Happy Birthday Sasha Lily!

Today at 5:22 AM, our family was blessed beyond belief with the birth of our beautiful daughter, Sasha Lily!  Sasha weighed in at 6 lbs and was 19 inches long.  She is a tiny little bean and we fell in love with her instantly.  Her nickname is Scoot, a name her Dada affectionately coined while she was in utero.  Sasha has really light brown hair and big beautiful dark gray blue eyes.  She really doesn't look like Stella or Des and is her own little person.

Her entrance into this world was quite dramatic, to say the least.  Saturday (11/13) night into Sunday morning (10/14), I had been feeling painless contractions at regular intervals, but since they were painless, I didn't time them.  Then throughout the day Sunday, my contractions slowly got more and more uncomfortable and when they were about 5-8 minutes apart (around 11:30 PM) and painful, I decided to go to the hospital.  I figured, I'd rather go now at a reasonable time than in the middle of the night given the fact that this was my third pregnancy.

We were delivering at a women's hospital and the way they work is that you first go to the ER/L&D triage area and only when you are 4 cm dilated will they admit you to a L&D room.  When we got to the triage unit, the nurse (who looked like she was only about 16 years old! can you say inexperienced maybe?) examined me and said that I was 1 cm dilated and about 80% effaced.  The contractions kept coming every 5 minutes and after an hour of observation, I was still at 1 cm dilated and 80% effaced.  The ER doctor and the nurse sent me home because they thought that my labor was not far enough along to keep me there.  They told me to come back when my contractions were 3-4 minutes apart or when my water breaks.  The ER doctor even said that my labor was probably 24 hours away to which I replied, "How can that be when this is my 3rd pregnancy and each subsequent pregnancy's labor is shorter than the previous one by about 50% and I have all of the signs that I am in labor and my last labor lasted about 10 hours."  And her answer to me was that,"Well, sometimes the babies don't get the memo".  How condescending?!?!?! I don't know why they couldn't keep me there for longer considering the fact that I was the only patient there and they have about 12 beds in the triage area.     

We got home at 1:30 AM on Nov 15 and we retreated to our bedroom to try and rest in between my contractions.  My contractions got progressively worse and worse but they were still coming every 5 minutes apart, not every 3-4 minutes apart.  The nurse and the doc at the hospital had psyched us out so much that we still didn't leave for the hospital thinking that they were going to just send us home again.

At 4:50 AM, my water broke and when I got out of bed to clean myself up, I had the undeniable and unbearable sensation to push and that little Sasha was ready to come out.  Yikes!!!  Needless to say I was freaking out and couldn't really wrap my mind around what was happening.  In my previous two labors, my water broke early on in the labor process, not right before I was ready to push.  So this was a completely new experience for me.  Somehow, I managed to resist the urge to push.  Didn't think I was going to be able to walk all the way from our bedroom to the other side of the house to the garage to get in the car...but somehow, with David's help, I did.

We left the house at 5:10 AM with me lying completely supine on the passenger side with the seat back all the way down.  Got to the hospital in 10 minutes at 5:20 AM (normally a 15-20 minute ride, but David was running all sorts of red lights and speeding at 80+ mph on side streets to avoid a delivery in the car).   During one of the contractions in the car, I couldn't hold back and I pushed while screaming at the top of my lungs.  I truly believe the only thing that prevented Sasha from being born in the car was the fact that I had underwear and jeans on...the clothes impeded her from coming out!!!

We got to the hospital and David ran into to tell the triage staff that I was about to have my baby and they said to him, "Well, okay, tell her to come in here."  David told them that I was unable to walk in and so they then took their sweet old time getting a wheelchair to the car where I was, still not understanding that I was about to give birth any minute.  I somehow managed to get myself on the wheelchair, they wheeled me into the triage area, made me get out of the wheelchair, and told me to get undressed.  Because I was completely traumatized and in shock as to what was happening, I couldn't vocalize that there is no way I could get undressed or do anything because my baby is crowning right this minute and she was ready to born 20 minutes ago!  I just kept saying, "Please help me!" over and over.  David and one of the nurses managed to undress me and get the hospital gown on.

I got on the bed, and the same nurse who sent me home earlier in the night, told me to lay back down so that she can check how far dilated I am.  As I leaned back to lay down, I heard her say, "Oh never mind", because she could see that Sasha was crowning.  Not a second after she said that, another contraction came and without me even pushing, Sasha's whole body came flying out onto the bed at 5:22 AM, 2 minutes after we got to the hospital.  All I can say is that thank god I was on the bed because if I was still standing on the hard tile floor next to the bed still trying to get undressed when that last contraction came, I don't even want to imagine what would have happened to Sasha.

My first words when I saw her was, "She is so tiny!"  Then I said, "She doesn't look like either of our other two kids!"  They then whisked Sasha away to the nursery, so I didn't get to hold her until probably an hour or so later when I was admitted to a real Labor and Delivery room! 

So I had my last baby without an epidural, without an IV, without anything!  One of the nurses had the nerve to say, "Well, if you are going to have a baby, this is the way to do it!"  I mean, she really has no clue does she?...this is not the way to have a baby and I don't wish this sort of experience for anyone!

To say that David and I are quite traumatized by the experience is an understatement, but we have a beautiful and healthy baby girl and for that we are extremely, extremely thankful!!!

Now onto some pictures.  Stella didn't go to school today, instead, she, Des, and Ommy came to the hospital after breakfast to meet their little Sasha!

They wore their special "Big Sister" and "Big Brother" shirts for the special occasion.

Stella and Des were so excited to meet their baby sister.  They both wanted to hold her, but we didn't think that they were ready for that.  So they had to settle for giving their baby sister lots of kisses.

Here are some sweet pictures of Sasha with her Dada!

We love, love, love you so much tiny Sasha girl and are so thankful that you and I are okay, despite the crazy and traumatic birth experience!!!