December 2016 Moms
ehoreni
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Ehoreni birth story
ehoreni
member
Two weeks later, I'm finally getting to writing this. It's long because it's been a whirlwind.
When I went in for my 39 week appointment on 12/6 I was 2 cm and thinning but my OB decided I needed to be induced rather than waiting because of my age and history of high blood pressure. So I was due to go in at midnight on 12/9 to start the induction but my little one had other plans. I started having timetable contractions about 8 minutes apart at about midnight on 12/7 but they never got any closer together or stronger and stopped at around 6 am so I went to work that day for my last day before maternity leave.
By the time I got home at 6pm my contractions had started back up but were 15 minutes apart and killing my back. My husband and I decided to go out for pepperoni pizza (it had worked for my sister) and to walk at the mall for a bit to see if that got things moving but by the time we got home I was still at 15 minutes apart so we both tried to sleep. DH slept great but I couldn't sleep because of how much my back was hurting at that point so I bounced in my yoga ball and walked around the house until 12:30 am when my contractions were back to about 8 minutes apart but by then I was in enough pain that I needed help so I woke DH up.
For the next few hours he helped me through my contractions as they got closer together and more intense. After a hot shower and scrambled eggs, the contractions were nearly as bad as I could stand. At 330 or so, when I told DH I could use some pain killers, he called my doctor and they said to come in. My contractions were still only 5-6 minutes apart so I was afraid they'd send me home but when I got there, they said I was 6cm dialated and fully effaced and admitted me. I got an epidural at around 630 and then slept a bit which made all the difference since I hadn't really slept in 48 hours.
They broke my water and it looked clear and and used some pitocen to get my contractions closer together. Around 3pm I was fully dialated and ready to push. By the time I started pushing they realized that my water wasn't cleared and there was meconium on it. I watched in a mirror as I pushed and got to see her as she crowned. I pushed for about 30-40 minutes and our sweet Georgia Margaret was born at 3:54. They whisked her over to the warmer where 3-4 nurses and drs checked her out for 45 minutes or more while the OB sewed up my small internal tear. Georgia was completely green (her cord and finger and toe nails were all stained) from the meconium which had obviously been there for a while.
After about 45 minutes of what they said were inaccurate pulse-oxygen readings they gave her to me. Our labor and delivery nurse argued with them that she couldn't chart a oxygen saturation in the 70s and just say it wasn't reading right so it was fine. She went to get her charge nurse who agreed and they took Georgia back and tried 2 more times to get a good reading. When they were still too low they called the nicu team back and they took Georgia to the nicu. My husband was able to go with her to talk to the drs right away who told him that she had inhaled meconium during delivery and she'd be there anywhere from a couple hours to a couple days while she worked out her breathing. Her breathing was too fast because the meconium acts as an irritant to the lungs because it's so sticky and takes a few days to clear out. It seemed like every time we'd head to the nicu to visit we'd see another dr who said it would take a bit longer for Georgia to get better.
By 12/10 when I was being discharged without Georgia, I was an emotional wreck. We talked to a dr right before I was discharged who told us we'd likely be there 2 weeks or more because of her condition. She told us that Georgia won't have any long term issues from this but it's going to take a while for her to work through it.
Fast forward to today, two weeks after Georgia was born. She's still on oxygen and obviously needs it. Her breathing has slowed enough that most of her feedings are by mouth at this point and we are learning together to breastfeed, which I imagine is complicated no matter what, but wow do IVs, oxygen canuels and feeding tubes make it hard! I'm grateful for all the improvement that my sweet, spunky girl has made and that we're going to get to take a healthy child home, even if it's not for another week or two. We're trying to figure out what Christmas in the nicu looks like and finding a rhythm of spending as much time as we can with her without going crazy from all the beeping monitors. Some days I feel like all I do is cry and pump and other days I actually feel like I'm doing things to take care of my little girl. I cry every night as I leave because I want more than anything to take her with me but know that she's where she needs to be for now no matter how much it hurts my heart.
I'm grateful that at the end of all this we're going to have a healthy baby because I know that for many families in the nicu that isn't the case. I'm hopeful that my sweet Georgia girl will be home with us soon and this will just be a little bump in the road. It's more emotional than I'd ever imagined though and boy is it hard.
sorry this was so long. I've been meaning to write out our story for days but haven't been able to do it without crying so much that I can't see and today was a good day do I made it through it and am glad to have it written out so I'll remember (though I suspect this isn't something I'd forget anyway).
When I went in for my 39 week appointment on 12/6 I was 2 cm and thinning but my OB decided I needed to be induced rather than waiting because of my age and history of high blood pressure. So I was due to go in at midnight on 12/9 to start the induction but my little one had other plans. I started having timetable contractions about 8 minutes apart at about midnight on 12/7 but they never got any closer together or stronger and stopped at around 6 am so I went to work that day for my last day before maternity leave.
By the time I got home at 6pm my contractions had started back up but were 15 minutes apart and killing my back. My husband and I decided to go out for pepperoni pizza (it had worked for my sister) and to walk at the mall for a bit to see if that got things moving but by the time we got home I was still at 15 minutes apart so we both tried to sleep. DH slept great but I couldn't sleep because of how much my back was hurting at that point so I bounced in my yoga ball and walked around the house until 12:30 am when my contractions were back to about 8 minutes apart but by then I was in enough pain that I needed help so I woke DH up.
For the next few hours he helped me through my contractions as they got closer together and more intense. After a hot shower and scrambled eggs, the contractions were nearly as bad as I could stand. At 330 or so, when I told DH I could use some pain killers, he called my doctor and they said to come in. My contractions were still only 5-6 minutes apart so I was afraid they'd send me home but when I got there, they said I was 6cm dialated and fully effaced and admitted me. I got an epidural at around 630 and then slept a bit which made all the difference since I hadn't really slept in 48 hours.
They broke my water and it looked clear and and used some pitocen to get my contractions closer together. Around 3pm I was fully dialated and ready to push. By the time I started pushing they realized that my water wasn't cleared and there was meconium on it. I watched in a mirror as I pushed and got to see her as she crowned. I pushed for about 30-40 minutes and our sweet Georgia Margaret was born at 3:54. They whisked her over to the warmer where 3-4 nurses and drs checked her out for 45 minutes or more while the OB sewed up my small internal tear. Georgia was completely green (her cord and finger and toe nails were all stained) from the meconium which had obviously been there for a while.
After about 45 minutes of what they said were inaccurate pulse-oxygen readings they gave her to me. Our labor and delivery nurse argued with them that she couldn't chart a oxygen saturation in the 70s and just say it wasn't reading right so it was fine. She went to get her charge nurse who agreed and they took Georgia back and tried 2 more times to get a good reading. When they were still too low they called the nicu team back and they took Georgia to the nicu. My husband was able to go with her to talk to the drs right away who told him that she had inhaled meconium during delivery and she'd be there anywhere from a couple hours to a couple days while she worked out her breathing. Her breathing was too fast because the meconium acts as an irritant to the lungs because it's so sticky and takes a few days to clear out. It seemed like every time we'd head to the nicu to visit we'd see another dr who said it would take a bit longer for Georgia to get better.
By 12/10 when I was being discharged without Georgia, I was an emotional wreck. We talked to a dr right before I was discharged who told us we'd likely be there 2 weeks or more because of her condition. She told us that Georgia won't have any long term issues from this but it's going to take a while for her to work through it.
Fast forward to today, two weeks after Georgia was born. She's still on oxygen and obviously needs it. Her breathing has slowed enough that most of her feedings are by mouth at this point and we are learning together to breastfeed, which I imagine is complicated no matter what, but wow do IVs, oxygen canuels and feeding tubes make it hard! I'm grateful for all the improvement that my sweet, spunky girl has made and that we're going to get to take a healthy child home, even if it's not for another week or two. We're trying to figure out what Christmas in the nicu looks like and finding a rhythm of spending as much time as we can with her without going crazy from all the beeping monitors. Some days I feel like all I do is cry and pump and other days I actually feel like I'm doing things to take care of my little girl. I cry every night as I leave because I want more than anything to take her with me but know that she's where she needs to be for now no matter how much it hurts my heart.
I'm grateful that at the end of all this we're going to have a healthy baby because I know that for many families in the nicu that isn't the case. I'm hopeful that my sweet Georgia girl will be home with us soon and this will just be a little bump in the road. It's more emotional than I'd ever imagined though and boy is it hard.
sorry this was so long. I've been meaning to write out our story for days but haven't been able to do it without crying so much that I can't see and today was a good day do I made it through it and am glad to have it written out so I'll remember (though I suspect this isn't something I'd forget anyway).
Re: Ehoreni birth story
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