Birth Story

I had been having contractions since my 35 week appt. On Thursday, I was sure
my water had broken was slowly leaking out. My contractions were increasingly
uncomfortable. On Friday morning around 8am, I was chatting with Mary (my
CyberMommy) and the contractions were getting really annoying. She suggested I
call my dr. so I can get checked. Dr. Weiss was on vacation last week, so I was
little hesitant to call his partner, Dr. Dantzler, who we just met a few weeks ago.
I went and laid down for awhile to see if they would go away.   At 11:45am, I got up
and told Adrian to get ready to go to the hospital because I was in some pain! I
called Dr. Dantzler and told him that I’m going in. He told me that he was leaving
for Cancun in a few hours, but not to worry…Dr. Weiss was coming back on!
YAY!!! I didn’t have to wait until Monday.

So, fast forward to 1:15pm and we’re FINALLY leaving the house to get to the
hospital. (Adrian had to shower and do some stuff). I’m in triage by 1:30pm. But
wait…everyone and their mother is delivering today. The place is a zoo! They
hook me up to the fetal monitor. Dr. Dantzler said that if I’m 3 – 5 cm dilated, he’
ll keep me. I was 2.5 cm, 90% effaced, so I’m thinking I’m going home. Then I
hear the residents and nurses talking about Dr. Weiss and how I’m staying.
Yippee!!! Elation turned to panic when I realized that meant I had to have a baby.

So, at 3:30pm they finally wheeled me into a labor room and homegirl immediately
hooked me up with some pitocin. I kept trying to talk her out of it, but she wasn’t
having it. My charm has never failed me like that before. So my contractions were
getting harder and I had all these wonderful strangers coming and sticking their
fingers in places they shouldn't Anyway, they checked me and I was 90% effaced
and 4cm dilated.

At 5pm the nurse came in and told me that Dr. Weiss said to break my waters.
Adrian had gone home to get my labor stuff, so I managed to talk her into waiting.
At 5:55pm another Dr. (Dr. Devine) came in said that Dr. Weiss was like, break it
now and she wasn’t going to be sweet talked by me. Dammit! So she broke my
water at 6:04pm. Oh well. I really didn’t know what to expect, I just kept flashing
back to A Baby Story or Maternity Ward and remembering that when they broke the
waters on there, labor came faster and harder.

I was thinking that this was going to be cakewalk. I was watching TV, making
jokes and just a little wincing at the contractions. Contractions Shmatractions!
Who needs drugs? At 8:15pm, I realized…I did. I needed, wanted and had to have
the drugs. LOL!   They gave me a narcotic in my IV at 8:45pm, to take the edge off
until the anesthesiologist could get there. By 9:15pm I was pedaling my feet in
bed to get away from the pain. All the wonderful labor stuff we had: massage oils,
creams and tools, the labor ball…all of it, was useless.   My pain came so quickly
that we never even got to use them. Adrian was a comfort to me, but I still called
the nurse to get MORE drugs. She came and gave me another shot of the narcotic
at 9:30pm.   I was like: “How you doin’?” I was lovin’ the world!!! At 10pm, my
friend, my love, the anesthesiologist came to give me my epidural. I thought he
was the greatest guy in the world.

I guess they checked me because they moved me to the LDR room at 11:30pm.
Hey! There’s Dr. Weiss. Hey man…how’s it going? How was Vegas? Great…do I
have to have this kid? I do? OK, thanks…just checking.

At 12:30am they started with the hourly checks, mainly because the baby’s heart
rate was dipping. I was 5cm dilated. They kept adjusting the pitocin because I
would stall, then fly up a few cm then stall again.   At 4:30am they came in a said
it was time to push. You know…you can only fake sleep for so long before they
find ways to make you wake. LOL!!!

So I started pushing at 4:30am. It was rough because I was numb from the
epidural and I was scared out of my mind. I finally realized that that pressure I
felt was a good thing. It helped a lot. Yeah, right. I had been told that the urge
to push was a little like needing to poop. That’s the polite way of saying it. The
urge to push was like having to take the biggest crap ever, multiplied by 100. You
then realize that the bathroom is nasty AND there’s no toilet paper!!! LOL!!!

At 5:15am, they realized that the baby was face up instead of face down. I think
that’s when they realized that my epidural was up too high, since I wasn’t feeling
any sort of back labor at all! So I’m pushing and I’m hating life, but I had The
World’s Greatest Labor Coach of ALL Time, Adrian Culici, by my side. He was
wonderful. I was so glad he was there.

At 5:30am they started talking vacuum, because guess what? I’m still at 0
station. So I got a local anesthesia (yay, more drugs!) and they brought out the
vacuum. I don’t know what I expected, but thank God it wasn’t a Hoover. LOL!!!
They got the vacuum in me and I was pushing and OH MY GOD!!!! How do people
do this with NO drugs?   I pushed, but it was hard. I got an episiotomy and that
sucks right now. At 6:05am, Ilia came shooting into the world.

So, we learned the reason her heart rate was dipping was that the cord was
wrapped around her little body. I guess it was wrapped so tight it squeezed her
arm and so her left arm came out bruised. (It’s healing finely now)

The star of the day, though, was my husband, Adrian. What a champ. He didn’t
even want to be in the delivery room, but he was there. He didn’t want to see
anything going on down there, but he did. He was so excited to see her hair that
he couldn’t take his eyes off of me down there. He was also adamant about not
cutting the cord. When they asked him if he wanted to, he did. He didn’t know
who to give his attention too: his wife who was in the worse pain of her life or his
newborn daughter. I told him to look after the baby, since he was worried because
she was having breathing problems.

So, Ilia Morgan Denton Culici was born at 6:05am, on April 26, 2003. She weighed
8lbs 3 oz and was 20in long. The first day, I was in a daze. I couldn’t believe that
I have a child. Someone was going to let me and Adrian raise a person. LOL!!! I’
m still shocked I gave birth, but stitches are worth a thousand words.

She’s so funny looking and we are so much in love with her. The best thing is
watching her and her daddy interact. They are indeed my two favorite people in
the world right now.

~ Anika - May 4, 2003 ~