Welcome Miriam

Welcome Miriam! We’re so glad you arrived! Getting to know you has been a joy. We love you.
Picture: Joe, Louise, and three-day-old baby Miriam--Just home from the hospital 10-10-2009.

(I wrote this journal article on 12/16/2009 and have finally edited it for general consumption.)

I’m finally sitting down to write a record of Miriam’s birth. Back in September I was naïve enough to think I would bounce right back within a week or so, but here I am with a two-month-old and finally entering what a friend of mine dubs “the new normal.”

I had been having small contractions for two weeks preceding the birth, some regular, some not. We scheduled an induction two days after the due date and arrived at the hospital at 7am. According to the nurse’s gadgets I was already having contractions at eight minutes apart even before they induced… (funny that I hadn’t noticed).

They administered the pitosen at around eight or nine and by mid morning I requested the epidural—a preemptive strike. By the time the epi guy arrived, I was sure glad. I was brave for the needle. Once upon a time I might have fainted, but then again, what is bravery really when millions of mothers have given birth without pain meds! Sane people choose the meds if they are given the option though.

Joe took a little video interview of me right after the drugs were administered. I told him basically that the epidural was the best thing that had happened to me in the last nine months! No more labor pain, and miraculously, no more pregnancy discomfort—bonus! I had forgotten what lying down comfortably in a bed felt like.

As time went on and contractions got stronger, I wasn’t completely pain free; I still had pain in my hips, but of course it was leagues better than the alternative. The interesting part was that I could feel the pressure of contractions and although I could not lift my legs, I could shuffle them across the bed.

By 1pm I was ready to push. All had happened relatively quickly up until that point, so we expected to have a baby within the hour, but not so. Miriam was head down, but facing up, so she got stuck, unable to pass my pelvic bone. The nurses helped me into several different positions to encourage her to shift. Joe was being very attentive throughout the whole time. I wasn’t able to eat or drink, but he was holding my hand, counting with the nurses, and feeding me crushed ice on a spoon to keep me going. What a champ!

Throughout the whole time I was listening to her heartbeat on the monitor and was just glad to know she was okay, but after three hours of pushing I was getting exhausted. However, at 4:15pm she arrived!

At this point I think many mothers are impatient to see and hold their baby, but I can remember just feeling relieved that she made it and glad to know that she had her daddy and a flock of nurses taking care of her. Within a few minutes Joe brought Miriam over. She looked peaceful with her eyes closed, but she perked up a bit when I nursed her.

And so, Miriam was born at 4:15pm on October 7th, which equates to 8:15am on October 8thin Australia, which is within five minutes of my birth date and time. So, one might say that from the time I first saw my mother’s face to the time I saw my first daughter’s face, it was exactly twenty-seven years to the minute. Further trivia is that Miriam and I were both born on a Wednesday. To complete the stats, Miriam weighed 7 pounds and 13 ounces and was 19 inches long. (I think I was seven pounds seven ounces and I’m not sure how long.)

Still further trivia, but of much less interest perhaps, is that I used exactly one bag of the epidural medicine. I think a bag costs about $500, so in a second respect, the birth could not have been timed better since I did not end up requesting a second bag.

While feeding Miriam for the first time, I was craving apple juice like no other! I drank cup after cup of the stuff before digging into my first meal of the day. Joe also got himself a meal and me another large bottle of apple juice.

An hour later Miriam was wheeled off for a proper check over in the nursery while I was wheeled off to my new room. I thought that by this point I would be impatient to tell the world the news. This was about the opposite of my real feelings by this point, so it was lucky that I had Joe to take care of all that for me. I did eventually call Mum to let her know though… about four hours later! I’m lucky she’s not the kind to be impatient.

At around 10pm that night while Joe was changing a diaper, Miriam began choking and turning blue! We had a moment of mad scrambling as my call button was on the arm of the chair where I couldn’t reach it from the bed, but after a moment of panic, we managed to get it pushed. Thanks to Joe, she was back to breathing again and nurses arrived within a minute. We remembered that she had swallowed some amniotic fluid during the birth and so she was taken to the nursery to be suctioned out.

She was returned to us at around midnight, but when I tried to feed her, she was uninterested, and soon began to choke again. Joe was quick with the suction bulb, but of course she had to take another trip to the nursery. We got the report at around 3am that she had continued to have troubles and so they had called Dr. McGueehee, our pediatrician, and he had recommended that she be sent to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) where she could be monitored.

Between the late night, pain and fatigue from the birth, an appointment with the lactation specialist, and a temporary closure of the NICU because of some unstable babies, I didn’t see Miriam again until noon—twelve hours from when I had last seen her. This was not the first night with baby that I had imagined and I was mildly sorry to have woken Dr. M., but glad to know that Miriam was safe.

Although Miriam had no further problems after that first night, she had to stay in the NICU for at least 48 hours, so the next two days were a constant stress getting back and forth from one end of the hospital to another. She ended up getting most of her meals from a bottle during that time, but I was there at least a handful of times each day and pumping the rest of the time.

The hospital room was very nice—like a hotel minus the carpet. Thursday was my birthday and the hospital delivered a birthday cake with my lunch that day—Nice!

Miriam was released to be in the hospital room with me on Friday night. This made things so much better. My milk also came in that night and although it hasn't been that easy, ever since, I’ve had a peculiar satisfaction from hearing her gulp.