except now nothing is happening. My body isn't doing anything. The baby and I are just hanging out. I'm standing on my knees, one arm around Alzada, another around Matt and wondering where is the rest of the baby? Well, I know where obviously. More accurately, when is the rest coming out? So now I'm not screaming but asking in a confused way why the baby is not coming the rest of the way. MaryBeth says I have to wait for the next contraction. Well where is it? I ask. Some folks are laughing I think. I am no longer feeling pain, but irritated that my body would decide to take a break now. And then I'm like a coach- Come on people let's go! What are we waiting for? Get a move on! I am not talking to anyone one particular person exactly, more just giving directions and orders in the hope that something will happen or someone will make something happen.

Finally, my body wakes up and the last contraction hits. The pain came back with it. Not as bad as the last one, but definitely one to render me speechless, but for an angry primal warrior cry echoing around the room and down the hall I'm sure. Then MaryBeth asks me if I want to pull her out.

Are you kidding me?

I tell her quite strongly, "No! That is your job! My job is to push, your job is to catch!" eliciting more giggles from the gallery.

Finally, last push and Savannah is out- a healthy beautiful 6lbs, 3ozs and 19 inches long.
Just like with Cass, my whole body relaxed and all was right again. In a matter of what felt like seconds to me, the bed was cleaned, I was propped up and there was a radiant little girl in my arms. Then, unlike with Cass they gave me a shot of Pitocin in my upper thigh- yes it hurt! I had already delivered the placenta but they were concerned about the amount of blood so they were trying to get my uterus to contract more effectively.  As a baby nurses, chemicals in your brain release, specifically Oxytocin, stimulating the uterus to contract so that you don't hemorrhage. One of many reasons we choose to breastfeed immediately when baby comes out. But if you don't choose to breastfeed you're probably given Pitocin, a synthetic form of oxytocin, to help trick your body into having contractions, once again saving your life. Well, I was nursing just fine, Savvy latched on as quickly as Cassie, and I was feeling contractions, but the nurses and MaryBeth were not happy with how effective they were so I was given Pitocin. In my leg. Odd. But ok. It is Monday and I am still feeling contractions when savvy nurses! Not pleasant.

In the hospital I was on motrin and tylenol for the pain, it felt like I was still in labor!  But it is not as bad now and so no meds were sent home.

We were able to stay in the ABC room for quite a while. Laura brough Cass to us so she could meet her little sister. Then Uncle Mark and cousin Hannah picked Cass up around 7:30pm to take her home with them till Sunday. (Thank You!!)  Eventually, another woman in labor mad her way to the hospital and we had to sadly leave first class and head to coach around 10pm-ish, just a short walk down the hall to a real recovery room the size of a closet. But it was clean. And really, anything would seem small once leaving the ABC room. And they did hunt down a roll away for Matt. We later heard that other gal in labor and were excited for her to also experience the ABC room. Matt said she was louder than me. I'll take his word for it.

Sunday afternoon we were finally released and now we are at home with our girls! Cass is in school three times a week starting today, I'm home presumable through January and Matt is off for the next two weeks, then working a day or two from home for a little bit. I have a goal to finally update the blog with more pictures and updates on our move to downtown Chicago, Cass' new school, Matt's job, and more! Also we are having a meet the baby party hosted by Aunt Rene on October 22  at our old church in Elmhurst! So excited!!!! For those of you who asked, we did register at Babies R Us to help remind us what few things we were looking at getting, but again please do not feel the need to buy anything. Really! Your thoughts and prayers are gift enough :-)

XOXO
Team Smith
Matt, Jeannette, Cassidy, Savannah