Maggie's Birth Story

I had a blessedly easy pregnancy with Claire that ended in an unexpected placental abruption and emergency c-section. Maggie's pregnancy was just as blessedly easy, although we hoped for a much smoother birth experience, ideally a VBAC.

With both girls, I somehow didn't gain a lot of weight. I just wasn't really hungrier than usual. With Claire, who was born a month early, I gained about eighteen pounds. I seemed to be gaining even less with Maggie, but chalked it up to now having a toddler to chase around all day. However, when I'd only gained about eight pounds at the thirty-two week mark, my doctor asked us to come in for an extra ultrasound at our next appointment, just to make sure everything was okay. 

So, we had our ultrasound at the thirty-four week appointment and found out Maggie was only measuring in the tenth percentile, weighing an estimated four pounds, six ounces. I immediately started fitting a lot more protein into my diet, aiming for one hundred grams a day. We started going in for non-stress tests twice a week and ultrasounds once a week.

Two weeks later, at the thirty-six week appointment, they measured Maggie's growth again and found her in the fourteenth percentile, weighing an estimated five pounds, five ounces. They expect babies to gain about a pound every two weeks in the last stage of pregnancy and Maggie was doing just that. All the protein packing seemed to be working. 

Two more weeks later, at the thirty-eight week appointment, they measured Maggie one last time and discovered that she'd dropped down to the eighth percentile. She only gained half the amount we'd been expecting and now weighed an estimated five pounds, thirteen ounces. Since she dropped down below the tenth percentile, she was officially categorized as having intrauterine growth restriction.

It's risky to be induced when trying for a VBAC, so we had a just-in-case surgery scheduled for November 1st, a week after my due date. But after Maggie's poor growth in the thirty-eight week ultrasound, our doctor thought it would be best not to go overdue. Unfortunately, there was no space in the operating room on my actual due date, October 24th, so the c-section had to be moved up to October 21st instead.



I spent the next week trying pretty much every natural induction technique I could think of, hoping to coax Maggie out on her own. I walked at least two miles a day, drank raspberry leaf tea, took evening primrose oil, squatted and crawled around on the floor to pick up toys, ate way too much pineapple, and tried a few other things that are too embarrassing to even type.

When I came in for my last prenatal appointment the following Friday, I still wasn't dilated at all. After everything I tried that week, I have to admit, I was pretty disappointed. There might have been tears involved and our super nice doctor might have called Adam later that day to make sure I was okay.



I resolved to spend the rest of the weekend relaxing and enjoying our last couple days as a family of three. We went to Snoqualmie Falls and helped Claire paint our pumpkin. Of course, I had to do some last-minute nesting like laundry, cleaning, and grocery shopping. By the time Sunday night rolled around, we were all just excited to meet Maggie.

We had to be at the hospital at 5:15 Monday morning for the 7:00 a.m. surgery. We were sent straight to our room on the maternity floor. Maggie's heartbeat was monitored for a while, I was hooked up to an IV, and before we knew it we were walking over to the operating room.

Understandably, Maggie's scheduled c-section was way more relaxed than Claire's emergency surgery. With Claire, Adam had to stay outside the operating room while he got changed and I got a spinal block. I felt very anxious without him, so I was really glad we didn't have to be separated this time around.



As soon as I got the spinal block, my whole lower half felt tingly for a few minutes, kind of like when your foot goes to sleep. You aren't supposed to go completely numb, you just aren't supposed to feel the pain of being cut open. So, when a nurse cleaned my stomach with alcohol wipes, I could feel her wiping but I couldn't feel the usual sting of the alcohol. It's weird being completely naked in front of a half dozen medial professionals because you know you're naked, but can't actually feel it.

I could still wiggle my toes, though, and after a while started to worry if that was okay. When I asked the anesthesiologist, he said, "Well, it's not toe surgery," and that the surgery had actually already started. I could feel some tugging and pressure, so to distract me Adam told a funny story about a man falling on an air compressor and inflating to twice his normal size.



All of a sudden, we heard our doctor say, "Wow, look at all that hair." Then he opened a flap in the privacy partition and there was Maggie! She did, indeed, have lots of black hair. She also had really chubby cheeks, which immediately led us to wonder if she would weigh in larger than we'd thought.

She began to cry, an amazing sound which was completely absent from Claire's birth, and a nurse motioned to Adam that he could help get Maggie weighed, measured, and cleaned up. She was nineteen inches long and weighed a very surprising eight pounds, two ounces.  Once Maggie was wiped off and bundled up, Adam got to bring her over to me on the operating table.



Getting Maggie out took less than five minutes, but it took more like half an hour to stitch me back up. This was definitely the most uncomfortable part, thanks to side effects of the anesthesia. I felt nauseous and itchy. My back was really, really sore. The worst part was that it was really hard to breathe, like someone was sitting on my chest. I just couldn't wait to get out of the operating room and hold Maggie!

I was finally wheeled back to my room, but we weren't left alone quite yet. For the next hour, I had to lie flat on my back while my blood pressure and pulse were constantly monitored. I did get to nurse Maggie right away, but it was a super awkward experience thanks to the extra monitoring. After all that was over and Maggie got her first bath, we were blissfully left alone. My sister, Allie, brought Claire over to meet her little sister later that morning and we were overjoyed to have both of our daughters together for the first time.



The rest of our hospital stay was blessedly uneventful. The nurses helped me get up and walked around briefly twice on the first day. On Tuesday morning, I got my IV and catheter out. On Wednesday morning, my staples were removed and then we got to go home! I definitely recovered more quickly from surgery during Claire's birth. Since she was in the NICU, I just woke up to a pump in the middle of the night and was able to get a lot more sleep. But it was amazing to have Maggie with us from the start.  We're so grateful that we could hold her, feed her, and bring her home right away.

Our doctor attributes the discrepancy between Maggie's estimated and actual sizes to short legs (from her mom) and a small head (from her dad). Ultrasounds measure your bones, so if you're a bit oddly proportioned, they can be pretty off. When the nurse announced Maggie's weight at birth, we were not at all disappointed. We laughed, just thinking about how funny life can be sometimes, but mostly we were so thankful that she was healthier than we'd hoped. Everything about Maggie's birth, from nursing to Claire's childcare, has gone so much better than we'd imagined.

 

P.S. One of Maggie's first visitors was a friend from the Newman Center at Pitt, Steven, who happened to be in town for an interview at Adam's company!