Goldie's Birth Story
Our little Goldie girl was born on November 17th, 2021. In true pandemic fashion, Andrew was not allowed to go to a single one of her appointments. Only saw her on an ultrasound through FaceTime once and the sonogram photos, which is sad. As you can imagine, after having two miscarriages, that first appointment for Goldie was truly terrifying. You never know whether you’re going to get good news or bad news and not having your husband there with you during that appointment is awful. I’m thankful I got good news that day, but I feel for all my other pregnant pandemic moms, in more ways than just this one. Anyway, back to Goldie’s birth story.
At my 37 week appointment, my doctor did an ultrasound and told me that Goldie’s legs were in the 95th percentile, so I thought she might come early. Fast forward to 40 weeks and baby girl was still not here. My doctor scheduled my induction for 6AM on November 16th.
They checked me in, got me all settled into my room, tested me for covid, and checked to see if I was dilated at all. NOPE. 1 lousy centimeter. I figured as much since I never went into labor. They ended up starting me on Pitocin right away. I was pretty scared to get Pitocin without an epidural after Espen’s labor, but I was only 1 centimeter dilated and hadn’t experienced any sort of pain to this point, so I waited on the epidural.
About 16 hours of the highest dose of Pitocin later and I still was only “maybe 2 centimeters” dilated. I put that in quotations because I think my very sweet nurse was being generous by giving me 1 more centimeter. I think she felt bad for me. The decided to stop the Pitocin for a while to let Goldie and my body rest. They started me back up at about 12PM the next day, November 17th.
Sometimes they give you a break from Pitocin for a bit to get some rest because usually the second time they start you on it, it starts to work. That’s exactly what happened for me. About 5 hours in, I was 7 centimeters, which still isn’t much, but it was progress! My nurse came in and asked if she could break my water and if I wanted to get an epidural just in case. I wasn’t in pain yet, but I know that once they break your water and you’re on Pitocin, it can get hairy REALLY quickly- and by “hairy” I mean excruciatingly painful.
My nurse broke my water and got the anesthesiologist in there right after to give me the epidural- and it truly wasn’t fast enough. My Pitocin contractions were awful. I could barely hold still for the epidural, but once that epidural hits, it’s like heaven. I was clear to labor without pain for another few hours, or so I thought.
Another 30 minutes passed by, the nurse came back to check my cervix. Sure enough, I was 10 centimenters and ready to push. She called the doctor. He was able to get there 30 minutes later. He had me do a practice push to remind my brain of how to do it and then the baby’s heart rate monitor started beeping. The doctor looked at the nurses who were frantically trying to adjust the monitor on my belly to get Goldie’s heart rate back, but nothing. He yelled at me to push as hard as I could. Goldie’s head was crowning and it was purple. He yelled to push again and while I was pushing he was trying to reach her umbilical cord, which was wrapped around her neck…and then the umbilical cord snaps and blood goes everywhere. But, a second later, she is out!
I look down at her and she is completely purple and not making a sound. They place her on my chest for what felt like a milisecond and then immediately took her over to the table to get her to breathe. I couldn’t really tell what they were doing but it worked and she started crying! Best sound in the world. The thanks we have for my doctor and my nurses that got her out safely is immeasurable.
Goldie Righetti Strom was born on November 17th, 2021 at 5:29 PM at a whopping 9 pounds 1 ounce! We love this girl so much. It only took me a year to share her birth story, but it’s been a wonderful year with our two kiddos and now I think we are DONE (if you know what I mean).
If you got this far, you’re a real one.
XOXO, Shan
Espy meeting his baby sister <3
