This is the story of the birth of Chloe Sarai (from her mom's point of reference).
On the morning of May 26, 2009 (4 days past my due date), I awoke at 1:45am to go to the bathroom. Before I could lay down and close my eyes, I started to feel a cramp like sensation in my abdomen. I had been waiting for something to happen and finally felt like this could be it. I stayed awake for about an hour as the cramping came and went. I tried to count the minutes between them, but they seemed irregular, but they kept coming. I thought that maybe this was it—these were the contractions I had been waiting for. About an hour later at 3:00am, I woke up Ami and tried to remain very calm. We were packed and ready to go and had even practiced what we would say when it was “time.” I woke up Ami, and simply told him that I needed him to stay awake with me for a while, that I was feeling something as wasn’t sure if this was it. After about another 30 minutes, with the contractions still coming on no matter what position I was in-we decided it wouldn’t hurt to go ahead and go to the doctor. We actually had a doctor’s appointment later that morning at 9:15am and an appointment at the hospital to induce labor later that afternoon at 4:30pm.
On the way to the hospital, the contracts started to increase in intensity and I was definitely feeling pain at this point. When we arrived at the hospital they took me back into the office, while Ami waited in the lobby. I sat in a chair and they connected me to the fetal monitors to check the baby’s heart rate and the contractions. The nurse also asked me a bunch of questions. She confirmed that yes, I was having contractions and then in a few minutes Ami and I were led into the triage area. I changed into a hospital gown and got into the bed where again I was connected to the fetal monitors. At this point the contractions were pretty strong and the nurse commented that the pattern was odd. I would have 3 in a row and then nothing for five minutes or so and then another several in a row. The nurse then examined me and told me I was 5 cm dilated and that she could feel the bag of water right there about to burst. While she examined me I had a contraction and was in some serious pain at this point. Ami was by my side the whole time. The nurse called the doctor and they decided to admit me. It was at this point that Ami called my mom and his parents to tell them—this was it.
Next I knew someone from the lab came to take a sample of my blood and they told me I was third in line for the epidural. It couldn’t come fast enough at this point. Then after a few minutes, I was put in a wheelchair and taken to the labor and delivery room. Next the anesthesiologist came in and I remember signing a bunch of forms—not really reading what I was signing. They explained to me the epidural procedure. They were going to give me a shot in the back and then insert a line in which to administer the drugs. I was told to try not to move—even if I had a contraction—I didn’t know how I would be able to sit still through the pain but I did. It actually wasn’t that bad and in about 10 minutes I started feeling the effects of the drugs.
It was at this point that the family started to show up. Ami’s parents and brother Kfir, my mom and Ken and my dad and Dorothy. I was in a better mood than I had thought that I would be and didn’t feel any contractions at all. They came in about every hour or so to check how dilated I was and things seemed to be progressing. I even remember closing my eyes and taking a short nap for a while.
Once I reached 10 centimeters and my water broke the nurse said that we were going to try some positions and start pushing. It was really hard at first as I was numb from the epidural and not really feeling the contractions, but the nurse helped me and we were on our way to having a baby real soon (or so we thought). Ami was by my side the entire time and helping me by lifting up my shoulders when it was time to push. It was much harder than I ever imagined. I was hooked up to so many machines and after a while the blood pressure cuff and eventually the oxygen mask they gave me were bothering me—all I wanted to do was rip them off. I remember that after about an hour—the nurse said we were not even close to giving up. So we tried some side laying positions and then the “towel trick” Basically they gave me one end of a towel to pull while the nurse pulled the other end—kind of like tug of war. The nurse said that we were slowly making progress and said she could see hair, but wanted to call the doctor in. The doctor said that he would have expected to see that the baby was much further along than she was and that I was starting to swell—making it even harder for the baby to come out. He told us that we might need to consider a C-section. I couldn’t believe it—after a very healthy pregnancy to end up with a c-section seemed very overwhelming to me—I had never been in the hospital before and the thought of them cutting me open scared me. I decided to try and keep pushing for a little while longer as I could feel when to push now and thought I could do a better job. But eventually the pain was too much. My whole left side hurt-including my lower back, I was exhausted physically and mentally and after a few minutes alone with Ami to discuss we decided the best thing to do was to get the baby out. It was a difficult decision. I was crying, Ami had tears in his eyes and I really wanted him or someone to tell me what to do. It was never an emergency situation, as the baby’s and my vitals were good—she just wouldn’t come out.
The doctor came back and we told him our decision and from there everything went really quickly. I was dying of thirst and wanted more ice chips—but the nurse stopped me and actually made me drink something to neutralize what was already in my stomach. It was a shot of the worst tasting liquid ever and I struggled to get it down. It tasted like the sweetest sourest sweet tart ever—and I actually like those candies, but this was like a level 100 on a 10 point scale. They then pumped the drugs I needed through the epidural line and in about 10 minutes I was completely numb from the waist down. They instructed Ami to remove my earrings (good thing they were just from Target as I still haven’t found them yet). They put a blue cap on my head and Ami had to dress in the blue surgical outfit as well. There was no time for picture taking at this point so I don’t have a cute one of us in our matching blue hats. I do remember the nurses telling us that our moms wanted to come in—but I was in no mood for visitors—so they would have to settle for a drive by wave as they wheeled me into the operating room.
The room was so white and had these huge lights. I’m sure that aliens who abduct humans and perform experiments on them use the same configuration of lighting. There was music playing—I think the radio station 96.9 which is funny because a co-worker of mine said what she remembers from her c-section is that some Blondie song was playing in the background. I don’t remember what song was playing, but I was pretty distracted with all my crying and shaking. My arms were shaking so badly—it was horrible.
Ami was right by my head and I really couldn’t feel much, but I did feel an extreme emptiness and could tell that they lifted the baby out. I couldn’t see her as they took her over to the other side and then Ami left to see her. I was on the table while they stitched me up when all of a sudden I felt very nauseas. I announced that I was going to puke and they gave me a blue cone thing to barf in—but I missed and threw up all over myself. It was not exactly the romantic image I had in my head—my husband lovingly by my side as we stared at our baby together for the first time and named her—No my husband and baby were across the room while my guts were being sewed up and I was puking all over myself.
They then brought the baby over so that I could see her and then she left with Ami so that they could finish cleaning her. I only know from pictures that she was in the nursery with Ami and all the grandparents were there with camera flashes aplenty.
From here on, everything was a blur. I was really tired and thirsty and was begging the nurses for a drink. They gave me pain medication and I started to relax, but was still very drowsy. About 2 hours after she was born, they brought the baby to me and tried to nurse her for the first time. It was during this time that Ami and I figured we better give this little angel a name. We had a laundry list of names picked out, but at that moment there was only two names—Mia Sarai or Chloe Sarai. It was such a surreal experience to name someone and suddenly—she became Chloe—or maybe she was always Chloe and it just took us a little bit to figure it out.
We’ve come to the end of the birth story…the rest is still unwritten. We look forward to seeing what happens in every chapter.
So cute!
Eyes finally open!
The "Set"
One of our favorite faces that she makes--we thought is was the "poop" face, but sometimes she does it and there is no poop. So we just call it her "O" face!
One dad and one red baby butt--she turns into a tomato when she cries.
Sleeping in her vibrating giraffe chair.
The "O" face again.
No Kobe--Don't eat my baby.
All done, but she is still screaming.
Ok--so where did Sarai come from. Again we just found it while surfing the 8 billion baby naming sites on the web---It serves our need for a Hebrew name as Sarai comes from the Old Testament-- Sarah (Hebrew: שָׂרָה, Modern Sara Tiberian Śārāh) is the wife of Abraham as described in the Hebrew Bible and the Quran. Her name was originally Sarai. According to Genesis 17:15 she changed her name to Sarah as part of a covenant with Yahweh after Hagar bore Abraham his first born son Ishmael. The Hebrew name Sarah indicates a woman of high rank and is sometimes translated as "princess".
