More pics!

Here are some pictures of our little baby!

Some pictures of our little snuggles!

Here is a picture version of the Labour and Delivery of our little Princess....


Here is me hooked with some NICE drugs....I am officially from British Columbia now....



After a million hours of labour, I am being rolled to the Operating Room, again enoying my drugs.



Michael in his scrubs, moments before becoming a daddy!



It deserves another look; me on some seious serious drugs....enough to put out a horse!



Here she comes. I am okay with this pic as long as I don't focus on the fact that that is my body they have cut up on the table.



Thanks to Michael for these awesome pictures. I can't believe he was that coherrent to take these...

Here she is....Miranda

Here is Michael cutting the cord whislt taking a picture of it...pretty impressive!

More to follow....

Birth Day

It is September 12, 2006 I am 40 weeks and 4 days pregnant.

Tuesday 10.30am
My first contraction. I didn’t know that was what I was feeling at the time. I thought it was some sort of gastric intestinal thing. So I lay there and decided to check the clock if and when I felt it next. 10.38pm, then 10.46pm, then 10.54pm. I told Michael and he gave me a ‘right on’. I counted until about 2.30am when they were about 5 minutes apart then called my mom and my mother in law and told them we were going to the hospital. Once there, they hooked me contraction/heart rate machine baby was fine and I was having contractions. They gave me a shot of Demerol and told me to come back if the pain did not subside. This was because at this point I was not dilated at all. I was for sure certain that considering the pain I was in, I must have been dilating, but no. I go home and sleep.

Wednesday 10.30am
Back at the hospital, I am in pain once again. According to the machine, baby is fine and contractions are getting stronger. I am only a fingertip dilated. They send me home with a shot of morphine and tell me to come back for more pain killers and to check my dilation. At home, I sleep because they also gave me two sleeping pills. I wake up in extreme pain and hold out until early the next morning.

Thursday 2.30am
I am now using the bathtub as means of coping, but it is not working well. I am in constant pain, I cannot move. It takes everything in my being to go to the bathroom, eat or anything else for that matter. We head to the hospital and I have still not dilated since the previous morning, but my contractions are 5 minutes apart. Same thing, they send me home drugged up, sleepy and tell me to see my doctor at 4.30pm to discuss options. At this point, I want this baby out. I want to be induced. The pain is extreme and I am not happy. I am also in ketosis which means that I am not eating/drinking enough…

Thursday 4.30pm
Doctor DelBegio tells me that we will go ahead with the September 18th induction date if we do not see him at Labour and Delivery earlier than that. He tells me that I am dilated 1-2cm and assures me that the Morphine and Demerol are not hurting my baby. He says that the baby’s head is not fully engaged and is not in the most ideal position for delivery but tells me that this is
common and can change at a moment’s notice.

Friday 4.30am
After about 6 hours to total agony, the contractions are one on top of the other. The pain is unlike another I have ever felt at that point in my life. I am in the bathtub, Michael is trying unsuccessfully to sleep, worrying about his wife and his child. Finally I tell him, we have to go have this baby. All this stress cannot be good for him/her.

5.15am
We arrive and I am admitted into the hospital at this time. They get me to change into my hospital garb (fashionable I know). They give me a shot of Phentenol (a labour drug—this is how I know things will be happening today) and get me to rest until my doctor shows up at 7.00am. Michael is asleep in our private room on the couch. He is exhausted too.

7.10am
Doctor DelBegio shows up and tells me that enough is enough. Today I would be induced. He checks me and I am at 2 cm dilated. He tells me that I will be on a drug that will start contractions, and receive an epidural for the pain and hopefully see this baby Friday. I eat breakfast, my last meal before I see my baby.

9.30am
I am moved into my labour and delivery room and the Pitocin is started. I can feel the contractions but because of the earlier dose of drugs, I am comfortable. The contractions get a little stronger but totally bearable as time wears on. The Doctor breaks my water and we see green. The baby has already had his/her first bowel movements. This is common with overdue babies and they tell me that it is being monitored closely.

1.30pm
I receive my epidural. The contractions are getting much stronger and I no longer felt the need to be brave but need to strength to push this child out. The Doctor checks me and I am 2-3 cm dilated and the baby’s head is still not totally engaged and is still facing the wrong way for delivery. The epidural did not hurt, the only pain I felt was the initial pokes of freezing agent. The contractions I am told are really intense, the epidural is doing its job. I feel nothing.

2.00pm
I have comfort. My contractions are through the roof, but something is wrong. They test to see where the epidural stops working, should be somewhere just beneath my breasts, but I am numb there, and in fact, numb to my shoulders.
The nurses (who were awesome) try not to look panicked as they bring my anaesthesiologist and doctor back into the room. He makes some comment about me being short. Debbie puts an oxygen mask on me and they lift the bed so that my chest is elevated. I am worried and know that this is serious. I remember reading something somewhere about lungs collapsing. I pray. Michael is right there beside me, holding my hand as they asses me. They turn off the epidural and allow me to continue on. The oxygen mask stays on for about 20 minutes as they test and retest my numbness level.

3.00pm
Because they turned off the epidural, I eventually started to feel some pain. They also left my Pitocin in which meant that these contractions were much strong than anything I had already felt. On top of that, my catheter was bugging me. What they told me is that with every contraction, whether I had been feeling the contraction or not, the baby’s head would push on the catheter and cause me great pain. This was on top of Pain that I was feeling on top of the ever strong contractions.
The next 90 minutes were probably the most painful I have ever experienced. I cannot even begin to explain how bad it was. I cry when I think about it cuz I don’t know just how I made it through. The contractions were about 5-10 times as strong and 2 minutes apart, but lasting about 90 seconds each. No relief. I felt everything. This was no regular labour. I wanted to give up. I told Michael who never left my side and nurse that. Michael was about an inch from my face, not coaching me, but forcing me to breathe. Forcing me to follow his breaths. He refuses to let me give up. I could barely look at him. I was delirious. Michael never lets up. The whole time I can hear nurses and doctors talking about what to do with me. They say the word ‘c-section’. I want this baby out and safe and I want this Pain to end. The Pain was constant, unrelenting. My thought now is why didn’t they turn off the Pitocin when they turned off the epidural, or at least turn it down.

4.30pm
The greatest man alive enters the room. Doctor Wroz is the surgeon who wants to explain and convince me to have a c-section. They hand me a form for me to sign. All I remember scribbling was a D and a C. Nothing near my very neat signature. He says words like infection, risks, bikini incision, get this baby out, you’re in the best hands, let’s go. My favourite was let’s go. He turns off the Pitocin machine and he gives me a shot of Phentenol for my Pain. I love him. We roll down the hall and Michael is changed into his scrubs after having a much need and deserved smoke.

4.40pm
We arrive in the Operating Room and it hits me that I am having this baby, like now. I shed a few tears and wish my mom was here with me, not instead of Michael but just there with me too. I feel like I am watching something on TV, not me going through this. Because of my epidural, I didn’t need any more poking, just more meds through my line. Michael is next to me, we are silent. Both of us freaked out, happy, scared, excited.

4.50pm
They begin surgery by asking me if I feel anything. I say no. All these drugs make me feel tired and slightly out of breath. I have those little oxygen thing hanging out my nostrils but still feel out of breathe. I am crying so my nose is slightly stuffed up too which doesn’t help. I tell them, they tell me it is normal. My left arm is numb; I focus on moving my right arm which I can. The left arm, I cannot. I can feel my knees. I feel some pressure where they are cutting and pulling me apart.

5.00pm
The doctor tells Michael to stand up and look at his baby. Poor Michael has never had a strong stomach. He takes pictures of everything, even this child coming out of my belly. They suction the baby and we wait for the announcement and more importantly the baby crying.
It’s a girl. We hear a slight cry and we look at each other. They call Michael over to her and they are suctioning her. She is crying, and crying lots. They check her and begin to close me up. She scores 9 and 9 on her Apgars, which means that she is perfect. All 10 fingers and 10 toes. The best news a parent could ever hear. Michael brings her to meet me and I cannot help cry. She is amazing. We stare at each other, I say things I cannot remember but I’m sure were sweet. She isn’t crying, but just staring at me, I suppose recognizing the voice that she has heard constantly for months now. I love her. Actually the word love doesn’t seem to match the feelings I have.

5.05pm
Michael who is led by a doctor and a nurse take her away. I am finished up and led into the recovery room. I lay there crying. The man next to me in the recovery room has been in the hospital for 3 months and just had another brain surgery. They keep asking him what year it is and why he is there. I eat a pink popsicle. I am hungry, exhausted. The only words I seem to say to the nurses are, “I want to see my baby and my husband.”

7.00pm
There is a two hour waiting rule at the hospital for moms and babies after c-sections. So as I am rolled into Room 305, I can hear her cry. I say, “is that her?” and someone says yes. She stops crying when she hears me. I was told that she cried most of the time before I showed up. Michael held her most of the time, but she wanted me. They move me onto my bed and the nurse grabs my left boob and shoves it into my baby’s face. She latches on and is breastfeeding, just like that. Everyone sighs and the nurse says something about it’s about time she was quiet.

Her stats:
Miranda Jude Carroll
September 15, 2006
5.00pm (PST)
Height: 18.5”
Weight: 6 pounds 10 ounces
Apgar: 9/9
Hours of Total Labour: 66.5
Hours of Hard Labour: 7.5
Staples: 17
Blood Type: A negative

If you made it this far, good for you...Pictures to follow in the days ahead....

In due time....

My due date is today....I have done everything I am supposed to do. I am eaten well, gained only 25 pounds, kept my activity steady and tried to avoid stress (although moving into a new home and some marital crap would have some disagreeing!). This baby loves it so much inside me that it doesn't want to come out!



The doctor has tried without success to get things going. Without going into medical jargon, it looks like September 18th, I will be induced because the baby hasn't fully dropped and I'm locked up tight.
But hey, I'm still optimistic. If this baby takes after me, it will be on time; if it takes after my husband--it will be late! The doctor says, hey I may see you before our next appointment on Wednesday the 13th, but chances are I'll see you Wednesday...
Today is a day that I thought would never come. It sounds so foolish but when you have tried for so long, endured losses, wished, hoped, prayed, yearned for this day; its sorta surreal.
I am so ready to meet this little baby that has inhabited my body for so long. I can't wait to kiss his/her little toes, figure out whose nose he/she has, and have no sleep!
Hopefully the next time I post, it will be the birth story of Baby Carroll....