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No Blackout For This Mom

The blackout of 2003 inconvenienced millions of people, but it could have been a big problem for Nancy St. Alban (Michelle, GUIDING LIGHT).”I was due Aug. 13, so I was freaking out,” relates St. Alban. “I had contractions a lot that day. I thought, ‘Oh, my God, this could be it.’ It was scary because we were delivering in the city and how the hell were we going to get into the city with all the traffic problems, with no lights. But luckily…”St. Alban eventually gave birth to Francesca Liliana Puleo at 4:58 a.m. on Aug. 24. “I was begging for an epidural the moment I got to the hospital, but didn’t get one until I was 9 and a half centimeters. I think what happened was I got there a little bit too late. I was already in very active labor, so they needed to give me an IV. They even said, ‘You know, you should have been here sooner,’ because my contractions were two minutes apart at that point, and they were unbelievably strong.”How come she was late for her “appointment”? “I went into labor about 9 o’clock on Saturday night, and they were very strong contractions, but bearable, very bearable contractions. I called my doctor after having two hours of them that were about seven minutes apart and she said, ‘You know, you might not be into labor, try to go to sleep, take it easy, hang out,’ and as soon as I hung up the phone with her, that’s when it kicked into active labor. I started having really bad contractions. So I called her back and she still said, “Well, take your time, it usually goes really slow for a first-time mom. Spend some time at home, get in the shower.” I took a shower and I was in a lot of pain, so then when I got out I was like, ‘What the…we’re going to the hospital now.’ “

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