Sadie Marisa

Sadie Marisa has arrived!

She was born two weeks early, on April 10, at 2:18pm. I haven't had the time to sit down and write until now.

My labor began, in dramatic movie-style fashion, with my water breaking while I lay in bed one night reading at about 10:30pm. Nick and I quickly packed a bag and drove to the hospital, where I labored until 9am, when I was fully dilated, then began to push. But because I'd had an epidural at about 3am (my contractions had me gripping the bed rails and cursing like a sailor), I wasn't able to push very effectively at all. What followed was 5 hours of lowering my epidural dose, adding pitocin, and assuming various positions to try to better push.

Sadie was face-up, and as a result having trouble making her way through my pelvic region. She spent about 3 hours at +1 station. Most babies start out face-up, then turn as they enter the birth canal, but Sadie stayed sunny-side up. This is sometimes known as back labor, and is supposed to be especially painful. But in order for me to be able to feel enough to effectively push, they had to turn down my epidural drip, first to 5, then eventually to 0. They also gave me some pitocin to increase the frequency and intensity of the contractions. So, essentially, despite being in great pain and asking for an epidural without a second thought, I ended up having a "natural" childbirth after all.

At one point, Sadie's heart rate slowed down to a dangerous level, and I had to be consented for the anesthesiology for a C-section. For an hour or so I stopped pushing, until Sadie's heart rate came back up on its own. For the last hour of labor I pushed like champ. Once Nick saw her head and told me she had dark hair, I knew there was no going back. I pushed through the ring of fire with everything I had in me. When I finally gave that last push and saw the doctors guiding Sadie out of me, I laid back on the bed and let everyone else in the room take over.

The doctor said the umbilical cord (which was wrapped twice around Sadie's neck) was the longest he'd ever seen. I like to take that as an omen that as Sadie grows and our relationship as mother and daughter deepens, we will maintain a close and nurturing bond, but with a healthy distance between us.

Lovely Day

I took this photo a few days ago. Wish I could lounge around at home everyday with the animals.

The other day, when Nick had taken the car down to Boston to visit a friend and do some work, I took the bus to my job. This is the view from the bus stop:The photo really doesn't do justice to the fact that from the bus stop, you can see both Portland Harbor and the open ocean. It's a far cry from waiting for the bus at the Fulton Street Mall to get to Red Hook.

Actually, I feel guilty for not taking the bus more often. Nick drives me the two miles to work every day, then keeps the car so he can go out on tech service jobs in and outside of town. Our old Volvo uses up so much gas it's ridiculous--I think we go through something like 1-2 tanks of gas per week, and gas is SO expensive right now. My excuse this winter was, well, it was icy and cold and winter, and I was pregnant, and now that's it's warming up a bit, my excuse is that I'm even more pregnant, which means standing and/or walking for any length of time makes me feel like my bladder is going to implode and my baby is going to fall out from between my legs. So we continue to use our gas-guzzling car every day, even though in a city this size, it's not entirely necessary. My mom just bought a Toyota Prius, and I would love one of those. I think what we might do is try to sell the Volvo and take over my mom's old (but newer than the Volvo) Toyota Corolla. It's in decent shape, and I think the gas mileage will be much better. Last summer, I rode my bike to work most days, which took about 10 minutes. I'd like to do that again when I return to work at the end of the summer, but maybe with a baby at home I'll need a car close by for emergencies. Any working moms have any thoughts?

These are such mundane thoughts for the weeks before a new baby is coming into our lives, but unfortunately, reality doesn't seem to take a break, even in the face of an upcoming miracle.

Ninth month!