All's Well That Ends Well

Mitch and I had known for some time when our precious third little one would be arriving. We scheduled the induction at our appointment on June 11th, but elected to keep the date to ourselves. We like the element of surprise and of course didn't want anyone to worry without reason. We knew that it would most likely be a lengthy process. At my appointment on June 18th, the doctor said I was 1.5 cm dilated and 50 effaced, but my cervix was still high and firm. But progress is progress, and we were ready to give a second VBAC a shot. We checked into St. Mary's around 2:00 PM on Wednesday June 20th. Dr. Morisetty thought that he would be at the hospital between 4 and 5 to get things started, but he got held up at his office and made it to St. Mary's around 6:30. At 6:40 we were getting started. The plan was to use the foley bulb induction method again, since I had had a successful VBAC with Kiersten that way. By 6:45 PM the bulb was in place and the clock started.

Things started off very smoothly, for the first few hours I was comfortable and up walking the halls, but it didn't take long for the contractions to kick in. Shortly after midnight they started getting really uncomfortable. The plan was to give me a dose of nubain/stadol so I could get some sleep, but nubain is apparently in the midst of a worldwide shortage, who knew, right? So, no nubain for me. Instead they offered me Dilaudid. I took it orally around 1 AM, but after an hour had no relief. So around 2 AM they gave it to me in my IV. Again, I didn't have much luck with it but it took the edge off just enough that I was able to rest between contractions which were 5-6 minutes apart and lasting 60-80 seconds.

Around 6:45 AM, the nurse came in to remove my foley bulb...sweet relief!!! When they checked me I was between 3-4 cm and had my bloody show, YAY!!! Even more progress and the pitocin was started. At this point, it was time to get back up on my feet. I wanted to keep the contractions coming, afterall the goal was to have a baby. We walked and walked...and around 10:30 contractions were about 3 minutes apart. At 11:30'ish Mitch had gone to get some lunch, I was laying in bed and had just taken another dose of Dilaudid. I heard a pop, but couldn't figure out what it was...I asked the nurse if my water could have broke, even though I wasn't leaking and she said no. The Dilaudid was doing nothing for the pain, she checked me and I was at 5 cm, and a few minutes later the gushing began...my water had in fact broken. It wasn't too much longer before I couldn't take it anymore and I had to get the epidural. While I was waiting for the anesthesiologist I started to get sick to my stomach. Been there done that before...it happened during my labor with Kiersten too. Mitch held back my hair as I was sick over and over again. In a matter of minutes the epidural was in place and I was getting some relief. By now it was around 12:30 and I hadn't slept yet. Thankfully, the epidural gave me enough relief that I was able to sleep for a few hours. Occasionally I would wake up and get sick to my stomach. Mostly, just had dry heaves since I hadn't eaten anything but Mitch was wonderful holding back my hair and holding the bed pan. Around 4 PM a med student came in and asked if I would allow him to be present for the birth...as I was getting sick with him in the room he asked if I had gotten any anti-nausea meds. WHAT??? This was an option??? The nurse checked my progress and I was almost at a 7, she went and got my anti-nausea meds and again sweet relief in an instant!!! I laid down and slept some more.

Right around 5 PM I woke up and told Mitch I was feeling some pressure, that I needed to have a bowel movement and was certainly feeling the contractions. He called in the nurse to ask about a booster for my epidural, she called the anesthesiologist and while we were waiting she checked me and said "Oh my gosh, you are at a 9, I'm going to call the doctor." The anesthesiologist came in and I voiced my concerns about getting more drugs at 9 cm, and not being able to feel enough to push. She reassured me that I would be fine and issued the drugs. Nurses started moving in and out of my room, and by 5:30 I needed to push. As the shift change occurred my new nurse, Caitlyn who had been my nurse the night before came in and said Dr. Morisetty was stuck in a C-Section across town at DMH so to hold tight. So for the next 90 MINUTES, I fought the urge to push, I was shaking uncontrollably and contractions were on top of each other. Mitch was starting to panic (he later told me) but kept it together quite nicely. Dr. Morisetty came in at 6:50 and by 6:54 PM said he wanted the baby out in the next 5-6 minutes. What followed was the easiest dream of a delivery I could have imagined. I had no pain, I talked and joked with my nurses and doctors...I pushed when he said to and paused when he said to. The baby's heart rate looked great and he took his time manually stretching me to prevent tears. After a few more pushes, our baby was born 24 hours and 25 minutes after we started, at 7:10 PM with the cord wrapped around her neck. Things quickly went down hill from there.

As they put her on my chest it was obvious she was purple and limp. They rushed her over to the newborn monitoring area and began working on her. I started to cry. They called for more help to resuscitate her...and I began to panic. Mitch again, kept it all together. As they worked on her, we watched and waited. Her heart was beating but she wasn't moving or breathing on her own. They put the oxygen on her, and worked on her vigorously...she was probably 4 minutes old before we knew if she was a girl or boy, and 4 minutes old before things started to turn around. It was easily the scariest moment(s) of my life. I never in a million years imagined that things could go from so good to so bad, so quickly. And I was praying like I had never prayed before while I watched the nurses work on my child. There are no words for the emotion that washed over my body and the relief I felt when they finally put her in my arms. It was traumatic...for all of us. We did Kangaroo Care as soon as we could, they wanted us to have skin on skin contact to warm her up and I happily obliged. In the end, everything worked out but I had not prepared myself for the forks in the road. Seeing her struggle put things in perspective quickly. The trauma that she endured at birth have caused a few minor problems. Her blood sugars were elevated due to the shock to her system. As they monitored them into the night the pediatrician decided she would have to be hooked up to a glucose IV. We have to test her Blood Sugars before every feeding, Her white blood cell counts were out of whack but have stabilized, and they did a blood culture to check for infection...thankfully it was negative.

She has made great improvements over the course of the last 24 hours, and couldn't be doing any better. With any luck, and lots of prayers the IV will be out in the next few hours and we should be able to go home tomorrow. She is breastfeeding with ease, and I am lucky that she likes to eat. And really she is a content and happy baby girl. I'm so grateful to the staff that helped get us to the point we are at today.  St. Mary's has been a wonderful birthing experience overall, and I am so anxious and excited to get our baby girl home where she belongs. Our beautiful family is complete. Our sibling set of three girls makes me whole. "Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken." ~Ecclesiastes 4:12