We welcomed Mary Frances Clare to our family on September 30th, and 3:35 AM. My due date was supposed to be right around now, but I was expecting this little one a bit early. This is the first chance I have had in the last 2 weeks to get online, so I'll post our story now...a little late,and a bit long.
We were planning a second homebirth for this baby, but things didn't work out that way. I came down with a high fever and severe abdominal pains that brought me to the hospital on the evening of the 28th, where my CNM wanted to break my water and deliver the baby that night. We opted for IV fluids and Tylenol which eventually brought the fever down, along with my white blood cell count, and we went home after being there for about 8 hours. The next night, however, my abdominal pain was even worse, and my fever was only going higher. We decided then that we probably should go back to the hospital and deliver our baby. I had been having contractions about every 6-10 minutes apart all day, and had a bloody show that afternoon. I felt like it was time for the baby to come out so that they could treat me for whatever was wrong, and lessen the risk of passing it on to my baby. We went to the hospital, where our homebirth midwife's apprentice met us to provide doula support, and they broke my water around 10:30PM. Five hours later, we were blessed with Mary Frances, our only little girl after two boys!!! Other than having my water broken, I had a totally normal, intervention-free, labor and delivery at the hospital. It was a truly beautiful birth! Our doula was fantastic and my husband was the most wonderful and supportive partner I could have ever asked for. It was one of the most loving experiences of my life. Because of my fever, I was given IV antibiotics during labor, but our daughter was born with no signs of infection and was perfectly healthy throughout my hospital stay--which ended up being 5 days!
My fever just wouldn't go away, so I was treated with mega-doses of antibiotics for several days, among other things. I was suspected to have chorioamniotitus (sp?), swine flu, and septic pelvic thrombophlebitis (sp?), at various times throughout my stay, and was treated for all of them! In the end, nobody knows what I had for sure, and the only symptom I had was a fever. Because they worried that I had some kind of "dangerous" virus, I was basically quarantined in the hospital, and no one was allowed to enter my room without surgical masks, gloves, and hospital gowns (except family). Everything they took out of my room was removed in a bio hazard bag! It was very scary for me to be told I could be sick with all of these things, and then not ever have an actual diagnosis. They finally let me go home when it seemed my fever was going down, and as soon as I got home I didn't have another fever at all. This whole time, my daughter roomed in with me and was closely monitored by the nurses and our pediatrician. She was perfectly healthy until after we got home.
We had been home for almost a day when Mary Frances started running a fever. Our pediatrician told us to go straight to the emergency room at Primary Children's Hospital (a fantastic children's hospital in SLC, UT). I was terrified! We rushed her up there and they acted very quickly to try to diagnose what was wrong. Our poor 6 day old daughter had to have blood drawn, have an IV put in to start 4 different antibiotics immediately, have fluid suctioned from her lungs, have urine taken with a catheter, and worst of all...she had to have a lumbar puncture to collect spinal fluid. Her father had to be with her during that while I sat outside the door and bawled. In the end, she was diagnosed with viral meningitis caused by enterovirus. Luckily, viral forms of meningitis are not nearly as dangerous because it is bacterial meningitis that poses the greatest risk and has the most side effects. So, they treated her for her fever, and she was able to come home 5 days later. Everyone we worked with was great--the doctors, and especially the nurses--but it was one of the most difficult things I have ever been through. I still feel totally shell shocked after everything we went through. It turns out, I probably had enterovirus, too, and that's what caused my fever, but we'll never know for sure.
Thanks for reading this, if you made it this far. We are counting our blessings rather than dwelling on the scary stuff. Everyone appears to be healthy now. Mary Frances is a very mellow baby, and she LOVES to nurse...which is what I spend most of my time doing now. We're all just trying to stay healthy and find out what our new normal is.
We were planning a second homebirth for this baby, but things didn't work out that way. I came down with a high fever and severe abdominal pains that brought me to the hospital on the evening of the 28th, where my CNM wanted to break my water and deliver the baby that night. We opted for IV fluids and Tylenol which eventually brought the fever down, along with my white blood cell count, and we went home after being there for about 8 hours. The next night, however, my abdominal pain was even worse, and my fever was only going higher. We decided then that we probably should go back to the hospital and deliver our baby. I had been having contractions about every 6-10 minutes apart all day, and had a bloody show that afternoon. I felt like it was time for the baby to come out so that they could treat me for whatever was wrong, and lessen the risk of passing it on to my baby. We went to the hospital, where our homebirth midwife's apprentice met us to provide doula support, and they broke my water around 10:30PM. Five hours later, we were blessed with Mary Frances, our only little girl after two boys!!! Other than having my water broken, I had a totally normal, intervention-free, labor and delivery at the hospital. It was a truly beautiful birth! Our doula was fantastic and my husband was the most wonderful and supportive partner I could have ever asked for. It was one of the most loving experiences of my life. Because of my fever, I was given IV antibiotics during labor, but our daughter was born with no signs of infection and was perfectly healthy throughout my hospital stay--which ended up being 5 days!
My fever just wouldn't go away, so I was treated with mega-doses of antibiotics for several days, among other things. I was suspected to have chorioamniotitus (sp?), swine flu, and septic pelvic thrombophlebitis (sp?), at various times throughout my stay, and was treated for all of them! In the end, nobody knows what I had for sure, and the only symptom I had was a fever. Because they worried that I had some kind of "dangerous" virus, I was basically quarantined in the hospital, and no one was allowed to enter my room without surgical masks, gloves, and hospital gowns (except family). Everything they took out of my room was removed in a bio hazard bag! It was very scary for me to be told I could be sick with all of these things, and then not ever have an actual diagnosis. They finally let me go home when it seemed my fever was going down, and as soon as I got home I didn't have another fever at all. This whole time, my daughter roomed in with me and was closely monitored by the nurses and our pediatrician. She was perfectly healthy until after we got home.
We had been home for almost a day when Mary Frances started running a fever. Our pediatrician told us to go straight to the emergency room at Primary Children's Hospital (a fantastic children's hospital in SLC, UT). I was terrified! We rushed her up there and they acted very quickly to try to diagnose what was wrong. Our poor 6 day old daughter had to have blood drawn, have an IV put in to start 4 different antibiotics immediately, have fluid suctioned from her lungs, have urine taken with a catheter, and worst of all...she had to have a lumbar puncture to collect spinal fluid. Her father had to be with her during that while I sat outside the door and bawled. In the end, she was diagnosed with viral meningitis caused by enterovirus. Luckily, viral forms of meningitis are not nearly as dangerous because it is bacterial meningitis that poses the greatest risk and has the most side effects. So, they treated her for her fever, and she was able to come home 5 days later. Everyone we worked with was great--the doctors, and especially the nurses--but it was one of the most difficult things I have ever been through. I still feel totally shell shocked after everything we went through. It turns out, I probably had enterovirus, too, and that's what caused my fever, but we'll never know for sure.
Thanks for reading this, if you made it this far. We are counting our blessings rather than dwelling on the scary stuff. Everyone appears to be healthy now. Mary Frances is a very mellow baby, and she LOVES to nurse...which is what I spend most of my time doing now. We're all just trying to stay healthy and find out what our new normal is.
Sorry you had to go through that. It sounds terrible. Having a sick baby in the hospital is so scary and upsetting. Glad you are both feeling better now and enjoying your time together.
