Samantha Grace is here! She suprised us by trying to come early in the beginning of April, which you all know, and by the 19th, they just couldn't stop my labor anymore! Here's her birth story, and the latest info on how she's doing.
My labor started again on Tuesday evening, around 5, and the doctors put my back on the magnesium to try and stop it. By 11am Wednesday, my contractions hadn't stopped, and they found out I had dialated two more centimeters (now up to 7) so they decided to just take me off the mag and let nature take its course. I called my husband, who arrived about two hours later (the hospital is an hour from our house, and I caught him in the middle of a business meeting..he was so happy!) and settled in with my mom, who was already there, as she had planned to come spend the night with me Tuesday night anyway.
My labor progressed slowly, with contractions 5-6 minutes apart for the better part of 10 hours. Then things got interesting. All of a sudden I went from 6 minutes to 3 minutes, and at around 1am was given 1mg of Stadol, hoping that it would take the edge off enough to sleep. I hadn't anticipated being in labor for so long, since she had been so anxious to make her appearance, so I didn't get to nap between those blissful contractions in the beginning. The Stadol lasted a grand total of 20 minutes, and didn't wear off so much as just stop working, so I yelled "Oh, CRAP!", which woke my mom out of her peaceful slumber and sent her rushing to my bedside. Those twenty minutes on the Stadol had enabled me to dialate another centimeter. Around 2:45 the doctor checked me again and found out I was 9 centimeters, and then at 3:00 I felt intense pressure, and was found to be fully dialated. However, my water never broke! The doc broke my water while saying, "alright, it should take a few minutes, and then we'll push. One minute later, she's yelling something about a head down the hall, and another doctor and my nurse came flying in to the room. I gave two pushed, and on the second one, Samantha came rushing out as though from a gun. It took both doctors to catch her.
My husband followed her out in to the hall and snapped the first photos, and when he started talking to her, she opened her eyes and started chirping at him. She recognized his voice right away! She weighed in at a suprising 3 pounds, 5 ounces, and was a whopping 17 inches long. She was only 30 weeks, and they had estimated her weight to be about a pound less than it was, so we were all pleasantly suprised. They wheeled her back in to my room for a second so that I could see her, and then whisked her down to the NICU.
She is doing phenomenally well. We couldn't be more blessed. She is slightly jaundiced, so they have her under the bilirubin lights, but she is breathing 100% on her own, and hasn't had any trouble with that. She has had a few little bouts with apnea, but it's only because she gets so focused on her pacifier that she forgets she has to breath! A few encouraging words though, and she's fine. I got to hold her about 8 hours after she was born, and DH got to hold her for an hour yesterday and did Kangaroo care with her.
I will be staying at the Ronald McDonald house a few blocks from the hospital for the duration of her stay, and started pumping about 6 hours after delivery, so my milk should be coming in soon. As soon as Sam's magnesium level comes down (imagine that...she had a lot of mag in her system!
) they'll start giving her small amounts of my colostrum until she can survive solely on my milk.
The doctors are very optimistic that she'll be home as early as three or four weeks from now. She is one of the strongest babies they've seen for her gestational age, and is a little fighter. In order to be released, she has to weigh at least 1800 grams (she weighs around 1500 now), be able to drink from a nipple while remembering to breath, maintain her body heat, and be able to sit in a carseat for an extended period of time without compromising her lung capacity. Once she can do all those things, our baby will come home!
Photos can be found at:
www.flickr.com/photos/samanthab
Thank you all for your encouragement and support through this time!
My labor started again on Tuesday evening, around 5, and the doctors put my back on the magnesium to try and stop it. By 11am Wednesday, my contractions hadn't stopped, and they found out I had dialated two more centimeters (now up to 7) so they decided to just take me off the mag and let nature take its course. I called my husband, who arrived about two hours later (the hospital is an hour from our house, and I caught him in the middle of a business meeting..he was so happy!) and settled in with my mom, who was already there, as she had planned to come spend the night with me Tuesday night anyway.
My labor progressed slowly, with contractions 5-6 minutes apart for the better part of 10 hours. Then things got interesting. All of a sudden I went from 6 minutes to 3 minutes, and at around 1am was given 1mg of Stadol, hoping that it would take the edge off enough to sleep. I hadn't anticipated being in labor for so long, since she had been so anxious to make her appearance, so I didn't get to nap between those blissful contractions in the beginning. The Stadol lasted a grand total of 20 minutes, and didn't wear off so much as just stop working, so I yelled "Oh, CRAP!", which woke my mom out of her peaceful slumber and sent her rushing to my bedside. Those twenty minutes on the Stadol had enabled me to dialate another centimeter. Around 2:45 the doctor checked me again and found out I was 9 centimeters, and then at 3:00 I felt intense pressure, and was found to be fully dialated. However, my water never broke! The doc broke my water while saying, "alright, it should take a few minutes, and then we'll push. One minute later, she's yelling something about a head down the hall, and another doctor and my nurse came flying in to the room. I gave two pushed, and on the second one, Samantha came rushing out as though from a gun. It took both doctors to catch her.
My husband followed her out in to the hall and snapped the first photos, and when he started talking to her, she opened her eyes and started chirping at him. She recognized his voice right away! She weighed in at a suprising 3 pounds, 5 ounces, and was a whopping 17 inches long. She was only 30 weeks, and they had estimated her weight to be about a pound less than it was, so we were all pleasantly suprised. They wheeled her back in to my room for a second so that I could see her, and then whisked her down to the NICU.
She is doing phenomenally well. We couldn't be more blessed. She is slightly jaundiced, so they have her under the bilirubin lights, but she is breathing 100% on her own, and hasn't had any trouble with that. She has had a few little bouts with apnea, but it's only because she gets so focused on her pacifier that she forgets she has to breath! A few encouraging words though, and she's fine. I got to hold her about 8 hours after she was born, and DH got to hold her for an hour yesterday and did Kangaroo care with her.
I will be staying at the Ronald McDonald house a few blocks from the hospital for the duration of her stay, and started pumping about 6 hours after delivery, so my milk should be coming in soon. As soon as Sam's magnesium level comes down (imagine that...she had a lot of mag in her system!
) they'll start giving her small amounts of my colostrum until she can survive solely on my milk.The doctors are very optimistic that she'll be home as early as three or four weeks from now. She is one of the strongest babies they've seen for her gestational age, and is a little fighter. In order to be released, she has to weigh at least 1800 grams (she weighs around 1500 now), be able to drink from a nipple while remembering to breath, maintain her body heat, and be able to sit in a carseat for an extended period of time without compromising her lung capacity. Once she can do all those things, our baby will come home!
Photos can be found at:
www.flickr.com/photos/samanthab
Thank you all for your encouragement and support through this time!
I am SO glad you are both OK and she is really beautiful! Thanks so much for sharing your birth story and keep us posted! Take care mama and stay strong 
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