2:00 am

Vanessa wakes up from contractions

2:15

Vanessa wakes up Brian (in the guest room because of her snoring) and says, "I think you should come to bed. I think it’s starting".

3:00

Contractions are about 2 - 4 minutes apart

4:30

Start packing stuff together and loading the car

5:30

Leave for Marin General; Contractions are about 3 minutes apart

5:45

Nice guy with a smock on his head sees us as we come in the Emergency Room door and without exchanging anything but facial expressions, offers Vanessa a wheel chair and takes us up to Maternity.

6:00

Vanessa’s in bed, hooked up to a monitor

6:20

Linda, our Midwife, comes in to check on us. Contractions are 4 - 6- minutes apart and V’s 2 centimeters dialated; Linda feels that we’re a bit early, and maybe we should go home for a few hours, However, V’s throwing up with almost every third or fourth contraction, so Linda thinks she might be dehydrated. Linda went to tell the nurse and see about an IV.

6:50

Nurse comes in to do an IV

7:00

Nurse tries but fails on the left hand — the vein "disappeared". She leaves to get another nurse.

7:15

Breakfast is delivered — 2 sausages, one Eggo, oatmeal, coffee, and OJ. Brian got to eat it all.

7:30

New shift, new nurse. She gets the IV in, and Vanessa is re-hydrating; Contractions, according to the monitor are milder than when we came in. V’s sleeping.

9:00

V tells Linda that she feels like she wants to push with every contraction — Linda reacted and almost wants to check her again, but decides not to invade and lets V rest some more

10:00

Contractions may be increasing in intensity, but are a little further apart.

12:00 pm

New midwife has come on duty and comes in to check. Linda had been on shift already for 24 hours +, and wanted to go sleep for a few. She’ll be back though. If V’s still at 2 cm the new midwife will send us home. She’s at 4, so we stay, and they’ll move us to a Labor and Delivery room. V cries with happiness. She didn’t want to leave.

12:10

Lunch is here — Butternut squash soup, herb cod, some other stuff. Again, Brian gets it all.

12:15

Brian calls his mom to ask her to make some Chicken broth in case V gets hungry later.

12:20

Brian’s Dad shows up and hangs out for about 5 minutes.

12:30

We move to a new room — about twice the size.

1:00

Vanessa’s Mom and Dad show up

2:00

Linda shows up again. She said she got a little sleep, and is back to be with us through the rest of the trip.

2:30

Vanessa tries to take a shower to help relax. She’s been successfully sipping water and holding it down for a couple hours, so now, in the shower, she’s also trying to eat the frozen Hansen’s soda ice cubes we brought. These were a really good idea.

3:00

Vanessa requests something for the pain while still in the shower. The midwife suggests a narcotic

3:20

Out of the shower

3:30

Vanessa gets a shot of Phentynol — it should last about an hour, will make her dizzy, but should help her relax and maybe sleep between contractions. She was checked before the shot and is at 5 cm. She got the shot and her head falls back against the pillow right away. Brian finds this kind’a funny.

4:00

Vanessa really can’t take the pain. Linda spoke with a friend in Taos, NM who practices Chinese Medicine. She suggests that V’s gal bladder is weak or stressed, and recommends some Chicken soup with olive oil and some massage of the gal bladder meridian (outer legs).

4:20

Linda prepared some instant soup with olive oil and Vanessa got off the bed and is standing, while leaning on the bed. Brian holds her hands and talks to her while her mom and Linda massage her legs. It seems to help her feel quite a bit better.

5:10

Linda has to break Vanessa’s water to apply a fetal heart monitor to the baby’s scalp. The external belly monitor was picking up both heart rates and as a result, it appeared as though the baby’s heart rate was jumping up and down. Linda knows everything is ok, but the nurses and the hospital want everything to be done "by the book", and what looks like an erratic heart rate is not something that can be overlooked. Fair enough. V is at 6 cm, and 0 station.

5:30

After seeing what appear to be little drops in the baby’s pulse during contractions, Linda thinks that maybe V was getting "close" to pushing. She suggests a nurse start preparing the room for labor.

5:55

Still at 6 cm, but head is "way down there". V says she finds it hard NOT to push, so Linda is discussing an epidural and Pitocin to help speed things up a bit.

6:15

V got the Epidural. It went well even though the Anesthesiologist was talking about Vanessa’s tattoo "throwing him off" because it isn’t perfectly centered on her spine.

7:00

Start the Pitocin

7:20

New nurse guy named Michael comes in and starts a catheter into the bladder

7:40

Lissa and Kirty show up

7:50

Brian’s parents show up with a thermos of home made chicken soup.

7:55

Linda checks V again and now she’s at 7 cm and +1 station

8:15

Rani shows up. Linda takes off for a little while and it turned into a little social hour.

9:00

I called Seattle

9:45

Lissa and Kirty take off and Brian’s Mom and Dad go to the waiting room; Linda is looking into the same homeopathic stuff that we almost brought, but instead she shows up with a cohosh of some kind.

10:00

Brian’s Mom ends up bringing Dad home, but she’ll come back. Bill goes down to the Meditation Center, or something, so it looks like quiet time again.

10:15

Vanessa’s at 9 cm and +1 station — Linda explains it as one side is completely open, but the other side isn’t quite.

10:20

We’re all going to try to get some sleep. Only Rani and Sandy are left in the room.

11:20

No one got any sleep, but we think we’re just about there

11:25

10 cm — let’s start pushing

11:30

V is on her back, somewhat sitting up, and pushing, pushing, pushing.

12:00 am

We sort’a rolled Vanessa onto her left side because Linda felt that it would help the baby down through the pelvis.

12:45

The baby appears to have released her meconium (she pooped) and the fluid coming out is now a little brown as a result, rather than clear. We had to move V onto her back again, but the scalp is quite visible. Looks like Linda was right about helping to move the baby down through the pelvis.

12:55

A lot of head is showing, and she’s going to be born very soon. The Doctor is here now because as soon as the head comes out, he has to suction her mouth. He can’t let her inhale the meconium into her lungs or else she’ll have to immediately go to the Intensive Care Nursery to be watched, and likely treated. It is poop, after all.

1:14

The head is out and while the Doctor is suctioning her mouth, we’re all admiring how beautiful she is ("She", because two ultra sound technicians have told us during the pregnancy that it’s "probably" a girl).

1:15

IT’S A BOY!!! Oops.

They clamped and cut the cord immediately and took him over to the warming table. At this point he is not getting any oxygen, but the cord has to be cut so they can take him to the warming table. It is still before he has taken his first breath on his own. They suction a little more, rub his body, wipe him down, give him some oxygen through a tiny little mask

1:17

He’s starting to look a bit blue, but after a few more seconds, we're finally starting to hear some little cries, and before many more seconds, it’s a full-fledged scream. And what a wonderful scream it is at this point. All is basically well, and he starts to look pink again. That was interesting.

1:20

Vanessa passes the placenta.

1:25

Brian cut the cord (this cut is more of a symbolic gesture to let Dad be "involved") on the warming table. V receives stitches on two "level one tears" (small ones), and he was finally placed on her chest.

1:30

Sandy went to the waiting room to tell Judy and Bill, but Bill is MIA. He is eventually found, and everyone gathers in the delivery room to look at the wonderful little guy.

1:45

Judy tries to call Michael at home, but he’s accidentally turned the ringer off.

2:30

Judy leaves

2:40

Brian calls Seattle

3:15

Nurse Ama comes in to give him a sponge bath.

3:45

Bill and Sandy leave

4:10

Brian and Vanessa finally get to lay down, though still in the delivery room. Brian holds his new son, and Vanessa falls asleep — quickly.

4:30

Brian and Vanessa finally move to their own "recovery" room, and go to sleep — Vanessa in a bed with her new little guy, and Brian on a fold out chair.

Day Over