Many people have asked me about Noah's exciting birth story and our friends have been so entertained by the drama around his birth, so I wanted to share it with all of my blog readers.
2:00pm: On Saturday March 26th, I began to have contractions around 2pm - but they weren't terribly painful and they were about 30 minutes apart. This had become very frequent over the past week so I honestly didn't think much of it. Pretty much every day I had contractions for a few hours and then they would go away. I had been 2cm dilated for 2.5 weeks at this point. I was scheduled to be induced on Tuesday March 29th since baby boy seemed quite content on staying put.
4:00pm: At my baby shower, my neighbor gave me a gift certificate to get my nails done at a salon down the road, so I went to get my nails done. The contractions were still about 20-30 minutes apart for 2 hours, but I still didn't think much of it. Brad took Sam to the park and I called him from the car on my way to the salon to let him know that I was having another round of contractions - but I didn't think much of it, I just wanted to let him know something might be up. I had called him with this "something might be up" feeling at least 5 times in the past week, so again - neither one of us really thought something was really happening.
4:15pm: I arrived at the nail salon chatting on the phone with my mom while I waited for my appointment. I had a contraction at 4pm and again at 4:15pm which were the closest they'd been all afternoon. I told her that I was having contractions every 20-30 minutes or so, but again - I didn't think much was happening. I was called back for my manicure/pedicure.
4:18pm: Another contraction. I wasn't even convinced it was a contraction, but I pulled out my iphone and began to record the contractions on my "contraction timer" app (which is truly an awesome app!). As the mani/pedi continued, I continued having contractions but they're not overly painful and I'm not terribly worried - I just keep recording them on my iphone and am not really paying attention to how frequent they are.
4:45pm: I look at the history of the contractions on my phone and all of a sudden I realized that they have consistently been 2-3 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute in duration, for 30 minutes...and becoming increasingly painful. Maybe this is the real thing? I called Brad and told him that I think this might be it, he needs to call my brother and have him come to the house to watch Sam. Brad starts to ask questions to figure out some logistics and I instruct him to "FIGURE IT OUT." I wasn't sure if I'd drive home and meet him at the house or if he should come pick me up at the salon which was on the way to the hospital - he should just figure it out. This should have been the first real sign that this was real - because I am always the one who obsesses about figuring out logistics! It is very NOT like me to tell Brad to "figure it out!"
Here's what's happening from Brad's perspective at this time...
Brad at 4:45pm: Becca tells me that it's baby time and I should "figure it out." I start getting the last minute overnight bag items together and pulling together stuff for Sam. Becca's brother David is on his way from Arlington but won't be at our house for another 20-30 minutes but I'm not sure if Rebecca is going to come home first and David will arrive in time or if I need to bring Sam to our neighbor's house to watch him until David arrives.
But, I don't know if Becca plans to drive home or if I should get her from the salon. So, I call her cell phone...over and over and over again. She's NOT ANSWERING! She's never been to this salon before and I have no idea where it is or the name of the salon! Finally, I start googling salons in our area and calling them asking "Hi, I'm trying to find my wife - do you have a pregnant woman there in labor? No? Ok, thanks." Terrific. Finally I figure out which salon she's at - she's STILL NOT ANSWERING.
Brad at 5:10pm: Becca calls me again and says "Where are you? We need to leave now! Why aren't you here yet." I reply "Yes honey, I'm on my way" while I think to myself "Um, you said to figure it out, not come get you..."
Brad at 5:15pm: I bring Sam to the neighbor's and basically say "Becca's in labor, can you watch Sam? Here's some food for him and the diaper bag. He has a dirty diaper. My brother-in-law will be here in a few minutes to get Sam. Hey Sam, look there's the dog - go play with her!"
5:05pm: Back to my perspective - by the end of the mani/pedi, I realize I'm in full-blown labor and contractions are 90 seconds - 2 minutes apart. HOLY CRAP. After waiting for my fingernails to dry (of course!), I pick up my phone to call Brad and discover that I have about 97 missed calls from him. Oops! My phone was in my purse on silent and I wasn't answering it because I was having my nails done!
5:10pm: I call Brad and in a labor-induced panic, I practically shout at him again "WHERE ARE YOU!?!? WHY AREN'T YOU HERE YET?!" He's on his way thank goodness - but we realize that no one has called the doctor to let him know we're on the way! Crap. I page the ob and let him know that this baby is coming fast and furious.
5:25pm: Brad picks me up and we drive to Sibley hospital which is in northwest DC - a 40 minute drive from our house! YIKES! Brad doesn't want to take the HOV lanes because he's worried we're not going to make it to the hospital and if he's on HOV, he won't be able to get off if we need to get to a closer hospital. Again, I yell at him - GET ON HOV AND GET ME TO SIBLEY!
Of course we have to drive through Cherry Blossom tourist nonsense - a few tourists dared to try to cross the street in front of us and I informed Brad that under NO circumstances was he stopping to allow pedestrians to cross the road in front of us!
6:05pm: We arrive at the hospital and my contractions are now 30-60 seconds apart and lasting 1-2 minutes. It's hard to tell when one starts and ends. YIKES! I cannot walk. We feel like we're in a sitcom, Brad is the classic father yelling at the registration nurse "My wife is in labor, I need a wheelchair!" He wheels me in and the registration nurse asks if my water has broken (which it hasn't) and tries to get me to sit down in the waiting room to fill out the paperwork. I (not so politely) informed her that I had filled out and faxed in all of my registration forms and insurance information several weeks ago and they should have all of that information on file - and we are going straight upstairs to Labor &; Delivery!!!
6:25pm: I'm in a room, in a hospital gown and they draw my blood to make sure I don't have any infections, etc and I can get an epidurral. It takes 15 minutes for the blood results to come back before I can get an epidurral. Contractions are now 30 seconds apart and I'm already 5cm dilated. I am practically counting the 15 minutes by the seconds, waiting for the results so that they can start the epidural!
6:35pm: My water breaks.
6:42: Bloodwork is back, everything is fine - YAY!!! I'm practically begging for the epidural.
6:50: Anesthesiologist arrives and begins to put in the epidural. I have never been so happy to see a doctor in my life. Unfortunately, I'm now in the final stages of labor (10cm!) and the contractions are running into each other. It's hard to get the epidural in.
7:05: Epidural is in!!! They said it will take 15 minutes to take full effect....again, I'm counting the seconds.
7:15pm: Epidural is BARELY taking effect. Anesthesiologist has turned up the dosage as high as it can go - and it's not really doing much...which apparently is what happens when the epidural is administered at 10cm. Terrific.
7:20pm: Time to push!
7:23pm: OB says, ok, stop pushing - the head is out! I'm stunned and say "REALLY!?!?"
7:25pm: Noah Daniel Geller-Cheney is born!
I call my parents and brother and tell them "he's here!" They all are shocked and say "who's here?" They can't believe that the baby was born so fast. Neither can we! The nurse said to me that in the 8 years she's been delivering babies, my delivery was one of the fastest she's ever seen. She joked that if we have another baby, we might want to get to the hospital sooner. No kidding!
With Sam, I was in labor for 3 days. With Noah, I was in labor for 3 hours! What a whirlwind 3 hours!
We are so grateful for the amazing medical team who delivered Noah. I'll do another blogpost on our stay at Sibley - but for now, I hope that you enjoy reading about Noah's exciting arrival into the world!
