Birth story with PIP

Short version: Induction was started at night on 5/22. Bren.nan Jam.es was born at 12:44pm on 5/23 after an emergency c/s. He had a positive coombs and was started on intensive light therapy in the special care nursery about 2 hours after birth and continued for 4 days until he was discharged on 5/27.

Long version: We went in for the induction on 5/22. I was given 3 doses of cytotec throughout the night, then pitocin was started at 9am. By 10:30 I was feeling great and sitting in a recliner watching TV. The nurse came in and said the baby's HR was showing a lot of decelerations on the monitor and they wanted me to switch positions to see if it stopped. I was rolled from side to side on the bed every 10 minutes but they weren't stopping. Around 11:30 my OB came in with 2 students, and was not happy about the decels. He then checked me (2cm, 75% and a -1) and broke my water, which was full of thick meconium. He then said a c/s may be in the cards because of that and told the nurse to monitor it. I lost it at that point because it was such a whilrwind 3 minutes. The nurse and H calmed me down and kept trying to rotate me, but nothing helped. She also was informing me of how the birth would go because of meconium (don't want him to cry, ped in the room, won't get to hold him right away,etc.). My contractions were getting worse but I wasn't making progress fast enough. Just after noon my OB came back in and looked at the printouts, and said he wanted to do a c/s immediately and to push his schedule. 

Within 5 minutes I was out of the room and on my way to the OR. H and I were both freaking out, and he had to call my parents who were still 2 hours away and stuck in traffic. I was wheeled into the OR at 12:24 and they had me walk from my bed to the table. My water started gushing everywhere and I could see it all over the ground. At that point I was pretty convinced that I had peed myself, and informed everyone in the OR and apologized. My spinal block worked the first time and immediately kicked in, and the curtain was up before I think I even laid down all the way. H said by the time he was walked in they had already started cutting, and he refused to look from behind the curtain. At 12:44pm Brennan was born and started screaming his head off as soon as he came out. He had no issues at all from the meconium, but had a positive coombs test from my type O+ blood mixing with and reacting with his type A blood. His bili levels at birth were a 7 which was alarmingly high. The ped came to see me when I went into my room and explained everything to me. All I heard was "you're not going to see your baby." Basically though she said they were going to be very strongly proactive and wanted to start him on intense light therapy immediately. After I freaked out she agreed to let him come to my room for 1 hour total then he had to start. That 1 hour felt like 5 minutes, but it was great to finally see and hold my baby.

Brennan was in the level 2, special care nursery which was the highest they had at this hospital (so if he got worse he would be transferred). He laid in just a diaper and an eye mask under 2 double bili lights and on a bili blanket for the first 2 days. We were allowed to go in and feed him at 10pm and have him out for 30 minutes. Of course I was wheeled down in my wheelchair, with my catheter bag hanging for all to see, but I didn't give a ***. The next morning his bili levels went down a bit and the neonatologist agreed to let us have him out for feedings every 3 hours for 30 minutes. That night the levels dropped slightly, as well as the next morning so they dropped him down to one single light and the bili blanket. During the day Saturday his nurse pushed it and let us have him out for almost an hour each time, and my parents were also able to come in and meet him (thankfully it was Memorial Day and slow so they bent the rules a bit on visitors). Saturday night his numbers climbed a bit again so they brought him back to one double light and we went back to a strict half hour schedule out of the lights. His numbers dropped again on the next 2 draws, so on Sunday night the ped dropped him to just a bili blanket and let him come room in with me, which was amazing and I don't think I slept at all. They expected his Monday morning draw to climb, but just hoped it wasn't much. It only climbed from a 6.2 to a 6.3, so they got rid of the bili blanket too and he had no therapy. They checked him again at 2:00 and it only climbed to a 6.5 so he was finally discharged! We had to follow up today with his peds, and he get a completely perfect bill of health. His coloring was so great they didn't even bother doing a blood draw. 

I had a really hard time thinking that it was all my fault because we chose to do the induction, but my OB told me during the c/s that it was really lucky I chose to do it when I did because the meconium could have caused a lot of problems the longer it sat, so that was a relief to hear. Also he said I would have likely ended up with a c/s regardless, so it wasn't because of the induction. Overall I'm glad they decided to do it when they did instead of laboring all day and stressing about what would happen and when. My birth plan was always get baby out as quick and as painless as possible, and that's exactly what happened.

Now for those of you who read all of that, here is our son.  He didn't wear anything other than a diaper until the 3rd night, so we had to make do for his picture and put the sticker on a hospital blanket.