Serena’s Birth Story
Mimi really wanted a natural birth with Serena – no drugs. We read quite a bit and watched a documentary (The Business of Being Born) which was quite interesting – it definitely opens your eyes about the historical haphazardness with which the medical establishment has treated pregnancy. The “classic” book associated with natural childbirth is “Husband-Coached Childbirth” – which is the origin of the “Bradley Method,” a well-known approach to drug-free delivery. The author is a bit arrogant (it comes out throughout the writing), but a lot of the content is helpful, and the book is highly recommended for anyone who is pregnant, and especially for those considering natural delivery.
Mimi’s pregnancy went relatively smoothly, but some odd symptoms started occurring in the last week of her pregnancy. She started feeling really strong fatigue and had intense citrus cravings. Her schedule was essentially – sleep for two hours, awake for two hours, and during the wakefulness period drink a quart of orange juice, go back to sleep for another two hours. Repeat over 5 days. It was a challenging time for us, but we figured it was just late-term fatigue. Also, she started getting more intense braxton-hicks contractions, and so we were constantly on edge thinking that the baby was about to come.
Finally, on Saturday March 14 (pi day!), her labor started in earnest in the morning. Our plan was to call Desiree right away, so that Desiree and Ashley could take care of Lily while we were in the hospital. Mimi’s contractions got quicker and stronger fairly rapidly, so we had just made the decision to leave for the hospital and had just dropped Lily off at our upstairs neighbor’s house when Desiree showed up. The trip to our hospital, Alta Bates Medical Center (which we chose because they have the option for delivery by nurse midwives) was a fast one, since Serena picked a good time for labor – Saturday morning.
We arrived and per the instructions we had received when we went on the hospital tour, we parked first and walked from the parking structure into the hospital. Poor Mimi – she would walk about 50 feet, and then have contractions. We stopped a few times right on the street – she would lean her hand on a bollard, and I’d rub her back and she’d do her breathing, and we’d see these cars drive by staring at her. Next time, we’ll ignore the instructions and just leave our car at the temporary parking.
When we walked into the door, the security person started to ask if we needed to sign in, but then she saw that Mimi was in ACTIVE labor, and she waved us up to labor and delivery. We we were placed in a triage station, where the nurses asked who our doctor/midwife was, and then they tried to locate her. Our midwife was with another patient, so she gave instructions over the phone. We heard the triage nurses talking to each other: “Hsiu-Li says all natural. No drugs. May want to keep placenta to eat it. Maybe change her mind.” This was actually somewhat true – at one point late in pregnancy, Mimi researched the possibility of saving the placenta, and even found recipes for Placenta Lasagna, and other tasty placenta options. She even discovered that placentas are the only meat that vegans will eat – since no animal is harmed in the acquisition of the placenta. But by that time, we had already decided we would pass on the placenta (Tilden loves Italian food, but he was not interested in Placenta Lasagna – go figure.) At this point, Mimi was 5-6 cm dilated.
Eventually we were moved to one of the two rooms with a jacuzzi tub, and the labor nurse got the tub ready. Mimi had settled in for about 15 minutes when the nurse and our midwife came rushing in. They had been trying to monitor Serena’s heartbeat since we had arrived in triage, and Serena’s heartbeat had stayed extremely steady at 150 bpm or so – too steady. They usually want to see the baby’s heartrate change based on the contractions, and they wait a little bit thinking that the baby is probably asleep, but now that we had been in the hospital for over an hour and Serena’s heartrate was still fairly level, they were quite worried – probably more than we knew.
Hsiu-Li ordered Mimi out of the tub and said that we’d have to break the water and might have to intervene further to get the baby out. We were nervous – that could mean a lot of things – pitocin, c-section, etc. – all very different from our hopes for a natural delivery. But, when Hsiu-Li checked Mimi and broke her water bag (with her finger!), she discovered that Mimi was 9 cm dilated. So, the decision was made to just start pushing if Mimi was ready and deliver the baby. We were shocked – Mimi’s first labor was 16 hours – and for Serena she had barely been in labor for 4 hours. All of a sudden we were rushing around getting ready. Ruth, our friend and Serena’s godmother, showed up, and she helped Mimi push as well.
In the span of 10-15 minutes and 4-5 contraction cycles, Mimi pushed Serena out! Serena came out with her hand grasping her umbilical cord and the cord somewhat wrapped around her neck – supposedly this is not uncommon, and the nurse midwife quickly untangled Serena. Serena also came out peeing. I think she was still quite worried – she barked a quick command to Tilden: “Cut the cord. Now.” As the nurse midwife started to suction Serena, she took her first breath, and slowly cried a bit more. The nurses quickly wiped her off, but Serena was a little hesitant about taking deep breaths and crying – as the minutes went by, the nurses were still concerned about her color, which is supposed to change from blue to red as the baby gets more oxygen. Finally, with just a few seconds to spare before her 5 minute Apgar test (when they would take her to ICU or start intervention if they felt like she still wasn’t doing well), she started crying really loudly and her skin turned bright red in just a few moments.
The rest of the story is less about Serena and more about Mimi. Mimi’s energy level crashed again post-delivery (she was hoping for the delivery “high” that is often written about, but it never came), and she had some readings with high blood pressure, high heart rate, etc. She started a few tests (thyroid function, EKG), and eventually they put her on IV fluids. The IV fluids made her swell, but also made her feel a lot better, so by the evening and the next morning, she felt good enough to stick with our original plan to be discharged. The night Desiree brought Lily and Ashely to the hospital, and Lily met Serena for the first time. Lily had been eagerly anticipating the new baby’s arrival, and she was excited to see the baby. Mimi, Natalie, and Desiree were excited to take pictures. Daddy was less than thrilled that Serena started getting outfit changes for the picture shoot, but some battles are difficult to fight. Tilden took Lily, Ashley, and Ruth out to dinner at Gourmet Ghetto in Berkeley – Lily had a good time eating sushi (CA rolls) and riding on Daddy’s shoulders.
Daddy and Lily spent the night at home and then came back in the morning. Mimi felt good enough to go throught he discharge process, but by the time she was ready to be discharged, she was exhausted again. We managed to make it home (our car seat actually had slightly the wrong settings, so it was quite big for Serena – this was a little troubling, but we made it home by adding some padding of blankets. Note to self – next time test it on a little doll.) Mimi promptly fell asleep.
The next day, Monday, we went to a doctor’s appointment for Serena for a weight check and well-baby check. The doctor was worried because Serena had lost about 10% of her birth weight which is the max a newborn should lose. He gave us instructions for formula. Then, we asked him about Mimi’s exhaustion – and he said that he didn’t treat adults, but if Mimi was suffering from unusual fatigue, we should really see her regular doctor. Thus began an epic ordeal for us – we spent the whole afternoon in the doctor’s office, got test results that showed that Mimi’s kidney and liver function were severely compromised (we would later learn that she was essentially in kidney failure), and ended up checking Mimi back into the hospital that night, through the emergency room. Mimi’s sister Natalie and our friend Kathy came to stay with Mimi, and they both stayed up all night with her, and then they both had to go to work the next day. We have crazy good friends and family.
In the meantime, Tilden went home with Serena (who could not be checked back into the hospital with Mimi), and was suddenly a single dad, and he was responsible for starting formula feeding, which we had never done before with Lily. Desiree was also at our place, helping with Lily, but that night Tilden remembers heading to bed with Serena, and holding her as he prepared to go to sleep, thinking: “Now what? Please God, help me and Serena get through tonight!” It actually worked out pretty well – Serena would nurse from the bottle, sleep for a couple hours, nurse, and sleep some more. Tilden would sleep for a bit, wake up and nurse Serena, and in between, trade text messages with Kathy and Natalie. Crazy night.
All told, Mimi spent part of Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in the hospital, and was in the hospital or doctor’s office 11 of the next 14 days. She had the following tests done: pelvix ultrasound, abdominal ultrasound, chest x-ray, multiple blood cultures and urine cultures, other exotic blood screens, and at least half a dozen comprehensive blood panels. The end result was still a bit of a mystery – she was never treated with anything more than IV fluids (although later she got a UTI – probably from her stay in the hospital, and then we struggled with thrush – probably from the antiobiotics used to treat the UTI, and she had a very weird spike in her platelet count at the end of her antibiotic course, which went away on its own), and the best-guess diagnosis, which a few doctors disagreed strongly with, was pre-eclampsia with HELLP. All told, it took over a month for her to get back to normal, and even longer for the last vestiges of this ordeal (the last thing to go away was thrush in Lily and Serena, since both were nursing) to disappear.
Thankfully, we are all happy and healthy now, and the kidney specialist we saw (in addition to the hematologist, OB, and many other doctors) felt like a reoccurrence is unlikely, if we are to have additional kids. Thank you God, for helping us through and giving us strength, for the blessing of incredible friends and family who were with us every step of the way, and for the provision of top-notch medical care. As I write this, Serena is 103 days old, and is beautiful, chubby, and healthy. Lily is an exuberant toddler leaning her phonics and how to read. Mimi is healthy, energetic, and a bit sleep-deprived. And Tilden is abundantly blessed to be surrounded by his wife and daughters.
