David Nathaniel (Nate)
October 27th, 5:39PM
6lbs 9oz - 19 inches
Pictures of his birthday
Lots more pictures
I will write his whole birth story later...the short version:
Yesterday was my hardest ever day and also my best.
We went in at 6pm Monday for induction due to my blood pressure (PIH). They put in Cervadil to ripen me from ~8:00PM -- I was 0 cm dilated, 0% effaced... Then my water broke on its own ~10pm. Wow!
11pm we start pitocin, but my bp would not handle contractions... I was ok, breathing through but it was hard because I was trapped in bed w/ monitors & IV.
By 1am I had to get an epidural... Not for pain but to keep my bp stable. I was miserable... This is NOT what I wanted but bp was 160/110. No choice.
Progress was slow... He turned anterior with his head cocked to the side and would not descend. I did some hands/knees but this spiked my bp and he didn't turn.
My midwives & attending ob tried to turn him but he would not go. I was on Pitocin at 20 for over 15 hours without progress. By this point it's 3-4PM and my BP is crazy high and I have developed a fever because everyone has had their hands way up in me trying to move him.
He started showing distress and my BP kept going upupup plus I started to shed protein in my urine. I had developed preeclampsia.
At this point he had some serious decels... there was no option any more. He could not tolerate even minor contractions. No way was he going to tolerate extended pushing, and I was at dangerous BP. We had to go for the c-section.
The c-section was very painful. I did my best to remain calm even though my body was shaking terribly. It turns out he had the cord around his neck 3X tight -- He did not have enough slack to allow him to descend.
They took him directly to the bassinet and would NOT let me see him. I was begging them to hold him up -- finally they did. Not being able to see him right away was misery... it was so hard. So glad mama was with me in the OR - she took a lot of pictures. (Poor Scotty was too freaked out to be in there with me.)
Then because I had developed a fever with my water broken so long and 100000 internals he had to go to the NICU for antibiotics and monitoring.
They gave me about 15min in recovery with him, all the grandparents, my brother and labor support friends, then they took him. I didnt see him again untill 11. I was so upset that I couldn't see him untill so late!
But as soon as the got me into the NICU I was able to put him skin to skin and he latched right on. I was so happy... That was perfect in the middle of so much pain and fear and disappointment.
He is beautiful. I am in absolute awe.
Because of the antibiotics he cannot room in with me which is very hard. I barely slept last night. I am worried about establishing breastfeeding. His nurse just came in to tell me that they gave him 20 ccs of formula and I burst into tears. No one will bring me a pump, and they will not let me out of bed. (The docs say I can get up, but I have to wait for the nurses to help me and they are not to be found.) I know we will find a way to make it work but right now I am miserable that my baby is trapped in a bassinet 100 feet from here and everyone can see him but me.
He is beautiful, and I know that this could have gone much worse -- I could have started to seize, he could have gone without O2 due to the cord. We are both fine, and that is a good thing. But now I just want to hold him and I can't.
Hopefully soon.
***Update -- I was able to get out of bed and go in to see him at 11:30. He is so small and wonderful. He was very alert and so sweet. The lactation consultant came and showed me how to do the football hold and he explored for a while, and sucked a bit. He just wasn't hungry with a belly still full of formula. So we had a nice snuggle, and I will go back around 2:30 to try again. I feel much better now that I have seen him again.***
***Update Sunday 01NOV -- Nate was perfectly healthy and was finally released from the NICU on Thursday. (moral of the story - when a perfectly healthy baby is put in the NICU as a precaution, it takes a minimum of 48 hours to get them back out of baby jail again!) I could have stayed in the hospital until Saturday, but we wanted to get out of there and came home Friday evening. He's super sleepy and not interested much in nursing but we'll get that all sorted out soon. I'm hurting from the c-section, and probably doing a lot more than I should be, but I will be OK in a few days I think. Short version: we are totally 100% head over heels in love. Life is good. http://lutzspidle.blogspot.com/
