Martha is here

Posted by kara

Martha was born July 15th at 5:44pm. She was 7lbs, 7oz; 19″ long; 14″ head circumference. She has a head full of hair, and eats a lot. Here is a scatterbrain, quick summary.

1. I had my 40th week doctor appointment Thursday morning at 9:30am. Paul decided to go with me, even though I said he didn’t have to. I felt some mild contractions (I thought of them more as Braxton Hicks) every 15/30/45 mins. Pretty irregular.

2. We brought our hospital stuff to the doctor’s just in case. I was hopeful, but it didn’t feel like labor. The doctor said I was about 4-5 cm dilated. Since I said I was having mild contractions every 15/30 mins, she said I could be monitored.

3. The three of us sat in the monitoring room for almost an hour. It showed up as having contractions every 10 mins. Doc said to walk around and come back at 12:00 to see if I had progressed. We walked to QFC and picked up a pretty gross lunch. I was so sad there was no Panera around.

4. Back at doc office, she said I was now 5-6 cm dilated and to head straight to the birthing suites. I called Aunt Karen to pick up Toshi and we headed over to the hospital.

5. Hospital lady said, “Are you sure she said skip Triage? Oh, you’re Kara Mealy. Yes, straight to the suites.”

6. Had mild contractions that still didn’t feel like labor. They were more frequent though. AK picked up Toshi. Contractions got worse around 3pm, but they still were only bad for like 30 seconds before they eased up. By 4:30pm, I asked for my water to be broken. My doctor couldn’t come until 5pm, so I waited a long half hour of painful contractions.

7. Doctor came and broke water. She then said her shift was up and left. The next contraction nearly killed me. I exaggerate, but it was pretty intense. I immediately regretted not getting an epidural. I don’t remember feeling that desperate during Toshi’s birth. Waiting for the go-ahead to push was horrible. Never again.

8. Another doctor came (Dr. Burdick) and I pushed a few times until the baby was born. I was motivated to get the whole thing over with. I felt like I didn’t have time to register many emotions about the birth other than pure relief and disbelief. It was neat because I felt so sure of my love for Martha since I knew this time what it meant to have a child.

9. Doctor showed me the placenta, which I didn’t really want to see. It was huuuuge and the cord was substantial. Anyway, she said that something really bad could have happened because of the marginal cord insertion.

10. Doctor and nurse did painful things to me like stitches and press really hard on my belly. I don’t remember the stitches/presses being that painful before.

11. After all the hustle and bustle, bonding, and testing, I tried to stand up. I felt like I couldn’t fill my lungs with air and my heart was straining. It felt like my upper back was collapsing in on my lungs. I laid back on the bed and felt better. I tried again a while later – just sitting up in bed made my heart race and I got really dizzy and light-headed. That was the first time I’ve felt like I was going to faint/blackout. A new doctor came in (mine went home) and said she wanted to test for a clot in my lungs, heart trouble, and dehydration. So I had 2 sacks of fluid via IV, an EKG, a radioactive test, and x-rays. Luckily the tests came back negative and I felt better after having a ton of fluid pumped through me.

12. The next day we spent resting, but resting with a newborn while trying to heal is not very restful. We ordered some yucky hospital food and then got my brother to bring us dinner.

13. Went home the Saturday morning. Had about an hour before Toshi came home. At first, she was timid around the baby because Martha was crying. Then Toshi showed a lot more interest in the baby and touched her gently on the face. She kept saying, “I like the baby.”

14. Toshi looked at my belly (still big and round) and asked if the baby came out and if there was another baby in there. I assured her there wasn’t a baby in my belly anymore. Even though it still looks like there could be!

15. I keep thinking about how I called my cousin Amy (love my talks with Amy) after Toshi was born and asked, “Well… what do we do now?” And now, I can only think of a mile-long list of things that could/should be done but we’ll probably never get to. I am still pretty roughed up and have trouble walking and carrying things. Paul has been doing everything around the house and taking care of all of us. He is the BEST. My family has been dropping off lots of food too! We appreciate everyone’s help and look forward to the grandparents visiting!

16. Guess that wasn’t quick… whoops.