Birth Story

It all began on Friday, June 9, 2006 at 11:00 am. I was scheduled for a post-due date non-stress test and exam. Mom came up to accompany me to the appointment so that Rob could save his vacation days for when the baby came. When we got to the office, they informed us that the Dr. was at the hospital delivering someone else. We went ahead with the non-stress test. At one point during the test, Katherine's heartbeat dropped to 90 for about a minute during a particularly long contraction. Because of that, the nurse had us go to the hospital for additional monitoring and to meet with the Dr. At the hospital, Katherine's heartbeat dropped slightly a few times, but nothing like what happened in the office. My OB, Dr. Richman, finally decided to admit me and induce labor as a precaution and because of our post-due status.

Dr. Richman wanted to let me progress on my own for a few hours since contractions had started. At around 8:00 pm on Friday, they started the induction process with cervadil. That started working quickly and the contractions began getting stronger and occurring more often. By 4:30 am on Saturday, the contractions had finally gotten stong enough to keep me awake and cause me some serious discomfort. That was the worst part...I couldn't get comfortable in any position. Let me just say, the epidural was a wonderful thing! Once they administered the drugs, life was good. I was able to get some sleep and save my energy for later.

At 7:00 am on Saturday I was barely dilated 1 cm so they started the pitocin. Dr. Richman checked me around 11:00 am and said that I was at 7 cm. He was quite suprised. He predicted that the baby would be born around 1:00 pm. Less than an hour later, I started feeling some pressure that inspired Mom to alert my nurse. (Meanwhile Dad and Rob were grabbing a snack in the cafeteria!) She checked and exclaimed that the baby's head was "right there". She notified Dr. Richman and the preparations were made. Rob and Dad got back and we started delivering around 12:10 pm and Katherine was born at 12:30 pm! The delivery was suprisingly easy. By 1:00 pm I was holding my healthy daughter and snacking on some chocolate chip cookies!