Malaika's Birth Story

The last time around, I gave Ranjit a hard time for not getting all the details of Yohan's birth story completely right (well, my post-pain-meds version of right anyway). So this time, I figured I'd write Malaika's birth story sans an interpreter. Also, since I am sequestered upstairs without a TV, now's as good a time as any to record this.

Woke up at about 12:30 am on the 20th with a lot a of aches and pains. Nothing new about that since for several nights I'd been experiencing what I thought were contractions (yup, we even made one hurried 3 am visit to the hospital couple nights prior to that). After a lot pf pacing, praying, rest-rooming and moaning, I decided about 4:30 am that this was PROBABLY the real thing and I should wake Ranjit up. For an hour after that we counted contractions and figured, yeah, it was D-day ...perhaps. Called the doc and told her that the contractions were five minutes apart to which she told me to lie down for an hour and see if they would go away. Like I wasn't confused about my situation already!!

So I dutifully lay down and in about an hour, after answering Ranjit's many, "are you sure we should go's?" in the affirmative, we arrived at St Vincent's and checked into triage at 7am. I could say it was deja vu bu that would be redundant considering, uh, we'd been in the same room only three days earlier. The nurse checked me and said I was definitely in labor. Finally - I didn't just have an overactive imagination! At some time in this process, Ranjit started Tweeting about proceedings. He looked like a video-game crazy dude who needed his daily fix even when wifey was in labor. Wonder what the nurses thought.

We told the triage nurse that we might want to try a VBAC (Vaginal birth after Cesarean), depending on what the doctor advised us. After a while, Dr Carol Stull, my OB, breezed in with her usual, "Hello, little one!" She checked me and said I was about 2-3 cms dilated and then immediately started talking about the c-section like it was a pre-determined conclusion. I kind of feebly inserted, "What about a VBAC?" which she wasn't keen on at all. Ranjit and I had been feeling over the last few days that a VBAC may involve too many risks as well, so we were happy to concur with the doc.

At 9am that morning we were told the c-section would be around 11am. Dr Stull would be back for the surgery although she wasn't scheduled to be at the hospital that day.The anesthetist came in, asked me a bunch of questions and asked if I wanted an epidural since I was in pain. I told her I'd wait it out since the surgery was only an hour away. Not so smart. 11 am rolled by and no wheelchair. Ranjit was given his bunny suit and even got dressed but no sign of the nurses. And, of course, more and more pain. We turned on Chris Tomlin on the iPhone (I finally concede that that is one cool device) which helped some. And then this God-thing happened. After having some intense pain, I stopped feeling my contractions. Honest! I was actually able to fall asleep and when I woke up was wondering if labor has somehow stopped in its tracks. But God had really held the pain at bay till I had to be whisked off to the OR.

Finally my carriage (aka wheelchair) arrived a little before noon and off I went to the OR. This was the hard part - while I was being prepped for surgery, Ranjit would have to wait outside. The spinal (the pain-numbing shot delivered in the spinal cord) was the bit I was most dreading and it didn't quite go off smoothly. Here I was sitting on the operating table all hunched over (bending forward when you have a watermelon belly is not an easy position to assume) and the anesthetist couldn't find space between my "bony" vertebrae to poke me. So she tried and tried and tried for what seemed like an eternity. Dr Stull tried very obviously to distract me - we spoke about her fraternal twin, how I met Ranjit, and stegosauruses (not kidding) while she kept poking. Finally just as a second anesthetist walked in to help find my elusive spinal cord, wham. The deed was done. I was put on a stretcher, a blue screen suspended in front of me and the "can you feel this?" test was done with a wet wipe on my belly. I hate answering that one. What if I could feel it but my brain didn't register it! Yikes. I so didn't want to be wrong.

Ranjit came in and I greeted him with a whimpery, "Babe, I'm nervous." He put his masked face (very Zorro-like) close to mine and we sang "Thank-you Jesus" together (he very off-tune). The nurses must have thought "Video gamer turned Jesus freak." Whatever! And very soon after that, Dr Stull said, "I can see lots of hair". Soooo exciting! Tears sprang to my eyes as I heard Malaika's first cries at 12:27pm. Nothing can quite capture that feeling of hearing your baby take her first breath in the real world.




She was cleaned off and handed over to Ranjit who brought her close to me. She was perfect. As perfect as her big brother and so so much like him.

That was exactly a week ago and we can't thank God enough for our perfect little angel.

Her first bath:

Mama holding Malaika for the first time:

Yo and Ammama meeting Malaika:

Taking in her new world: