The Eagle Eyed of you will note that the name of the blog has now changed to Life and Times of Sam, John and Margaret in order to benefit her status as a named baby.
I hope that in the past few days nobody has been bored with the rather mono-thematic nature of the blog. To us, all of this is exciting, new and obviously everyone else wants to know and see photos! But of course, we realize that we aren't the first parents in the world. We hope we aren't being too boring!
So I've chosen to do something a little bit different today. Since Margaret was born, the blog has served as a conduit of photos and information on Margaret and of our lives together but we didn't actually let anyone know the details surrounding the birth. Most of this is because I didn't want to get any of the details wrong and so needed to organize the notes I had taken during the process. Of course, it also doesn't help that having a new baby means you're always a bit short on time.
There was another reason, though. I had been taking video from before and after the process (no "during" photos, sorry) and wanted to use those videos to tell a bit of the story and it took until I had some time to cut something together. My apologies on the length of this post.
Details below it.
The Story
Saturday, November 10 was SAM's scheduled induction date. At this point, The Baby To Be Named Margaret would have been 1 week 6 days overdue. On the morning of the ninth, when the video begins, we knew that this was going to be our last day no matter what, so we decided to plan a busy day in order to enjoy ourselves as well as try to get the baby out.
We were to go to SAM's school to drop something off, drop off food at our friends' Lindsay and Graham who had just given birth the day before, walk to our midwife's office for SAM to have her membranes stripped, walk to the Star Ferry to cruise around the harbor, have ice cream, pick up my business cards, have dinner and go home, all the while Sarah had to take her induction herbs (Black and Blue Cohosh) every 1 hour.
We managed to do it ALL and what a great way it was to send off our last days of couple-hood. We even managed to accidentally catch a celebrity sighting as they were filming the new Batman movie, "Dark Knight" in front of our midwives' office.
That night, we retired into bed at around 11:30 PM and I fell asleep probably around 12:30 AM. We were encouraged by a bloody show at about 3:30 that afternoon, but both of us were ready to get to the hospital early the next day to start the induction process.
Before bed, Sarah silently asked the powers that be for a natural childbirth so that she would know that her body to know what to do.
By 12:45 AM, Sarah was having her first contractions. At 2:44 AM (I know because I wrote it down), I awoke to hear, "John, John, guess what?"
Her water had broken and she was calling to me quietly from the bathroom. Of course, I bolted upright, and, I am embarrassed that instead of rushing to her side, I instead reached immediately for the notebook and pen I had left by my bed to note down the exact time and immediately began asking for details. Of course, once I did that, I rushed to her side.
We spent much time with her in bed with me timing her contractions. They were fairly regular from between 30-60 seconds and between 1 minute to 2"55 apart. SAM sat up quietly in bed with me next to her noting her contractions. She was so calm that the only sign to me that she was having one is that she would periodically say, "start" or "stop" so that I could get an accurate timing of them. She looked otherwise completely peaceful.
At around 3:50 AM, we spoke with our midwife/doula on the phone and were instructed that if the contractions became quite strong to call the other midwife on duty, Jane.
At around 4:25 AM, SAM had a snack (banana bread) and tried to take a nap. By around 5:00, her contractions were still consistent at around 1 minute in duration and about 2 minutes apart so we called Jane at about quarter after while SAM got in the bath.
Jane arrived at around 6:00 AM and we were much reassured so as to have someone there who knew what to do and who had a fetal heart rate monitor and could help monitor the health of the baby. At around 6:25 AM, Jane reported that SAM was about 4-5 cm dilated. By 7:25, Jane reported 7-8 cm dilated. It was time. We had all our stuff together already and hopped into a taxi.
It was a beautiful day just kicking off outside and the taxi ride in was calm, bright and uneventful. It was a surreal sight to sweep around the Northeastern Corridor, looking out at the sea to one side, Hong Kong's skyscrapers on the other and realize that we were going to have a baby!
We arrived at the hospital at around 8:20 AM. While Jane was helping Sarah get admitted, I ran downstairs to file some paperwork that the hospital needed. We were disappointed to learn that the admitting nurse felt that Sarah was only 2-3 cm dilated and thus not yet eligible to be moved to a private delivery room which one got when they were 3+ cm dilated. Sarah needed to wait in the general pre-labor ward where husbands were not allowed.
At this point, we got a bit tense as upon her next examination by the doctor, the doctor claimed that she felt Sarah was 5 cms dilated. With this conflict of information, they had to call in yet ANOTHER doctor (at least she was the "Medical Officer in Charge") who confirmed, "not quite three."
After being kicked out, our Jane left to tackle her workday while I made some phone calls to family members to keep people updated until around quarter after ten. Finally, they were moving her to a delivery room. At this point, I saw SAM and from her face, I could see from her face that the labor pains were worse than before and her facade of calm was being pierced.
As quickly as possible, I picked up a few things that the nurse said Sarah needed for the delivery (maternity pads and bed pads for the delivery bed), rushed inside and changed into scrubs, all the while trying to manage a slight snafu that had emerged with my shipment of toys that was arriving.
In any case, once we were reunited, things seemed to calm down for everyone. The staff in the delivery room were calm, professional and efficient. The constantly confirmed that we wanted a natural birth, that she wanted her tissues protected (no episiotomy) and that she had a sulpha allergy. They were nice and encouraging and for the most part, left us alone. This, as well as being together allowed SAM to calm down a bit during her laboring phase.
Things started to pick up again as we neared the time that SAM wanted to push. A more senior midwife was brought in and we began the process.
After about two or three contractions, the doctor said that it appeared that the baby's head was twisted so that it was trying to come out the widest way possible and that she was trying to manipulate it. Soon thereafter, I noticed on the fetal heart rate monitor that the baby's heart rate had dropped from an average of about 130-145 beats per minute down to about 75 during the pushing phase back up to anywhere from 90 - 111 in between. This seemed to be of great concern to the nurses who immediately began murmuring about fetal distress. Suddenly the room was filled with doctors and pediatricians all speaking rapidly in Cantonese.
After about two or three more pushes, the delivery nurse said to Sarah, that they were concerned about the baby's heart rate, and that if after another few pushes, the baby wasn't out, that they would recommend an episiotomy and would that be alright. We of course, agreed, as we felt the baby's safety was of paramount concern. In any case, at this point, the top of her head was already visible and we felt that we might be able to make it anyways.
Two contractions later, the baby's head was still visible, energy levels were high and everyone was encouraging, but Margaret was still inside. I too, was trying to be encouraging but the nurses at one point told me to be quiet when she was pushing. I complied. At about this point, the nurse in charge did her thing and within two pushes, Margaret was free. It was 1:37 PM on November 10.
At this point, the doctor's told us that though we had requested the baby to be delivered onto SAM's chest, the pediatrician wanted to do a quick check due to the slight complication. This lasted maybe five minutes, during which SAM had some Pitocin to aid with the delivery of the placenta. After her examination, we got Margaret for a few minutes. However, shortly after we received her, the nurse told us that they felt that her crying didn't sound right and that whey wanted to put her under the incubator with a warmer blanket and oxygen for a few minutes.
We agreed to this and Margaret was taken away from us as Sarah delivered the placenta was sewn up. This part, Sarah will say, was the most painful for her. From her perspective, it seemed that neither the local anaesthetic that they used, nor the gas they provided did much.
However, once that was done, the baby came back to us and a midwife assisted us in Margaret and SAM's first breastfeeding session.
This point was a nice respite as there was an emergency pre-term delivery in the delivery ward that had called away all the nurses and doctors and we were forgotten. While I am sorry for the stress for the other couple, it allowed us to stay in our room just a bit longer, forgotten.
After this, perhaps around 3:15 PM or so Sarah was delivered to a different recovery ward and I fetched her things and delivered them to her. And that was all that I could do as visiting hours were not until 6:00 PM. So I took a cab ride home for a shower and some phone calls before I brought a BLT back to SAM at 6:00 PM. In the cab, I managed to talk to my mom, Roz and Sylvia. Roz I woke, but Sylvia was still up awaiting any news, so of course I had to let her know.
Well, that's the story of the drama. It's exceedingly long and probably not of interest to most people, but some may be interested so I thought I'd write it down for those of you who were.
The main point is that we got a baby girl who we named Margaret McLean Tsien. She was born on November 10th at 1:37 PM at 3010 grams and 50 cm. And she's perfect in every way to us.
We're in love.
