Its baby day!!! Isabella slept right through us getting up and ready. Jessica came by 6:30 and it was time to go.
We drove up the coast early Sunday, a cool crisp 39F (4C) morning. 'What a beautiful day to have a baby'... James had to say both because it was and because his dad said that to his mom 41 years earlier on their way to the the very same hospital (Fredrica smiled... we were told James's mom said 'Shut and Drive!')
Fredrica simply looks amazing doesn't she? We shot this video diary on our way into the hospital in front of a nice fountain. Sorry the audio is a bit hard to hear.
About 7:15 we got into our room and went about setting things up to make it a little more homey. We brought a nice picture of Isabella and Fredrica. We got our music ready and settled in.
As we settled in James shared his thoughts... As a dad , he had lots of work to do to 'get things in order' the night before, so he was running around quite a bit. He felt like a runner gearing up for a marathon. You just don't know quite what to expect even if you've done this once before.
Jackie Bensinger, our friend and acupuncturist, came along to help with the birth. She had worked with both of us to get us pregnant. Last week, Fredrica went to Jackie for daily sessions to try to get labor going. Fredrica said to Jackie 'You got him in there, now I expect you to get him out of there!'
There's not much we could do about those 'charming' green gowns, but we got Fredrica some fluffy pink socks to keep her tootsies warm.
At 8:40 Fredrica got pitocin to get labor going. Dr. Nelson, our OB doc, dropped in at 9:30 to check on us. We actually had quite a bit of fun chatting.
Jackie gave Fredrica some acupuncture to support her body... East meets West.
It felt like showtime. The contractions started coming pretty regularly and started building in strength. By 11:15 Simon and Garfunkel was playing on the iPod and the contractions were strong enough that James started counting breaths for Fredrica to keep her focused.
We kept an eye on the monitor... the baby's heart rate was supposed to stay between the red lines on top and the contractions were monitored on the bottom.
Just before noon, Fredrica said it was time of an epidural. It is amazing how effective this is. Within 5 min, Fredrica was still having contractions but she couldn't feel them at all. Unfortunately, her blood pressure dropped and she got quite nauseous. The anesthesiologist helped straighten this out and then Fredrica got comfortable.
Dr. Nelson dropped by and checked in on us... But Fredrica wasn't making a lot of progress yet despite the contractions. She had been 80% effaced and 3cm dilated for a couple of hours. Hmmm. could this take until midnight? Later?
Now the waiting game
At lunch, with the epidermal working its magic, James got to go for lunch and take a walk while Fredrica rested. Fredrica was in on the second floor, far right window. James called his parents to give an update and had a really nice conversation with brother Allen. Everyone was so excited for our big day.
At about 3:30, still 3cm dilated, Dr. nelson put in an internal monitor to get a more accurate measure of the contractions. Either the baby was too big and contractions weren't going to progress or we need a bit more pitocin. We upped the pitocin to find out.
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