I know that I have been a little lazy with keeping up with my blog posts recently, but I really do have good reasons!
Introducing the newest member to the Ohrvall family:
Isabella Marie Ohrvall
Born: August 11, 2014 at 5:30 pm
Weight: 7lbs 10 oz. Height: 20 inches
I wanted to take this post to tell you guys about how Isabella entered this world.
So as most of you already know, Isabella was in the breech position throughout the entire length of my pregnancy. We tried many different methods to try and get her to turn around (some traditional and some not so traditional methods) but with no luck. On the morning of Aug. 11 I started having contractions around 9am. These contractions started off being about 20-30 seconds long and coming every 20 minutes or so. As the morning went on Matthew and I counted contractions and waited for them to get closer together before making any calls. Around noon time I went for about an hour without a single contraction! This made us think that maybe labor wasn't starting after all. Regardless, Matthew and I decided to go for a walk around the block just to see if we could get the contractions started again.
We walked about 4 minutes up the street and noticed that there were some ominous looking clouds in the sky that were sure to drop a lot of rain on us in a matter of minutes. Thus, we decided to turn around and head back to the house to try our walk after the rain. (Here on Guam you only have to wait a little while for a rain storm to make its way past and then the sun will be shining again.) It was about this time when I began to notice a growing wetness sensation 'down there'. By the time that we got back to the house and I was able to go to the bathroom I was sure that the wetness I felt was my water breaking.
I know a lot of different people have said "It's not like the movies, you won't experience a big gush or water" and I have heard the opposite. Well I would say that my experience was a little in between the two extremes. I did experience gushes but then nothing when I wasn't moving. Every time that I moved my body a different direction I would get a nice gush of water.
About this time, Matthew called the Mother Baby Unit at the hospital and gave the phone to me. I explained the situation to the nurse and told her that my baby was in the breech position. With this information she informed us to come straight to the hospital because if it was indeed my amniotic fluid leaking then they would need to do a cesarean as soon as possible because Isabella would be exposed to outside influences. Things went pretty quickly and smoothly from there.
Matthew put all of our hospital/baby bags in the car and we started our 15 minute trip to the hospital. We stopped at Taco Bell on our way out so that I could get my phone out of my backpack in the trunk and so that Matthew could get some food (because we were sure he would not be able to eat for a while once things got started). We had an uneventful drive to the hospital where we were focusing on remaining calm while coming to the conclusion that we could be holding our baby girl in just a few short hours!
We got to the hospital and walked up to the Mother Baby Unit where they sent s straight into the triage room. This is where things really started to get rolling. I got hooked up to the monitors to check mine and Isabella's heart rates and a lot of other tests/questions from the nurses and doctors. The doctor came in and checked to be sure that Isabella was indeed still in the breech position and then informed us that she would need to be delivered via c-section within he next few hours.
After being on the monitor and receiving information about the risks vs benefits we were moved to our own room to await all the wonderful things that come along with a c-section delivery. We had to wait for the anesthesiologist to come and give us their spiel and we waited for my OB doctor to get to the hospital. (She was up at Anderson Air Force Base for that day at work) I was really happy that she was able to come to the hospital to perform my c-section because we had thought previously that she would not be able to be there and I would be operated on by a doc that I never met. God is good to work things out for the best to make me feel the safest I possibly could.
It took a couple hours to get all the people together that were going to be needed. We got to the hospital around 2pm and I walked back to the operating room at around 5pm. Matthew had to stay back in the room while I got the spinal tap and got set up on the operating table. He had to put on his scrubs and wait for the OK to come back with me. Those were the most scary moments for me. I always wanted the natural birth and now I was being poked, medicated, given oxygen and cut open. Completely the opposite of what I wanted and I was alone for those first scary moments. As I sat there and did what the doctors told me to I kept on telling myself that there was a reason for all of it: God's plan is bigger than mine and this is for the health of myself and my daughter. Those thoughts got me through until Matthew was able to come and stand by me. At that point I tried to relax and focus on the fact that our baby girl would be in my arms soon.
Even though Isabella's birth did not go the way that I wanted, I will never forget looking at those huge TV screens that were in the operating room for viewing and seeing the first parts of my baby girl: her butt sticking straight up in the air! Yep, the first thing I saw of Isabella was her booty! The doctor told us that she was so snug in there and comfortable with her position that she probably wouldn't have turned no matter what we did. She also said that there was nothing wrong with the shape of my uterus that would hinder her from being able to turn, she just liked her position! That was a relief.
Isabella was born at 5:30pm and I was able to see her the whole time (even though I tried to avoid the screen for the most part because I didn't want to see myself being cut open). One thing that I remember most vividly though is that as soon as she was fully outside the womb Matthew asked why she wasn't crying and as soon as he got the sentence out Isabella let out the cutest most desperate little wail that melted my heart and brought tears to my eyes. They showed her to us both the Matthew went over to the other side of the table to be with her while they did the AP GAR test. They were only away from me for about a minute (maybe less) but I was so desperate to have my baby in my arms!
The doctors and nurses that I had around me were absolutely awesome! The anesthesiologist that was at my head was telling me everything that was going on the entire time and she was just so sweet. I felt comfortable that everyone was doing exactly what needed to be done to have a healthy birth. Isabella and I got those first precious moments together doing skin on skin and even suckling at my breast for a while during the time when the docs were stitching me up. It was the most amazing moment of my life. Matthew then got to have some skin to skin time with Isabella in the room while I was being transferred to a bed and rolled back to the room. I am sure he would say that those were some of the most precious moments of his life as well.
Well, that is about it for the actual birth story. The rest of the story is our time spent in the hospital recovering and making sure that both myself and Isabella were doing well. We were both doing so well that we only had to stay in the hospital for 48 hours before they discharged us. So it all went pretty quickly and Isabella was born 2 days before her due date. Now we are home and adjusting to life as a family of three.
Thanks for reading!
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