The Birth Story ~ Part II ~ Arriving at the hospital

So easy to smile BEFORE the contractions...
Originally uploaded by kuckibaboo.

Showing up at a maternity hospital that is closed while you’re experiencing the onset on labor is a strange experience. We had to enter thru an after hours side door. Most of the lights were off on the main floor and there was NOBODY around at all. We headed up to the nurses station on the 2nd floor as we were told to do during our prenatal classes. We found a nurse who was busy talking to someone else and waited patiently while I leaked and she finished up. Sato-san was still with us and was helping ferry our huge load of stuff around. Finally the nurse led us to our LDR (labor, delivery and recovery room). All the rooms are named after flowers and ours was “Ma-gu-ri-to”. That is supposed to be an English word for what looks like your basic Shasta daisy! So we get settled into our LDR, Sean put our stuff away, stocked the fridge and I got changed into my delivery garb. We met the two midwives on staff for the night Yoshida-san and Hidachi-san and the doctor came by to talk to us see how I was doing. It turned out he was on duty for the night. We told him about the appearance of the stuff that came out when my water broke and he was convinced my water didn’t break. Hmmm. Oh well. We were there for the long haul either way. The midwives put a fetal heart monitor around my belly and the doctor examined me. The doctor examined me and I think at that point I was about 4 cm dilated. Then I had to have an IV inserted. I hate needles but I knew I would have to go through this process so I was somewhat prepared. We told the nurses about my rolling and collapsing veins and they did their best to get a needle inserted into the top part of my lower left arm. No luck after two tries so they attempted to get it into the side of my wrist. No luck again and I was rapidly losing my bravery. So they called the doctor. I think he was pretty pissed. He came in, told me to relax and not move and just put the needle in my wrist and kept trying until he got it in the vein. It hurt like a son-of-a-bitch but I was happy that the friggin’ thing was in. I mentioned to Sean later to Jess that it was still painful and restricted my movement but there was no way in hell I was going thru that again.

At this point I have to mention that every time the doctor or one of the midwives can in to examine me they asked Sean to leave the room or they tried to pull the curtain around to separate us. We found this a little odd and told them every single time that it was ok for both Sean and Jess to be in the room. I think at around the fourth day of my stay in the hospital they were used to the fact that it was ok for Sean to see me partly naked!

Jess arrived shortly after the IV was inserted (at least I don't think she was there for that part!). We had planned for her to pick us up so she wasn’t too sure where the hospital was from our new place and had to stop a couple of time for directions. Geez, you just can’t be prepared for everything! She got settled in and at this point I wasn’t really feeling any consistent contractions. I was a little worried that they were going to send me home but I think the fact that I had discolored amnio fluid assured my stay.

One of the midwives came in to give me my huge bag of hospital goodies. The bag included a really big soft, fluffy bath towel, 3 different sized “Fruits” brand maxi pads in pillow, futon and mattress sizes, a belly button care kit for the baby, lots of literature I can’t read, diapers, a toiletry kit, slippers, hand towel, sheet protector, bum wipes and wash cloths for the baby and one pair of insanely stretchy underpants that were the physical manifestation of the phrase “one size fits all”! I was helped into the undies, which were lined with a mattress-sized pad, and then I climbed into bed to wait for the contractions.