Elisabetta Marie Sibley
Well, when you stare fear in the face and you come out the other side, you really start to realize the stuff you are made of!
There is a reason it is called Labor… it is hard work people and anyone who has done it would have to agree. My mom was in labor with me for over 24 hours… that’s inSANE!! I now realize just how insane that is though… Everyone has a story, well this is mine and Betta’s (this post is not for the squeamish).
It was 4:15 am on Saturday, March 23rd. I woke up on my side when I heard a ‘pop’ sound and felt some liquid pour into my underwear. That is when I had a big contraction and I thought, “Did my water just break?” So I got out of bed to go to the bathroom and everything stopped. I’m lucky that I had read so much about this subject and knew that her head could act as a type of cork when you stand up. So when I got back in the bed and water started pouring out again, I decided it was time to wake Jesse up. Now, just be ready in these last few weeks for your partner to always wake up with a startled, “Is it time?!” or “Are you ok?!” as their first words. And I of course said, “Yeah, I’m pretty sure my water has broken but I’ve only had one contraction in the last 15 minutes so I think we have some time… I’m going to take a shower.” So while I warmed up the water, I wrote to my colleagues to let them know we would be going to the hospital today, Jesse called his sister Echo and my mom to warn them we would be leaving some time in the next hour or so. As I took a shower and got ready the contractions started coming. This process went much faster than what I had read about from other experiences. So by 6:45 am, we had called Francesca to come and watch Persey as we headed to the car.
Literally taken the day before I went into labor.
We were walking from the Parking Garage to the hospital because I insisted on parking the car with Jesse (don’t ask me why). I had to stop every few minutes because of contractions and now my pants were completely soaked. Jesse and my mom were on either side of me making sure I wasn’t going to fall. When we walked into the Ambulatorio Gravidanza al Termine, Jesse found the nearest nurse to tell her my water had broken and I was having contractions about 4 minutes apart. She sat me down and hooked me up to a monitor to track my contractions and Betta’s heartbeat. At 8 am they were switching shifts, so the next obstetricians came in to do my paperwork. This is when it started to get hard…
I was completely soaked from the waist down, so the obstetricians asked if I wanted to change… Yes, thank you… I grabbed my hospital gown mom had gotten for me to deliver in, and my robe. They walked me to the bathroom when I started having the really painful contractions. When I got out of the bathroom, I said, “I need help… I’m going to vomit.” And I did… a lot… the pain was super intense and I could no longer control my body. I was shaking and puking … it was not pretty.
The obstetricians kept telling me this is totally normal and that I needed to get into the gynecologist to check my progression. I was only 1 cm so they said I would have to wait. Vanessa (one of the obstetricians) told me to take a hot shower… that should help with the pain. The shower is a giant room basically so Jesse came in with me to make sure I didn’t pass out. I remember curling up in the fetal position on the floor of the shower and singing to myself… I think Jesse was quite concerned at this point. Unfortunately for me, this baby was coming fast and the contractions became so close together that there was no break in between. Vanessa came back in and took me to the gynecologist again, who said I was at 3 cm… YAY for epidural time!!
She took me back to the delivery room where I continued to puke a few more times before the anesthesiologist showed up. Just a side note: I bet being an anesthesiologist is awesome… you are the hero in most situations… especially with pregnant women… I mean I looked at this guy and could not stop thanking him… he just smiled and patted me on the shoulder. He said when I needed more to call him. They only give you enough for about 3 hours because they don’t want it to slow down the process too much. At this point the obstetricians changed again and Vanessa left me with these two young girls, Eleonora and Flavia.
Jesse watched the heartbeat and contractions very closely!
Now I felt amazing, I could feel the contractions (pressure) but no pain. Jesse said he was so happy to see me smile again. In the delivery room in Italy you can only have one person with you at a time. So, Jesse traded out with Echo and then my mom. I felt so good at this point I was able to take a short nap, talk to them, and then I asked for more drugs before Jesse came back in. That is when even the epidural didn’t really cover the pain anymore. I could feel the pain at the peaks of the contractions only but it was starting to get intense. Flavia did a little check in and I was at 8 cm. This was at 6 pm. She said it was time to start pushing. The great thing about these young girls is they encouraged me to try any position I wanted to. They were not stuck in the antiquated notion that laying on your back with your feet dangling in the air is the best way to give birth. So I tried everything… literally: hanging off the bed with Jesse’s help in squat position, on all fours, on my side pushing my legs against her and Jesse… nothing was happening. Soon I was too tired and opted for delivery on my back.
At this point the epidural was wearing off but I couldn’t get more because I’m in the middle of delivery. “What is wrong?” I asked. “Nothing is wrong… but there is some fibrous material that is blocking her shoulder. When you push she comes out and is sucked back in.” Flavia answered. I looked at Jesse, “I can see her head, you are so close sweetie.” I didn’t feel close and I was exhausted. At about 7:10 pm the fibrous material finally broke and she started coming fast. Two gynecologist, two nurses, my obstetricians and the anesthesiologist all came in to see me finally give birth. The gynecologists pushed her down from my stomach, the nurses cheered while Jesse and the obstetricians dealt with my legs pushing against them. This is where it gets really scary. I was pushing at the end of my contraction and her head was literally halfway out. The gynecologist told me to stop until the next contraction. All I remember was looking at Jesse and screaming, “She’s ripping me in two!!” Jesse, being the sweet man he is and trying to stay calm while looking at the top of our daughter’s head, said, “Just one more push, you are there… her head is almost out.” Then my next contraction hit. That is when I did what we in the voice biz call the primal scream. When they pulled her out, it was as if they had pulled everything from below my ribs out of my body. It was an insane feeling. Then they flipped her up onto my stomach. I looked at Jesse and said, “I did it… she’s here.” I really couldn’t believe it at the moment after all of that. It was 7:31 pm.
My first picture with Betta!
I looked at her. “She doesn’t look like a newborn…” That is because she weighed 9 lbs. 2 ounces… yeah that is correct, she was huge with tons of hair. After they stitched me up (that was super pleasant by the way), they took me to another room with just Jesse and myself where I was able to breastfeed for the first time. She attached immediately, which was a huge relief. Finally, Jesse was able to update my mom and Echo who thought for sure I had gone in for a c-section. Then they could switch out to come in and visit for the first time.
Betta sleeping on her Babbo… so sweet…
The only thing I really hated was when they would rip her away from me for tests. It felt like we were really bonding and then they would take her away to weigh her or check her reflexes. I know this is a necessary evil but it was hard for me. We had one test where they had to take blood from her foot. They couldn’t get it to work the first few times and Jesse almost lost it. Another terribly timed test was the one for congenital diseases. They do this test on the day your milk arrives and the baby has to fast for two hours beforehand. Ok… that proved very difficult and made Jesse and I stay up all night… it was terrible listening to her scream and not being able to do anything about it even though you knew what was wrong. Betta also was a little jaundice so she had to go under the lights for 6 hours before we could take her home. At first I was in tears, but she actually seemed to like the lights… she would just sleep and wake up when she was hungry. Getting to take her home was the best thing ever!!
Jesse about to put Betta in the car to go home in her carrycot.
All in all my pregnancy and birthing experience in Italy was very positive. They have a really good system going. I opted to take advantage of the public system so in the end this pregnancy cost us around 15 Euro (because I took the non required tests needed to be eligible for an epidural… best choice I made). Also, I have to say, hands down could not have done it without Flavia and Eleonora… they gave me a lot of strength. I truly believe those girls are on a path to greatness! Also, my husband is awesome. I mean, he really came through during the delivery and took extra good care of me during the pregnancy. So that’s it! That’s Betta’s birth story… hope you enjoyed reading it more than I enjoyed doing it 🙂
Our first family picture in the hospital.
The Life Less Traveled 
Loved reading this! We discover that we are stronger than we thought after giving birth! Love you!
Thank you Rachie! That is so true. Love you too!