Oh my goodness there have been so many changes in our lives.
So last Tuesday at 1pm I went in to L+D for a non-stress test, blood work and to turn in my 2nd 24 hour urine collection. I was having contractions at home but thought they seemed completely irregular. After being hooked up it was evident that they were regular, every 4-5 minutes. The nurse checked me and my cervix was not dilated, high and thick. So no action there. 2 hours later the on call OB came in and discussed my results. The protein in my urine had doubled over the weekend and it was time to induce. YIKES! I knew it was coming soon but it was actually pretty scary hearing the words. She checked my cervix then and informed me I was 1cm dilated. By looking at the contraction pattern I was in she thought my body knew it was time for the pregnancy to be over and I was in early labor already.
I was moved out of triage and into a LDR room. My pressures were through the roof so to prevent seizures during labor I was started on a magnesium bolus and then a drip. My amazingly awesome nurse stayed with me every second. She told me what to expect and had great sympathy for me as she also had received mag during her labor. There was no sugar-coating - it was gonna suck. It causes crazy heat sensations to envelop your body. To help relieve this Dana the nurse continuously applied ice cold washcloths all over me during the 30 minute bolus. It helped so much! The entire time I was on mag I felt loopy, nauseated, flushed and had a headache but I know the initial hellish part was made easier by Dana. Nurses rock!
At 6pm the first dose of cytotec was placed near my cervix to soften it. It was repeated at 10pm and 2am. During this time I stayed 1-1.5cms but my cervix softened and thinned out. All night I had the worst headache and was nauseated. Contractions started to feel like really severe menstrual cramps. They gave me zofran IV which made my stomach settled but couldn't give me oral tylenol for the headache because I was NPO except for ice chips. My mom asked if I could get a tylenol suppository. Best thing ever. Finally I slept about 1 hour.
At 6am a pitocin drip was started. This obviously made the contractions pick up. By 8am I was moaning through them. They were lasting about 60-90 seconds and coming every 2-3 minutes. I was checked again around 8am and was almost 2cm and my cervix and come down and was completely thinned out.
Things get hazy here. The pain was all encompassing but I felt powerful - my moaning kept me focused. As long as I was getting a break in between them to re-center myself I was doing good. Around 10 or 11ish I started having 2-3 contractions on top of one another with no break in between. This I couldn't do. I was still moaning but could tell I was losing control. Dana offered me fentanyl and I accepted. I got two doses one hour apart and they kept me sane. Around 1pm I was checked and told I was 4.5cm dilated so I got my epidural. I had been lying in bed this whole time (can't walk around on mag) so sitting up for the epidural made me sick as a dog. I had 3 contractions while waiting for the anesthesiologist to prep my back. I got pale, sweaty and vomited twice. Luckily the actual epidural was painless and worked within 10 minutes. My husband and I immediately fell asleep and my mom kept watch over the monitors and kept dabbing my face with a cool wet washcloth.
Around 1:30 Dana ran in the room and put an oxygen mask on my face. She said something along the lines of "The baby just isn't as happy as she was before." I looked over at the heart rate monitor and saw her heart rate was in the 70s. NOTGOOD.COM. Dana told my mom to pull the call light out of the wall to "get everyone in here". She then hoisted herself onto the bed and rammed her hand up my vag. As nurses and the OB ran in she said, "I'm afraid we have a prolapsed cord". Another nurse also put her hand in me and the doctor started palpating my abdomen. The pitocin was turned off and I was given a shot of something to attempt to stop the contractions. Suddenly I could hear the heart rate dropping further. I then passed a few clots and there was worry about placenta abruptio (spelling?). About 5 minutes later my contractions decreased and Pipsqueak's heart rate normalized. I was left alone and fell right back to sleep. (I was drugged and had slept only one hour in a day and a half so even with the drama and worry I was out!). According to my mom about 15 minutes later the OB came back in. She said she reviewed my contraction and fetal heart rate monitors and decided she just didn't like the way the baby was handling the stress. We needed a C-section. Within 10 minutes we were on our way, they weren't playing around.
I was wheeled to the operating room and felt like I was having an out of body experience. I don't remember kissing my mom and husband goodbye but I know I did. As I was waiting to be transferred over to the table I got scared and started to cry. The OB held my hand and said she would take good care of me and my baby. I was then transferred, prepped, and the cutting began. My hubby came in soon there after. He held my hand which helped me stay calm. Just before she was born I started vomiting again and feeling awful. They held her up briefly over the drape and I glanced up. She was beautiful but I was feeling so awful that it wasn't a big magical moment. Soon thereafter I heard them say, "She's still losing blood". I told the anesthesiologist I felt like I was passing out. She said my blood pressure was really low and she was giving me some medicine to correct it. I looked into her eyes and said, "Don't let me die". She promised she wouldn't. They brought the baby over at some point and I kissed her but I know this only from the pictures...I was fighting to stay conscious. I then vomited yet again and fell asleep/passed out. I woke up later as they were sewing me up. I asked if my baby was okay and they told me she was in the NICU. I am so thankful that I didn't ask for details and that they didn't bombard me with information. If I had known she was having problems I don't know how I would have handled it at that point.
I was wheeled back to my room for recovery and received several meds, had my epidural removed, and slept. At some point that evening Pipsqueak was brought to me and I got to hold her. She looked so good I don't think I even asked how she did immediately after the birth. Sometime later that night I got the full story. She wasn't breathing when she was born. She was completely floppy, was bluish all over, and made no noise. Her first Apgar was 2 (she only scored points for heart rate, got zeros for everything else) and the second was 6. Here is photo evidence -
Poor Baby!
They breathed for her with mask for one and half minutes, then placed her in an oxygen tank. The extreme floppiness is because she was "all magged out". Magnesium = bad evil drug. But no seizures so I guess it's all relative.
Getting the NICU spa treatments
Luckily she was a superstar. Off all oxygen within an hour or two, then satted 100% on room air from then on out. When she first attempted to breast feed she had a super strong suck reflex which is uncommon in premies. Her blood glucose stayed stable on a small IV drip throughout the 24 hours I was unable to breastfeed her. The only health hiccup we came across was some high bilirubin levels which was stabilized with 8 hours under the bili lights :
Her first tanning salon visit - note the cute shades!
They pushed formula supplementation to help lower her bilirubin more quickly and I adamantly refused. I had to fight several nurses and a pediatrician who all acted like I was a terrible mother but I knew my breast milk would be enough. And it was. Her level came down and we were discharged Sunday.
This week has been great. She eats well, poops all the time, and sleeps sometimes even! It is so not as hard as I thought it would be. We are all so in love it is ridiculous. Pipsqueak is super healthy, her pediatrician appointment today revealed that she is above her birth weight of 5lbs 12oz at 8 days old (usually happens about day 14) - Go Mom's titty milk!!! I am so proud. She has also already grown a quarter of an inch.
My blood pressures are still high but slowly coming down. I was on procardia for 2 days which was hideous, now back on labetalol. I am losing about 3 lbs a day and swelling is almost non existent. Hopefully everything will stabilize soon.
Thanks for all the prayers. When all was said and done it was a sucky, scary birth but worth every moment. She is our everything.
