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Katie hasn’t dilated more in the last hour and a half. The doctor wants to give her another hour…if there’s no change between now and then, they might decide to do a cesarean birth. That would happen sometime tonight depending on other patients who need c-sections.
Katie has dilated a little more (up to 6 now), and the contractions seem to be coming stronger (even though they are still about two minutes apart). Jackie seems to be in a traversed position, so it would be nice if she would rotate a little before she debuts. Slowly, but surely she’s getting closer. It’s hard to believe that Katie’s still not in active labor yet, but we’re still hopeful that she’ll come tonight.
Bless her heart…she just watched me eat pad thai with shrimp take-out while she sipped more ginger ale and tried to find a position that’s anywhere close to comfortable. Katie’s always cool like that. Don’t worry though…I made sure to get her permission beforehand.
Well, here we are, waiting for further developments. Dilation and active labor are our immediate goals. The obstetrician who welcomed us last night just took off for the holidays; she’ll be replaced by another OB who happens to be my co-worker’s brother-in-law. From all we’ve heard, we’re in good hands with him.
A mysterious rumbling, drone-like sound is coming from somewhere on the floor below us — it sounds like Robah snoring and groaning, so it’s a comforting reminder of home.
The reality is starting to set in that the baby will not be coming anytime very soon. In fact, I have a feeling that Jackie will be a Christmas Eve baby, but a lot could happen (even cesarean birth) between now and midnight tonight.
We’ve put our playlist on pause for an Ellen/The Sopranos television break.
All is well at the Birth Center. The contractions seem to be intensifying more and more, but Katie hasn’t had any change in the amount of pain and discomfort. No one who works here is brazen or foolhardy enough to speculate about the time of delivery. We get the feeling that it will be later than 5:00 p.m. this afternoon.
I ate a bland lunch at the Quizno’s here at the medical center and walked past one of the nurseries on my way back. There they were — little bundles of life, flushed red and pink, wrapped tight in each baby container. When I returned to our room a few minutes ago, Uncle Bob Pollard was singing, “Happy little babies with red cheeks…you will rock them gently out of sync,” from Official Ironmen Rally Song when I returned to the room. Don’t you love it when music syncs, whether coincidentally or supernaturally, with life? If Salt-n-Pepa’s Push It comes on in a few hours, we’ll know it’s time for Katie to go to work.
After breaking Katie’s water, she got some pain relief from the doctor on call. Things are going very well. Contractions are about a minute and a half apart. Janet is keeping us company in the delivery room. So is Stephen Malkmus, who is singing about the “Cadillac of winter” vis a vis “Old Jerry.”
Katie has insisted on wearing her Saucony running shoes during all this for some reason, so she looks like she ran right in this morning full with child. Of course, I think she looks cute.
Go Jackie go. The nurse gave us a noncommittal ballpark delivery time of about 5:00 p.m. We’ll see.
Katie’s water has broken and she’s about to get a little pain relief. Things are progressing nicely. Panda Bear’s “Comfy in Nautica” is playing on the stereo, so Katie can think of her happy place.
We slept a little last night, Katie in her hospital bed and me in the roll-away cot they were able to find (apparently they are a hot commodity around here). I am very grateful for the cot, because the alternative, a “recliner” that couldn’t have been designed with human users in mind, would have been difficult.
Katie is having minor contractions this morning. The doctors will apply the first dose of the inducing agent, called pitocin, in about fifteen minutes after they reattach the monitors and IV. It’s an IV drip that they adjust until the desired frequency and intensity of contractions are achieved. Then we should get this baby party started!
If you ask me, Katie and I have coped with the anticipation of our daughter’s birth pretty well. We’ve been in hurry-up-and-wait mode for two weeks, and much of our downtime has been spent double-checking preparations for Jackie. I even had a trial diaper-changing run with one of our future daughter’s stuffed bunnies. I also put together a baby playlist of the Jones family’s favorite tunes…kind of a birthing soundtrack to play in the hospital room. It consists of more than 300 songs, and features plenty of our mutual favorites:
Belle & Sebastian Pavement Guided by Voices Rufus Wainwright
George Gerschwin Loretta Lynn Ryan Adams Japancakes
Thelonious Monk Velvet Underground Wes Montgomery Erykah Badu
Karen Carpenter My Morning Jacket Panda Bear The Smiths
…you know, it’s simply the first music any father would want to grace the ears of his newborn daughter. Most of you know that I prefer to wait until Christmas to listen to Christmas music (unless it’s Karen Carpenter).
Katie’s mom Janet is here from Georgia, and has graciously volunteered to take care of our dogs tonight. I’m sure they’ll be on their best behavior. We’re very grateful that most of our family will be in around Raleigh until Jackie is born.
Here’s the plan for tonight:
REX Hospital will call us this evening when they are ready for us to be admitted. They will ripen Katie’s cervix (she gave me permission to blog about her cervix) and monitor her body’s reaction over the next 6 to 12 hours. When Katie has a favorable Bishop’s score, and if Katie isn’t entering labor, the doctor will induce labor. So, Katie will probably be in labor by tomorrow morning. That being said, I know very little about the variables of ripening and induction, so I’ll be updating this site on a regular basis over the next two days (when I’m not doing my fatherly duties with comfort measures for Katie).
Also, I’m just getting into Twitter, and I figure the next two days would be ideal to post tweets about Katie’s and Jackie’s status. You can find brief updates on my twitter page. These updates can be viewed on a computer, or on a mobile phone (if you have an account or set up an account).
It’s almost baby time!
Jackie must be quite comfortable in there. We’re now eight days past the due date and Katie has yet to feel even the smallest little contraction.
Not to worry though (easy for me to say since Katie is the one suffering). We went to see one of our obstetricians on Tuesday, and the baby is perfectly healthy. According to the ultrasound, there is plenty of amniotic fluid in all the right places. They also did a non-stress test, which measured both the baby’s heart rate, which was normal, and Katie’s contractions, which barely registered on the print-out.
REX Hospital has Katie scheduled to be induced on Tuesday, December 23. If she doesn’t come before then, we might just have a little Christmas miracle on our hands. It would also be fine with me (and certainly Katie) if she entered the world tonight, as Tyler looks to break Phil Ford’s record.
Katie got a surprise from her obstetrician earlier this week — the due date was actually yesterday, December 10, and not tomorrow, December 12, like they have been telling her the past eight months. Of course, this calendar mix-up isn’t a big deal to little Jackie, but it has made Katie and me a little more anxious over the last couple of days.
We’ve now heard every possible theory about predicting and inducing labor. Apparently, a sudden burst of energy (often manifested in some kind of nesting activity) is a twenty-four-hour precursor to labor. Another friend suggested that a baby’s birth, much like a person-to-werewolf transformation, can be triggered by a full moon. Tomorrow marks the full lunar phase for the month of December. Of course, if Katie really wants to speed things along, she can go for a long walk, climb stairs, eat spicy foods, or drink a tablespoon of castor oil.
She’ll come when she’s ready, so we’ll just have to wait a little longer to meet her.
I think I spent the dog food money 