Emily's Birth Story {Part 3}

The last part of the exciting trilogy...  ;)  {Read Part 1 here & Part 2 here}

Shep came back into the room {he'd stepped away to get something to eat} and told me about the woman at the coffee stand who simply couldn't believe that we didn't know the gender of our baby.  Apparently she didn't think people waited to find out these days and was super excited for us, even though she didn't even know us!  She offered Shep free coffee the next time he came back.

After the overnight lull in energy, and having my water ruptured, we began getting excited again ourselves. Our baby would be here soon!  At this point, we started texting and calling a few close family members and friends to let them know that baby was going to make an appearance shortly!  I remember getting a sweet message from a friend wishing me luck at around 8am and responding that it would be "any hour now!".  He replied "hope it's minutes not hours!".  Shep told his parents to expect the baby before noon.  I don't think I'm spoiling any endings when I say that they were both completely wrong.  ;)

Once I was completely dilated, Dr. R instructed me on how to begin pushing and I started.  During the first push, the baby's heart rate dropped a bit.  I knew something was off when I saw Dr. R's reaction to the monitor.  After a second or so the heart rate bounced back to normal and Dr. R assured me that everything looked good with the baby, but suggested we wait a few minutes before pushing again just to make sure the baby recuperated.  And just for good measure, they wanted me to breathe into an oxygen mask between pushes, to ensure that the baby was getting enough O2 during the process. It was a bit scary to see the Dr's expression upon that first push, but our childbirth instructor had mentioned the possibility of this happening during labor, which helped keep me from panicking while it was happening.

I was pushing, and I thought I was doing so correctly based on how the Dr. reacted to each push, but it was really hard to take a deep breath in before each push as the doctor had instructed because I kept getting a sharp pain near my left rib that was prohibiting me from filling my lungs with air upon inhaling.  The doctor tried massaging the area, thinking perhaps the baby's foot or something was jabbing me.  It didn't help, but we pressed on.  I had pushed for maybe 20-30 minutes when, as my luck would have it, the epidural wore off at the exact time that the Pitocin {which I was administered in order to help move things along more quickly, just as our childbirth instructor has mentioned would be the case} kicked in at full force.  Needless to say, I saw stars.  Actually, I didn't see or feel anything except P-A-I-N.  I honestly don't remember much, except that I started crying and asking them to turn it off.  I physically could not continue pushing because the pain in my abdomen was so bad that my entire body tensed up and I couldn't relax in order to control my muscles enough to work on pushing the baby out.  After what seemed like an eternity, the anesthesiologist finally arrived and re-administered my epidural.  I was instructed to rest for a bit to give the epidural time to calm things down, so we took a break from pushing and went back to waiting.  I actually don't know the exact time frame, but I think I rested for about an hour.

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Once the epidural was working again, we were ready to once again begin pushing!  The time was 12:09 pm.  Dr. R and the resident were at the foot of the bed, Shep was to my left handing me the oxygen mask, the nurse was tasked with holding my left leg and Annette our doula was holding my right leg.  The nurse was also going back and forth to the monitors to ensure everything looked good.  My left leg was soooo heavy that I couldn't lift it myself, and I remember getting so annoyed at the nurse because she wasn't getting back to the bed in time to help lift my leg during each set of pushes.  It's funny the things that stand out in our memories.

The team was cheering me on and the doctor assured me that I was doing great pushing.  An hour passed.  I kept pushing.  I was making progress.  Dr. R announced that she saw dark hair and asked whether I wanted to touch the baby's head or see it in a mirror.  The answer was an immediate "no thanks!", which she chuckled at.  Another hour passed.  I was still pushing and getting at least 2 really good pushes from each set, if not 3.  The baby was moving down the birth canal and I was so excited to meet him or her.  I kept pushing, and the way everyone was cheering me on, I expected to hear the baby's cry any minute.  Instead, sometime around 2:30 pm, Dr. R explained that my sacrum was shaped like a hockey stick, which was prohibiting the baby from being able to pass freely through the opening.  While the doctor was assisting with stretching the area as much as she could without risking a fractured tailbone and the baby was negotiating the tricky shape as best as possible, the baby's head was not passing through because the opening was not as round as it should be -- my sacrum was jutting out.  The baby was coming down with each of my pushes, but then moving back up a little bit between pushes because the head was not clearing the opening completely.

This all sounded a little confusing to me.  If I was making good progress and pushing well, I thought I just needed more time.  I looked at the clock and knew that they had to allow me at least 3 hours of pushing before recommending a c-section, which meant I still had more time.  Annette chimed in to correct me by saying that I actually was allowed 5 hours of pushing if I wanted, but the doctor didn't think it would help and was worried that I was exhausting myself.  I didn't feel exhausted though!  I wanted to keep on pushing so I could meet my baby!!!  I asked what the options were and the doctor explained that she was going to try to assist with the baby's delivery through the use of a vacuum, but that she was only going to give me 3 pushes to get the baby out before they were going to do an emergency cesarean section.  I think I stopped breathing.  Tears started flowing down my face.  The doctor continued to explain that they were going to prep an operating room with a double set-up, so that if the vacuum didn't work I'd be ready for an immediate c-section.  I cried and asked for more time pushing.  I didn't want a c-section.... I was petrified of one.  I asked what the chances were of the vacuum being successful and she advised that it was 50/50.  I cried some more, knowing that I don't have good luck, and asked to push some more.  The doctor explained that I needed to conserve my energy for those 3 final pushes, and left to get ready for the OR.

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I felt like a failure.  It was the most important moment of my life to date, and I wasn't accomplishing what I
was supposed to.  I didn't understand why everything was blowing off course so quickly.  I looked at Shep, who looked back at me.  He looked nervous, which made me feel even worse.  I cried that I'd screwed everything up by asking for the epidural, which caused the staff to administer Pitocin.  This is exactly what our childbirth instructor warned us about.  Annette was so sweet and reassured me that I didn't screw up, and that I needed the epidural due to my intense and clustered contractions, and that medical interventions were available for situations like this.... when they are needed.  Shep held my hand and tried to reassure me as well.

The anesthesiologist came back into the room to adjust the epidural to be a bit stronger and cover more area so I was ready for the c-section if needed.  Nurses came in and out of the room.  Everyone was fluttering around, while I just laid there, scared. Shep was given scrubs and a mask to wear, and a cap was placed on my head. The staff wheeled my bed out of the delivery room, down the hall, and into an operating room.

There were a lot of people in the OR {Shep later told me he counted 18 at one point including scrub nurses, assistant nurses, three doctors, residents, the anesthesiologist team, and various other personnel!} and the lights were so bright.  It was really cold.  Everyone was really friendly and the various doctors and nurses all introduced themselves to me behind surgical masks while I laid on the bed staring up at the lights, crying silently.  One of the doctors assisting Dr. R saw how upset I was and gave me the kindest pep talk.  I don't even remember her name or exactly what she said, except that I needed to stay calm and conserve my energy for pushing.  Her voice was so confident but gentle, and she held my hand while she told me that she had faith in me.  Her eyes peeking out over her surgical mask were so warm.  I looked back at Shep, and his eyes peeking out over his mask, but didn't know what to say.  He was holding my left hand and I was hanging on to him with every bit of hope I had.  I tried to tune out all the other people in the room in order to relax and focus, but I couldn't.  They had two teams of staff prepped and ready to go: one for the vacuum procedure and one for the C-Section.  Our little baby was going to have quite the audience when he or she arrived!  At one point, Dr. R asked to no one in particular, "Can we get a bigger room?" to which someone replied, "This is the biggest one there is."  Even though the room was very crowded, it gave us some comfort that so many medical professionals were all there ready to help bring our baby into the world.

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I couldn't feel my legs at all.  The epidural dosage I was given was so high {in the event I needed the C-section} that I couldn't move any of my lower body.  I felt woozy.  I remember thinking that there was no way I'd be able to push the baby out without feeling anything in my lower body, let alone in only 3 pushes.  I quietly continued crying, while resigning myself to the C-section that was now practically inevitable in my mind.  Dr. R instructed me to push, and I tried with all my might.  I couldn't feel a thing, so looked to her face for some clue as to whether I actually was pushing correctly or whether the vacuum was helping to hold the baby in place between my pushes, but above her surgical mask I saw eyes that gave me no information whatsoever.  I pushed again.  At least I thought I was pushing... I couldn't feel anything!  2 pushes down, 1 to go.  Dr. R said, "Almost there...one more big push!"  This baby did not want to come out easily it seemed.  My mind raced.  In a matter of seconds, I thought, they will be cutting me open to remove the baby via C-section.  This is not the way in which I wanted to meet my baby.  While my first two contractions came fairly quickly, the last one seemed to take forever.  I had to wait to push for the contraction to come, so we had a brief "time out".  Shep said everyone was watching the monitor like it was the last play of a tied Superbowl game.  Eighteen sets of eyes glued to the monitor! The final contraction finally came... I tried as hard as I could and while I was pushing I saw what looked like a baby in the doctor's hands at the end of the bed.  Could that be my baby?  Or was I hallucinating?

"It's a girl!", Shep announced!  "It is???" I replied, tears streaming down my face.  "Is she okay?"  For some reason I didn't think I heard her cry, but the doctors assured me that she was perfect.  {Shep told me she cried a little later.}  Shep cut the umbilical cord and they brought our little baby girl over to the side of the room for her APGAR tests and footprints and Shep followed.  39 weeks of being pregnant and 29-ish hours after realizing I was having my first contraction, she was finally here.  So perfect and worth every minute of the wait.

I could not believe I did it!! I escaped an emergency C-section by the skin of my teeth.  While the nurses checked and measured my baby girl, Shep looked on adoringly at her taking her first photographs, and I laid on my bed, catching glimpses as best I could of the newest love in my life.  Seeing the smile on Shep's face as he watched over our baby girl getting cleaned up was enough to make my heart soar.

I was still pretty numb from the large dose of the epidural, so much so that my arms and chest felt a bit weak. They also had me on a narrow birthing board so I was nervous to hold our baby right away for fear that I might drop her!  So, Shep held her first, standing beside me, and showed her to me.  She was absolutely beautiful.

Suddenly, we were a family of three, and I knew my new life would never be the same.  I was a mother now.

Emily's Birth Story {Part 2}

{Read Part 1 here}

After checking in at the nurse's station we were taken to a triage room, which was basically a bed and some monitoring equipment behind a curtain.  At this point, I was pretty much in constant pain -- contractions were long and very close together.  I changed into a hospital gown, the nurse took my vitals, and examined me.  Much to my chagrin, I was only about 3 cm dilated.  Seeing as I was 2 cm dilated at my exam on Monday, and had been experiencing such painful contractions for several hours, this was a bit disappointing.  I had originally hoped to wait until 5 cm before getting an epidural, but the contractions were so intense I knew at that moment that wasn't going to happen.

The triage nurse called my OB {Dr. S}, who said that she wanted me to get to 4 cm before being admitted.  Seriously????  {Yes, this was the same doctor I spoke to on the phone before heading to the hospital who heard how much pain I was in and "never heard" of contractions as long as the ones I was experiencing.}  The nurse suggested I walk around for a bit, but my contractions were so intense I could barely stand up straight, let alone walk around.  She hooked me up to a contraction and fetal monitoring system to get some readings, where she saw why I was in such pain -- my contractions were clustered together.  What I thought was one long painful contraction was actually 2 on top of one another.  They were so close that I couldn't even feel the break in between.  She told me I'd need to be hooked up for 20 minutes to get the readings she needed, but what she didn't tell me was that I shouldn't move at all.  Well, there I was standing in agony waiting for my 20 minutes to pass.  As if that wasn't trying enough, a medical student came in to ask me a few questions.... the SAME EXACT questions I had literally JUST answered a minute before.  Now, I realize that I was at a teaching hospital, and I am all for learning opportunities.  But having me answer questions to which the answers had been recorded not even 10 minutes earlier, while I'm in excruciating pain, just seems cruel!  I went ahead and did it anyway, and when the medical student wrapped up his Barbara Walters interview he skedaddled.  The nurse came back in and apparently I'd turned or took a step or something during one of my contractions, which caused the belt monitor to come a bit loose, and therefore not record anything.  The 20 minutes needed to be consecutive monitoring, so we had to start all over again.  UGH!!!  I'm not positive {it's all a little bit of a blur now} but I'm pretty sure this happened more than once.... even though after the first snafu I knew to stay as still as possible, the belt came a bit loose and the monitor stopped reading.  I think the nurse realized how much pain I was in and what a crap monitor she had me hooked to and finally let it go.  By this point I was begging for an epidural.  But, the nurse had disappeared, and there was nobody in sight.  Seeing how uncomfortable I was, Shep started walking around looking for someone.  I'm relatively sure I used the F bomb wondering where the entire staff was seeing as it was the middle of the night and we were the only ones in the triage area.  It turned out there was a delivery going on, so the nurse was going back and forth between triage and the L&D area.

When the nurse came back, she checked me again.  About an hour had passed and I was still only ~ 3.5 cm dilated.  With the encouragement of our birth doula, I requested to be admitted anyway {despite Dr. S's preference of waiting until I was 4 cm} and to receive an epidural.  So, the nurse disappeared again, to get everything prepared.

After what seemed like many painful hours finally passed, the nurse and anesthesiologist finally arrived, and that's when the real fun began.  Shep asked how dilated I was and the nurse replied: "Oh, I didn't tell you?  5 cm".  We looked at one another, confused, both knowing full well she hadn't told us that -- that number would've been encouraging!  Last we heard, I was still approaching 4 cm.  Shep replied:  "I thought you said 4?"  The nurse made a face and whispered very quietly to us that the anesthesiologist wouldn't give the epidural to me unless I was 5 cm.  {So much for the video we watched in our prepared childbirth class that explicitly stated epidurals would be given at any time if the patient requested!}  Mind you, the anesthesiologist was standing RIGHT behind her.  And by right behind her I mean literally less than a foot away, so I have no idea how she didn't hear the whisper, but I guess I'm glad she didn't!  Prior to receiving the epidural they needed to insert an IV line into my arm.  Well, apparently all of my veins were in hiding because nobody could get the IV in.  One nurse tried.... OUCH!  Didn't work.  Then the original nurse tried.....   OWWWWWWWWW!!  Wouldn't go in.  She remarked "I've never seen veins like this before...the other nurses usually come to me with the difficult IVs and I can't do it!"  According to her, my veins were "very illusive".  Great.  The anesthesiologist suggested they try the other arm.  In fact, the anesthesiologist might have even tried to get the IV in that's how bad it got.  Everything around that time is a little of a blur -- between the painful contractions and the pain of being stuck multiple times with needles, it was hard to focus.  Eventually, AFTER FOUR TRIES, they got the IV in, and I breathed a small sigh of relief -- until the next contraction hit...

The time was 1:55 am and they moved me into my delivery room.  I finally received the long-anticipated epidural at 2:15 am, and almost immediately felt relief.  Finally, I could breathe again...

The nursing staff advised us to get some rest, while we waited for my cervix to dilate a bit more.  Shep changed into the "dad to be" shirt I had bought him and we snapped a few photos -- he wouldn't have that status for long!  Shep was able to sleep on a cot in the corner of the room while our birth doula Annette slept sitting on a chair with her head down on a table!  Though it was the middle of the night following an emotionally and physically exhausting day and I hadn't really slept well the night before, I just couldn't sleep.  I laid there in my bed, awake with anticipation.  All I kept thinking was "I was going to have a baby TODAY".  It was a feeling that's hard to describe -- I was excited but not in an energetic way; I was nervous, but much more calm than I had been earlier that week.  I think because I knew our little one's birth was happening that day, all the guesswork and a little of the scariness stemming from the unknown was gone.  I'm sure the epidural had something to do with it, but I felt almost serene.  I remember looking around the room, at the monitors, at my handsome hubby sleeping in the corner, at the baby warmer stationed next to my bed, at the receiving blanket and little hat that was ready to be wrapped around baby, trying to remember every detail.  I knew my life was about to change drastically, and i just wanted to soak it all in.

A few more hours passed, and during this time period I had 4 or 5 little "day dreams".  They were like little clips of a movie playing, almost like regular dreams, except I wasn't asleep.  I kept hearing the doctor say "It's a girl!" and then the vision would cut to another scene and I'd hear it again and again.  Could it be?  Was this a last-minute premonition?  Did I finally have a gut feeling about the sex of our soon-to-arrive baby?  Only time would tell but the flashes I saw and heard were pretty vivid...

At 4:45 am they inserted a foley catheter.  What would've happened if I had to tinkle between 2:15 and then, I wondered?  Good thing we didn't find out!  At 5 am, I was 90% effaced and 5 cm dilated.  At 5:20 am they administered Pitocin to get things moving along quicker.  Thanks to our childbirth prep classes, I knew this might happen, so I was prepared.

At 7:15 am I was 100% effaced and 7 cm dilated.  At 7:50 am I was 8 cm dilated.  The show was on the road and there was no turning back now!  Another OB from the practice, Dr. R., was going to take over at 8 am, and asked Dr. S to break my water before she ended her shift.  It was quick and painless, and the fluid was clear.  Dr. S. made a joke saying that she wanted me to have the baby by 10 am, and I replied that I'd do my best!  She left the room and I thought about how I would likely have a baby in my arms in the next 2 hours!

Emily's Birth Story {Part 1}

Warning:  This post is loooooooooong.  Shep and I wanted to capture as much detail as possible so we could always remember how our little Emily entered the world.  Most of this is likely not interesting to anyone else but us, so apologies for boring you and feel free to skip over it!

Like many couples these days, in anticipation of our little one's arrival we created a "birth preferences" plan. Thanks to the plan we filled out, the childbirth prep classes we took, and some stories we'd read about labor and delivery, we knew generally what to expect.  But like most births, Emily's arrival didn't go exactly as expected.  Here is our birth story...

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Emily was due on May 25.  Throughout the night of Tuesday, May 20th leading into Wednesday May 21st, I woke up with menstrual-like cramps.  This wasn't anything new -- I'd been feeling these kinds of cramps off and on during the night for a couple weeks -- but this time it was a bit more constant and kept me up most of the night, though there wasn't really anything with a stop or start that could be timed or tracked.  I just generally felt crampy.  Needless to say, the morning of Wednesday, May 21st I was feeling less than stellar and asked Shep to stay home from work with me, just in case anything started happening.  Around 10:30 that morning, I got what I thought could possibly be a first "real" contraction, but I wasn't sure!  Apparently {and despite our childbirth instructor's sermons to the contrary} it is not easy for everyone to tell the difference between a really strong Braxton-Hicks and a weak early labor contraction!  I experienced another similar feeling around 30 minutes later, and then again another 30-40 minutes later, so after the 3rd one we figured perhaps they really were contractions!  Around noon, I called our birth doula to let her know what was happening.  She said there was no need to keep timing at that point, unless they started feeling stronger or closer together.  She said I should go about my normal day, make sure to eat and stay hydrated, perhaps go for a nice walk, and to keep her posted.  But, by the early afternoon, the contractions began tapering off instead of maintaining a pattern.  Shep considered going into work for a partial day, but realized that by the time he'd get into the office he'd only have a few hours to work before heading back home, so he continued working from home for the remainder of the day while I sat around exhausted from not sleeping and feeling like a dope for keeping him home for a "false alarm".

I watched some television and tried to rest during the late afternoon, feeling more random contractions as the afternoon progressed.  Some of them started getting a tiny bit uncomfortable, though nothing I'd describe as painful -- but the duration and interval between them was all over the place.  All the materials we'd studied in childbirth prep class said that as labor progressed the contractions would start forming MORE of a pattern and get closer and closer together, while becoming more intense.  Well, not mine...

1:09 pm - 56 seconds
1:21 pm - 1 minute 5 seconds
1:23 pm - 1 minute 54 seconds
1:37 pm - 21 seconds
2:28 pm - 2 minutes 18 seconds
2:41 pm - 45 seconds
3:11 pm - 2 minutes 30 seconds
4:43 pm - 1 minute 8 seconds
4:44 pm - 3 minutes 11 seconds
4:54 pm - 22 seconds
5:23 pm - 1 minute 42 seconds
5:34 pm - 4 minutes 2 seconds
5:39 pm - 1 minute 19 seconds
5:43 pm - 42 seconds
5:50 pm - 2 minutes 6 seconds

The contractions that were lasting 3 and 4 minutes were especially confusing because nothing we'd learned about the early phase of labor indicated that they'd last that long.  In early labor, we were taught, contractions usually last 30-60 seconds and are 5-20 minutes apart.  Then in active labor, contractions can last 45-60 seconds long and are 2-5 minutes apart.  But mine were coming every 2 to 30 minutes and were lasting 20 seconds to 4 minutes long.  Shep looked on several websites that indicated such long contractions were "false labor" contractions, not real labor.  But they didn't exactly fit the description of Braxton Hicks either.  While they were only in my abdomen, they didn't stop or go away when I changed positions, and they did seem to be getting stronger.  We were stumped.

Shep made dinner around 6pm {my stomach was feeling pretty upset by this point so it was just   gnocchi with a tiny bit of butter for me} but by the time it was ready I began to get more painful contractions and didn't think I could eat.  I managed to take 2 bites of gnocchi, but that was it.  At this point, my contractions were even moreso all over the place -- lasting from 10 seconds, to 1 or 2 minutes!  They were also coming more frequently -- every 15 or so minutes.  It was hard to see a pattern, but the one thing they had in common was that they were now all painful to me.  Shep and I looked at the birthing class materials yet again.  Though we had originally assumed these were pre-labor contractions because they were so erratic, the one tell-tale sign of pre-labor contractions is that they are not painful, and these contractions were definitely hurting big time.

6:06 pm - 2 minutes 39 seconds
6:18 pm - 3 minutes 45 seconds
6:25 pm - 53 seconds
6:34 pm - 1 minute 25 seconds
6:41 pm - 10 minutes 42 seconds (!!)
6:55 pm - 51 seconds
6:56 pm - 19 seconds
6:56 pm - 50 seconds
7:00 pm - 6 minutes 57 seconds
7:10 pm - 53 seconds
7:18 pm - 5 minutes 10 seconds
7:25 pm - 42 seconds
7:33 pm - 3 minutes 22 seconds
7:44 pm - 54 seconds
7:49 pm - 2 minutes 18 seconds

So, I was having erratic contractions that were painful.  And by about 8 PM, they were increasing in duration {including the monster that lasted over 10 minutes} and becoming more painful with each one.  Using the contraction timer app, Shep told me that they were averaging about 2-4 minutes in length and coming every 5-7 minutes at this point.  We called our birth doula Annette around 8:15 and she recommended to drink a lot of fluids and take a warm bath.  She hypothesized that my contractions were coming in clusters due to my uterus being "agitated" {possibly the result of my vaginal exam two days earlier} and thought the bath would help to relax the uterus and regulate the contractions.  I drank tons of water and Shep ran a warm bath for me, which I stayed in for an hour, but the contractions kept coming and coming.

7:57 pm - 2 minutes 42 seconds
8:03 pm - 4 minutes 2 seconds
8:08 pm - 1 minute 23 seconds
8:10 pm - 1 minute 26 seconds
8:13 pm - 3 minutes 41 seconds
8:21 pm - 4 minute 56 seconds
8:28 pm - 2 minutes 48 seconds
8:33 pm - 30 seconds
8:38 pm - 3 minutes 39 seconds
8:45 pm - 1 minute 42 seconds
8:51 pm - 3 minutes 27 seconds
8:57 pm - 2 minutes 52 seconds
9:02 pm - 4 minutes 37 seconds
9:09 pm - 41 seconds
9:15 pm - 3 minutes 5 seconds
9:24 pm - 2 minutes 46 seconds
9:32 pm - 1 minute 43 seconds
9:36 pm - 1 minute 57 seconds
9:39 pm - 3 minutes 53 seconds
9:44 pm - 38 seconds
9:48 pm - 2 minutes 32 seconds
9:53 pm - 2 minutes 2 seconds
9:56 pm - 1 minute 13 seconds

By about 10 PM, Shep noted that I had been having contractions more often than not having contractions. We called our doula back who recommended we meet her at the hospital, instead of her coming to our home as we originally planned, since I was already in pain from the contractions and not getting any rest in between {which is the whole point of laboring at home as long as possible}. When I spoke to the on-call doctor and told her that my contractions were very close together and lasting 2 minutes on average, she replied "I've never heard of that", with a tone in her voice that made me think she didn't believe me!  Not exactly the reassurance I was looking for at that moment.  She then asked: "What do you want to do?" and I said I wanted to go in to the hospital.  She seemingly reluctantly agreed to call the hospital to let them know I'd be coming in, which is when the reality set in..... we were going to have our baby very soon!!!

Even though we already had our bags packed and ready to go, we still scrambled a bit in getting all our stuff to the car. You think you are ready for something like this but the reality is you are never 100% ready.  I quickly got dressed and grabbed 2 pieces of plain whole wheat bread to take with me while Shep threw some last minute items in our bags, and off we went!  While Shep pulled the car around to the front of our condo building, our front desk concierge sat with me, repeating over and over again that she was "so excited!".  After a mercifully short drive into Manhattan {thankfully long past the typical gridlock rush hour that plagues New York City} we arrived at the hospital at around 11 pm.  When we entered the lobby the security guard offered me a wheelchair, but I said I was fine to walk, even though I had to stop and take a few breaks on the way to the elevator.  Some nurses saw that I was in pain and even offered to help carry the 4 bags Shep was holding!  We zipped up the elevator to the 8th Floor, marked "LABOR AND DELIVERY" in big letters, to the reception area we'd been told to go to.... and it was empty.  Dark and deserted.  Shep started to get nervous, asking "where the f*** is everyone?!" but luckily a nurse walking by directed us to proceed straight to the nurses's station.  I handed the nurse my ID and insurance card, and looked at the clock.  It was 11:15 pm.