Samantha's due date was December 4, 2008. I was teaching part-time at Lansing Community College and the last day of the semester was December 11, 2008. I secretly hoped to at least get through teaching on December 2nd; after that, it was just final exams and I could easily schedule a "sub" to sit there while my students took their exams. I was confident in this plan because I had heard that a lot of first-time moms actually don't give birth until their due date or a little after. No problem, right?
On the morning of November 18th, I woke up at 6 am to get ready for work. As I was heading into the bathroom, I felt a little bit of fluid run down my leg. I didn't think much of it because frankly, this baby was sitting directly on my bladder and I had just gotten up after lying down for a while. I took my shower and was getting dressed for the day when Steve walked into the room. He took one look at my face and immediately asked what was wrong. I told him that I felt a little queasy and mentioned the fluid. It was at this point that he became insistent that I call my doctor. I was reluctant because other than that, I was feeling fine and I didn't want to have to go to the doctor and be forced to get a "sub" that day. After all, I was already scheduled for my weekly doctor's appointment early the next morning.
At lunchtime that day, after teaching lab all morning, I decided to finally call the doctor. I convinced myself that I was doing this to appease Steve ... after all, I still felt fine. Well, the nurse wasn't too pleased with me because IF that was my water that had broken (7 hours prior), I was now risking infection and putting my baby in danger. That was all that I needed to hear. I scheduled a "sub" and then called my sister and asked her to go with me to the doctor. I was crying during all of this (probably because of all of the extra hormones), and having my sister with me was incredibly calming.
37 weeks pregnant
The doctor started to perform an exam in order to determine if the fluid was, in fact, amniotic fluid and in the process, she stopped and looked up at me. With a surprised look on her face, she told me that I was in labor and already dilated to 4 cm. What??! I started to cry again.
Next, I had an ultrasound performed in order to determine what my exact fluid level was. The amniotic fluid level was "borderline-low" and the doctor wanted me to head across the street to the hospital. She was willing to let me go home first and get my bags, but didn't want me to delay too much in getting to the hospital.
Steve called at that point to find out how the appointment went and I will never forget our conversation. I calmly told him that, yes, my water had broken and that I was dilated to 4 cm. His reply was, "What exactly does that mean?" I paused for a moment and said, "Well, when I get to 10 cm, I push. So, I'm almost half-way there. Can you meet me at home?"
Steve wasted no time in getting there. He arrived at the house about 5 minutes after I did. My hospital bags had been packed for a while and I was just gathering up any last-minute items. I was surprisingly calm; it was Steve that was anxious and jittery. My only concern at this time was the car seat ... which leads us to another interesting story.
During my pregnancy, there was no doubt that we would need to purchase a different vehicle to keep the car seat in on a regular basis. In my opinion, Steve's truck was not suitable for a baby; his camaro, well, that goes without saying; and my car was a two-door car. Now, I knew that I was capable of getting a baby into and out of a two-door car, but I was NOT going to doing that on a regular basis. We looked at cars and test-drove a couple of them, but time just got away from us until about a week prior to my water breaking. We hadn't committed ourselves to any one particular vehicle and now that meant that Steve would need to make the final purchase while I was in the hospital having our baby ... Nice.
At the hospital, we were admitted into triage, and from there, I was transferred to "labor and delivery." The doctor on call started me on pitocin because I wan't feeling any contractions, and by now, the baby needed to be out within about 6 hours in order to avoid any infection (about 18 hours after my water broke). The nurses continued to increase my dosage of pitocin because time was of the essence. I was now beginning to feel contractions, but the worst part was that the baby was not positioned with her face down; rather, she was looking up at the ceiling and this can make for a rather difficult delivery (as I soon learned). The doctor and nurse worked feverishly to try and turn her (including putting me in various positions). Samantha's head continued to grind on my left hip bone and after I was dilated to 6 cm, I asked for my epidural.
I progessed quickly after the epidural. In fact, that was when my parents, my sister, and Steve's parents arrived at the hospital (approximately 10 pm). They all walked in the room just as I was throwing up my dinner -- not a pretty sight. During the moments of pain (because the epidural took the edge off the contractions but did nothing for the constant grinding on my hip bone), I just simply laid as still as possible and concentrated on my breathing.
I progessed quickly after the epidural. In fact, that was when my parents, my sister, and Steve's parents arrived at the hospital (approximately 10 pm). They all walked in the room just as I was throwing up my dinner -- not a pretty sight. During the moments of pain (because the epidural took the edge off the contractions but did nothing for the constant grinding on my hip bone), I just simply laid as still as possible and concentrated on my breathing.
At 1 am, the doctor decided that the baby wasn't going to turn any more and that I could begin pushing. I could have started pushing an hour before that, but we were giving the baby time to try to adjust itself. After more than two hours of pushing, dislocating my tailbone to get her out and using vacuum suction, Samantha Murray Lapinski was born at 3:05 am on November 19, 2008 weighing 6 lbs., 11 oz., and measuring 20 inches in length. Her middle name was my grandmother's maiden name.
A "cone head" from the vacuum suction
We chose to not find out the sex of the baby ahead of time. I, myself, was the one that wanted to be surprised and I begged Steve to do the same. Ironcially, we both thought that the baby was a boy and it was literally a true surprise when she came out. The doctor said to Steve, "Well, what is it?" And Steve replied (since I wasn't able to see), "It's a girl?!" I cried (again).
Our new family
After Samantha was cleaned up, Steve went out into the waiting room, video recorder in hand, to share the news with our parents and my sister. I am so glad that he was able to capture that on video because I smile now every time that I watch it.
Samantha and I were discharged from the hospital two days later. Steve came to pick up us up in our new car (that he purchased that very morning). I was very pleased ... he had even installed the car seat already. I remember that he remarked on the way home how cautious he was trying to be because we had "some precious cargo in the car." I smile about that too.
Home from the hospital (November 21, 2008)
Our first family photo at home
Samantha was not a good sleeper in the first four months of her life, so we tried to take advantage of her few moments of rest whenever we could. In fact, that was the best piece of advice that anyone ever gave me -- "Sleep when the baby is sleeping." I captured the following photo one morning and it has become one of my all-time favorites!
Daddy and Samantha 
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