labor pains...bye bye!

Details of my labor story. Or, lack-of labor story.

She (yup, it's a she) was born on October 16, 2011 at 9:50a.m. This delinquent baby decided she wanted out 3 weeks early. We were not expecting this and were so fully unprepared - what's new? We didn't have our bags packed for the hospital, the car seat wasn't installed, the house wasn't cleaned... But this little one just couldn't wait to join this crazy world of ours. 

It was around 5:30 in the morning when my water broke. I thought maybe this was a false alarm since I still had 3 more weeks to go. And I wasn't feeling any severe labor pains. In fact, I didn't feel anything at all. But I'm pretty sure there isn't such a thing as "false water breaking". We called the hospital, told her my situation and she told me to go in and get checked out. I asked if I could take a shower first though because I didn't want to be dirty and smelly during labor!

I started to feel a few contractions on the way there, but nothing too painful. Both the hubby and I were surprisingly calm. Well, unless he was faking it. We got to the hospital and they confirmed that my water did break. Not only that, they also confirmed that the baby was in a breech position and that I needed a c-section. Since I was only 1.2 cm dilated (TMI, I know), the nurses took their time to prep me and then around 9 am, I was wheeled into the surgery room for operation moose.

About an hour later, after the cutting, tugging, pushing (on my stomach), sewing and cleaning, Avery Frances Lin was born. The first thing I asked when they brought her over to me was "Does she have any hair?!" The nurse lifted the cap and showed me the head full of hair. I was relieved. The anesthesiologist said I could kiss her but I said no because I had oral herpes (or you know, one of those cold sores on the corner of my mouth) and I didn't want to pass it to her. He thanked me for reminding him. To be honest, I wasn't sure how clean she was and she looked kind of strange. She looked just like her daddy! And then she was taken away. 

That's pretty much it for my labor story. I sorta got everything I wanted out of this pregnancy: 1) A girl 2) early labor 3) a c-section. Maybe Avery was listening to me after all while she was in my tummy.

9 hours old