The Labor Story, Part Three (just found this draft from 3 years ago)

K, so like, a year and a half has passed :p I'm still determined to get this whole story down for posterity though, so here goes a bit more while Cooper pulls on the laptop screen.

So, the doctor comes back in and begins trying to insert the Foley catheter. Oh, my LORD, did it ever hurt. I think I was pretty close to screaming, maybe I did even scream because the charge nurse, Zack, asked if I wanted 'something for the pain'. I said that I most assuredly did but I naively thought that he was talking about a couple of Tylenol or something. Instead about a minute later I was, like, 'whoooooaaa'...they had stuck Stadol into my IV drip. Stadol is the AWEsome. I jokingly said 'can you get this stuff on the street?' and I think Paul and Zack thought I was serious...out of it...but serious. The Stadol took not only my pain away but also all my concern. 'Whatever' was my new motto.

So the doctor tried a couple of times and eventually got the Foley catheter inserted and began the inflation process. So at this point I still had all the old stuff attached to me PLUS two different catheters in...FUN! I don't remember anymore the length of time that this part took but it seems to me that this part of the procedure progressed fairly quickly. I was told to lie back on my left side since my BP was spiking quite often but at some point that wasn't enough and my pressure was getting dangerously high. As I was lying there feeling tremendous I all of a sudden heard Zach speaking loudly into his phone calling for help, he kept saying we have a 'decel' in Room Whatever. I was so out of it and so unconcerned that I distinctly remember thinking 'why are they so bloody concerned about a battery?' In my head I heard them saying 'D Cell'. Our room was immediately flooded with medical personnel who were talking low and moving quickly. In retrospect I can't believe I wasn't panicked but the Stadol was so. damn. good, people.

A few moments later the crisis seemed to have passed and there were a row of doctors and nurses etc. standing at the foot of my bed. A doctor introduced herself to me (even in my state I like to be polite and, well, be liked so when she told her name I told her that it was a beautiful name...I remember that clearly) and started talking very earnestly. She (all of the doctors from the practice that I had been attending for 33 weeks were in the process of delivering babies...it was a full moon...so I got a stranger) she told me that every time I had a contraction the baby's heartbeat was decelerating to a dangerously low level. She talked and talked but I was so drugged up it just seemed like babbling. Finally I said 'are you trying to tell me that I need a C-Section?'

Vaguely Considering Beginning to Write Again

The Labor Story - Part 2

I've spent the last year reviewing the day of Cooper's birth in my head so that I could write it down accurately but it's starting to fade so I better get this down ASAP. Here's what happened:

So, I was all settled into my lovely hospital room. I had a thing on one of my left hand fingers to monitor my blood oxygenation, and an IV in my left arm. My right arm had a blood pressure cuff that measured my pressure every 15 minutes. My belly had two bands around it; one to measure my contractions and one to measure the baby's heartbeat. I was uncomfortable. The contractions were coming fairly frequently and they said that they were relatively strong but I could not feel them.

Before the IV was set up the nurse talked to me about what is going to be in it; it would be magnesium sulfate. She told me that this was absolutely necessary as my PIH (pregnancy induced hypertension) had become full blown preeclampsia and the magnesium would prevent seizures. The nurse let me know, though, that the magnesium drip was not a pleasant business. It would make me feel strange and she told me that it often makes moms-to-be very, very angry (oh good!). Also, it has a tendency to make the baby not want to eat after it is born...this would turn out to be a big problem later, although fortunately we did not know it yet.

So, once all of this is set up a doctor came in to see us and discuss what she felt that we should do. Rather than starting a Pitocin drip (I can't remember why) she wants to give me this tiny quarter of a white pill and put it in between my lip and gum. She instructed me how to do it and says 'put it in like men put in their chew, you know?' I said that I didn't and Paul had to explain to her that I'm from Canada so it was true, I had never seen anyone use chew before (I have now...GROSS). I put the little pill in my mouth and the doctor checked all of my lines and drips and bands and then suggested that Paul and I try to sleep for a while. There was a couch that folded out next to the bed and Paul said that it was remarkably comfortable. The staff at the hospital were fantastic and they brought us all the bedding and everything else that we could possibly want so we got as cozy as we could and tried to sleep.

Unfortunately, every 30 minutes or so I had to pee (since my IV was pumping massive quantities of liquid into me) and so I would have to wake Paul up and he would have to help me slide over to the bathroom with all of the contraptions stuck to me. After a couple of hours the doctor came back and checked me out - I was not dilated at all. She suggested that we repeat the whole procedure over again so I got another teeny pill and was told to try going to sleep again. By now my blood pressure was getting dangerously high, though, so I was also told to try and lie on my left side as much as possible. I could not imagine ever being more uncomfortable!

Two hours of the same passed and the doctor checked me again and this time I was dilated a whole centimeter. My contractions were apparently coming regularly but I often couldn't feel them at all. We repeated this entire process again and found that I was two centimeters dilated...none of us were happy with this, it clearly wasn't working.

Around this time, I believe it was, the doctor inserted a catheter into me. Have you ever had a catheter inserted? Good Lord it is painful. The doctor sat down with us and asked what we wanted to do since the little pills were not really working at all. She suggested that we begin a Pitocin drip but I was a bit stressed out. I was SO hungry and hadn't been allowed to eat or drink for around 12 hours now, also, not to be all TMI here but I had to poop and couldn't do it with all of the stuff attached to me. Finally, we came up with an idea. The doctor would take off all of my stuff and allow me 15 minutes to poop and take a quick shower. Then she would hook me back up only with the belly bands and blood pressure cuff so I could be a bit more comfortable while I ate a meal. She said that she would give me two hours after eating to relax and digest and then we would begin this business in earnest with the Pitocin drip.

The doctor told us that she would be back in a bit to unhook me but a few minutes later she came back and said that she had another idea. She said that she wanted to use a technique that isn't used very often but that she felt would be helpful in this case. She was going to insert a Foley catheter. I wasn't excited about another catheter procedure since the other one was so awful but she felt that it was our best option so I agreed. She said that it worked like this: She inserts a balloon into me and it slowly inflates, as it inflates it mimics the pressure of the baby's head on my cervix (since the baby wasn't doing it's job!) which should cause me to dilate and efface...basically fooling my body into thinking that the baby was trying to come down.

We did not know it at the time but this was going to be the beginning of the end...although in a very different way than we thought.

One

So, yeah, the kid is about to turn one so I guess I have no excuse not to blog anymore! In fact I've been itching to get back into it since I can't always cram Paul's ridiculous stories into the 400 or whatever characters that my Facebook status allows.

Paul is still at the same job. I got laid off from my job while on maternity leave and I'm still looking for a job that is right for me and will pay enough to cover daycare costs and still have a little left over. We had to send Smeagol off to live in a pug rescue in Nashville since her allergies had gotten to the point where she can now only eat kangaroo meat and we were unable to meet her needs. Apparently she is doing great at the rescue though and lives in a house with 5 other pugs (heaven, huh?) Waffles is still nervous and massive. Cooper is STUPID cute and just got a buzz cut in preparation for his first birthday and the long, hot summer ahead.

Hopefully I'll have more time to post from now on and I promise to post some pics of my cuties soon.

By the way, I've been trying to fix my template for over a year and was unsuccessful. However, I am typing this on a Mac and had no trouble fixing the template here. Go figure.

The Labor Story - Part I of ??

On June 8th I went to the OB/GYN for my 38 week appointment (although I was two days shy of 38 weeks). I was slightly nervous because my BP had been sporadically rather high, but it hadn't been too bad the last time so I wasn't feeling too bad. I went to an OB where there were numerous doctors and you didn't always get the one you wanted but that day I had made the appointment with Dr. M. who we LOVED. Dr. M was the one who guided us through our miscarriage, and then when we got pregnant again he guided us through my subchorionic hemorrhage and broke the news to us last year that I had to stay in bed and couldn't go to Canada. He was utterly kind and wonderful and a TERRIFIC doctor.

I had my ultrasound and blood draw and urine analysis and internal exam and then Dr. M. asked us to meet him in his office (which is what he does and was not ominous). We sat down and the doctor said 'what are you doing later tonight?' We knew what this mean - induction. I was not dilated at all and the baby had not dropped but he was an estimated 5 pounds 9 ounces and my blood pressure was sky high (I can't remember anymore how high...but scary). The doctor asked us a few questions and we asked a few back and I was scheduled to be induced at midnight that night. Dr. M. called to schedule the induction while we sat there and he used a lot of abbreviations that I didn't know but checked on the minute we got home. I was SGpositive (Strep G positive - not a big deal for mama, lots of people are Strep G positive, but a big deal for baby, I would need to be put on antibiotics to make sure that I didn't pass the virus on to Cooper), had PIH (pregnancy induced hypertension), and Cooper was SGA (small for gestational age).

We walked out of that office in a daze. We couldn't quite wrap our minds around what was going on. As we walked to the car we each pulled out our cell phones and called our respective jobs and mothers. Then I determined that since we were not going to have alone time for quite a while I wanted to go to Olive Garden for lunch. We did and I had apricot chicken and angel hair pasta with Alfredo sauce and it was very good!

After we got home I did some frantic hospital bag packing, arranged to take the dogs to a boarding kennel, tidied the house, made phone calls and then took a nap. While I did that Paul The Procrastinator went to the fire station and got help installing the car seat correctly. Fortunately I had preregistered for the hospital already so that was done. After all of that was said and done we took some pictures of my pregnant belly and then at around 10:30 we headed for the hospital.

I will spare you the pics in a sports bra so you do not have to see the approximately 40 stretch marks across my belly. Thanks Coopie!

We got the the hospital at around 11:30 and were told that we could wait in the 'family room'. We didn't expect the wait to be long but it was INTERMINABLE and we didn't get called in until after 1:30 am as I recall. In the meantime we had to listen to other people's obnoxious family members and, the television was set to FOX STINKIN' NEWS which caused me to become apoplectic with rage about every 15 minutes or so and start storming around the room leaving what was probably a palpable trail of ANNOYANCE in my wake. No one should have to sit in a room at 1 in the morning waiting to have a child and be stuck listening to Bill O'Reilly. Lord help me.

Eventually I was called in but Paul was told he had to wait. We thought that was odd but it turned out that they needed to ask me all sorts of questions like 'are you afraid to spend time alone with your husband' and 'are you afraid to go home after this with your husband'. I indicated that I was not and then had to answer about another hundred questions, give blood and pee, get into my gown, get a blood pressure cuff attached to my arm, an IV into the other arm and get the monitors attached to my belly. Finally another nurse came into our (very nice) room and announced that Paul was going to come in whether we were ready or not because he was about to knock down the door. I was really touched by that and Paul was in near panic mode when he finally got to come in because nobody had explained to him why he was not allowed in for the beginning. But, now we were settled in, had met our nurses and were ready to go.

Wow, that's unattractive. Toward the middle of my pregnancy the hormones kicked in and gave me GORGEOUS, smooth, perfect skin for a few months. Then in the last month or two new hormones kicked in that made my rosacea F-L-A-R-E like you would not believe. Oh, wait, you would, you can see it right there! And it is still just as bad now that the baby is 5+ months old! Whee!

Hi, I'm still alive. I'm working hard to catch up on everything including Facebook and this blog but it is slow going. Miss you all and I will try to write here at least sometimes.




Btw - Terry Wolf - I replied to your email and your email addy is no longer valid. Email me again, I would love to catch up!


Here are some grainy, uncropped pictures:

Super Duper Cooper

I seriously don't have the time or energy to post here but I wanted to say that Cooper was eight weeks old yesterday and he is doing fine. He was circumcised last week and promptly got a urinary tract infection so he is on antibiotics and they make his tummy feel yuck but other than that he is doing well. He sleeps a -bit- better by now and he is smiling at me a lot and lifting his head amazingly well. Here are some pics:

He had to get an ultrasound and looked awfully cute lying on the giant bed waiting for the technician...


A favorite picture of mine. He HATES the car but he actually fell asleep once so I snapped a pic that got both his milky little face and CRAZY STUPID ADORABLE feet.

His wrists are too small for the wrist rattles (although he is nine pounds now) so I tried them on his ankles. He was not a fan.

Busy looking like my dad.

Sorry the pics are all blurry... I can never force myself to go get my camera but the cell phone is always there so that's how the pics get taken.

Lord have mercy things are busy with a new baby. I just have five minutes here as Cooper is already stirring from his nap and I have not yet finished the bill paying which was on this naptimes to-do list but I wanted to let you all know that Cooper is doing fine. He is sleeping a bit better and so am I and I have a friend who has been helping me quite a bit and she adores Coopie so that helps a lot. We have been pathetic at taking pictures but as life is now beginning to settle in we will try hard to take more and then post some...I swear!

Oh, and he had his one month checkup (he was five weeks yesterday) and he is gaining weight nicely - 7 pounds 6 ounces - and is in the 5th percentile now (when he was born he was below the lowest percentile). Way to grow, Cooper!