Thread: March 2008 Stories

Well, I'm finally getting around to writing Calleigh's birth story. It seems so long ago already!!

I had a scheduled dr appointment on March 25th, the day before my official due date. I was already feeling frustrated and uncomfortable. It seemed as though there was never any progress. So the doc checked me, and I was just barely 1cm. I couldn't believe it! I was almost about to start crying in the office. I mentioned that her movement had decreased alot and the doc went ahead and had me do a NST right then. Well, I was hooked up for a total of about 50min, and had only 8 movements. The doc looked over the results and decided that she didn't like the way Calleigh's heart rate wasn't responding to contractions, or movement, so she decided to go ahead and have me induced.

Off we went to the hospital. Checked in at around 12:30, pitocin was started around 1:30. I made it to 4cm before I asked for the epi. Which I got just in time to relax me so I could watch American Idol! Once the epi was in it was wonderful!! Although, the numbness in my feet did cause me to panic a little. Dh was great though and was massaging them. I started pushing around 10:30pm and pushed for 2hours. Thank God it was pain free!! I only needed a few stitches for a couple of tears. Dh and Mum were awesome with holding my legs and getting me ice, and cold clothes!

Calleigh's official debut was at 12:37am, March 26th,2008 - 8lbs 1oz, 21inches!

Since then my recovery has gone fairly well, I did have a bit of a problem with pain from back spasms, but once I broke down and started taking the pain meds it relaxed the muscles and the pain went away after a couple days.

On Wed afternoon (3/19) I was contracting, but nothing really painful. I started timing them at around 4pm and they were every 10 mins or so. They remained that way all night until I went to bed around 9. I figured they would stop just like they always did as soon as I went to sleep.

So around 12:30 am (3/20.. my due date! haha) I kinda woke up from my sleep cause I felt a little gush. Nothing big.. but like I had maybe just peed a little. But I've had great bladder control this whole pregnancy so something seemed odd. I went to the bathroom and had another little gush, this one I couldn't stop the flow of. So I knew my water had broken. I waited for a while and then my friend Bobbi and I headed to L& D around 1:40.

I was doing great until my contractions started coming one on top of the other around 4:30. At that point I couldn’t handle it anymore and asked for drugs lol. I had to wait over an hour (and yes I was NOT a happy girl at this point) and finally got my epidural at 5:30ish.

Around 10am I felt a strong urge to push, so they checked me and gave me the option to wait a bit or start trying to push. I decided to wait for her head to come down a little more since Alyssa had gotten stuck and I didn’t want to push for 3 hours again lol. I started pushing around 10:30 or so and she was born at 11:09am weighing 7lbs 12 oz and 20 inches long.

We left the hospital at around 8pm that night and have been home doing well ever since. (I’m just not a hospital person lol)

Nursing is going awesome. My milk came in yesterday so I’m pumping a little to relieve some of the pressure. But Aria nurses like a champ. We’ve had no issues. And lucky for me she seems to have night and day pretty well figured out already. She’s just an awesome baby

It’s so hard to describe how precious she is to me. I was really worried about how I would be able to love 2 kids as much as I love Alyssa… and so far it’s not been an issue. I am in awe of it all really.

Aria Lynn
born 03/20/08 at 11:09 am
7 lbs 12 oz
20 inches long
born at 40 weeks

Due to edema, headaches, dropping protein and potential blood pressure issues my doctor decided to induce me just past 39 weeks. We were scheduled to arrive at the hospital at 8:30am on Thursday April 3. Once we got settled in the nurse started my IV and the pitocin drip was started around 11:30am. At 12:45 in the afternoon my doctor arrived to check me and decided to break my water in hopes of getting everything to move a little faster. I wasn't dialating or effacing much yet. At 1:15 I started to feel my contractions.

I was doing pretty good and laughing through each contraction but decided to get an epidural around 4:00pm. Alex gave us a good scare around 5:00pm - my nurse was doing my normal check and two other nurses walked in, followed by the floor doctor and about 4 other nurses. They gave me oxygen and told me to roll over to my right side (I was on my left). A few moments later they told me to get on my knees and elbows while the doctor kept massaging my stomach. I heard them asking where my doctor was and I started to mentally prepare myself for a c-section. I was crying and holding onto DH's hand for dear life. Evidently Alex's cord got compressed and his heartrate dropped to 60. After massaging me they were able to get him to move a little and his heart rate came back up. I was left on oxygen for another 2 hours.

After that it went pretty smoothly. Around 1:00am the nurse checked me and said she was going to call my doctor who arrived at 1:35am. I started pushing at 1:45am and after 4 pushes and a small episiotomy I was told to open my eyes and look down and I got to see Alexander making his intro into the world. DH was awed by everything and is one of the proudest dad's I have ever seen.

Although his cord was around his neck when he was born he is a healthy and pretty happy little man. He has taken to BFing pretty well although we have to supplement with formula due to a drop in his birth weight. He was sent home with a phototherapy bed due to higher jaundice levels, which are dropping.

Alexander Mitchell
4/4/08 1:55am
8lbs 2oz
20.5 inches

On March 4, I had an appoinment for an ultrasound, (actually a biophysical profile, but it was an US to me), to check growth etc. As some of you know I have had countless ultrasounds during this pregnancy due to my previous loss. I told the tech that I really wanted a pic of the baby's face, since he would never show us, and the closest we had was a profile shot from very early on. Well, lo and behold, the little stinker cooperated! We got to see him head on, and sucking his thumb. It was too cute! DH commented that it would be really funny if we waited til now to get a pic of his face and then he was born today anyway. I agreed that would be about standard for us, lol. Before I left the OB's office I let the nurse know that my headache was particularly bad and that I hadn't been able to relieve it for a few days. They checked my blood pressure, which was elevated, like it had been for the last month or so. This time, though, I got sent to the hospital for monitoring. They kept an eye on my BP and gave me some meds for headache which didn't help at all. The nurses kept telling me that they were pretty sure my OB was going to have the hospital keep me. I told them to stop teasing me, because we'd been there for monitoring probably 5 or 6 times by then and I just wanted my son to be born already! I had been having contractions for weeks, they would get strong and regular, then back off...it was nerve-wracking! At the hospital that day they said I was having regular contractions but they didn't know if I was progressing or not. I was 3cm and 50% effaced when I arrived. Eventually, the on-call Dr. came in and asked me if I thought it was a good day for a birthday. We were thrilled! She said she didn't see the point in giving me stronger meds to counteract my headache when they would make me miserably sick. She said giving birth was probably the best course of action.
So, at 3:30pm on March 4th, they hooked me up to pitocin. (Took 5 tries to get an IV going-I STILL have bruises!) At 4:30pm, they broke my water. I was still 3cm but now 80% effaced. I was trying to hold off on the epidural until I couldn't any longer. They offered me meds in my IV and I consented at about 6:45pm. They gave me Stadol. I despised that med! It made me forget I was having contractions, so it became very difficult to stay on top of them and breathe through them like I had been doing before. I would relax a bit and feel sort of drunk, then WHAM a contraction would hit and I'd feel blindsided. I couldn't wait for it to wear off.
At 8pm I was 5cm dilated and went ahead and asked for the epidural. At that point, I felt like I was doing ok, but I was afraid it would take awhile for the anesthesiologist to get there and I didn't want to wait until it was unbearable. Well, while we waited for him to arrive, baby's heartrate dropped, as did my blood pressure. They put internal monitors in and had me change positions. When the Dr arrived to insert the epi, I was at 7-8cm. They finally got it in, after 4 tries, and I went numb from the chest down. They checked me again and said I was complete, and got me into position to push. I couldn't feel anything.
They told me that the baby's heartrate was falling and that he was not responding when the OB tried to stimulate his scalp manually. I tried to push as hard as I could, but I couldn't feel a thing, so I was worried I wasn't doing well. As his head began to emerge, the OB grabbed him around the forehaed and pulled him out with her hands. His cord was too tightly wrapped around his neck to dislodge, so they did a preliminary clamp and cut before DH got to cut it. Dax was purple but pinked up quickly and needed no special care. He roomed in with us for the two days we stayed. They even brought a bed in for our daughter to sleep in the room with us too!
Dax Jeffrey was born on March 4, 2008 at 10:04pm. He weighed 7lb 12.8oz and was 19 inches long. He has quite a bit of dark hair. We are in love with him!
Pics coming soon!

Patrick James was born at 4:46 AM, Tuesday, April 1st - 7lbs 10 ozs - after an amazing 43 hours of labour, and 1 hr pushing.

Was induced at 10:30 am on Sunday, already contracting every 6 min. Was allowed to go home to continue labour.

Went in Sunday night around 11pm, ctx every 2 - but they weren't strong enough to change anything but effacement (now 50%)- given morphine and discharged - morphine had the effect I had dreaded it would and sent me spiraling into cramps along with the ctx which then hurt even more.

Managed a weak 1 1/2 hours of sleep and ctx spaced out to about 5 minutes apart. Came back to the hospital at 10:30 on Monday to what I thought would be a simple removal and replacement of my Cervidel – NOPE! I hadn’t eaten since 9pm Sunday, we had planned to go out after the placement – NOPE! My ctx were literally reading off the chart, and my OB thought it best to break my water since I was a week and a half overdue. I agreed – and at 2:20 pm my water was uncomfortably broken – and out came the meconium. Lots and LOTS of it.

I really loved, loved, loved the nurses at the hospital – I was stuck on the monitor for most of the time– ‘fraid I didn’t ever get to doing much walking around, I spent every monitor-free moment in the shower since my only pain relief option was the epi and I wanted to wait as long as I could on that. After the third shower I was put back on the monitor and his heartrate was dropping a little bit right after the peaks of my ctx, so the shower was now gone, and I was stuck being on the monitor from then on.

We had been told at the prenatal classes that epis weren’t given until 5 cm – to assure that labour was fully established and wouldn’t conk out, if you will. However the ctx were so close that I never seemed to have a break, and my coping was starting to fail. I was one of “those” moms, the ones who tell their significant others “I can’t do this.” I don’t know how we expect to get out of it! Hubby was such a great support, telling me I already was “doing it, and doing it great” and at the same time fully supportive when I decided to go for the epi. The nurses were very hesitant, but then the resident came in to check on me, saw my ctx and how I was coping – “just give it to her, she’s been through enough and needs to rest.” I love that woman.

The anesthetist was just finishing a surgery and should’ve been in within 10 minutes, so said my charge nurse. 10 minutes came and went, then 20, then 30, and the nurse returned to check on me – assuming that the epi would’ve kicked in fully by then – only he never showed! Another nurse had mentioned he went to another room instead – and when I relayed said message to the charge nurse she immediately said “I’ll be right back, I’m going to take care of this!”

He was in in 5 minutes.

Unfortunately the epi was not – every time I would either still feel the needle or I got massive shooting pains in my right hip – 5 or 6 tries later he was quite frustrated and had another doc come in. He explained to him that he just couldn’t figure it out and he was doing everything perfectly and I must’ve been moving wrong or not been even or something. New doc gave it a go – same thing happened. “It looks like we’re scraping your bone” he tells me – and that they’ll have to maneuver around it, but it should be possible. (Oh thank heaven!) But, it might take a few tries. (No!!) And it did, I actually lost track of how many times – I just know it was enough that the new guy asked if I wanted a break or if he should give it another go – twice. My thoughts were that the pain was only going to get worse until it worked – and it’d just get harder to stay still – Keep going! First try after he asked the second time – it was in!! RELIEF! Even the cold sensation of the meds just going in was absolute heaven.

20 minutes later I was still shaking (had been since admission), and the nurse swaddled me in blankets, and brought a cot for James – we both managed a good snooze for about 2 hours. I woke to intense pressure to have a bowel movement and the nurse and I talked for a few minutes before deciding to check me – thinking it’d been only 3 hours since I was checked and still at 3-4 cm. Hubby woke just as she was pulling up the covers. “You’re at 7!” Not quite there, but after over 35 hours to make 3 cm in 2 hrs was fantastic news.

We started to talk, and I told James I had dreamt that I had had a c-sec and my baby was dead and all I could do was shout at them to give me my baby. He almost cried with me. It became better though, and we were able to talk without the pain interrupting us so much.

From then on it became a battle of wills – me vs. my body – to push or not to push. And slowly the pain started up again – my *** was frozen solid from the epi, and yet I was feeling everything “there” and my legs were working just fine. Another hour went by, and the nurse was permanently in my room monitoring me, and helping with my breathing from a distance, letting me focus on James as much as I could – he breathed with me, held my hand, told me how great I was doing – even brushed my hair for me. After the hour had passed I was literally repeating “don’t push, don’t push, don’t push” and starting to fail at it – my body was winning. Again, the nurse thought it was too soon, but I was insistent that I was not going to be able to hold out much longer. Lifted my blankets off – said “well, that’s a lot of show!” Checked, and I was at 9 ½!!!

So close! I was at this point only able to not push for about half the urge, and the pressure pains were as bad as the ctx I had been having. She offered to try to push the rest of my cervix out of the way while I attempted a push – to which there was wholehearted agreement. We tried, and I felt his head shift down – and so did she – I was now at station 0/+1 and ready to push. I asked if I could try to get up and squat – which she was hesitant about given the epi and I shouldn’t have too much control over my legs, but she was willing to let me try – and was thoroughly impressed when I was up and made it through 4 series of pushes before wanting to rest on my knees. I squatted, leaned against the top of the bed, kneeled on my hands and knees, and yes, pushed on my back when my legs needed a break.

It felt like he was stuck, I was so sure of it – but the first two times she checked me and said “definitely not”, and after that, she didn’t even need to check – she could see his head! I could feel him move forward and then slide back with each push. She offered to let James look – which I shouted a thorough NO to, (to her amusement) and again when she offered me a mirror – I did not want to see, I could feel enough, thank you! I later found out she had been trying to encourage him to look – my eyes were closed for concentration most of the time. I was so happy he didn’t, that was just a thing I did not want.

30 minutes in she decided to check again, lifting my gown up a bit, and told me to go ahead and slow down a bit – to give Nicu a chance to get there in time. “Amanda, he’s not stuck, not by a long shot!” That was probably the hardest part of the entire labour and delivery. Soon everyone had arrived, and my room was buzzing with people – 3 nurses, 1 resident, 2 NICU nurses, and my attending. 3 pushes later I was told to give a very, very gentle push – um, hard much. His head was out, not that I could tell – then he came out. It felt like he did a somersault! Shouts of “It’s a BOY!” were given, and he was given to the NICU nurses – still no cry, and he was soaked in meconium. James later told me the cord had been around his neck, he saw when Patrick came out and was lifted up. My eyes shut, hard. I was so tired, all I wanted was to go ahead and pass out right then and there. I fought to stay awake, and ask if my baby was alright. A minute or so later I had another urge to push and my placenta was out.

A scream. The most amazing scream I’ve ever heard. I let my eyes close again, tears were forming and a huge smile went across my face. I looked at James, and told him I loved him. A couple minutes later they offered James a chance to see his son, and he went over. Then they gave him to me:



All the rooms were full, so we were put into one of the overflow rooms, which meant that James wasn't able to stay with us. So he went with Patrick for his first bath while I got cleaned up and tried to rest a bit.

After 2 hours of sleep, which was sadly all I'd get for the next 2 nights:



With his Daddy (my favourite):



Being held by Grandma:



A few minutes before we left the hospital, my doc offered me an extra day, but I really missed home and hubby:



In his carseat, VROOM, VROOM, let's go mommy! There's too many nurses here and a very loud woman across the curtain!



April 4th, after a nice solid feeding:

On Wednesday, March 12, 2008, we were scheduled to start the induction at 6 pm. They called earlier in the day, and asked us to come in at 4:30. We got there, checked in, ordered dinner, and got all of the preliminary things done. At 7 pm, she inserted the Cervadil. at 10 pm, she checked me, and I had began to dilate unexpectedly, so she took out the gel. At 11 pm, my water broke. Around midnight, there were some decelerations in Basia's heart rate, so they put me on oxygen and started an iv. A few minutes later, everything was fine. They told me that the contractions weren't strong enough to be labor. They were!! After 20 minutes of pushing, Barbara Jane was born at 2:24 AM with no pain meds! She was 6 Lbs, 8 ozs, 18 1/2 inches long and perfect!!

Thanks for adding Aybra!! I will edit this later to add my birth story (I still have to type it out)

Zora’s Birth Story
On Wednesday, March 27th I decided to check my blood pressure at the grocery store since it had been running borderline high for a few weeks and my doctor had asked me to monitor it a bit. It turned out to be 150/100. I went straight home and called the doctor’s office. Since it was already almost late afternoon, she asked me to go to Labor and Delivery to retake the BP, do an NST and check labs and urine protein levels. She also asked me to pack my hospital bags just in case. My BP was borderline, the NST great and no protein was found. So we thought, ok, false alarm, let’s go home. Nope. Turns out my liver enzymes were elevated, which can also be a part of preeclampsia. They weren’t terribly high, but the doctor was concerned that they might rise more unpredictably and that would indicate severe preeclampsia. In short, she decided that inducing me at 39 weeks was preferable to having PIH develop into preeclampsia all the sudden. Dh and I felt a bit overwhelmed at this point because I had been planning on going through birth naturally, but facing an induction definitely didn’t look favorable for a non-medicated birth.
So, we realized we hadn’t packed our bags for no reason. Before moving me to my delivery suite the doctor inserted a foley catheter to dilate the cervix. That really hurt. She explained doing it the mechanical way vs. using Cervadil or other drugs is considered safer at this hospital.
I was then brought to my own room (pretty nice, actually). I felt pretty overwhelmed at this time since this was not at all what I had expected.
Around 8 pm or so, the nurse started the pitocin drip. We started at a very low level and didn’t increase past 5 units the entire time. From what I gathered, the hospital feels that doing it the slow way is more akin to labor (and I’m thankful for that. Yet all night long I was having contractions that were much too close together, so the nurse had to keep reducing and increasing the drip. I actually couldn’t feel the contractions at all, the cramping from the foley was much worse (luckily it didn’t last beyond a few hours).
At 7am my doctor came in to check for dilation. We didn’t think I’d have progressed very much due to the low pitocin level and me not feeling any contractions, but surprisingly enough I was at a 4-5. My spirits really improved at that point. The foley was removed and we just kept the pitocin drip. The doctor also broke my water.
For the next 5 hours, labor slowly but surely became noticeable and then actually a bit painful, but nothing I couldn’t work through. The nurses commented how I was coping really well for being 5 cm dilated and that I shouldn’t have any problems. Wrong.
Around noon, we checked again for progress, anticipating that now that I was actually having painful contractions, something surely must have happened. Nope, turns out I was still at a 4-5. That was somewhat discouraging. The contractions became stronger and stronger all the sudden and were mostly in the back. Over the next half hour to hour, I was in excruciating pain from back labor. The nurses tried a few different positions with me to decrease the pain and to turn the baby, but it didn’t work and I could barely take it.
Finally I told my husband that this wasn’t going to work. This amount of pain due to the back labor and no progression after 5 hours really left me frustrated and in agony. So, even though I had planned on a natural birth, I decided to ask for drugs. Dh asked me a few times if that was really what I wanted (we had agreed beforehand that he would do that to make sure I wouldn’t do anything I’d regret later on).
I first received Fentanyl, and it left me really loopy with very little pain control to speak of. I quickly decided that what I really wanted at that point was an epidural. Luckily, the nurses were able to get the anesthesiologist within 15 minutes. I was soooo happy once the epidural kicked in.
They decided to let me rest for a couple hours, since I was still really tired from the lack of sleep the previous night. After that, they once again checked my progress. Well, all the sudden I had progressed to an 8! We decided to give it another couple hours and then hopefully start pushing. I was happy just to lay there and relax for a bit.
Two hours later, I was ready to push. Pushing itself took 3 hours and various positions, again to try to get baby to turn to a more favorable position (and it worked!). Finally, at 7.41 pm, Zora was born at 9 lbs even and 21 1/4 “ long. Even though we were really careful, I ended up tearing straight back and needed 4 stitches.
I was also bleeding a lot, and one nurse and the doctor spent what seemed like forever punching my uterus –it really hurt despite the epidural. They were pretty concerned that I would start hemorrhaging and it sounded like I barely did not. Dh left the room at this point for the first time, he had a very hard time dealing with the amount of blood. I received some drug (forgot the name) to stop the bleeding. I guess it worked somewhat, but I was heavily bleeding throughout the night (blood gushing everywhere, as soon as I moved …), so much so that the nurse ended up calling the doctor at home for further instructions. We ended up increasing the pitocin again and the bleeding slowly went down over the course of the next day.
Overall I am actually very happy with Zora’s birth, even though it didn’t go according to plan. No, I didn’t want to use any drugs going in, but the combination of back labor, no progress and being so tired just didn’t work in my favor and I don’t regret the epidural one bit. I’ll try again going natural next time though. I was really lucky to have such a great team. Dh was very supportive, and I had a great team of very experienced nurses (and I didn’t have to share nurses with anyone, they were with me 24/7) and my doctor.

Edelyn "Aybra" Morgen

Thursday March 20th 2008 started as most other days had started. I did notice some extra discharge but just assumed it was the typical pregnancy junk, afterall I was 25 weeks to the day and knew that the discharge was going to be coming soon. I made a trip to the store to pick up some groceries and upon coming home started nesting. I had some back cramps the whole day but I assumed I had just overdone myself so I decided to take a nice long bath. That helped to "wash away" the discharge and ease things with my back. I went to bed feeling much better than I had during the day.

On the 21st things were going great. I had to wear a pantyliner most of the day because the discharge was back with a vengence. I really thought that I had a yeast infection. So, back to the bath I went... I washed up and then started sewing my first diaper on the sewing machine while I waited for Alos nurse Verda to come.. I was finishing the diaper right when she came. I gave her report then around 10pm headed into the living room to sit with Fallon.

We sat beside each other on the loveseat watching funny videos on youtube (one of our favourite pasttimes). Around 11:00pm I had to use the bathroom so I got up and went tinkle, came and sat back down to continue with the youtube funnies About 10 minutes later I felt the need to use the bathroom again. As I was standing up I felt a trickle of fluid and thought I was urinating on myself. I started walking to the bathroom and just stopped in my tracks not even 5 feet away. I was pouring fluid down my legs. I knew then that it was not urine. My water had definitely broken. I grabbed my crotch thinking it would really help it and told my sister that my water broke. I dont know how she reacted like she did but she jumped up, grabbed the telephone from Alos room and called 911. While she was on the phone with them she was looking around for a blanket for me to lay on in the floor so I wouldnt soak the floor. I asked her to find me a waterproof blanket (I had a specific wool blanket in mind but forgot that I had placed it in the washer that day).

She found no blanket but grabbed me a puppy training pad (like a chux pad). I layed on it in the floor while she was on the phone with 911. The entire time I was laying down I felt fluid just gushing out. When my water intially broke I did not even bother to change my clothes. As I was on the floor I started to feel some contractions. I started praying to myself "Please do not let this baby come right now. Please let me make it to the hospital."

About 10 or so minutes after the 911 call the fire department arrived. 3 fire fighters came into the house. The first one that walked in asked me what was going on. I told him my water had broken and he asked me why I had not had the baby yet. He was joking but I was very upset with his joke. My sister told him that I was only 25 weeks pregnant and he simply said Oh. The second firefighter started taking my vitals and the 3rd was just kind of watching everything. He seemed the be the "lookout" and kept going outside to wait on the ambulance.

The ambulance took a bit longer to arrive. Im sure it felt like much longer than it actually was. When they got to the house they brought in a stretcher and I got onto it. I was a little embarassed when I stood up because my pants were soaked and with every little step I could feel more fluid coming out.

I got into the ambulance and it seemed to take forever for them to leave the driveway. In reality it was probably just a few minutes before we started making our way to the hospital. Before that though they took my vitals again. I was pretty scared and nervous. My blood pressure was as high as it has ever been. It was 123/76.

The paramedic in the back of the ambulance with me was a guy and he was telling me all about his day and the calls he had been on. I must say he had a very interesting day and I laughed almost the entire way to the hospital.
When we got to the hospital I was taken straight to a Labour and Delivery room. It just so happened to be the exact same room that I delivered Alo in. It really brought back memories.

I got up off of the stretcher... More fluid leaked out... made my way to the bed, got undressed and into a hospital gown. Im normally not a fan of them in the least but it was a tad bit refreshing to get out of my soaked clothes and into something dry.

As I was getting into the bed the nurse that was going to be taking care of me used an amnisure strip, swiped it across my clothes and confirmed what I already knew. She said "You have definitely ruptured" as if it was not obvious enough from the amount of fluid on my clothes.

I was checked for dilation and was still the same 2cm I had been since around 15 weeks but I was now 60% effaced. I was hooked up to the monitors and was told I would be given an IV for mag and antibiotics and some steroids. I was very anxious to receive the mag despite the problem I knew it came with. It took almost 2 hours from the time I arrived for them to put in the IV, start the mag and administer the steroids.

Throughout the night I was very uncomfortable. On admission I was put into the trendelenburg position and was unable to move. I was having contractions every few minutes but could not get comfortable with them. I had started bleeding and was continuing to leak fluid.

The next day (the 22nd) things were still the same.. Contractions every few minutes and no way of getting comfortable. The mag was slowly increased throughout the day and I was given procardia to help stop the contractions.

What happened next was kind of a blur. The 23rd I remember my sister brining Alo to the hospital but I was so out of it from the mag that I could not even turn myself over in the bed. The contractions had slowed down but the mag was really taking a toll on me and wearing me out. My blood pressure was dropping really low (70/30's - 60/20's etc) so the procardia was stopped. My contractions had completely stopped by this time so they slowly started weaning the mag. On Monday the 24th I was moved out of the L&D room and into a room on the antepartum unit...It was the exact same room that I had been in only 2 weeks before. I was to remain in this room until my baby was delivered.

As I was being moved I just kept thinking to myself that things were going to change and I would be moved back into the L&D room but things seemed to be holding steady. When I got into the room and settled I rang for the nurses so I could use the restroom. One came in, unhooked all of my machines and told me I could get up to use the restroom... *SHOCK* I was not expecting that. I had been using the bedpan so I assumed I would continue using it. Needless to say I was pleased that I was able to use the restroom on my own but a little worried for my baby.

Anyway, on my way to the restroom I felt fluid running down my legs. When I got into the restroom I was turning around to close the door and noticed a puddle of blood on the floor. I thought to myself "Here we go" but nothing happened. I continued to bleed off and on, heavily then not heavily for the next few days.

Every few days I received ultrasounds and Biophysical Profiles. Twice a day I had to do NST's. The baby seemed to be tolerating everything well. My WBC was being monitored every day. It fluctuated but nothing too majour. I was still on the antibiotics so they just kept watching the WBC.

On the 29th I started having decreased fetal movement. It continued on to the 30th. A BPP was repeated and the score was lower than what it had been. The doctor wanted to wait the day out and see what the next day brought. I was expecting things to change and the baby to do better, but the baby only got worse. The heartrate started dropping and I still felt very little movement. The BPP was repeated on the 31st and the numbers were no better.

The decision was made to deliver the baby that day only 26 weeks and 4 days along. I had a very hard time with this choice because it meant a c-section, but I agreed because it was what my baby needed.

I called my sister to let her know but I could not get her to answer the phone. I called Courtney and asked him to call my mother and have her call me at the hospital. She called me and I let her know what was going on. I continued to call my sister for about 40 minutes when she finally came into the room. She had been on her way up to the hospital to surprise me and had no clue that the decision had been made to deliver that day.

The neonatologist came to speak to me about my care plan.. He gave me hell for some of the things on it but quickly realised that I was serious with everything in it and he backed down. He knew that I was not going to change my mind on some things.
The NICU nurse that had taken care of Alo when he was born came to speak to me as well as a whole slew of other people, mostly NICU related.

The anesthesiologist came to speak to me about epidural and spinal options.
Everything was falling into place for a smooth c-section delivery.
We were given a time of around 5.30 - 6pm but as things would go the doctor had to do a delivery at another hospital so we got stuck waiting. While I was in no rush to get my baby out I was anxious to get things over with. Around 7pm I was taken into the operating room. The spinal/epidural was put in and I layed back.. I was prepped for surgery then Fallon and Eden were allowed into the operating room. In my birth plan I had requested that if a c-section be needed that I be allowed to watch the entire thing, or for somebody to tell me everything that was going on as it occured and for the curtain to be dropped as my baby was being delivered so I could see it happen. Luckily they agreed to the first. I was allowed to watch the entire surgery and no drape or curtain was ever put up. I was positioned under a mirror. Fallon and Eden got to sit at the head of the bed and they could see everything as well.

Things were going great... then I heard the doctor say "footling breech". No big deal I thought.. Babies are delivered breech c-section all of the time... But this was not expected. The ultrasound earlier that day had shown the baby head down. The incision was not cut big enough for the doctor to deliver the baby breech. I was informed that the doctor was now doing a "T" on my uterus. My heart sank. I knew this was not good. The doctor just casually told me that because of the "T" I would never be able to have another vaginal delivery and that all future babies would have to be c-section. My mind was made up right then that there would be no more future babies. I would not have another c-section. I did not even want the one that I was in the middle of.

The doctor continue to cut away to try and free the baby. After a few minutes that seemed like many more the baby was delivered (8.28pm) and handed off to the awaiting NICU team. I heard little cries. My baby was breathing. I lay on the table trying to listen to every little cry I could... Then the cries stopped. My baby was intubated. This is when I overheard the neonatologist say "She" this and "she" that giving my doctor reports on how my baby was doing... My baby girl... I had a girl.. I was happy about that but very sad that they announced it without letting me find out on my own. I was very specific with that in my birth plan that nobody was to mention the gender until I found out on my own. Signs were hung in the OR and everybody was told... Apparently everybody but the neonatologist.

Around this time I was starting to feel a lot of pain as the medicines were starting to wear off and the doctor was still working on delivering my placenta which ended up being another problem as I placenta accreta and it was not detected with any of my ultrasounds. The problems did not stop there. My placenta was in pieces as it came out. Parts of it had literally dried up inside of me. No wonder my baby was having problems!

I started to somewhat dose off from the pain medicine they had given me. As I was falling asleep my sats started dropping so I was startled awake by the nurse telling me to take deep breaths. The doctor was still working on the placenta at this time and I was still feeling pain. The nurse that was helping the doctor asked me if I wanted to find out the gender before the baby was taken away.. I told her no that I had overheard the doctor mention it and then I started crying. One small thing that I wanted control of was taken away from. It was a minor thing compared to everything else but to me it was HUGE.

My baby was then walked around to me so I could tell her bye as she was being taken to the NICU. I could not see her face at all. The only thing I saw was the ET tube.
The doctor had removed as much placenta as he could and was just starting on sewing my uterus up so it was going to be a while still before I could get an even better look at her. About 30 minutes later he was finally finished and I was taken into a recovery room where I was made to wait about an hour before I was wheeled on a stretched into the NICU to see my girl.

She was perfect. The nurses assured me that she did not have spina bifida and that she was doing well. She was placed on a ventilator, given umbillical lines and a blood transfusion, all things very common with preemies.

Her weight was stated as 885 grams - 1# 9oz but turned out to be wrong. She *was* 885 grams but it translates differently. She was 14 inches long. After seeing her, making sure she was ok and getting the vital stats I had to be wheeled into my new post partum room so I could rest and recover from the most horrible c-section ever.

The entire c-section took about 1.5 hours. During the c-section I lost a bit of blood and a few days later had to have an iron infusion before going home from the hospital. A few hours short of being 2 weeks exactly from the time I went into the hospital I was released. I was so happy to finally be going home but the worst was yet to come. I had to leave my baby at the hospital knowing it would be months before I could take her home.



People who helped welcomed baby Edelyn "Aybra" Morgen:
Mother - Khourtniey
Father - Eden
Auntie - Fallon
Grandmother - Debbie
Uncle - Courtney
Brother - Aloshua


After a few days big brother Kaia and Grandpa Jerry got to welcome Aybra earthside.

I just noticed Liam's birthday is listed as the 8th. He was born on the 18th. I am going to check and make sure I didn't mis type it in his birth story. Sorry and thanks.