Our MVP's birth story begins on December 23, 2009. I had a routine doctor’s appointment and I learned that I was dilated to two centimeters and for whatever reason; the doctor was concerned that I might be developing preeclampsia (high blood pressure). That meant that I could potentially go into labor early. The doctor had a blood test done to rule out preeclampsia. Since my due date was not for another three weeks, we were caught off guard and had to really scramble over the next few days to finish all of our preparations. Fortunately, the blood tests came back normal and there was no risk of preeclampsia.
Over the coming weeks, we got more and more anxious for MVP to arrive. I went on maternity leave at the beginning of the year and had time to clean the house and get everything organized. I was really hoping that MVP wouldn’t arrive too far past his due date and leave me with much less than a month of time to adjust to being a mom before going back to work on February 16th. In the days leading up to the January 14th due date, I really spoiled myself. I got a pedicure and a massage. I had heard that pedicures and massages can hasten labor. I also had a doctor’s appointment on the 13th and the doctor told me that I was already dilated to about 4-5 centimeters. She was very positive in that it takes most women hours of painful contractions for them to get to that far along. She said I would likely be one of the very lucky ones who have a relatively easy labor. She was so upbeat that she said it would be best to go ahead and schedule an induction just in case. She indicated that the hospital might not have any openings until the following week, but that we should schedule it anyway.
That night, I got a phone call notifying me that the induction would be scheduled for the next morning, January 14th. I immediately called Andy and let him know that he’d have to get off work the next day. That night, I didn’t sleep very well. I was too anxious, nervous and excited. Throughout the night, I had a few contractions, but every time I would try and time them, I would have three or four contractions, each within about ten minutes of the previous one, but then the contractions would stop for an hour or two. I was really frustrated and confused because I had been told that when you have contractions within five minutes of each other you should go to the hospital BUT that they should be consistent for about an hour. I just felt like my contractions were not consistent enough to go to the hospital, but I was soooo relieved that I had an induction scheduled for the next day because at the rate I was going, it was likely that I would be one of those people who didn’t realize I was in labor until it was too late. I had no desire to have a baby in the car ride on the way to the hospital.
On January 14th, we woke up early, got ready and headed to the hospital. We arrived at 7:30am and by 8 am, they had me hooked up to an IV. As if on cue, I started having contractions pretty regularly and within the hour, my contractions were about five minutes apart—and this was without any pitocin. The nurse let me continue for a little bit and then she started the pitocin. She wanted my contractions to be about three minutes apart before they got very serious about pushing.
For about three hours my contractions progressed little by little. At one point, I got up to go to the bathroom and I started to shake uncontrollably. It was probably a combination of nerves, adrenaline, cold air and hormones but it was a little scary to be so out of control. Just a little before noon I opted for an epidural. That was a weird experience. The anesthesiologist talked me through all the sensations I would be feeling and it was just a really strange experience. Good, but strange.
At around noon, they decided to break my water in hopes that the contractions would get more intense and that the baby would drop a bit more. They discovered that there was meconium in the water so the NICU team would have to be called in as a precaution when the baby was delivered. At that point I was still dilated at 5 centimeters. Less than two hours later, I was dilated to 10 centimeters! So things progressed really quickly! The baby was facing sideways, so the nurse had me lie on my side for a little while. At about 3:30pm the nurse decided it was time for me to start pushing. The only other ones in the room for most of the hard labor were Kat (our nurse), Dr. Kelly Hill and Andy. As I was pushing, Andy was very encouraging and helpful in making sure I knew what was going on and what I should be focusing on.
When MVP finally arrived at 4:08pm, I immediately started crying when I saw him. The thought that kept going through my mind was that a year ago, in January 2009, we started infertility treatments and now, only a year later, I was looking at my son!! I was so overcome with how blessed we are to have a baby and for how quickly the treatments worked for us. Not only was it a very emotional, surreal experience, but I just wasn’t expecting him to be so….purple. Although purple is a good sign, it really caught me off guard. The doctor said that the umbilical cord was loosely wrapped around his neck twice AND it was tied in a knot. I knew he had been very active in the womb (sometimes I thought I would be giving birth to a ninja) but I wasn’t prepared for that!! The NICU team immediately took him and cleared out his airways and made sure everything was ok. Andy was able to trim the umbilical cord and watch them as they made sure everything was ok. We were so happy that everything was ok. I was grateful and utterly astonished at how well the whole process was.
In the first few days following MVP's birth, I made the following observations. First, we should have named him Houdini!! MVP has an insatiable need to have his hands up by his face. No matter how well Andy wraps him up like a baby burrito, he has the uncanny ability to wiggle his hands free and get them up by his face.
Second, it really cracks me up when he poops. He will get this really concerned look on his face (wide eyes and everything), then he will grunt, sometimes his head will jolt upward and a second later you can hear the reason for his…consternation. I think it’s just really entertaining to watch him as he figures out all of his bodily functions.
Finally, it’s fun to watch Andy be a father to MVP. For the first 6 days, I didn’t change any diapers—Andy changed them all. I was really sad when he had to go back to work, but it was so nice of him to take the lead role in changing diapers and in learning how to care for MVP. He learned from the nurses at the hospital how to wrap him up like a baby burrito and how to meet some of his basic needs. I miss not having Andy around all the time to care for MVP together.
