Mallory's 1st birthday!

One year ago today about this time there was major chaos in the delivery room. I was feeling the urge to push, now that my contractions were very close together, but my doctor and nurses informed me that their shifts were over and I would be getting a new nursing staff and doctor. The doctor that was on call when I came to the hospital was my primary OB that I had seen the majority of the time and I really hoped he would deliver Mallory. But, the doctor who was coming in at 7am was another doctor I really like and was OK with him. When he peaked his head in the door and the nurse (who knows what nurse!) told him I felt like pushing, I remember him saying, "OK, let me change and I'll be right in". I'm sure that clothes change was a bit rushed.

When Dr. Moore checked me, I was 9.5 cm and only part of my water had broken. He said I couldn't push until my water was completely broken, so he went ahead and broke the rest of the water. When he did, he realized that Mallory had passed her first meconium, which meant there were some special issues with her delivery. He paged a few respiratory specialists and I think a pediatrician and everybody scurried a little bit more. At this point, I remember the pain, but I was more focused on that I knew I wasn't going to hold her immediately after she was delivered because she needed to be checked that she didn't inhale the fluids.

The next 45 minutes/hour were a blur of pushing (at one point with no doctor OR nurse in the room!), chaos, and pain. Luckily, Mallory didn't take that long to come out of the birth canal and about 8:01am, she was born.

Though you would like to hear a baby scream when they come out, we were hoping for a quiet baby because the doctor wanted to suction the fluid away from her face, but she came out screaming. She was immediately taken from me and was under a bunch of lights with people surrounding her, making sure she was OK. Meanwhile, my doctor was repairing some of my damage, which is when I finally asked for a narchotic to help ease the pain! We were told about 25 mintues later that Mallory needed to be taken down to the ICN (Intensive Care Nursery) for monitoring, since her breathing wasn't what they wanted it to be. I had a breif look at her before she went away. What a crazy morning, which I'll continue in a later post. My birthday girl is currently stirring and we're about to welcome her to her first day as a "big girl". :-)

So, I told you my mom had the SLR and was in charge of taking pics! I remember her grabbing the camera while Mallory was being weighed, turning it on, and holding it like a regular digital camera, watching the LCD for a picture to display. I remember telling her that she had to actually look through the eye piece! She took some good pictures, but we were all kind of stunned at what was going on, we only have a handful.

Mallory first born - 7bls 1oz, 20.5 in long













I'm being told by the nurse that Mallory is going down to ICN.