I don’t know why I love an epidural so much. I really had thought about trying to go unmedicated this time around. It was my fourth baby. It should be quick. My body would know what to do. And for the weeks leading up to the delivery, I began considering a home birth to avoid the hospital. But once I got there and remembered how excruciating labor really is at 5 and 6 cm with no idea of how long it’s going to last, I was so ready to be done with the pain. As soon as I got my epidural, a feeling of calm settled over me. I felt so warm and cozy in my bed. Micah took a nap on the little bench near the window where sunlight was pouring into the room. I knew the epidural would probably delay the birth by an hour or two, but I just relaxed and enjoyed the time. I probably would have fallen asleep, but the nurse accidentally left my blood pressure cuff on a two-minute timer. I think she moved it to that setting during my epidural and then forgot to switch it back to 10 or 15 minutes. Every time I started drifting to sleep, the cuff would tighten around my arm. Finally, she came in and fixed it, but by that time I knew I couldn’t sleep. She said my contractions had slowed, so they would probably give me a little Pitocin eventually, but for now, they were going to let us rest. I spent the next hour reading my Bible and texting my sister and a few close friends. Finally, the nurse came back in and added Pitocin to my IV. Micah got up from his nap and went down to the cafeteria to find some food.
Thirty minutes later Micah was back and my midwife came by to check me. “Oh! The head is right there. Let’s deliver this baby.” It must have been around 12:30pm. From that point, everything went so quickly. A charge nurse joined our assigned nurse and midwife. Everyone was so happy and kind. They joked that they made a really good team, as the three of them had just delivered a baby in the room next door a few minutes ago.
Before I knew it, I was in position to push — still wearing my compression socks, I might add. The socks had become a staple part of my daily outfits during the last few weeks of pregnancy to relieve the horrible varicose in my right leg, and I joked that I might wear them during delivery. Turns out, it wasn’t a joke. I pushed through one contraction and the head was right there. I pushed through another contraction and the baby was on the brink of crowning. On my very next push, the head was out and suddenly a sweet little baby was hovering above me. It was 12:52pm.
“What is it, dad?” The midwife asked. Micah paused for a few seconds before announcing, “It’s a girl.” I later asked him why the long pause, and he said he couldn’t really tell because of the angle of the baby. It’s true that Diletta was angled away from Micah’s view. When he delayed in his response, I looked down to see what the baby was and I couldn’t tell either. Micah said, “I was 80% sure it was a girl, but I didn’t want to announce it and then be wrong.” Baby girl let out one little cry and instantly melted into my chest. She was so calm and sweet from the very first minute. I vaguely remember delivering the placenta and then hearing my midwife say a few minutes late that I didn’t tear at all. Technically, I think she said, “No lacerations.” Now I tell everyone it’s so “easy” to have a fourth child… everyone should do it.
We spent our first hour with baby girl on my chest. She nursed easily (it’s always so amazing that God designed them to know what to do) and then the nurse came in to get her measurements. 8 pounds, 12.6 ounces, and 21 inches — nearly identical measurements to Zianne when she was born. Before we knew it, we were being whisked away to our postpartum room.
Because of COVID-19, we couldn’t have any visitors at the hospital, so we had hours to spend in our room just the three of us. This turned out to be a good thing, since we hadn’t decided on a name yet. We had plenty of time to discuss it. We were already leaning toward Diletta as a first name, but we couldn’t decide on her middle name. As we talked, we came up with more potential middle names gathering than narrowing it down. Did we do a family name? A Biblical name? One of our other favorite first names as a middle name? Part of me wanted a “D” middle name, so we could call her Dede. We spent the evening writing the options up on the white board in our room and then erasing the ones we ruled out. I think we were down to our final three choices when we went to sleep that night.
I use the term “sleep” loosely… because I actually slept very little that night. I think I fell asleep exhausted by midnight, but then the baby woke up around 2:30am and wanted to cluster feed until 5:30am. The nurse came in to give her a bath at 6:00am. Then someone came to take our breakfast order at 7:00am. When the birth certificate lady knocked on our door five minutes after that, I was spent. “Do you have your birth certificate papers?” she asked. “No,” I responded, almost in tears. I don’t know her name yet.” “Can you have them ready by 8:00?” she asked. “No,” I replied. “I need to sleep. Come back much later.” Then I fell into my pillow, exhausted.
Breakfast arrived and we finally settled on her name — Diletta Pearl. I started filling out our paperwork, so we could leave the hospital. Although I was told we would be able to leave the hospital twelve hours after delivery due to Coronavirus, we ended up being there for about 24 hours. By the time the midwife checked me and the pediatrician made rounds and the newborn hearing screening was complete, it was almost 1pm. We had decided not to tell our girls that they had a baby sister over the phone or video, but rather introduce them to Diletta in person, so we were excited to get home to surprise them.
We stopped for a quick lunch on the way home and Micah decided “Diletta” should bring her sisters these unicorn easter baskets they had begged him for at the store a few weeks prior. At the time, he had said “no” to the silly $13 baskets but decided it would be fun if they received the overpriced gift from their new sister.
When we knocked on the door at home, the girls opened it wide-eyed. They were instantly in love with their newest little sibling, and they all wanted to hold her. It seems we gave her the right name because Diletta truly is “beloved” around here.
