keeping up with the streets

Two weeks ago we welcomed the newest addition to our family -- Sloane Maysa Street! Her middle name means "April" in Cambodian - for her birth month.

She was born Saturday April 16 at 6:21 in the morning ... weighing in at 8 pounds 1 oz and 19.5 inches long (Colson was 7 lbs 14 ounces and 20 inches - but he was also 10 days early and she was four days overdue ... imagine how big C would have been if he had been four days late!).

Here's a shorter version of the birth story: my original due date was April 12th. The last few weeks of my pregnancy I was going in about every week. At around 37 weeks my OB asked if I wanted her to do an internal exam to see if I was dilated or effaced. With Colson at my 38 week appt my OB checked me and I was at 3 cm and 100% effaced - she said that it wasn't any great predictor of when labor was going to begin. She said I could have the baby that night or walk around for a couple weeks at 3cm (C was born 3 days later).

So this time around when she asked if I wanted the internal exam I said no - (1) because it wouldn't really tell me anything and (2) sometimes the internal can trigger contractions and I was deadset on delaying labor as much as possible. I actually wanted her to be about a week late! There were some things I wanted to finish at home, and just to have more time before the chaos of having two children began ...

So three times she had offered to do an internal exam that I turned down ... the day before my due date at my appt, she suggested that she should check for progress, so reluctantly I agreed. I was almost 4cm and 80% effaced. She asked if I had been having any contractions -- I had not been except for the usual Braxton Hicks ... she was concerned that since I went so fast with Colson (contractions started around 5am and I was to 10 cm by 11am) that I was going to be even faster with this one. So, that day she sent me to the Labor and delivery unit of the hospital to get monotired to what they call "rule out labor."

Of course an hour later they said I could go home, or suggested that I walk a few laps around the hospital because I seemed to be so close ... I opted to go home. But the doctors really made me feel like it was going to happen within the next 24-48 hours ... well that was Monday and the whole week went by and still no baby. I finally just made that Thursday my last day at work and spent all of Friday nesting ... good thing to because finally on Saturday morning at 4:20 a contraction woke me up. The next one came at 4:30 - yikes! The doctors had advised me that given my past delivery, I should come to the hospital when contractions are 6-8 minutes apart (they generally tell first time moms to come when contractions are 3-5 min apart).

Needless to say, I woke Nick up right after the 2nd contraction and said the classic "it's time" line. The third contraction came 10 min later -- after which I called Nick's mom to come and stay with Colson. Barbara got to our house a few min before 5 am and we were ready to go. Got to Kaiser South Sac about 5:20 -- thank god they were not busy at all. A nurse got me into a triage room right away and checked me -- the next thing she said was "don't push." Then she got onto the phone and I heard snippets of "need a room ready now .... got one here at nine and a half cm." She was pretty calm though -- all i could say was - 9cm again ... this is just like last time. I was in a gown into a delivery room by about 5:40 ... I started pushing around 5:50 --- the nurse and doc were still getting gloves and goggles on ... they were still lowering the big light from the ceiling! And after about 25 min of pushing Sloane was born!

Everything happened so fast that they had to officially admit us and do all the paperwork after the fact. The nurses and doc were all laughing and saying this was the best way to have a baby and they called this a "stop and drop."

So of course did not have an epidural (again) but I was grateful that it was so fast ... we were into a post-partum room with breakfast by 8 am :) My parents came back into town the day she was born and my mom spent the night in the hospital with me so Nick could be at home with Colson.

Sloane came out hungry! Right when they placed her on me, she was rooting around immediatley. She nurses like a pro and passed all her newborn screenings/exams. We were discharged around noon the next day. Nick's mom also brought Colson to visit the next morning. Nick and I were both holding our breath to see his reaction -- which was actually less dramatic than I thought. He didn't seem to either care or quite get it at that moment ...