We interrupt this program to wish a VERY Happy 18 month birthday to my dear daughter, Kayla Rivkah!!!
Love you so much baby girl, Kaylush, Kaylie, Lulie, Lulu........
Monday, July 19, 2010
Happy Half Birthday to you!!!
We interrupt this program to wish a VERY Happy 18 month birthday to my dear daughter, Kayla Rivkah!!!
Love you so much baby girl, Kaylush, Kaylie, Lulie, Lulu........
Saturday, July 17, 2010
Birth Story - From the Other Side - Part 3
This part of the story will probably go a lot faster (because it all kinda blends together in my head) but in reality, it took FOREVER!!!!
They finally brought us to a room. What we thought was going to be labor and delivery. But sadly, it was just part of the Machleket Nashim - Women's Ward. We were brought to a little curtained area, 1 of 6 in a room. All kinds of women. Next to us was an old lady and I think the other was empty in the beginning. At some point, they told us we had to stay in this area until Ariella was 3cm dilated. I don't remember if they told us that right away or only after being there for HOURS.
We got there and waited. They were supposed to be bringing Ariella antibiotics. So we waited...and waited. I think at that point Ariella went to take a shower. She felt so gross from the whole experience so far and just wanted to shower and get into the many sizes too large gown. :) Her shower was less than ideal. Apparently she had to hold the shower head. I'm sure THAT was comfortable being 9 months pregnant and in labor!!!! But she came out clean and put on the huge hospital gown. And then they served lunch. We went over to check it out and it actually looked quite appetizing. Chicken and rice and mashed potatoes. I was HUNGRY! But I made the mistake of asking if it was only for the patient and they said yes. I said not even for the husbands? They said no. Daaaaaarn. So went into the dining room area (of this particular ward) and sat down. Ariella got some food and I took a drink. Mm....watered down petel (syrup).......
Ariella said the food was actually quite good - although the mashed potatoes were gross. That was sad. I love mashed potatoes. She was kind enough to sneak me some of her yummy rice :) so I wouldn't starve. Worse came to worse they would tell her not to share. And there was a LOT of rice. Yisrael was sitting with us but feeling VERY uncomfortable. He felt like all the women kept looking at him, maybe even giving him dirty looks. It was kinda weird but it's a pretty religious hospital so who knows. Eventually he left. Ariella finished up and as we were leaving, I noticed a sign saying no men are allowed in the dining room during meal times!!! OOPS! Oh well, I was already there with my short sleeves - I assume they figured we didn't know better. :)
We went back to the room and waited some more and I felt like it was time for some of my doula-ing. Time to take charge. So I went to the nurse's station and waited very politely for them to acknowledge my existence. Once they did, I reminded them about the antibiotics. The first nurse was a REALLY young looking, sweet little girl. :) She was helpful and friendly but maybe slightly overworked. I felt like I had to keep reminding her. Helloooo - you have a patient named Ariella.....we are waiting.
So they gave Ariella the antibiotics. Finally!!! Now to be honest, I cannot remember if they they gave her the pill to induce her or if we waited awhile before that. I know she got the pill at about 2pm so it must have been a bit after. If they checked her prior to getting the pill, she was still at 1.5cm. Grrrrr......
They gave her what looked like half a pill and said ok, we'll be back in 3 hours. WHAAAATTTTT???? They said that's generally how long it takes for the pill to work so at 5pm they will monitor her and see what's going on. Ugh. So we had 3 hours to sit around. Ariella was having some contractions and the main thing we did when she had one was rub her lower back. That is where she said she had the most pain. We asked the nurses if there was anything we could to help her along. Like bouncing on a birthing ball, walking the halls, ANYTHING?? They said nope, nothing. Well that wasn't helpful at all. There was a shift came and enter Mean Religious Nurse. dada, dada, dada......
Why mean people are ever put with laboring women or postpartum women is absolutely beyond me!!! Mean people shouldn't be nurses anyway but there are some wards where they just don't belong. This woman seemed very harsh, uncaring, and acted like she had no patience for us. She was a stickler for the rules and did not seem to have Ariella's best interest in mind.
More waiting and waiting and waiting. 5pm seemed SO far away!!! Yisrael went to check out the cafeteria. He had a toast and came back. Then I went and was hoping for perhaps the same food as Ariella had. But there wasn't even a real cafeteria. It was a little stand that made toasts and sold things like chips and gum and what not. I had a toast in the morning but didn't have many other options and didn't want to leave the hospital grounds so another toast it was! This may have been the only point when I wished we were at Beilinson. The thought of the mall being right across the street with that delicious food court was SOOOO tempting!! Again, it was so funny being on the other side. Being the "waiter" instead of the "birther". I could have used an Aviva right then to bring me a nice hamburger!!! :)
It's all good.
Back to the Machleket Nashim. There were 2 other women that had arrived at the same time as us, more or less, and they were also in the ward. So I kept Ariella updated that they also hadn't had their babies........
The contractions started getting more intense and we had to help Ariella through them more often now. We kept watching that clock tick by, waiting for 5 pm. When it finally arrived, and the pill started doing it's trick, I tracked down the nurse and asked for the monitor. I can't remember if dinner came before or after the monitor.
Dinner was the turning point!!!! We went to go check out dinner and first of all, it looked inedible. It was some kind of fried potato blintz and a side. What kind of food is that??? Ariella had NO appetite for it and as she turned to leave the room, she got hit with a whopper of a contraction. She had to stop moving, grab ahold of the counter, and really concentrate and breathe through the contraction. Ahhh.....FINALLY!!!! Now let's see some action. From then on the contractions were real intense. We went back to the room and Yisrael and I got a lot more involved in helping her through the contractions. She was very impressive though. We rarely needed to remind her to breathe and though the contractions were extremely painful, she would get through them and then really relax. Close her eyes, go limp. She said the contractions were SO totally exhausting!!! We tried different positions for her to labor in and finally brought out the birthing ball. That was a comfortable positing for her. That and being on all fours on the bed. The room was really not cool though. So NOT the place to labor. She felt uncomfortable making noise, there were people walking back and forth all the time. Lots of talking, ringing cell phones, etc. It just was not a place that you could focus on laboring well.
Well, now that things have started picking up (or so we thought), it's time for another break. It's 11:30 at night and I am exhausted!!!
Stay tuned.............................
They finally brought us to a room. What we thought was going to be labor and delivery. But sadly, it was just part of the Machleket Nashim - Women's Ward. We were brought to a little curtained area, 1 of 6 in a room. All kinds of women. Next to us was an old lady and I think the other was empty in the beginning. At some point, they told us we had to stay in this area until Ariella was 3cm dilated. I don't remember if they told us that right away or only after being there for HOURS.
We got there and waited. They were supposed to be bringing Ariella antibiotics. So we waited...and waited. I think at that point Ariella went to take a shower. She felt so gross from the whole experience so far and just wanted to shower and get into the many sizes too large gown. :) Her shower was less than ideal. Apparently she had to hold the shower head. I'm sure THAT was comfortable being 9 months pregnant and in labor!!!! But she came out clean and put on the huge hospital gown. And then they served lunch. We went over to check it out and it actually looked quite appetizing. Chicken and rice and mashed potatoes. I was HUNGRY! But I made the mistake of asking if it was only for the patient and they said yes. I said not even for the husbands? They said no. Daaaaaarn. So went into the dining room area (of this particular ward) and sat down. Ariella got some food and I took a drink. Mm....watered down petel (syrup).......
Ariella said the food was actually quite good - although the mashed potatoes were gross. That was sad. I love mashed potatoes. She was kind enough to sneak me some of her yummy rice :) so I wouldn't starve. Worse came to worse they would tell her not to share. And there was a LOT of rice. Yisrael was sitting with us but feeling VERY uncomfortable. He felt like all the women kept looking at him, maybe even giving him dirty looks. It was kinda weird but it's a pretty religious hospital so who knows. Eventually he left. Ariella finished up and as we were leaving, I noticed a sign saying no men are allowed in the dining room during meal times!!! OOPS! Oh well, I was already there with my short sleeves - I assume they figured we didn't know better. :)
We went back to the room and waited some more and I felt like it was time for some of my doula-ing. Time to take charge. So I went to the nurse's station and waited very politely for them to acknowledge my existence. Once they did, I reminded them about the antibiotics. The first nurse was a REALLY young looking, sweet little girl. :) She was helpful and friendly but maybe slightly overworked. I felt like I had to keep reminding her. Helloooo - you have a patient named Ariella.....we are waiting.
So they gave Ariella the antibiotics. Finally!!! Now to be honest, I cannot remember if they they gave her the pill to induce her or if we waited awhile before that. I know she got the pill at about 2pm so it must have been a bit after. If they checked her prior to getting the pill, she was still at 1.5cm. Grrrrr......
They gave her what looked like half a pill and said ok, we'll be back in 3 hours. WHAAAATTTTT???? They said that's generally how long it takes for the pill to work so at 5pm they will monitor her and see what's going on. Ugh. So we had 3 hours to sit around. Ariella was having some contractions and the main thing we did when she had one was rub her lower back. That is where she said she had the most pain. We asked the nurses if there was anything we could to help her along. Like bouncing on a birthing ball, walking the halls, ANYTHING?? They said nope, nothing. Well that wasn't helpful at all. There was a shift came and enter Mean Religious Nurse. dada, dada, dada......
Why mean people are ever put with laboring women or postpartum women is absolutely beyond me!!! Mean people shouldn't be nurses anyway but there are some wards where they just don't belong. This woman seemed very harsh, uncaring, and acted like she had no patience for us. She was a stickler for the rules and did not seem to have Ariella's best interest in mind.
More waiting and waiting and waiting. 5pm seemed SO far away!!! Yisrael went to check out the cafeteria. He had a toast and came back. Then I went and was hoping for perhaps the same food as Ariella had. But there wasn't even a real cafeteria. It was a little stand that made toasts and sold things like chips and gum and what not. I had a toast in the morning but didn't have many other options and didn't want to leave the hospital grounds so another toast it was! This may have been the only point when I wished we were at Beilinson. The thought of the mall being right across the street with that delicious food court was SOOOO tempting!! Again, it was so funny being on the other side. Being the "waiter" instead of the "birther". I could have used an Aviva right then to bring me a nice hamburger!!! :)
It's all good.
Back to the Machleket Nashim. There were 2 other women that had arrived at the same time as us, more or less, and they were also in the ward. So I kept Ariella updated that they also hadn't had their babies........
The contractions started getting more intense and we had to help Ariella through them more often now. We kept watching that clock tick by, waiting for 5 pm. When it finally arrived, and the pill started doing it's trick, I tracked down the nurse and asked for the monitor. I can't remember if dinner came before or after the monitor.
Dinner was the turning point!!!! We went to go check out dinner and first of all, it looked inedible. It was some kind of fried potato blintz and a side. What kind of food is that??? Ariella had NO appetite for it and as she turned to leave the room, she got hit with a whopper of a contraction. She had to stop moving, grab ahold of the counter, and really concentrate and breathe through the contraction. Ahhh.....FINALLY!!!! Now let's see some action. From then on the contractions were real intense. We went back to the room and Yisrael and I got a lot more involved in helping her through the contractions. She was very impressive though. We rarely needed to remind her to breathe and though the contractions were extremely painful, she would get through them and then really relax. Close her eyes, go limp. She said the contractions were SO totally exhausting!!! We tried different positions for her to labor in and finally brought out the birthing ball. That was a comfortable positing for her. That and being on all fours on the bed. The room was really not cool though. So NOT the place to labor. She felt uncomfortable making noise, there were people walking back and forth all the time. Lots of talking, ringing cell phones, etc. It just was not a place that you could focus on laboring well.
Well, now that things have started picking up (or so we thought), it's time for another break. It's 11:30 at night and I am exhausted!!!
Stay tuned.............................
Monday, July 12, 2010
Birth Story - From the Other Side - Part 2
Monday night, June 21st
Earlier that day I had a terrible headache. So bad that I actually slept on the couch for awhile that evening. It was during a heatwave and I think the heat was making me sick. I woke up at about 10pm and got a phone call from Yisrael. He told me Ariella had been having regular contractions every 10 minutes. They were going to go to sleep and if they got worse over night, they would call me and we'd go to the hospital. In any case, they were supposed to go to the hospital in the morning for monitoring.
I figured that would work out nicely. My headache was better and I would be well rested for a middle of the night phone call. I guess I went to bed about an hour or so later - after making sure my bag was all packed and ready to go.
Went to bed and woke up about every hour or 2 to check my phone!! No missed calls....
Tuesday, June 22 (My Anniversary)
At about 5 something in the morning Yisrael called. Ariella was still having pretty regular contractions, somewhat closer together, and they think her water might have broken the night before. Not a huge gush but a little bit here and there. They knew they had to go in for monitoring anyway so they told me that I should get ready, shower, eat breakfast, and call them when I was ready to go. I did that and called about 45 minutes later. They came by and picked me up. I went downstairs and was SO excited to see them!! Ariella looked great (probably not a good sign for someone in labor......)
It was already fun to be someone on the other side. I was SOOOO totally excited and feeling good after a decent amount of sleep. And ready to get this "party" started. I wasn't even nervous anymore. I was confident the 3 of us would make a good birthing team. Not to mention, June 22nd would be a great day to have their baby. It was Shauli and my anniversary (sorry for deserting you that day, honey. I'll buy you a car to make up for it :) ). The crazy thing about that was that our daughter, Kayla, was born on Ariella and Yisrael's wedding day!!!! We thought it would be pretty cool. And seeing as it was only 8am, we were certain it would happen.......
And the "real" story begins...............
We arrived at the hospital (after getting stuck in baaaad traffic) at 8am and were sent to the Labor and Delivery Admittance. It was REALLY quiet and we felt that was a good time. Not a busy day.
They got Ariella hooked onto a monitor and we sat around a bit. It was fun watching the contractions on the machine and hoping each one would get stronger and closer together than the one before. They were still about 5 minutes apart and she had some stronger ones but they weren't changing a whole lot. Apparently the nurses weren't satisfied because they came in and gave Ariella something sweet to drink to get the baby moving around more. They made her lay on her side with her hand up over her head. It was a really awkward and uncomfortable position. People would come in and out but no one really told us what was going on....
The doctor finally came and I guess was satisfied enough with the monitor that he was ready to check her. He also wanted to check and make sure her water had, in fact, broken. We went to another room where he looked at the baby on the ultrasound - aww......we'll meet you soon baby!!! Then he checked Ariella and she was about 1 cm dilated, same as what she was at the doctor the day before. Oh well.....
He didn't think she was leaking amniotic fluid but when he did the test, the stick turned orange (blue?) and he said yep, that's amniotic fluid all right! And you are NOT leaving here without a baby.....
HOORAY! They weren't going to send us home only to come back hours later. Those were good words to hear.
He asked a bunch of questions and based on the fact that her water broke the night before, he was either going to do some tests and based on those results put her on antibiotics or he was just going to go ahead and put her on antibiotics. Then based on how things were going, he may induce her using a pill (a little more natural than Pitocin). There was some confusion based on the translation but we all felt we more or less knew what was going on......
Ariella was going to get some blood drawn for the tests and Yisrael and I were starving!! We decided to go grab something to eat. We left the hospital and went to an Angel's bakery branch. We got toasts and a few rugelach. Brought some back for Ariella too. We came back to the hospital but they are REALLY strict about food and didn't want to let us back in.
At that point, Yisrael decided to go to work for half an hour. He knew he needed to go at some point that day and we figured it was only going to get busier. So now was the best time. He went to get his car and I snuck my food into the hospital. Of course I didn't eat it for another half hour or so because I was inside. But when they were doing something else to Ariella, I went out to grab a bite. After a little bit, she joined me outside.
They wanted to give her a dose of antibiotics but they had to wait until a room in the maternity ward opened up. As soon as that happened, they would call us and we could get settled. We hung out outside for a bit. Then back inside to the women's waiting area. We waited and waited and waited. The A/C was not working and we were shmoiling!!!
Ariella mentioned that this was completely not how she pictured the day going!! In her mind, Delivery Day involved a frantic phone call to me in the middle of the night, a rush to the hospital, and lots of stuff and pain going on once we got here. In reality, we were sitting around.....waiting........facing random contractions......talking......hanging out...... eating.......
This was strangely reminiscent to my labor with Jonah. Except we were hanging out in a nice birthing room and eating bagels that my friend Jocey brought!!
We went back into the admitting room and asked if we could wait there, due to the fact that the A/C was broken. They said no so we said we were going to sit in a nearby hallway. They didn't have any news on a room for Ariella so they told us to come back in 15 minutes.
We sat in the slightly more air conditioned hallway and debated what to do. Should Ariella walk around to try to get things moving? At that point, it seemed like the contractions were really tapering off. She was definitely stressed and there is no way that was good for labor. She wanted to be settled in a room and here we were, totally in limbo and not knowing when and where we were headed. It was really frustrating.
Yisrael came back and we went to check in about the room. This time they said 5 more minutes and we should wait outside. So we sat in the separate waiting areas (and took a picture) and after about 5-10 minute, they came to get us. YAY! We figured we were finally making it to Labor and Delivery so we could get things started......
And break time................ come back soon for Part 3!!
Earlier that day I had a terrible headache. So bad that I actually slept on the couch for awhile that evening. It was during a heatwave and I think the heat was making me sick. I woke up at about 10pm and got a phone call from Yisrael. He told me Ariella had been having regular contractions every 10 minutes. They were going to go to sleep and if they got worse over night, they would call me and we'd go to the hospital. In any case, they were supposed to go to the hospital in the morning for monitoring.
I figured that would work out nicely. My headache was better and I would be well rested for a middle of the night phone call. I guess I went to bed about an hour or so later - after making sure my bag was all packed and ready to go.
Went to bed and woke up about every hour or 2 to check my phone!! No missed calls....
Tuesday, June 22 (My Anniversary)
At about 5 something in the morning Yisrael called. Ariella was still having pretty regular contractions, somewhat closer together, and they think her water might have broken the night before. Not a huge gush but a little bit here and there. They knew they had to go in for monitoring anyway so they told me that I should get ready, shower, eat breakfast, and call them when I was ready to go. I did that and called about 45 minutes later. They came by and picked me up. I went downstairs and was SO excited to see them!! Ariella looked great (probably not a good sign for someone in labor......)
It was already fun to be someone on the other side. I was SOOOO totally excited and feeling good after a decent amount of sleep. And ready to get this "party" started. I wasn't even nervous anymore. I was confident the 3 of us would make a good birthing team. Not to mention, June 22nd would be a great day to have their baby. It was Shauli and my anniversary (sorry for deserting you that day, honey. I'll buy you a car to make up for it :) ). The crazy thing about that was that our daughter, Kayla, was born on Ariella and Yisrael's wedding day!!!! We thought it would be pretty cool. And seeing as it was only 8am, we were certain it would happen.......
And the "real" story begins...............
We arrived at the hospital (after getting stuck in baaaad traffic) at 8am and were sent to the Labor and Delivery Admittance. It was REALLY quiet and we felt that was a good time. Not a busy day.
They got Ariella hooked onto a monitor and we sat around a bit. It was fun watching the contractions on the machine and hoping each one would get stronger and closer together than the one before. They were still about 5 minutes apart and she had some stronger ones but they weren't changing a whole lot. Apparently the nurses weren't satisfied because they came in and gave Ariella something sweet to drink to get the baby moving around more. They made her lay on her side with her hand up over her head. It was a really awkward and uncomfortable position. People would come in and out but no one really told us what was going on....
The doctor finally came and I guess was satisfied enough with the monitor that he was ready to check her. He also wanted to check and make sure her water had, in fact, broken. We went to another room where he looked at the baby on the ultrasound - aww......we'll meet you soon baby!!! Then he checked Ariella and she was about 1 cm dilated, same as what she was at the doctor the day before. Oh well.....
He didn't think she was leaking amniotic fluid but when he did the test, the stick turned orange (blue?) and he said yep, that's amniotic fluid all right! And you are NOT leaving here without a baby.....
HOORAY! They weren't going to send us home only to come back hours later. Those were good words to hear.
He asked a bunch of questions and based on the fact that her water broke the night before, he was either going to do some tests and based on those results put her on antibiotics or he was just going to go ahead and put her on antibiotics. Then based on how things were going, he may induce her using a pill (a little more natural than Pitocin). There was some confusion based on the translation but we all felt we more or less knew what was going on......
Ariella was going to get some blood drawn for the tests and Yisrael and I were starving!! We decided to go grab something to eat. We left the hospital and went to an Angel's bakery branch. We got toasts and a few rugelach. Brought some back for Ariella too. We came back to the hospital but they are REALLY strict about food and didn't want to let us back in.
At that point, Yisrael decided to go to work for half an hour. He knew he needed to go at some point that day and we figured it was only going to get busier. So now was the best time. He went to get his car and I snuck my food into the hospital. Of course I didn't eat it for another half hour or so because I was inside. But when they were doing something else to Ariella, I went out to grab a bite. After a little bit, she joined me outside.
They wanted to give her a dose of antibiotics but they had to wait until a room in the maternity ward opened up. As soon as that happened, they would call us and we could get settled. We hung out outside for a bit. Then back inside to the women's waiting area. We waited and waited and waited. The A/C was not working and we were shmoiling!!!
Ariella mentioned that this was completely not how she pictured the day going!! In her mind, Delivery Day involved a frantic phone call to me in the middle of the night, a rush to the hospital, and lots of stuff and pain going on once we got here. In reality, we were sitting around.....waiting........facing random contractions......talking......hanging out...... eating.......
This was strangely reminiscent to my labor with Jonah. Except we were hanging out in a nice birthing room and eating bagels that my friend Jocey brought!!
We went back into the admitting room and asked if we could wait there, due to the fact that the A/C was broken. They said no so we said we were going to sit in a nearby hallway. They didn't have any news on a room for Ariella so they told us to come back in 15 minutes.
We sat in the slightly more air conditioned hallway and debated what to do. Should Ariella walk around to try to get things moving? At that point, it seemed like the contractions were really tapering off. She was definitely stressed and there is no way that was good for labor. She wanted to be settled in a room and here we were, totally in limbo and not knowing when and where we were headed. It was really frustrating.
Yisrael came back and we went to check in about the room. This time they said 5 more minutes and we should wait outside. So we sat in the separate waiting areas (and took a picture) and after about 5-10 minute, they came to get us. YAY! We figured we were finally making it to Labor and Delivery so we could get things started......
And break time................ come back soon for Part 3!!
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