The birth story - very long - with a very happy ending!!!!!!!!
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
After a restless night of sleeping, I awoke at 3:52 AM. Since sleep had been fleeting, I decided to get ready for the day. I bathed, fixed my hair and make up, dressed, packed last minute necessities. Once hubby was ready to go, we headed to the hospital and arrived at 6:55 AM. Upon arriving at the hospital's Women's Center, we were immediately assigned a nurse and escorted to our delivery suite. After settling in the delivery suite, the nurse started my IV and proceeded to start the potocin by 7:30. I was 2 cm dilated and 60% effaced.
Throughout the morning the potocin drip continued and was increased every 15 min to ½ hour depending on my progress. About 10:00, my doctor came and said I had progressed to 4 cm and was moving along nicely, she broke my water and gave the go ahead for my epidural, - hip-hip-hooray! Or so I thought ... my legs and bottom went completely numb but not my belly. I still felt every contraction; the anesthesiologist returned and administered another dose of medicine, which only slightly helped. He returned a third time and administered a third dose. I still did not have relief from the contractions. Since I had no relief, they removed the original epidural and put another one in higher up in my back. Thank God, this provided relief and I was able to relax a bit.
I continued to labor and progress with my dilation and effacement. Around noon, with every contraction Faith's heartbeat would drop slightly and then bounce back. She was beating about 140 beats per minute and with the contraction would drop to the 70's - 90's and occasionally the heartbeat would be lost from movement and the contraction. We had to keep readjusting the external belly monitor. Finally, my nurse put an internal baby monitor on so they could watch the heart rate without having to readjust the belly monitor every time Faith moved or I had a contraction. Her heart rate continued to slow with each contraction. They stopped the potocin for a while to see what her heart rate would do without the potocin. With the potocin stopped, the contractions stopped and her heart rate returned to normal.
They restarted the potocin, I continued to labor. Around 1:45, Faith's heart rate was going very low with each contraction. My nurse called my OB who promptly hung up on her and came immediately to my room. At this point, Faith's heart rate was dipping to 40 beats per minute. My doctor begins screaming, "I need an emergency c-section stat. We need to get her to the OR now stat!" I was more than terrified. At this point, they are literally tearing me out of the labor suite; my IV and monitors are still connected to me and plugged into the wall. Machines are flying everywhere! It was like a scene from a movie. A class a drama, it was so scary. I am now crying uncontrollably and as I am wheeled down the hall, my doc is screaming for the anesthesiologist, where is he and how soon is he going to be there. She kept screaming for the anesthesiologist, she must have yelled 8 times where is Dr. So-and-so.
They get me to the OR and hubby is not allowed back with me because her needs to be sterile, gloves, hat, mask and gown. I am transferred to the OR table and they shave and scrub my stomach. The anesthesiologists (two of them) are now giving me more medicine to numb me enough for surgery. As I am still crying, they are asking if it is from pain. I reply, "I am not in pain, I am just scared and emotional." They try to comfort me and rub my head telling me that everything will be ok. A third person then comes to the head of my bed. By now I am really a wreck emotionally and just need someone to comfort and love me. So I ask this person to please hold my hand. I think that the glasses she has on are strange glasses for a woman to be wearing. After a few seconds, I realize this mystery person is actually my husband. I was so distraught that I did not recognize my own husband ~ what a mess! Something starts beeping, to me it sounds like and alarm. Hubby tells me it is just someone's pager and that it is not the baby.
I am prepped and ready for the c-section. They cut me and push her out. Her cord was wrapped around her neck and then down under and around her arm. As soon as she was untangled, she let out a big cry. I was immediately relieved when I heard her cry. They took her to the baby area for immediate assessment and her APGAR score was 8 at 5 minutes after birth and then 9 at 10 minutes after birth. Thank God she was doing great. She weighed 6 lbs 11 oz and was 21" long. She was born at 2:16pm on 7/3/07. Had we tried a vaginal delivery, she never would have made it through the birth canal.
Recovery has been slow. This c-section is 100 times worse than my gastric by-pass surgery. Originally, they gave me vicodin for pain. This relieved my pain only for about an hour after taking it and made me feel drunk. Eventually they changed it to Tylenol with codine. The Tylenol is helping with the pain but does not provide complete relief. Faith is worth every ounce of pain so I am trying not to complain. I was discharged from the hospital on Friday 7/6. I could have stayed in the hospital another day but thought it would be better to recover at home. My hubby has been fantastic and has not left my side. He is up in the middle of the night with me and is there for anything I need. He is going back to work tomorrow; I am sure going to miss his help and company. He is taking more time off when the foster kids come home. I figure I will need more help with the 5 of them than with Grace and Faith.
Faith has a bit of jaundice but not near what Grace had so we took her to the pediatrician today for a check up. Her billirubin level plateaued and she gained 2 ounces from Friday. She is a nursing champ. She immediately latched on the breast and is going to town breastfeeding. She will empty both breasts and come back for more. I am supplementing a bit with formula to help the bilirubin levels some down.
I go for my check up tomorrow with my OB. My legs are so swollen and I had no swelling before delivery, so I assume that this is c-section related edema. I am going to ask for a prescription of reglan to increase my milk production. Faith eats every 1 ½ hours or so. I would like to produce more milk so she could get more from each feeding. It is still early but I was hoping to have more milk by now.
Well, that is the recap of her birth and the last few days. She is starting to ooch and scooch, so I guess that means its boobie time.
Here are the hospital pictures, they do some really cute things now.
http://www.cyfairhospital.com/CWS/VirtualNursery.aspx - click on the Faith J links - there are 2 of them. Of course, we had to buy a million pictures!!!!!!!!!
God Bless!
Jen
The photos are beautiful! What a head of hair! 
Wow Jen sounds like a rough birth but your a strong women and made it through. Faith is beautiful and she is blessed to be welcomed to such a sweet family. Congrats! 
Oh my....that'll certainly be a story to tell her when it's time for her firstborn!!! So glad to hear everything worked out and you and Ms. Faith are doing well. I can't believe she eats every 1 1/2 hr! She's gonna be a porker! I love little fat babies...they're so stinkin cute! I think it's so cute when they dont' have a neck or a wrist
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