Well, it's been a while to say the least but here we are again, sitting at the coffee shop with our newest addition, Adam Wilder
Banda. It's hard to believe that two years ago we were here with little baby Madison.
The story of Adam's Birth:
I was scheduled to be induced on the 25
th of January, 2010 at 5 am. My mom and Kelli agreed to be with Ryan and I at the hospital, Mel was planning to watch Madison overnight, and Grandma and Grandpa
Banda had made arrangements to be at the hospital to meet the new baby as soon as he/she was born. Ryan and I wanted to make sure that the weekend leading up to the birth was as special as possible for Madison. She was supposed to start soccer with her dad that Saturday morning but the entire week before San Diego had one of the biggest storms we'd seen since moving here in 2001. The soccer fields were rained out so we headed out to breakfast and then took
Madi to the beach at Del Mar where she played around on the playground, chased seagulls and took a walk on the beach. The next day, my mom (Grandma Hug-a-Bug) arrived for dinner and afterward we celebrated her birthday since we knew she would be with me in the hospital on her actually birthday (the 26
th). We made sure to go to bed early Sunday night since we knew we had to be up at 3:30 in order to be at the hospital by 5 for the induction. At 1:30 am, I had a dream that my water broke. I woke up and immediately woke Ryan up to tell him I thought something was happening. Sure enough, just a few moments later, my water did break so I jumped in the shower while Ryan made arrangements with Alicia and Mel to stay the rest of the night with Madison and then take her to school. I called Kelli to tell her plans had changed and we were headed to the hospital early. Ryan, my mom and I arrived at the hospital around 3 am.
At the hospital I was checked into triage. They monitored my contractions which weren't painful yet and told me I was 3 cm and 80% effaced. While in triage, Ryan and I had the pleasure of listening to two women who were clearly in intense pain - one of whom my nurse told me was at 4 cm. I looked at Ryan knowing it wouldn't be long before I felt the same way and we both shared a laugh as I described my pain to the nurse as a negative 2 on a scale of 1-10 compared to the other women around me.
By 4:00 am I was checked into the labor and delivery room where I would spend the next several hours. By now I was starting to feel the contractions and, at my request, the nurses allowed me to walk the halls until 6:30am while Kelli slept and my mom flipped through magazines. I also came back and sat on a large exercise ball to see if that would help. At 6:30 am I was only 4 cm so the nurses started me on
pitocin.
By 8:00 am I was in severe pain and started talking about getting an epidural. The nurses encouraged me to try a narcotic instead which I refused until they told me that the
anesthesiologist was in the OR and wouldn't be able to help me for an hour. By then I had tears in my eyes with each contraction.
I finally received the epidural around 10 am and was told I was 6 cm. Almost immediately the baby's heart started to slow dramatically with each contraction. The charge nurse was in the room talking to my regular nurse and they decided the doctor needed to be called right away. I was on
oxygen laying down with my back to them but knew something wasn't right. When Dr. Reagan arrived at 11:30 or so, she asked how far
dilated I was and was told 6-7 cm. She then told me they were going to inject my uterus with water and try to float the baby because they thought the baby was laying on the umbilical chord. I asked her what if that didn't work and she said we were in a race against the clock so likely she'd do an emergency C - section. However, Dr. Reagan then checked me herself and said that I was at 10 cm and ready to push, not at 6-7 as the nurse had said. She told me it was time to have the baby and within 5 minutes, they had the
NICU team in the delivery room in case something was wrong with the baby's heart and I was being told to push. 3 pushes later, the baby's head was out and the doctor discovered that the chord was wound tightly around his neck. The doctor cut the chord and then told me to give a final push and that's when we learned that we had a little boy born at 11:48 am.
Despite a hectic end to the labor process, Adam is as healthy as can be. He was 19 and a quarter inches long and 6 pounds 11 oz. We are both doing great. Two weeks later he weighs almost 8 pounds and is such a little blessing.
