Wednesday, September 21, 2005

A baby!

Let's see, where was I? Oh yes, a baby.

On Friday, August 26th I had an appointment to see how things were going with the baby. It was almost a week past my due date and on Tuesday of that week he was doing well, fluid was good etc. so I expected more of the same. Not so. My fluid had dropped and the doctor informed us it was eviction time and wanted us to go immediately to the hospital -- ah, so that's why you pack in advance!

We discussed options and she explained that with my cervix of steel and how high he was, she only gave me about a 20% chance of delivering vaginally. I was admittedly disappointed but we decided to give induction a try and make decisions accordingly.

We stopped by home and hurriedly packed and arrived at the hospital. At about 9:00pm they gave me cervidil and we waited for things to get started. I had a few contractions but nothing regular. And mainly just tried to sleep despite being in what seems to be the noisiest and brightest place in the world.

Saturday morning I wasn't much more dilated and he hadn't dropped much but the on-call doctor thought we might be able to deliver vaginally but it probably wouldn't happen until the next day. They started pitocin.

After about 30 minutes on pitocin the baby's heart dropped dramatically. It was consistently in the 160s and then was suddenly 50. The nurse came racing in, we stopped the pit and I layed on my side. His heart beat went back up to 160. Thinking it might have been him laying on his cord or my positioning, they started the pit again about 45 minutes later. The same thing happened again, only this time they lost the heart beat. Suddenly there were 6 or 7 nurses around me. While several were poking my belly trying to find the heart beat, the others were unplugging monitors and pushing my bed out the door and into the OR. Needless to say I was scared to death.

We got into the OR, onto the table and the anesthesiologist was ready to knock me out with general when the baby's heart beat recovered again. So, things got suddenly less scary. I had an epidural and a c-section and a baby! The nurses were terrific, the doctors were terrific and Spencer is perfect. Not at all what I expected from his delivery (heck, I figured we'd never make it to turn let alone past!) but I'm so relieved that after waiting so long, he's finally here.

5 Comments:

Blogger Blair said...

What a story! I am so happy it all turned out well for you and I hope that you are getting enough sleep!

10:21 PM, September 21, 2005  
Blogger Sabrina said...

Thats quite the adventure! So happy you have a healthy little man at home! New Mom Tip: Breastfeed laying down... takes some time getting used to it, but it is SO much easier then trying to hold that little body in just the right place to feed! Plus, you can "rest" a little while he's eating.... Congratulations!

10:43 PM, September 21, 2005  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

That sounds very similar to my labor and delivery! I am so glad he is here and you are all happy!

9:28 AM, September 22, 2005  
Blogger April said...

I am so sorry that you had to go through such a scary time, but I am so happy your little man is safe and at home with you now.

Congratulations mom.

1:11 PM, September 22, 2005  
Blogger Hostile in Ohio said...

I'm glad you ended up with a healthy baby!

Congratulations...MOM! :-) You're a mom! Sorry, I'm so happy for you!

8:45 AM, September 24, 2005  

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