The ultrasound on Friday May 12 showed that the baby seemed to not be growing as fast as she should be. Since at 37 weeks Melisse was technically at full term, our doctor recommended at our Tuesday appointment that we induce labor. While Melisse packed for the hospital, I stopped over to borrow a camcorder from Cynthia. Still on crutches from my Achilles repair, I was driven by Melisse to the hospital and dropped off while she parked the car. We settled in to delivery room 10 around 8:30pm and Dr. Wachtel administered some hormones to prepare the cervix. Brian brought a stash of burgers back from McDonalds, while Melisse suffered three attempts to get her IV needle inserted.
Melisse sat in bed while the nurses monitored her very minor contractions until 2am to see if by chance real labor was kicking in It wasn't, and so at 8am they woke us to began administering the standard induction drug Pitocin. Melisse's mom Pat arrived soon after, and we all waited around as Melisse endured increasingly annoying contractions. At 5:30 the doctor reported that she was less than 1cm dilated, and was going to stop the Pitocin at 6:30 and try again in the morning. While Pat had stepped out to give the news to her family, things started getting interesting. At 6:15 Melisse announced suddenly that her water had broken!
This meant the clock was running, and so Melisse soon requested an epidural to make the intensifying contractions easier to handle. By 9:00 she was 5cm dilated, and at 9:45 she suddenly called in our nurse Erin who found 9cm of dilitation even though the baby's station was only +1. The nurse said the doctor wouldn't be summoned until Melisse was at 10cm. Over the next 30 minutes, Melisse felt some interesting conractions that felt like the baby was moving. Melisse called the nurse and she was at 10 cm and the baby's head was in place for pushing! Dr. Wachtel was summoned, and Erin soon had Melisse start pushing. He arrived just in the nick of time. It took a few contractions to find her rhythm, and a half hour of Melisse's heroic pushing exposed the baby's scalp. With one last long and painful push, Zoe Suzanne Holtz was born at 10:28pm. She was 19" long and 6lb 1oz. We were overjoyed at the sight of our beautiful pink daughter!
The pediatrics nurses gave Zoe some oxygen to help her breathing, and then Mom and Gran and Dad took turns holding her. She quieted down quickly and started building a reputation as a quiet and sleepy baby. By 11:30 we had to clear out of the delivery room and move Melisse to a semi-private room in the maternity ward. We had wanted a private room but none were available. Thus Pat and Brian had to go home for the night. Zoe was brought in twice overnight so she and Melisse could start learning how to nurse. The feedings, and her roommate's snoring, made sure that Melisse didn't get much sleep that night.
The next morning Brian and Pat installed the car seat and picked up some diapers on the way back to the hospital. Melisse and Zoe continued their impromptu lactation class, while Pat wheeled Brian to the cafeteria for lunch. A private room opened up for Melisse in the afternoon, and she continued trying to get Zoe more interested in nursing than in sleeping. After another night in the maternity ward to get more nursing experience, Zoe came home at 4pm on Friday.
On Friday night Zoe revealed that she is a night person. She started crying 20 minutes after we went to bed at midnight and never really stopped until 6am. Melisse displayed infinite patience, and Brian offered Zoe a car at age 16 if she would let him sleep. Zoe declined.
