Genevieve Carigrace's Birth Story Part Two

Thanks for your patience : ) Both babies are asleep again. I know...I know... but if I laid down now I'd just be thinking of all the details I want to include in this story, so I'm going to finish now and sleep in peace tonight.

So Ross calls Lisa and fills her in on what's been going- to the best of his abilities- from his perspective- which was helpful, but she wanted to talk to me, to hear my voice and how I thought things were going. I chatted with her for a couple minutes- told her about the progression of my contractions and everything. I had one contraction while I was on the phone with her and she talked me through it while Ross helped me to relax. Then, she asked me what I wanted to do. I told her I was comfortable where I was and didn't feel like going to the hospital yet. She said, "Well. We don't you to be pushing in the parking lot. But if you feel okay at home, it will probably be okay to stay there a little while longer. Go ahead and call me when you are headed to the hospital, okay?" I said okay and hung up.

(At some point in here, my mom arrived. She was trying to distract herself and was sitting on our couch talking to Ross' mom on the phone...)

If you've read Caleb's birth story, then you know that Ross and I had a sweet opportunity before my induction to sit and pray together for the birth ahead. It is one of my favorite memories of all time and I had already decided I wanted us to pray before we had Genevieve. So after we hung up with Lisa, I asked Ross to sit on the bed and pray with me. We thanked God for our baby, for his protection and provision, for his presence with us there in our room, in the car, in the hospital. We thanked him for Lisa and for the nurses that were going to help us. We prayed for wisdom and endurance and strength.

And then I had another contraction. A strong contraction. A very, very painful contraction. Up until that point, I had been able to relax through them all. They hurt, sometimes badly, but I was able to breathe deeply and "let go". Not with this one. I couldn't lie still. I told Ross it hurt too much. I couldn't do this anymore. And then, I had an extreme moment of clarity. With complete seriousness, I asked him "Am I in transition already?" (If you don't know, transition is the part of labor where your body goes from 7 or 8 cm to fully dialated. It happens quickly (a few minutes to a few hours) and it is the hardest part of labor, both physically and emotionally).

Ross just shook his head like he didn't know what was going on. And then another contraction came. If the last one was bad, this one was horrific. I could not lie still. I was flailing my arms everywhere, rolling on the bed. Ross held my arms down to the bed, looked me in the eyes and said, "Relax. Relax. Relax!" Then he calmed down and started speaking softly about walking through the forest in Sedona together. I was able to calm down slightly.

When that contraction was over, another moment of clarity came. "We have to go to the hospital now," I said. I went to stand up and had a huge urge to go to the bathroom. "First, I'll go to the bathroom and then we'll go to the hospital." "Okay," Ross said. Another contraction came and I jumped out of bed and ran to the bathroom. "Wait," said Ross. "My water is going to break and I need to go!" I yelled at him.

I walked into our (teeny, tiny) master bathroom and sat on the toilet. Another moment of clarity. I don't need to have a bowel movement. I need to push out this baby. Oh...my...gosh... Ross came into the bathroom with the phone and told me he was going to call Lisa. Another moment of clarity. "No. You are going to call 911." "Okay."

I stood up from the toilet and grabbed onto a towel rack. Meanwhile, Ross is giving the dispatcher our address and telling him that I am in the process of having this baby in our bathroom. I put my hand between my legs and feel something like a massive water balloon. The dispatcher tells Ross to have me lie down on my back. That sounds like the worse idea ever to me. (That is the most uncomfortable position to labor in). I tell him I am not doing that (even though I should have at least squatted down because...)

Another contraction comes and I feel lots of burning and I scream as my bag of waters makes an audible POP and water rushes out of me along with Genevieve as I'm standing up holding on to the towel bar. She slides through my one free hand, through Ross' one free hand and into the toilet. Then baby girl starts screaming and I am in complete shock. And poor, poor Ross is mortified at the sight of his baby girl in the toilet, and his other baby girl standing in pools of her own blood. He fished Genevieve out of the toilet and gave my mom the phone. I was then directed to lie down. I obliged this time :) by lying in our shower. Mom brings us lots of towels to cover myself and Genevieve. She is crying loudly. This makes the dispatcher happy. Then we hear more crying. Poor Caleb is awake. I direct Mom towards him. Ross is sitting on the floor of the bathroom, holding on to Genevieve and me.

Then, a paramedic walks in the door, sits down on the toilet seat and starts talking to me in the shower. (I told you our bathroom was small...) He must have been the kindest paramedic ever, and he must have done this before. He was very gentle and very kind. He took my vitals and Genevieve's. He clamped and cut the cord. He kept saying how good we both looked. Then he asked me to stand up and I thought he was crazy!

Did he know what I had just done? He asked if I felt lightheaded. Could he see the blood all over the floor? After a couple minutes, I was able to get up and walk to the gurney they had for me in our bedroom. I never had put on any clothing or my glasses since my shower, so imagine my surprise when I leave our bathroom to find 8 fuzzy figures of firemen in my bedroom. Thank God I couldn't see clearly. I might have died of humiliation.

I was able to climb up on the gurney myself (how, I do not know...) and was wheeled down our hallway- past Mom holding sleepy, very confused, very intrigued Caleb and into our dining room where our sweet neighbors from across the street are standing saying, "Dru-Lynn! This was not the plan!" I sheepishly smile as they hand me Genevieve and then wheel me out the front door into the very chilly night air. (At this point, I am covered by all kinds of randomness- bath towels, firemen towels, bloody stuff, I don't know what...) And then up and in I went into the back of the ambulance.

They start taking my vitals again and asking me all kinds of questions- like my name and where I work. I tell them I don't. Then I self-correct. "Well, I do. But I don't get paid." "You're a homemaker," the kind paramedic says, "That's a wonderful thing. And there aren't enough of them." That made me smile. Then there's a knock on the back door. They open it and there is my wonderful husband, asking if he can come, too. Then tell him he can ride up front.

Then we make the crazy trip to the hospital. I don't recommend riding in a vehicle as bumpy as an ambulance after giving birth. Not only is it physically uncomfortable, but they have the bed highly elevated, my knees bent and my ankles apart. I think drivers could see everything through the back window as they drove down 19th Ave. I ask if I can put my legs down and they say no. The kind paramedic pulls a towel down to cover me.

We pull up to the hospital and are taken to the emergency room entrance. We are a sight to see! Ross is wearing a white T-shirt and denim shorts and he is COVERED in blood. I am covered in all kinds of bloody material. But there's a cute baby girl on my lap. Ross gives me my glasses and I can finally see what's going on. More questions, then goodbyes as I am wheeled around and up the elevator to the maternity ward.

They get me in a room and a midwife named Kate comes in and starts checking me out. She and nurses do what they can to sponge bath me off (I still had bloody feet when I went to leave the hospital...) Then they start checking my uterus for shrinkage and my perenium for tears. Those two events hurt more than birthing Genevieve! I immediately want to go home : ) They deliver the placenta and dispose of it. Then, sweet Kate, pulls the stool close to the bed and says, "Now. Tell me your story!" with a fun sense of excitement in her eyes. I give them a brief synopsis and they joke with Ross about how messy he is.

Then a bunch of un-fun hospital stuff happened. (Registration paperwork- AFTER you've already had the baby... Taking the baby away from me to weigh her and bathe her and warm her, etc.)

I won't go into any of those details here. That's the most exciting part of the story. Please check back again soon. I want to post some cool ways that God showed up in that whole process.

Now... I will join my sleeping children : )