Monday morning, January 13th, I was still feeling exactly how I had been feeling the past few weeks: NO labor signs at all! I had a pretty lax schedule since I was on maternity leave. I'd spend most mornings waking up at 10:00 and hanging out in my sweatpants, being lazy and getting lots of rest to prepare for the big day, whenever that day decided to come. In my mind, I was intending on meeting Dr. Juarez on Thursday for my appointment to schedule our induction; at this point, there was no sign of labor in the near future!
Yet, come lunchtime, I felt the immense need to clean the house and tidy up a few loose ends that I wanted to get done before baby came home. I did four loads of laundry and spent most of the day going up and downstairs, organizing and cleaning. Later that afternoon, Harley and I decided to spend some time relaxing on the couch, recovering from my big afternoon. For some reason, he decided to snuggle extra close to me and my belly, which he hardly has done my whole pregnancy. I found it odd that he was doing this, so I texted Jason and showed him how weird the dog was being!
Not long after relaxing, I discovered I had lost my mucus plug (TMI, I know). I took it light-heartedly and figured it was just another step closer, but nothing indicative of going into labor anytime soon. Jason came home and we had dinner as usual. Later that night is when I started experiencing contractions! It was about 9:30pm, and we were watching T.V. I mentioned to Jason that I felt pretty crampy, and that the cramps were coming in waves, but wasn't quite sure if they were contractions or not. He assumed I was gassy (which was a normal occasion for me!) and shrugged it off. As we continued watching T.V. and the cramps continued to come in waves, I started timing them. Initially, they started out 7-8 minutes apart. Around 10:30pm, we went upstairs to go to bed. The contractions were getting closer together, around 6-7 minutes and a little bit stronger, and much more in my back than in my abdomen or uterus. I got into my pajamas, planning to go to bed, but in the back of my head, I knew we would end up making a trip to the hospital at some point in the next few hours. We ended up waiting until 1:00am to pack the remainder of our things, said our goodbyes to Harley, expecting to see him in a day or two, and made our way to the hospital.
 |
| Taking one last belly picture before leaving to the hospital! |
When we got to the hospital, we had to enter through the Emergency Room because the front doors lock at 9:00pm. Luckily we learned this at our childbirth classes, otherwise we would have been running around the hospital like crazy people trying to figure out how to get in! They wheelchaired me up to Labor and Delivery, we signed in at 1:35am, and they brought me to the triage room. The nurse checked my dilation which was at a 3, and she said I was 80-90% effaced. My contractions were a steady 6 minutes apart, so they decided to monitor me in triage for an hour before admitting me. The on call doctor eventually came in, checked my dilation which still was at a 3, and gave the okay to admit me! I was so relieved, because I was afraid that my contractions being far apart and my dilation being so low, that they would send me home. Luckily they didn't!
We were finally admitted and in our Labor and Delivery room at 3:00am. The contractions were getting stronger, and all in my back which was pretty painful. I had no idea they would be as intense as they were at such an early stage of labor, and I was only dilated to a 3! At this point, I definitely had no plans at even attempting a natural birth. I was all for the epidural (which was ironic, because my pre-labor plans consisted of being very nervous about the epi... now my mind was 100% set that I needed that medicine, ASAP!) When the nurse asked if I wanted the epidural administered, I asked for the anesthesiologist, even though I was only at a "6" or so on their pain scale. I figured there was no point in extending my time being uncomfortable, and I might as well try to get some rest before it got worse! While we waited for the anesthesiologist, I had Jason take pictures of our room.
The nurse checked my dilation again, and this time I had graduated to a 4. The anesthesiologist came in around 4:00am, and gave me the epidural. I was pretty nervous about receiving the actual catheter in my back, but it was much easier and pain free than I thought it would be. I was also extremely nervous about not being able to feel my legs and feeling numb... also an overreaction on my part! The pain from the contractions subsided within 15 minutes, and I couldn't even tell I was having contractions unless the nurse or Jason read them on the machine and let me know. Epidural: best invention ever!
Around 4:30am-5:00am, the nurse started noticing that every contraction I was having was causing baby's heart rate to dip, and once the contraction was over, it would rise back to normal. They had me lie on my side, switch positions, and readjust the external belt monitors on my belly, yet still, baby's heart rate continued to drop with every contraction. They called in the on-call doctor, and decided to break my water so they could monitor baby's heart rate with the internal fetal monitor. After no change on the internal monitor, they decided to call Dr. Juarez and let him know what was going on. He was already supposed to be making his rounds at the hospital at 6:00am, so we waited to talk to him and see what his advice would be.
Dr. Juarez came in around 6:30am, and explained that the baby's heart rate was dipping with each contraction because there was pressure on the umbilical cord. They didn't know exactly what kind of pressure (whether it was baby grabbing the cord, or if the cord was wrapped around baby somewhere) and he gave us two choices. He said we could try for a vaginal birth, and wait it out to see if baby's heart rate would get better with time or worse, based on the cords positioning. He had no guarantees that it would do either, so the other option, and safest option, was a C-section. We asked him if he were in our shoes and it was his wife and son, what would he do, and he said he would chose the safest route, which would be the C-section. We trust Dr. Juarez with everything, so we decided to opt for the section and prayed that everything would be safe with both baby and myself.
At this point, things moved fast. We had assumed the C-section would occur within an hour or two, but the next thing I heard was Dr. Juarez saying he would see us in the operating room in a few minutes! The nurses were throwing scrubs at Jason to change into, while the anesthesiologist ran in to top off my epidural and numb me completely up. I frantically called my mom who wasn't even at the hospital yet and told her to get here ASAP. They wheeled me down to the O.R., Jason following suit, and I remember one of the techs looking at me and asking if I was okay when I entered the room. I must have been shaking like a crack addict and looked terrified, because I remember she looked concerned and I just explained that I was really, really nervous.
The anesthesia finally kicked in while they moved me from the gurney to the operating table. I couldn't feel anything below my neck/chest area, and asked if it was normal to feel like I couldn't breathe or felt heavy chested. My eyes felt like they couldn't stay open, and I instantly felt like I wanted to fall asleep. As much as I wanted to, I made myself stay awake, telling myself in a few minutes, I'd be able to meet this little guy who I've been waiting for the last 9 months!
I made myself look at Jason the entire time. I didn't know when they were going to cut into me, which terrified me. I finally knew they had opened me up because I smelled burning flesh... Jason reassured me everything was fine because he could see the worry in my face after smelling that! The next thing I knew, I heard the tiniest, cat-like cry and out Nolan came! I couldn't believe it happened so fast. Dr. Juarez explained that it was a good thing we did the C-section... Nolan's cord was wrapped around his neck two times. This explained the heart rate dips with my contractions! They whisked him over to the table and Jason went over to take pictures. I tried to watch as well as I could to the right of me, and the first time I saw him, I couldn't believe how much hair he had and how much he looked like ME! We were totally expecting this little boy to be a spitting image of his daddy. So when I noticed my lips, my nose, my chin... I was shocked! Jason got to cut the umbilical cord, and they brought Nolan over to meet me for the first time. Even though I could barely keep my eyes opened, I kissed him over and over and made sure I smelled him to try to remember that moment forever.
They then took baby and Jason to the nursery to get all of his stats, while Dr. Juarez continued to work on me. Baby did great on his APGAR score (a 9/10), and weighed in at 6 lbs. 15 oz. and 19 3/4 inches long.
At this point back in the operating room, I vaguely remember anything. I'm not sure if I fell asleep from the operating room back to the delivery room, but I don't remember the ride back or how long I was in the recovery room before Jason and Nolan came back in. Once they did, the nurse allowed me to cuddle and nurse Nolan as soon as possible.
Once I finished nursing, we had my mom and dad come in to meet Nolan. Jason's dad was sick with a cold and didn't want any chance of getting Nolan sick, so he couldn't come to the hospital. At this time, we took our first family picture!
Later in the afternoon, Jason changed his first dirty diaper and Nolan got his first sponge bath from one of the nurses. She gave him the cutest faux hawk and I couldn't get over how adorable he was!
That evening, Brock and Jess came to the hospital to meet baby Nolan. They were so surprised at how much hair he had and how tiny he was! They brought Nolan cupcakes with a "0" birthday candle and we sang Happy Birthday to him... it was adorable. Jess took some great pictures of Nolan that are some of my favorite of our hospital stay:
Throughout the rest of our hospital stay (required 3 day stay for C-section mommies), I continued to snap away pictures once I could get up and walk around. I may have went a little overboard on pictures... but you can never get enough newborn pictures!
Unfortunately, the day we were supposed to be discharged, they discovered Nolan had jaundice. His urine output was really slow, only peeing once a day when by day 3, he should have had at least 3 wet diapers. He was having a difficult time latching during nursing, so we worked on that a lot with different lactation consultants. His bilirubin levels were continuing to rise at a moderate level, so the pediatrician ordered us to stay overnight one more day and ordered a bill-blanket for him to wear for 24 hours to get light therapy, as well as supplement his feedings with formula after nursing. He had to stay wrapped in the blanket for 24 hours straight, as well as wear the cute (but a little sad) sunglasses to protect his tiny eyes. At this point, we were pretty much over being in the hospital, but obviously had to do whatever it took for our little guy to get better.
Friday during the day, we were really still struggling with nursing, so we had another lactation consultant come help us. She ordered us a manual expression pump because I was totally engorged and somewhat uncomfortable, and also gave us a nipple shield in hopes that would help Nolan's latch to the breast. It helped a bit, but really we just needed a lot more practice!
By Friday evening, around 6pm, we were finally discharged since his levels were decreasing and his wet diapers were increasing. Dr. Reddy wanted to see him back on Monday to check his color and weight, but we were free to go home! Best news ever. 4 days in the hospital is a LONG time when you're confined to the same 4 walls for 24 hours! We finally ended up home by 7:30PM on Friday evening.
 |
| Heading home FINALLY! |
For all of the complications that arose, I really did have an easy delivery and stay and can't complain too much! We are just so excited, nervous, and full of love for our new addition, and can't believe he's actually HERE! Now the real journey begins... bringing him home and surviving the first month!!
More to come soon!
He's so cute! I love looking at his sweet little face as I edit edit edit! :)
ReplyDeleteLove this post. My cesarean with Grace was scheduled, but my experience was a lot like yours. Glad it went easy for you. He's so stinking cute!!
ReplyDelete