Found out this morning that I'm preeclamptic, so I check in tonight at 8 to begin induction! I'm 38 weeks tomorrow, and this is baby #4, so not our first rodeo. Looking forward to meeting our daughter!!
@Knottie59387608 Just saw your post on the announcement thread... congrats!!! You must share your secrets for the one-push wonder ;-) Enjoy your beautiful little girl!!
Here it is, not in gory detail, but it's honest. Enjoy!
Thursday morning at my appointment my blood pressure was up as usual, and I was planning on sitting for another non-stress test like I had the week before. I had told Dr. Vandersloot that while Baby was technically meeting the minimum standards for fetal kick counts and whatnot, she was still moving a lot less than she normally did. The day before I had a hard time getting her to bop around like she usually did right after I had lunch, which normally was her busiest time of day. He took one look at my feet and ankles and how swollen they were and told me that he was sending me to the hospital to have my blood pressure monitored for a few hours while we did the non-stress test. He told me to call into work for the day, because when I was done with my monitoring I was to go home and put my feet up. I walked over to the hospital (it's right across the parking lot) and called my boss, then called and left a message for Matt. I gave a urine sample, they drew blood and then hooked me up. Over the course of the next three hours it was determined that while Baby looked good, I was spilling protein at +1 and my blood pressure was too over the top to let me go any further. I was 37 weeks 6 days, and it was time to have a baby. Dr. Vandersloot told me that he was certain I would be fine to come in later that evening for induction, if he induced me right then I would likely deliver in the middle of the night, and he's a 9 to 5er. So I was discharged and told to return that night at 8pm to begin the induction process. I went home and held down the couch while Matt and his parents bustled around the house. Matt told me that he had been fine until I told him that we were having a baby. Lol! He'd gone down to get some Red Bulls and wound up drinking 3 of them in a matter of 10 minutes! Lol! So he was on a mission to finish up several projects before our daughter made her early appearance. We had dinner, rested and headed out for Walla Walla around 6:30. We checked in and at 9:20 a Cervadil (small pill) was inserted and placed next to my cervix to begin softening it and hopefully kick start some contractions. My goodness, it worked! By 10:30 pm contractions were 4 minutes apart. For about an hour I was able to breathe through the contractions and keep my blood pressure under control, but around 11:30 my blood pressure was consistently registering in the range of 159/106. I wasn't able to breathe my blood pressure back down, and baby's heart rate was being affected. So we started the process of getting a hold of the anesthesiologist to get an epidural. Having the epidural would serve to lower my blood pressure overall and then keep it from spiking during contractions. At 2:30 the epidural was finally in place and I was checked; I was at a 3-4 and water was still intact. Within a few moments I was extremely light headed so my blood pressure was taken, it was 66/37. So I was given something to bring the blood pressure back up, which made me nauseous, so I was given Zofran. Good grief, nothing like a good yo-yo to keep you on your toes! For someone who rarely even takes tylenol, that was quite roller coaster-like. Another nurse joined us because of said yo-yo, and I tried to get some sleep. After just 30 minutes of rest I was woken up to change positions, baby's heart rate had dipped, so they were thinking that the cord was pinched. So it went every 20-30 minutes, baby's heart rate dipping and me changing positions. At 4:30 I was checked. I was at 7, so Matt called my parents (45 minutes away) and told them that if they wanted to be there for the birth they should hit the road. I felt pelvic floor pressure on the next contraction and every one after that. I woke up after a quick nap around 5:10 and told the nurses, "I just had a dream that she was born at 6:06." At 5:45 I didn't think she was going to wait that long! I was breathing through every contraction so I wouldn't push. Dr. Kaminski (the on-call) had been called several times and was on his way. I was checked at 6:00am and while the nurse was checking me my water broke! I was absolutely horrified, she was so great about it, though. "It's ok, you just baptized me a little!" She sat there until the doctor arrived, basically holding her in. At 6:04 Dr. Kaminski rushed into the room and began putting on gloves. My parents walked in right behind him. On the next contraction, at 6:06, I gave a controlled push, and she was completely delivered on that one push, but so was the placenta! It popped out right after the baby! A nurse caught it, she and Dr. Kaminski looked at each other and both said, "Well, that's a first!" Baby gave a good cry and was placed on my chest, and I looked at her beautiful face and asked her, "What's your name, sweet girl?" She looked right in my eyes and said, "Oh!" in the sweetest little voice. Matt and I looked at each other and said, "Olivia it is!" The nurses took her to clean her off and get her stats. She was 5lbs, 8oz and 19.5 inches long. I learned that the umbilical cord had been wrapped around Olivia's neck twice, and they had no idea how long the placenta had been detached, but she was extremely tiny for being 38 weeks. She had been measuring small, and at my appointment on Thursday morning she had measured at 36, which was the same as what she had measured the week before. She was having a difficult time maintaining her body temperature, so she's either been bundled up or skin to skin ever since. Lol! I was put on a magnesium drip for about 30 hours following delivery to get my blood pressure under control, which absolutely sucked. I felt very blah, but thankfully it didn't make me crazy hot like I've heard it could do. We got to come home on Sunday afternoon, praise be to Jesus, we were SO ready to be out of that room, lol! Liv's follow up appointment with Dr. Wyland was yesterday, she said she definitely has a touch of jaundice, but other than being very tiny, she seems perfectly healthy. She weighed 5 pounds exactly, so they want to see her back on Friday morning to check her weight and make sure her jaundice is decreasing. She had lost 8% of her body weight in the hospital, which is more than they like to see. Apparently she was burning quite a few calories trying to stay warm. But she's nursing like a pro every few hours, hopefully her stomach size will increase soon so we can go a little longer between feedings, lol! We feel very blessed that we didn't have a major problem during delivery and that we have a healthy daughter.
Re: It's SHOWTIME!!
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