Zoe Lucia Miller Makes an Adventurous Debut

Zoe Lucia Miller
9/9/15 at 3:35am
6lbs, 11.1oz and 20"

I left many of you in suspense about Zoe's birth story with a vague announcement on Facebook regarding an unplanned home birth.  The short version of the story is that I was laboring at home, waiting for contractions to get closer than 10 minutes apart and had called the midwife about 3am to let her know I was in labor and to seek guidance. We decided to wait 30 minutes since they were intense, but still far apart. During one of my contractions, right around 3:30am, I felt the urge to push and thought it was my water breaking, so I rushed to the bathroom. Sure enough, my water broke and out popped the baby's head, followed by the body. Thankfully, I felt the head coming out and grabbed it one with hand and her body with the other, avoiding her fall into the toilet or onto the bathroom floor!  I guess you can say I delivered my own baby hovered over the toilet in our half bathroom and received post-delivery assistance from Colin and my mom, followed by the Cary fire department and EMT, and later by the hospital labor and delivery team.

Now that the experience is behind us and everyone is okay, the story is pretty amazing. At the time, it was a stressful and adrenaline-filled night.

The week leading up to my due date was a little stressful as I tried to wrap some things up at work and we had family visiting on their way to and from Disney. Since Rose was born three days early, I thought that I might be early with my second baby too.  I asked her to wait until the Labor Day weekend so I could leave my work a little better organized. And, I wished she would wait until after our family (of 4 adults and 3 kids) made their trip through Cary.  I didn't care as much if she came before or after their visit, but I definitely didn't want to go into labor while they were with us. 

On Tuesday afternoon (Sept 8), around 4pm, our family departed for upstate New York and I had not yet gone into labor. For most of the day, I had been experiencing stronger Braxton-Hicks contractions, but I was on my feet most of the day, walking to and from the local playground (about 3/4 mile each way) and helping with meals, etc. I don't know if my body held out until the stresses of hosting were over, or if I finally started paying better attention to my body, but around 6 or 7pm, I had my first painful contractions that stopped me in my tracks. After putting Rose to bed, I downloaded the contraction timer app on my phone, and while doing a little work and watching the Brazil-US soccer game on TV, started timing the contractions. I didn't really think there was any pattern to them, but with the timer, I realized they were about 10-12 minutes apart. The labor was so different than my labor with Rose, so I didn't take it that seriously. The pain was centered in my lower abdomen, and didn't radiate to the back at all. With Rose, I had painful back labor for about 18 hours.

Colin went to bed around 10pm, my mom around 11pm, and I went around 12am, not expecting to sleep much. Surprisingly, I slept about an hour or hour and a half before waking to much more painful contractions.  At 1:30a, I started timing contractions again. For about an hour, they kept coming about 10 minutes apart. I'd have one or two contractions that would come a little closer (like 7 minutes), but would then go back to 10 minutes. Around 2:45a, I called the midwife's answering service to check in, and the midwife called me back by 3am. She asked what I wanted to do, but I didn't really know. The contractions were very painful, but I assumed labor could continue like that for awhile. In hindsight, I do recall a few contractions being so painful that I wasn't sure I could do labor without meds again. I should have realized this was the transition period and that I was getting close.

With the midwife, we decided to wait 30 minutes for another check-in. In those 30 minutes, I got back into bed and Colin helped me breath through the pain. I had one contraction that made me push, so I did, and then a second made me feel like my water was about to break, so I pushed a little as I made my way to the half bathroom on the main floor. With Rose's bedroom next to the upstairs bath, and my mom sleeping in the master bedroom, the half bath was the best choice.  Once I got to the bathroom, I pushed more fully and felt a huge gush of water as my water broke. I also felt something else and when I reached down, I felt my daughter's head. This is when the adrenaline kicked into high gear and I popped up off the toilet and reached my second hand down to catch the body.

Yes... it was crazy, and I am so glad for productive instincts.  I immediately called for Colin, who was upstairs already getting dressed because he had assumed it was time to leave for the birth center. In his version of the story, he heard my slightly distressed call and started walking to the stairs and then heard a baby cry and flew down the stairs.  As I stared down at the baby in my hands, I was concerned about getting her to breath, so her cry was very welcome. As soon as Colin arrived, he pulled the umbilical cord from her neck and went to get my mother. I kept her close to me as my birth team got me towels and grabbed the "what to do in an emergency" fact sheet that I had packed in our bag. Colin called the midwife and gave the phone to my mother, while he called 9-1-1 and received instructions from the dispatcher.  I was helped down to lay down on the floor, my mom got a shoelace for Colin to tie the umbilical cord, and the first responders arrived within 5-10 minutes or so.  At the time, I didn't realize it, but Zoe had a "true knot" in her umbilical cord, which Colin noticed and loosened when he pulled the cord over her neck. Based on my Google research (and not confirmed by any medical professional), this could have been a problem, especially if labor had been long.

When the fire department arrived, they checked my vitals, Zoe's vitals, and cut the umbilical cord (after asking me if Colin wanted to do it). Colin was busy throwing a barking Darwin back in his crate, and I knew he'd prefer the "professionals do it".  With our stable vitals and a cut cord, the firefighters said there wasn't much left for them to do, so they passed us over to the EMT team, who got me up to the gurney and into the ambulance (because they said there was nothing they needed to do since we were stable).  The trip to the hospital was leisure (no lights/sirens) and only about 10 minutes. Colin followed in our car with our "go-bag" and my mom stayed home with Rose, who slept through all the commotion.

The scene at home when first responders arrived

Leaving home on a gurney, keeping baby Zoe safe and secure

Arrival at the hospital around 4:30am

During the ~30 minutes the first responders were attending to our needs at home, the two concerns I had were the delivery of the placenta and giving Zoe skin-to-skin time to encourage successful breastfeeding. I'm so glad I had a natural childbirth with Rose and knew what to expect or at least what to do. I asked my mother to massage my belly/uterus, and kept Zoe close to my chest while at home, and then offered her the breast as soon as I was able to maneuver it on the gurney.  The time it took from the first responders arrival to arrival at the hospital did feel like a long time, mainly because I didn't know if there would be negative consequences if the placenta remained in the body too long. Thankfully, Zoe latched very easily and nursed about 15-20 minutes during the transport to the hospital and another 10-15 minutes while in labor and delivery.

Once in the hospital, the labor and delivery nurses attended to our needs, gathering information as they waited for the arrival of the midwife. Once the midwife arrived, she guided me in the delivery of the placenta, gave me a few stitches where I had a slight tear on the same line as I did with Rose, helped break up a few clots behind the placenta, and massaged/checked the uterus (all of it very painful).  During this time, Zoe was weighed, measured, and checked, while Colin took some video footage (of her and thankfully not me!).  With both of us receiving good news on vitals and overall health status, I think Colin and I finally were able to breath more easily. I was cleaned up and given a hospital gown, and Zoe, Colin and I were all given admission bracelets. We had to stay in labor and delivery for two hours (starting from when my vitals were taken at 5am) before we could be transported to a maternity room. In those two hours, we had vitals taken and my uterus massaged/checked every 15 minutes. It was not a comfortable or relaxed continuation of the night.

Arrival in Labor and Delivery

Zoe's check up in Labor and Delivery

At 7:30am, we were finally transported to the Maternity room where I would spend the next 28 hours.  We were very clear with the maternity unit staff (nurses, doctors, midwives, etc) that we wanted to spend the least amount of time in the hospital as possible. We were told that Zoe wouldn't be cleared to leave until her 24 hour labs checked out, so we knew the soonest we could leave would be Thursday (9/10) mid-late morning.  I did my best to walk around the hospital unit and keep myself occupied. Sleep was difficult on the uncomfortable bed and was always interrupted by hospital staff or a baby that needed to be fed. As the day progressed, I got more tired, and unfortunately did not sleep much the night I spent there. Zoe apparently needed to cluster feed every hour from about 1am-5am. When we both were in our best sleep Thursday morning, we had lots of hospital staff visits.

Maternity room

Maternity room mid-morning

Zoe fills newborn pajamas lengthwise, but is a bit skinny

Our birth plan was to deliver at the Women's Birth and Wellness Center (WBWC) in Chapel Hill like I did with Rose, and we expected to stay 6-8 hours. In that plan, we didn't expect to have any visitors since our stay was going to be short.  With a 28 hour stay at the hospital, we decided to have Rose come meet her sister in the hospital.  When we were first offered our choice of hospital transport with the EMT team, we checked in with midwife to see if there would be any benefit that made going to the hospital in Chapel Hill worth it. Since there is a hospital just 10 minutes away from our house, and it seemed we were all doing ok, we decided to go to the closer hospital so that Colin and my mom could easily swap out or check in/out as needed.  It meant we'd be on our own and separated from the WBWC team since they do not have hospital privileges at the hospital closest to us. On Thursday afternoon, my mom brought Rose to visit her sister for a little bit and at the end of the visit, I sent my team (Colin and my mom) home to sleep for the night. I knew I could call on the hospital staff if I needed anything overnight, and I needed my support team rested for our arrival.

Rose meets Zoe

In the video, Rose first points out that Zoe is making "bubbles" and that she is a "baby" and her name is "Zoe"

On Thursday morning, Zoe was cleared by the pediatrician after her labs checked out and I was easily cleared by the hospital midwife.  The pediatricians had been concerned about how much cord blood Zoe may have received since we weren't exactly sure at what point the cord was completely clamped/tied off. They also noted a 5% weight reduction, down to 6lbs, 5oz, which was within a normal range.  By 11am, after fixing some issues with the car seat fit, we were packed up and ready to go.  I'd had enough of those four walls, not-so-tasty meals, and poking and prodding by hospital nurses and nurse aids. Colin and I were tired, but ready to start our adventure as a family with two young daughters.

Colin holds his youngest daughter as I prepare to leave

Very tired, but ready to go home

As we arrived home, Rose and my mom were also outside. Rose was so excited to welcome her sister. We also brought Darwin outside to meet Zoe as we did with Rose 19 months ago.  Colin had brought one of Zoe's baby blankets home the night before, so Darwin did get to sniff her scent before meeting her in the driveway.  

We had our first walk on Thursday afternoon, and it's amazing how some fresh air and movement can really do wonders for the soul.  Even with a newborn baby who wants to eat every few hours, we all slept so much better once we were back at home.

On Friday, we continued our care with the WBWC team and had a home visit from the nurse.  Zoe once again passed all her tests with flying colors and Rose had a great time showing the nurse the new baby and observing all that transpired during the visit. We'll have another check up with the WBWC team in Chapel Hill at 2 weeks post-partum and then will start Zoe's care with her pediatrician at one month.

Rose carefully observing how the nurse checks our Zoe

As I said before, I am glad I had a natural childbirth with Rose so that I could react with some confidence in delivering and caring for Zoe as she was born. I'm grateful for a husband who was quick to act and offered as much support as he possibly could, and am grateful my mother was around to help us, clean up after we left, and care for Rose during our extended hospital stay.  I echo Colin's sentiments in that I'd prefer to never have to be responsible for the birth of a baby again.  

I look forward to all the adventures Miss Zoe has in store for us and know I will recount her birth story many times over the years.  It is truly unique and her own, that's for sure.