[Ms-Kitty]

Reading through all of y'all's amazing birth stories reminded me that I wrote up Luther's several months ago for some other on-line friends of mine. I don't know why it never occured to me to post it here! Anyhow, this was written on April 15, just 6 days after Luther graced us with his presence:

My little guy presented breech at 36 weeks. We tried SO much stuff to get him to flip: tried ECV *twice*, tried moxibustion with an accupuncturist *twice*, used a birth-ball and did hip-rolling exercises for every day for hours, did tons of "hips over head" positions, even tried the cold-pack on top/heating pad on bottom technique multiple times. Nothing worked. I was quite upset about all this, not so much because it would require me to have a c-section (due to the baby's position, he could have gone either butt-first or feet first, as his feet were crossed in front of him), but because I had such a horrid experience with the insertion of my epidural with my first child.

Well, last Sunday around 2 in the morning, I started feeling "uncomfortable" moments. I had serious Braxton-Hicks since 17 weeks, but this felt quite different. I had also had a false-labor episode a week earlier, and had been told to sit with my feet up on my left side, drink lots of water and take a Benadryl. We tried that all again, and the uncomfortable moments calmed to the point I fell asleep. About 7:30am, they woke me up. They were stronger now, definately some type of contraction, and about 8 minutes apart.

We called my OB's office and I spoke with the OB who was on-call for the weekend. From what I described, he didn't think it was actual labor, but he wanted me to come in for a non-stress test just to be sure. I had one of those the week before, so I knew it would take between a half-hour and 2 hours, depending on how long it took to get me to a room and get a good read on the monitors. We called up some friends and took our 3yo DD over to their house, saying we would be back in 2-3 hours.

We got a room within minutes of arriving at the hospital. I had just had an OB visit 2 days before and my cervix was completely closed, completely uneffaced. The nurse checked and said I was 3cm and begining to efface. They decided to do a 3 hour check and see if anything changed. It did. At 3 hours, the contractions moved to strong ones every 6 minutes, with smaller ones at 3-minute intervals inbetween, my cervix continued to efface, and it dialated to 4.5cm. The OB did a quick U/S to check the baby's position: still breech and he had "dropped" with both his feet and butt trying to crowd into my pelvis at the same time. At that point, the OB informed me that we weren't going to be sent home, instead we were going to have the baby by c-section within the next 2 hours.

The anesthesiologist came in to talk to me and I was SO happy with him. He really listened to my concerns about the epidural, really tried hard to explain the difference with a spinal (and completely agreed to do just a spinal, not the spinal/epidural combo I dreaded so badly). When he left, the nurse came in to check my vitals once more and the blood-pressure cuff wouldn't stop closing! My whole arm turned purple and she had to rip the cuff off!

About 30 minutes later, the nurse walked me down to the delivery OR. The nurse held my hand as the anesthesiologist tried to insert the spinal. For some reason, each time he tried, I felt this weird "line" of pain from the spot where it was going in on my back straight down to my right thigh---it REALLY hurt. He tried so hard to be gentle, but it REALLY hurt. As he prepared for the 6th try, he said if it didn't work that time, they would have to consider a general because he didn't want to sit there and torture me and my back. But that try worked perfectly----I didn't feel it hardly at all!

As soon as the anesthesia took effect, they let my husband into the room. He was all decked out in scrubs with a hat and face-mask. He told me he called my friend who had our DD to tell her what was going on. Her hubby had come to the hospital, taken a pic of my hubby in his scrubs, grabbed our daughter's car-seat from our car, and would bring her by later in the day. About that time, they took my vitals again. And the blood-pressure cuff in the OR wouldn't turn off, either! They had to rip it off me, just like before. They used 2 other cuffs before they got one that worked like it was supposed to! My arm was SO sore. It looked like I had drug tracks on my upper arm.

The OB came in and talked to me and my DH for a couple of minutes. Then they fixed up a tall blue screen (I *specifically* requested not to see anything---I pass out when I see a needle going into me, I didn't want to pass out while having my baby!). After about 10 minutes of pulling and tugging feelings, I heard my baby cry----he was SO loud!

They toweled him off and brought him over to me and my hubby. After a couple of minutes of cooing at him, my hubby walked over with the nurses to sponge him off and weigh/measure him. I wanted to hold him, but my arms felt very shaky so I declined. My hubby held him for me. I have a ton of pics the anesthesiologist took of my hubby holding our son in front of my face----they all look upside-down because of the angle I was at, lying on the operating table!

About 20-25 minutes later, they were all done with everything and they did something I never expected. They rolled me gently from side-to side and put a thin mattress under me. Then they inflated it and it scooted me to a hospital bed. Another quick roll side-to-side to remove the deflated mattress and I was comfortably in the bed. It was much better than being lifted from bed-to-bed I have to say! I didn't know they made those things. Guess you learn something new every day.

Anyhow, we went back to the LDR room and my nurse did a last check on me, saying her shift was over for the day. She introduced my new nurse, Enoch!!! Enoch was the wonderful nurse who was with me during my two disappointing attempts at the ECV. It was so nice to see her again. About 10 minutes later, my father arrived and got to hold his new grandson.

Within the next couple of hours, I was moved to a room on the maternity floor, my daughter was brought by my friends, and my mom and half the world came by to see us. We were in the hospital for 3 more days, but all is good. I am recovering from the c-section much better and much more quickly than I anticipated (still too squeamish to actually look at the scar though), and my baby is wonderfully healthy.

His name is Luther Zev. He was born at 1:09 on Sunday, April 9. He was 38w2d, 9lb2oz, 20"long, with blue/green eyes and blonde hair. 2 weeks early and already over 9 lbs! I feel so happy and blessed right now. He's nursing well and sleeping enough at night that I can get nearly 6.5-7 hours of sleep at night with only 1 35-40 minute feeding in the middle. Life is good.

And now that you've been put through the torture of reading my whole labor/surgery/recovery....you get your reward: Pictures of it all! http://home.austin.rr.com/catbox19/

~~Amanda

[Ms-Kitty]

None of you lovely ladies has ever said anything at all negative about Luther's middle name, even though I am absolutely certain that most of you have never heard of the name Zev, and think it's unusual at best and possibly even downright weird. That's OKAY. The first time I ever heard the name Zev, I thought the very same thing. But when we found out that we were having a boy, it was the first name that popped into my head for our son's middle name. I agonized for weeks over asking my husband Chuck if he'd be okay with it. And when I finally did ask him, he laughed and said that if I hadn't asked, he was going to suggest it anyway.

The reason for using the name Zev (which is a Hebrew name, meaning wolf) is particularly special and significant for us and I thought I would share that with y'all. I wrote this on January 15 for some on-line friends/family of mine.

We picked out a middle name! And we were just given the go-ahead to use it! I know that probably sounds odd, but getting "permission" to use it was very important to us. Some background info to explain the situation:

I taught Special Education for several years, specializing in Autism (and the Spectrum Disorders associated with it) at the elementary and middle school levels. One of my very favorite students was a 6th grade boy with Asperger sydrome named Zev. He was just SO much fun----wicked sense of humor, highly intelligent, and would talk to you for HOURS about stuff (that interested him, of course). On the first day we met, Zev sat down on the couch in my room and started reading a Dungeons & Dragons rulebook. I asked him what it was, and he replied, "Why? It's not like you'd care about it. You're a girl." I peeked at the title and LAUGHED. I then told him I had been playing D&D since before he was born, and had been the Chair of the science-fiction and fantasy committee at my university. He warmed up to me immediately-----we spent so many hours for the next 2 1/2 years talking about obscure rules, weird creatures, and overpowered spells.

He HATED to do anything "art", drawing, painting, sculpting, anything. I brought in some D&D miniatures for another student (who would paint ANYTHING put in front of him) and Zev was immediately interested. He begged for a mini and painted it----took him 3 weeks, but WOW was he proud of it. He showed his mother, and she was so happy that he had done something creative that he began coming over to my house after school twice a month to paint more minis.

After I resigned to stay home full time with Natasha, Zev continued to come to my house to paint. He would talk BattleTech and computer games with my husband, and even though he didn't like small children, learned to tolerate my little girl. In September of 2004, just 6 weeks after his bar mitzvah, he was hit by a car while riding his bike to school. He died in the hospital 3 days later.

I don't know a whole lot about the Jewish faith, but I know in some groups they would consider it odd or even rude for a non family member to use their deceased relative's name. I still work with Zev's younger sister. Her parents brought her over today, and we asked them if they would be okay with us using the name Zev as our son's middle name. They were very happy about it----his mother even cried. I am so thrilled about this.

Now we just have to figure out which of our 3 picks for a first name to put with it: Luther, Nathaniel, or Robert. I'm leaning towards Nathaniel (Nathan for short), but we'll see. It's just so darned POPULAR! I don't want him to be called "Nathan C." all the time in school, and I'm certain no-one is going to call him "Nathaniel" on a regular basis---the name is all nice and formal sounding, but it's so long that people WILL shorten it. And "Nate" is just awful----don't want that AT ALL. Robert is nice, and I love Robby or even Rob for nicknames, but we were trying to avoid family names altogether and it is my mother's grandfather's name.

I know that's really a remote relation, but Chuck's family will give us SO much flack for using a name from "my" side and demand that we use a name from "their" side-----it stresses me out just THINKING about it all! They're going to give us flack about Zev already, so I honestly think that if we go with Robert, they'll start pushing for us to ditch Zev and use another family name (Chuck's mom has hinted MULTIPLE times that Scott or Michael would be good). But ditching Zev is NOT an option. We're both just way too happy to be able to honor Zev's memory through our son to even think of that. Chuck still loves Luther, the name we had as our "back-pocket" name in case the u/s for Natasha had been wrong. I dunno, I like the sound of "Nathaniel Zev" better, but I must admit that Luther is growing on me.

We asked Natasha which of the 3 names she liked best, and she told us "We should name him Baby Luther 'cause that is a very nice name." She has said that for 3 weeks now. I admit, between her and Chuck both pulling for Luther, I am finding myself more drawn to it. Heh. Aunt Judy says that at least 3 of the boys born on her floor at the hospital EVERY WEEK are named some variation on Nathan or Nathaniel.

Anyhow, we have a middle name, and we couldn't ask for it to have more meaning or significance. People may think it's weird, but tough noogies. We loved Zev, and we love this little Zev we haven't even met yet. And the fact that his parents are happy to see their son's name live on in our little guy just makes it all so....well....perfect. Just perfect. Long and rambling post, but I'm really happy right now.

~~Amanda

[justjaQ]

thanks so much for sharing! i really enjoyed reading it. sorry you didn't get a natural birth, but you seem to be okay with the section, which is great! and perhaps, if you're hoping for more kids, you'd be a good candidate for a VBAC, which is also great.

i already talked to you about the name Zev, and like I said before, I just love it! I looooove Z names and X names, and had we had a boy, his middle name would have simply been "Q". hehe. it's so lovely, why you chose "Zev".

ETA: i was wondering a couple things:
first, if you don't mind sharing, what happened with your first epidural?? i've never had one, so i don't know much about them.
secondly, what exactly is asperger syndrom?
and third, you mentioned a woman named "enoch", and hehe, and "natasha", "amanda" and "luther" can all be european, so i was just wondering where you were from?

[Ms-Kitty]

thanks so much for sharing! i really enjoyed reading it. sorry you didn't get a natural birth, but you seem to be okay with the section, which is great! and perhaps, if you're hoping for more kids, you'd be a good candidate for a VBAC, which is also great. [/b]

I don't regret my birth experience with Luther at all. I prefer to think of it as "surgical versus vaginal birth" rather than "natural versus unnatural birth". I think that pretty much ANY birth is "natural", since he grew inside me and came out of me and I'm all natural. Now, once they eventually come up with an artificial uterus (heh...a womb with a view!!) I'll be glad to distinguish between natural and unnatural births. B) As for more kids, nope. We're done. We decided years before we were married that we wanted 2 kids.

i already talked to you about the name Zev, and like I said before, I just love it! I looooove Z names and X names, and had we had a boy, his middle name would have simply been "Q". hehe. it's so lovely, why you chose "Zev". [/b]

Thanks! My point in the post thought was that all of y'all have been nice about his name, as opposed to the MANY weird comments we've gotten in real life. Of course, once we tell people WHY we picked such an unusual name for his middle name, they always have positive comments. But it's been very pleasant to not deal with the initial negative comments here. Y'all are so nice!

ETA: i was wondering a couple things:
first, if you don't mind sharing, what happened with your first epidural?? i've never had one, so i don't know much about them.[/b]

My labor with Natasha had been strong for 17 hours, when it suddenly stalled for over 2 hours. I wasn't dilating, wasn't effacing any more, but I was having MONSTER contrax every 90 seconds. They would last about 30 seconds of sheer pain, then I'd collapse for about a minute until the next one. I was so exhausted that I was literally falling asleep in that one-minute break between the end of one and the start of the next. My OB was very supportive of my attempt at going "Iron Woman" and laboring med-free, but at that point he said that if I didn't get an epidural, I'd very likely end up with a c-section. NOTHING was happing except agonizing pain, baby wasn't dropping and she was getting stressed from the constant non-productive contrax. I agreed to the epidural. The anesthesiologist had me curl into a ball on the side of the bed so he could insert it. I was still having contrax and I couldn't sit perfectly still while he worked. I'm not sure if that was the reason it hurt so bad being inserted, or if the anesthesiologist was just inept. Either way, it was the WORST pain I've felt in my entire life, *including* the 2 hours of violent non-productive contrax. It was simply horrible. I don't have words to accurately describe just exactly how it felt----the closest I can come is a white-hot knife slicing into your back. It hurt so bad I threw up. I've never before or since felt such complete viscious pain. The baby went just ape contrax-wise at the same time (probably a reaction to all the pain-released endorphins from me), which made it even worse.

Now, once it was inserted, it calmed down within about 5 minutes. Baby settled down and her stats recovered, and the fiery pain subsided. Within 10 minutes of insertion, I felt really good. My labor picked back up and my body started working again to get the baby out. I had her about 2 hours later, with barely 15 minutes of pushing. I am fully aware that my epidural experience is NOT the norm. I would never caution anyone not to get one because they do work wonderfully. But *I* do not want another one EVER again. If Chuck and I did get pregnant again (not likely), I would go "Iron Woman", get a spinal, or have another c-section. No epidural for me EVER again.

secondly, what exactly is asperger syndrom?[/b]

Asperger syndrome is an Autism Spectrum Disorder. It is thought to be related to autism, as it shares many common traits, including language delays, sensory integration problems and social-development delays. Asperger's children typically are initially language delayed, but unlike classic autism, Asperger's children often pick up language and develop very good vocabulary and speaking skills. Many Asperger's children are actually quite gifted at math/science/reading and many qualify for not only Special Education but Gifted and Talented programs as well. The main problems Asperger's children present are sensory/social related, and in this aspect they often mimic their classic autism counterparts. They may converse with you at great length and detail on a particular subject, but refuse to acknowledge the very existence of any alternative subject. Many are very structured in their habits, unable to be spontaneous or deal with schedule changes. Eye contact is VERY hard for many of them.

and third, you mentioned a woman named "enoch", and hehe, and "natasha", "amanda" and "luther" can all be european, so i was just wondering where you were from?[/b]

9th generation Texan, doncha know! I'm from San Antonio, went to Texas A&M University where I met Chuck, and we currently live in the Austin area. It's tough on this dyed-in-the-wool Aggie to be surrounded by a sea of T-sips, but I manage.

~~Amanda