The Birth Story- Part III-Delivery Day

I woke up at about 8am on the morning of the 18th and just laid in bed for about another hour, then I got up and took a shower. I noticed the nurse had written 'baby day!' on the whiteboard in my room, I thought that was cute. After my shower my nurse came in and put a new iv in, hooked me up the monitor one last time and got me all prepped for surgery. I also had another quick ultrasound done to make sure that the baby hadn't turned around, she hadn't. I had asked Michael to get to the hospital kind of early so that he could be there for everything, he ended up coming a little late, he said he had to do an errand really quick. I remember thinking 'what errand could possibly be more important than being on time for the birth of our first child?'. Well, later that afternoon he told me that he had taken Missy to the vet because of her hernia and he didn't want to tell me because he knew I would worry about her. So after that I forgave him for being late. :) Anyhow, about 1015am the anesthesiologist came in and asked me a few questions like had I ever been under anesthesia and how did I react, I told him about my previous surgeries and he had a couple more questions specifically about my back surgeries and then said he'd see me in the operating room. After that the nurse came in and said we were ready to go. Michael got all suited up in his scrubs and promptly posted a picture on Facebook that he was a doctor.We all walked down to the operating room which was just down the hall, at the doors they told Michael to wait there and that they would come get him once everything was ready to go. Once we got into the room I sat on the edge of the table so that the anesthesiologist could do the spinal. I could feel him behind me trying to get the needle and stuff into my back and he made the comment that he wasn't sure if he could get it around the scars from my back surgery. About this time Dr. Murphy came in and said "oh crap Steve (anesthesiologist) I completely forgot to mention all her back surgeries" and we all laughed. We talked for another minute or so with Dr. Murphy then I finally felt the poke and he said "now we got it" and my butt got all warm. They had me bring my legs up on the table and I laid down and they strapped my arms and legs down. Then they did the fun stuff like blood pressure cuffs, oxygen meters, and my favorite, the catheter. After a few minutes I was completely numb and ready to go. They brought Michael in and he sat up by head, I remember shivering because it was so freaking cold. I was feeling a little nauseous so he put some drugs in my iv and they worked perfect.

After that Dr. Murphy got started with the surgery and I could feel some pulls and tugs but for

the most part didn't feel much. About ten minutes later the anesthesiologist told Michael to get

the camera ready because we were going to have a baby in just a minute. Now prior to the surgery I had asked Dr. Murphy to announce what 'it' was, old school style, since we had no idea. I heard a little commotion and Dr. Murphy said the baby was out. As they were pulling down the screen so I could see I asked "What is it?" and Dr. Murphy held her up and said "Well, what do you think?" I saw her for the first time and got a big smile on my face and said "It's a girl!"

Michael took a couple of pictures and then sat back down by my head but I made him get back up and go over to where Avery was so he could get pictures of her getting cleaned off and all of that, he also cut the umbilical cord. And I was kind of left alone after that, Dr. Murphy was getting me stitched up and most everyone else was over taking care of the baby. The anesthesiologist asked what we were naming her, then Dr. Murphy said that the placenta and everything else looked good and it would just be a few more minutes until he was done, I asked him to go ahead and tuck things up while he was there but he wouldn't go for that. Then Michael walked over carrying Avery and I finally got my first good look at her, she was (is) so cute, with her chubby cheeks and perfect little lips. One of the nurses took our first family picture and then it was time to head back to our room.

They put her in my arms and wheeled us down the hall. Back in the room is when we finally got to see how much she weighed, 7.5lbs and how long she was, 21 inches. The nurse gave her a bath, got her footprints and also took some blood. That afternoon was spent just snuggling with our new baby.

Michaels brother, Rob, came down from Hood River and spent a couple hours with us that afternoon. Around 3 I finally had all the feeling back in my legs but no real pain. The nurses kept asking me if I wanted pain meds but I never ended up taking anything besides some Motrin and that was just because they kept bugging me about taking something. The first night was a little rough, Avery ended up throwing up all over me, it sounded like she was choking and I'll admit I panicked. This was about 2am and I hadn't slept since the previous night so they took her to the nursery for a couple hours but I still couldn't sleep because I'm a worrier. The next day was much better.

I got the catheter out, I was able to brush my teeth and shower and put my own clothes on. Dr. Murphy came in that afternoon to check on me and he asked if there was anything else they could do. I sarcastically said "let me go home" since I was going on Day 11 in the hospital and was ready to get out. He thought for a second and said that I could go home the next day. I was so excited and couldn't wait to get home and see the puppies and just relax in my own space.

The Birth Story- Part II

I spent the week and weekend trying to keep busy, but it was hard. I worked for the first week finishing up some stuff but started my leave that Friday, it was nice to be done with work for awhile. I read books, listened to music, started a cross stitch and Michael would come to visit every day. It was hard being away from home for that long when I knew home was only two miles away, I missed my puppies, too. My days went like this pretty much every day:

8am-wake up
9am-order breakfast
930am-get hooked up for a stress test, blood pressure check, take bp medication
11am-shower and blood sugar check
1pm-order lunch
3pm- get hooked up for a stress test, blood sugar check
6pm-order dinner
8pm-blood sugar check, Michael visits
9pm-get hooked up for a stress test, blood pressure medication
10pm-take Ambien, best stuff ever!!
3am-get hooked up for stress test

I really like the majority of the nurses, one in particular-Chris, was really cool. She would come in to my room just to talk and hang out for a minute. It was really nice since all the other times the only reason I would see a nurse was for a stress test, blood sugar or medication. I was a pretty easy patient so they left me alone the majority of the time. Sometimes 4 or 5 hours would pass before someone would come in my room again. Had I known how long they'd be gone I probably would have escaped for a few hours. By the end of the week and into the weekend I was getting REALLY bored, to the point where I just watched tv all day instead of doing anything productive, like keeping up with this blog. :) I was talking to one of the nurses one night about the puppies and she mentioned that they allowed dogs in the hospital as long as they got permission. So she brought me the form, I filled it out and that night Michael brought Petree to visit. It was so nice to see him, I wished they all could have come. Chris came back from her days off on Sunday and said that she was going to try to move me to a different, bigger room. The room they had me in was a pre-delivery room and she was going to try to move me to an actual labor and delivery room since it would probably be the next week when I'd have the baby. That afternoon I did move rooms and it was awesome, the room was at least 3 times bigger than my old one and it had a bathtub and a view of trees and a pond. Like I said, she was awesome.

That Sunday was also Michael and I's one year anniversary. I told him he was in charge of it since I couldn't do much from the hospital. He brought me flowers and picked up Outback for dinner. Definitely not the anniversary that I had planned prior to being in the hospital but it was still really nice and my room even had a small table and chairs so I was able to get out of bed and eat a real dinner. I didn't even think to take any pictures of our anniversary, oops. Oh well, we have pictures of us together on delivery day so that will have to do.

Monday came and Chris was my nurse again, she said she had requested to be my nurse for her shift, otherwise I think I saw a different nurse for every shift the entire time I was there. She was hoping that Dr. Murphy would try the version (turning the baby) that day so that she could be there to watch but he decided to do it on Tuesday instead. So Monday followed my usual schedule of waiting, waiting, waiting. Tuesday was the day of the version, I had a new IV placed and the ultrasound techs came in with their machine to monitor things. I decided against getting an epidural for the version, I'd already had a huge needle in my stomach, I didn't want one in my back, too. There was a slightly higher chance of success for the version with an epidural but I like to think I'm tough and can handle the pain. Dr. Murphy came in and we talked for a minute, he told me just to try to relax and remember to keep breathing. The ultrasound tech showed him where the head and feet were and we got started. Wow, it wasn't anything like I expected. He basically pushed his thumbs into my stomach on either side of the baby and tried moving it. It was a really weird feeling, mostly uncomfortable. I could feel the baby being moved around. At one point I thought he had gotten it because I felt a huge movement and it felt like it had flipped but he said he had gotten the baby turned about half way but then it decided to flip back to where it had been. It really didn't want to move it's fat head. He tried to turn it twice but neither time worked. He joked that if his thumbs recovered he'd be able to do surgery. I was surprised at how fast it went, it was done in probably less than 10 minutes. At that point it was clear that I'd have a cesarean. It was the 17th and Dr. Murphy really wanted me to get to 38 weeks which would have been the 19th so he said he'd go check the surgery schedule and let me know. Michael had come for the version so afterwards he went to Subway to get us lunch. I hadn't been able to eat or drink since midnight the night before so I was starving. When he got back we asked the nurse if Dr. Murphy had scheduled the surgery yet and she said "Oh, Thursday was all scheduled so I scheduled you for tomorrow at 10am." I was really glad that it was the next day, otherwise waiting a whole nother day would have lasted forever! So it was official, we were going to have a baby on May 18th! I sent out texts and messages to all our family and my sister joked that I should start getting my own dates. Michael and I got married on my brother-in-laws birthday and now our baby would be born on Colleen, my sisters birthday. I asked the nurse how long I would have to stay after the surgery (I was really ready to be home) and she said that it was typically a 3 day stay after a cesarean. Michael was still there and he got a slightly panicked look on his face and said "But the baby stays here too, right?" The nurse laughed and said 'yes, the baby stays as long as the mom stays'. Michael looked pretty relieved and said "Ok, good, I was envisioning myself home alone with 6 dogs and a new baby". At that point I assured him I wouldn't have let him take the baby home by himself anyways. :) The weather was beautiful that day so I remember staring outside a lot at the trees which finally had leaves and just thinking that at this time the next day there would be a baby in my arms, it was hard to imagine but I was so ready. I was bummed about having a cesarean but knew there wasn't a way around it so we'd make the best of it. I was really glad for the Ambien that night, I knew I wouldn't have been able to sleep otherwise and knew that it would probably be my last entire night of sleep for awhile. Michael told me the next morning that he couldn't sleep, that it was like being a kid on Christmas Eve, he was so excited. Next up, delivery day!

The Birth Story- Part I

**This story is probably going to take a couple posts and will probably be pretty boring to most people but I wanted to make sure I wrote everything down while I still remember the details.**

I guess I kind of jinxed myself with my post from April 20th where I said that everything had been pretty much great so far and that it could have been a lot worse. At that time I was having two appointments a week, one was a non-stress test and a regular OB appt and the second was just a non-stress test. It wasn't too bad, although she always seemed to be sleeping during the stress test so I would have to stay hooked up to the monitors longer than usual until she decided to move around enough to satisfy them. I was never worried about how she was doing, she moved around plenty the rest of the time! After one especially lengthy stress test my doctor sent me over to the hospital for a biophysical profile, which is basically a more extensive ultrasound where they measure the baby's breathing, heart beat and movement. Of course right after I left my doctors office she started moving around like crazy so it was no surprise when the ultrasound tech said everything looked perfect with her. At my appointment on April 29th my blood pressure was pretty elevated and there was protein in my urine so my doctor decided that the hospital was the best place for me to be. I was pretty bummed since there was still another month before she was due but I went home and let Michael know what was going on. I packed up not sure if I would be there for just a night or until the baby came. It turned out I was only there for one night, they monitored my blood pressure and I did a 24-hour urine test, which are a blast if you've never done one. For a 24-hour period you have to collect all of your urine in a big jug, yeah, lots of fun. They let me go home the next afternoon on bed rest, I was only supposed to be out of bed to grab something to eat, shower, or use the bathroom. That was really hard to do, I didn't feel bad or anything so I really wanted to get up and tackle my to do list. Instead I was able to work from home on my laptop, read and sleep a lot, pretty boring. I did get up a few times to actually cook and once I even went to the grocery store. Which probably didn't help my blood pressure because at my appointment a week later on Monday, May 9th my doctor decided to put me in the hospital for good until the baby came. My blood pressure was still high and when he came into the room where I was hooked up for the stress test I said "What do you say we get this baby turned around and get it out", he laughed and agreed that was probably the best option. He was debating on whether or not to induce me that Thursday (just a few days later) so we decided to do an amniocentesis which would allow them to test how developed the babies lungs were. I really wasn't thrilled with the thought of a long needle going into my stomach but I also didn't want the baby to have problems with it's lungs. The next morning the ultrasound techs came in with their machine and Dr. Murphy came in to do the amnio. The ultrasound techs checked to see where the baby was and where a good place for the needle was to make sure he got plenty of fluid. He went it just below my sternum and it honestly wasn't as bad as I anticipated. The needle wasn't the most comfortable thing but it really didn't hurt besides the initial poke. I just turned my head to side and looked at the wall until it was done. Afterwards I was a little clammy and nauseous but I think that's because I psyched myself out about and I was fine after 5 minutes or so. Dr. Murphy stopped back by that afternoon with the test results. They had done two tests, the first test result level was 20-something and he said they wanted a result over 40 which meant that the babies lungs weren't anywhere near ready, which is common in gestational diabetes pregnancies. The second test they did was a result of 50 and they wanted it to be over 55, so the second test showed that the babies lungs weren't nearly as immature, maybe. He said that since the two test were pretty contradictory that he recommended I do a round of steroids to help boost lung development in the baby. They gave me my first steroid shot shortly after and the nurse was nice enough to let me know that it was going to burn like hell. I'm glad she warned me because it really did hurt. They did the second one 24 hours later and it hurt just as bad. Because of this I didn't end up being induced on Thursday, the baby was still breach at this point so he still had to attempt to turn her. Friday came and Dr. Murphy said that since my blood pressures were still doing really good that he didn't feel the need to deliver the baby, he wanted to see me go as far as possible. I wanted this too, but I was getting really tired of the hospital and I was only on day 5. So he said that he would try turning the baby on Monday or Tuesday and we would go from there.