I had been having a lot of prodromal labor for the two weeks leading to my due date. A couple of times it had me up for hours in the night and thinking we were going to end up heading to the hospital to have a baby, but it always petered out. I also had quite a bit of bloody show for a few days, assuring me that at least all these contractions were doing something.
Easter day, Penny’s due date, was pretty uneventful. Mike let me take a nap in the morning. I went for a long (chilly) 2.25 mile walk outside, as I had pretty much every day for the past week, but nothing picked up labor-wise. I decided to turn in early at 9:45. It took me a while to actually fall asleep, but I am so glad I got that extra rest.
At 1:28 AM I awoke abruptly to a feeling like a pop and a gush of fluid immediately followed by a second. For some reason I had the intuition to put on a large pad before bed, and that was now saturated with clear liquid. I was kind of in shock realizing my water had just broken (that hadn't happened since my first pregnancy with Jack), and for a couple minutes I just kind of wandered around the room thinking about what I should do. I wasn’t having contractions yet, so I messaged my doctor to fill her in and ask if I should wait until contractions picked up some. Since I was GBS positive, I was supposed to have four hours of antibiotics via IV during labor, so she told me to go ahead and come in so I could get started on that IV. I told her we could be there in about an hour.
Contractions immediately started up, and they were INTENSE. I woke Mike up and told him it was time to go to the hospital, so he quickly readied his things and helped me take my stuff to the car. He wrote a note to the kids telling them we had gone to the hospital (and telling Abigail not to get on the bus before checking her messages in case we were able to find someone to pick her up at 9), put Zeke's monitor in the upstairs hallway where the girls could hear it, etc. And told Jack to go to bed and that we were leaving- he was, for some reason, still awake at almost 2 am.
As I was straining to breathe and unable to walk through one contraction, I asked if Mike could get a bag to put a few loose things I was holding in, and he got pretty firm with me and said, “No. We need to go NOW.” This was not his first rodeo (funny, as I write this, Jack and Abigail are, quite literally, at their first rodeo with some friends), and he could sense the urgency in these contractions. So I handed him the things that he stuffed into one of my bags, and he helped me get into the car. Doing anything was quite difficult at this point, and I had to wait to finish another contraction to do so.
When we pulled out of the garage I was surprised to see a white ground and pretty heavy snow coming down. Fortunately the snow was not really sticking to the road, but Mike took the drive slower than he would have as a precaution. Throughout the drive I continued to try to focus my breathing to get through the very strong surges. Some of them even produced low moans for me, which I think made Mike panic and even run a red light or two once we were close to the hospital. Luckily, at this time of morning there weren’t many other cars on the road.
A couple of nurses strapped a fetal monitor to my belly, asked me if I could get up on the bed (which was a real challenge), and checked me. The nurse said there was no more cervix left (I was completely dilated). A nose swab for Covid was taken, as per their regulations. Dr. Mallory was supposed to meet me there, but she hadn’t shown up yet so they made some calls- she was in the parking garage and heading over. They helped me into a wheelchair and wheeled me to the birthing room, as I heard a bustle of nurses around me, saying they'd grab the birthing kit.
When we got to the room, I realized It was smaller than the previous three rooms I had delivered the boys in, and there was no birthing tub as I had requested on my birthing plan. One of the nurses asked how I wanted to labor and I told them I had hoped to have another water birth. The nurse said she wished that they would’ve been told these things, but everything had happened so quickly, and I wouldn’t be able to labor in the tub anyway since they hadn’t gotten my Covid test results back.
I tried to breathe through my next contraction leaning over the bed and asked for a birthing ball, which they brought. Some resident attempted to place an IV unsuccessfully, and there was blood running down my arm. He tried again. Dr. Mallory came in and listened to Penny’s heart. I heard her say it was 62 (less than 110 bpm is considered abnormally low during labor). She made some call that they needed a NICU person to come to be there upon delivery. Then she said she needed me to go ahead and push because Baby was not happy.
She asked how I wanted to labor, and I said I didn't know- I just wanted someone to tell me what to do. So she suggested hands and knees. Sure. They helped me get up onto the bed on my hands and knees, and Dr. Mallory repeated that I needed to go ahead and push. I wasn’t having a contraction then and just really didn’t feel like I could. I was worried about her and that I would not be able to get her out in time. Not really thinking clearly (and that it would take a lot longer to get me to the OR and prepped for a C-section), I asked them if they could just cut her out of me (pretty sure I ask this at the end of every labor). “Oh no, it’s too late for that,” replied a nurse, and I heard a few laughs from the other nurses. Again, I was urged to push. I said I didn’t feel like I could yet. They said that’s fine and that I was working up to a really good contraction and that I really needed to bear everything down into it.
The contraction began, and I started pushing (and screaming) and felt all the pressure as she came down. When I paused after this contraction, they asked if I wanted to change positions and I did, as I was so uncomfortable, so they helped me switch to a side-lying position, someone holding up my right leg, Mike holding my right arm/hand. I so wished I were in the tub.
When the next contraction started, I was focusing so much on bearing down and helping her out that I didn’t even really scream or make any noise as I usually do. Mike said he was a little concerned as my face was turning red and the veins were popping out of my neck and face. I felt her head come out, and with one more push her slippery body was born. It was 3:04 AM, ~25 minutes after we pulled up to the hospital and an hour and a half since I'd awakened to my water breaking. Needless to say I didn't get a drop of that antibiotic, so we ended up having to stay at the hospital for the full 48 hours (plus some) after her birth so she could be monitored (1 out of 200 babies who don't get the antibiotic via IV during labor when Mom is gbs positive can become very sick and possibly die).
I'm used to my babies being placed right on my chest, but they whisked her right away to the baby health station in the room. I could see a bunch of nurses/residents encircling the station rubbing her vigorously and taking her heart rate. I asked if she was okay after a minute, and they assured Mike and I that she was doing just fine. She was in distress and had a slow heart rate from coming down so quickly. It picked right back up once she was out.
Penny was finally handed over to Mike- such a sweet sight to behold him gazing lovingly at his new baby girl. He's assured me he is going to spoil her rotten :-D He handed her to me, and I tried nursing her. She was so cute, vigorously attaching and getting right down to business as though she'd been training for this. I was surprised by how much dark hair she had. She weighed 7 lbs even and was 20 1/4" long, the second smallest of our babies after Iris, and also the second latest, a little over three hours from coming on her due date.
After nursing for a bit I handed her back to Mike. I really wasn’t feeling very good. I had a mild fever, was freezing, and was shaking uncontrollably, in addition to bad cramping (side-effects). The nurse brought me some heated blankets and heat packs, and Mike held Penny while I just tried to rest. After an hour or so, I was already feeling much better.
Two and a half hours after the delivery, we were able to move up to the postpartum room. Once I got settled in there with Penny, we agreed Mike would go back home to be there when the kids awoke. Abigail, in particular, had seemed concerned about Mike and I having to be gone when it was time for the baby to be born/her not being able to go to school, but they hadn't even know we'd been gone until they woke up and Mike told them they had a new baby sister. Visitors are still not allowed in the hospital birthing center, but I was able to video chat with the Mike and the kids later in the morning, and they oohed and ahhed over her.
I am now 4.5 days postpartum, and so far, things have gone really smoothly with recovery- very minimal bleeding and pain. I've been trying to take things easy at home, which is not always, well, easy, but it helps so much that Mike is off work for four weeks right away, helping to drive kids to and from activities, cooking meals and feeding children taking care of chores with the kids and jobs around the house. I feel so blessed by him.
Penelope is already so loved by all of her siblings- she's seldom been out of arms during the day. I've had so many helpers- holding her for a few minutes so I can run to the bathroom or pick up Abigail from track, eagerly picking out and changing her outfit when she soils one (thank you, girls), fetching things for me, accompanying me to a newborn appointment...
Praise God for this gift of another healthy baby, born safely into the world! She is such a sweet presence here, and we can't wait to see how her little personality develops in the coming days and weeks and months. We love you, Miss Penny Lu!
