Our Family of Five!
 |
| Our family has expanded... |
Baby #3 Arrives
A few hours after we went to bed on Halloween night, I woke up to use the bathroom, and realized that I was (again) having some contractions. This had happened to me at least 2 or 3 times in the past couple of weeks, just to have the contractions disappear, so it was hard for me to trust that "this was really it." But alas, the pain intensified and I had to concede that yes, labor was finally upon me!We proceeded to wake ourselves up and call my parents and our doula. By 4:30am, my parents were settled into our house to take care of our kids and we were off to the hospital. We were sent up to the labor and delivery wing, and things seemed rather quiet, so we were surprised to find out that there were no available delivery rooms, and we had to wait in a make-shift triage area in a hallway.
 |
| Here is where I labored for 2 hours, connected to a monitor and not allowed to leave my "area."(Obviously we took this shot at the beginning, when we still had a sense of humor about the situation) |
Without going into too many details, the hospital labor and delivery experience was not a stellar one. There was a ton of construction going on in the delivery hallway due to the expansion of a whole new wing of private postpartum rooms (which people who deliver their babies NEXT WEEK will get to enjoy...). In addition to my laboring in the hallway, we hit the shift change between night time staff and daytime staff, resulting in miscommunication and not being treated in the compassionate way we would've liked to be treated. The labor nurse who started us off did not look at our birth plan, and did not attempt to work with my wishes to be taken off of the external monitor or to walk around the hallway during labor. Our doula was made to sit in another hallway waiting for us while we were in the triage area, so we couldn't benefit from her services during that time. Because the nurse was not monitoring my labor closely, my OB was not contacted in time to actually make it to the hospital to deliver our baby. That was probably the biggest disappointment, since my OB has been with me through a lot and I know she really wanted to be there. In addition, the delivering doctor did not have a good bedside manner & did not communicate clearly with the nurses about what needed to be done to repair me after he left the room. As I look back on the whole labor and delivery experience, I feel that it was very chaotic and I wish that I'd had more peace and confidence. I was definitely scared and panicky through most of it. Kind of humbling (and humiliating) when I look back on my state of being during labor. I was definitely not as calm & collected as I was during my second child birth.
However let me focus on the positive...
1) Our daughter was safely delivered! Our daughter did have the umbilical cord tightly wrapped around her neck, so we are thankful that there was no distress caused by that.
2) For some reason, the nurse (who was not paying particularly close attention to us) did move us from the hallway into an actual delivery room just in time for my contractions to get really hard & baby to be born.
3) The labor & delivery (though chaotic) was fast. She was born within 3 hours of our being at the hospital. I did not have a very long time to be uncomfortable or in excruciating pain.
4) My own personal health and recovery has been uncomplicated from childbirth, another thing I am truly grateful for.
5) We have 3 healthy children who are God's gracious gifts to us.
 |
| Here we are! First family photo of 5! |
 |
| Big brother and sister are so excited to meet her |
 |
| Our little sleeping beauty |
 |
| Bringing "Little A" home |
 |
| Resting on her first night home |
 |
| Big brother love |
 |
| Sisters! |
 |
| Can you believe these are our 3 kids?? |
Comments