Danielle's Exciting Birth!

Just barely born, and already beautiful.

Danielle Elizabeth Winzenz

Born July 3rd at 12:12 am

7 lbs. 8 oz.

She's got that "newborn smell."

Plus she has this ultrasoft peach fuzz that is really fun to kiss.

She's here! All the waiting, the grumping, the swelling, and stretching is over. I am no longer a pregnant woman. Now I am just a blissful, but slightly dazed mommy of a precious little girl.

Isn't she beautiful? To me she seems to be the most lovely thing in the entire world.

Her debut into this world was an exciting one. Would you like to hear the story? Warning, it is graphic:

It started off as a very boooooring day. I'd been waiting and waiting to go into labor for the last couple weeks. Several times I had felt like I WAS in labor, only to have it all stop and go back to waiting. But July 2nd I checked myself into the hospital with the firm resolve that I was NOT leaving without this baby! The Doctors' plan was to flip her, if she was still breech (she moved around a LOT), and then induce me right away so she wouldn't have a chance to flip into the wrong position again. But, as luck would have it she was already in the right position so we got to skip right to the induction.

I wanted as a natural a birth as possible. I asked them to just break my water and I promised I'd get her outta there in just a few hours. I pleaded. I persuaded. But what actually happened was that they put me on a slow pitocin drip for what felt like eternity--14 hours. The contractions never got all that hard or uncomfortable. James and I just laid around in the hospital room watching TV and reading books. I wanted things to get going! Something had to happen! I kept thinking that if only my water would just break...I KNOW things would get moving then. So when I felt a rush of fluid that soaked my bed to my knees, my first reaction was joy. Hooray! My water finally broke--let's get this show on the road! But when I looked under the covers, all I saw was a sea of bright red blood. Oh gross.

I knew from the amount of blood that I saw that it was a dangerous situation, especially for Danielle. So I took the little button to call the nurse and *doink, doink, doink* hit it continuously until the nurse came in. Luckily she was close by and came right in.

"There's a lot of blood coming out." I said calmly. I am always so dead-pan when faced with emergency. She started to explain about bloody show until I threw back the covers. She stopped mid-sentence and gasped. I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but suddenly there were about 8 medical personel in the room. The doctor, who I KNEW was not available, because another lady she was treating was practically crowning, came in and told me that I was going to have a C section...right NOW! All the people in there had a job to do, and they were all asking me questions about allergies and drug reactions etc. etc. but the only one I really paid attention to was my nurse, who was having a hard time finding the baby's heart beat. That was the most frightening moment for me.

Within a minute or two of the appearance of the magically apparating medical personel, I was wisked in my bed down the hall towards the Operating Room. Every time I squirmed or moved in any way, I felt another disconcerting gush of fluid from between my legs. Yeag, I'm getting nauseated from reading my own entry. Sorry people.

I started to pray. I prayed for Danielle over and over until the moment I heard her first cry. Then I started to pray that, if possible, I would like to not die too. :) How dramatic of me.

I was given 2 shots in the back to numb me up. It was much faster than an epidural, and strange too, because it didn't keep me from feeling anything, I just couldn't feel pain. The doctor poked me twice and asked if it hurt. I said it just felt like she touched me. "Okay, let's go."

The next 3 min. were very strange. It felt like the doctors were tugging, pulling, pushing, and overall just arm-wrestling on my tummy over who got to make the first incision. And then she was out! Danielle announced her healthy, strapping presence with a hearty, high-pitched squall. How DARE we pull her out like that with no warning whatever?! I've never heard anything so beautiful in my life. And she was gorgeous, too. Even covered all over with the waxy stuff and blood, I couldn't take my eyes off her. What a lovely round head and perfect features!

The doctors spent the next hour or so finishing up with the procedure--making a little Lybi barbeque by the smell of it. And then it was over. Within an hour I could move my legs. So what can I say about this delivery? I was LUCKY! I had a pretty serious placental abruption (placenta pulled away from the wall of the uterus), and I just happened to be just meters from an O.R. when it happened. If I HAD gone into labor on my own at home 9as I had been fervently praying to do) and had this problem, I would have had a 15 min. drive to the hospital, during which I probably would have bled within inches of my own life, not to mention Danielle's. As it is, I lost 3 pints of blood in about 10 min. (most people have about 7 total). My hematocrit count before labor was 37, afterwards it was 21. My hemoglobin count before was 13, now it is 7. But since I have felt pretty good and haven't fainted at all or anything, I didn't even need a blood transfusion. Yea...

My overall take on the delivery is that it was absolutely optimal given the obstacle of the abruption. I am fine (although I am pale and weak) Danielle is great--life is good. I feel like I was prepared for this unusual delivery by some promptings that things were not going to go smoothly during delivery. In fact, this is why I made James significantly increase my life insurance at the beginning of the pregnancy. Did I almost die? Nah. But this COULD have been the end of Lybi if I hadn't been in exactly the right place at the right time. Do you belive in miracles? I do.