D-Day

I've been posting about my pregnancy on Kaitlyn's blog but I thought I would post my delivery story on both, mostly because it makes for a pretty good story. Watch out though-it's long.


July 23, 2009 (37 Weeks)

We went in for what would be our last ultrasound when I was just barely 37 weeks. We knew that there was a good chance that I would be induced that day. I had my bag packed and with me and I had a little overnight bag packed for Kinsey. Jason was with me as he hadn’t started work yet and the house was finally unpacked and pretty much ready for a new baby to come home to. I had arranged for someone to watch Kinsey while we went in for the ultrasound but decided at the last minute to take her with us. She really liked going and seeing “pictures” of the baby and I knew that it might be our last ultrasound. I figured that if they did induce me, we would have plenty of time to get her to a friend’s house.

We went in for the ultrasound at 10:00 am. About mid-way through, Dr. Wolfe, the high-risk doctor we saw during most of our appointments, came in to look at the ultrasound. She looked at a few things and then said, “Guess what Miss Hill.” I knew what was coming and said, “We’re going to have a baby today?” She told me I was right and then explained what was going on. The fluid had dropped even lower and the blood flow to the placenta from the baby had completely reversed. I was taking blood from the baby but not giving any back to her. The baby wasn’t growing well and she was moving and breathing very little. Her spleen was more enlarged that it had been before. It was definitely time to get her out. Dr. Wolfe said that the placenta had “pretty much had it” and was not supporting the baby very well. She asked us to wait outside for a bit and then she was going to take us up to labor and delivery. Luckily we were prepared but we really weren’t ready for this. We didn’t know what was going on with the baby and I was scared for her to get here and have to start dealing with realities. We still had Kinsey with us at this point and we decided that we would all go upstairs, and then after I was situated Jason would take Kinsey over to our friend Alicia’s house.

We were put straight into a delivery room. It was really big and we had a huge window on one wall that looked over campus. My room in Logan (for Kinsey’s birth) was tiny and didn’t have any windows. I thought this would be a nice room to labor in. They told me that they wanted to get me hooked up the monitors quickly and they wanted to observe the baby before they started pitocin. The midwife on call, Susan, came in and checked me. She told me that I was at a 1 and had a long way to go. We talked about epidurals and she told me that while she usually does not encourage women to get one, she thought it would be a good idea for me to one and get it quickly just in case I had to have an emergency c-section. They didn’t want to have to put me under if the baby was in distress and they had to take her quickly. I agreed and they brought in the anesthesiologist. She talked about the procedure/risks/ect. while our labor nurse started an IV. Right after she finished the IV, the midwife came back in. While I was getting the IV, the baby’s heart rate had dropped very low. Apparently, when a baby’s or mother’s heart rate drops to a dangerous rate, an alarm sounds on every computer on the labor floor. This put the high-risk doctors on alert. They were especially concerned because I was not on pitocin yet and I wasn’t having any contractions. They worried about how the baby would respond when I was actually in labor. They told me that they were going to watch very carefully and had me sign the consent form for the epidural.

Jason and Kinsey were still in the room. All of this happened very quickly. I told Jason that he should probably get Kinsey dropped off so that he could be with me if anything happened. We had a few minutes alone before he left and he gave me a blessing. I don’t really remember what he said, but I remember feeling very calm. I just knew that everything would be ok. I said goodbye to Jason and Kinsey and got ready mentally to be induced.

Soon after Jason left, the baby’s heart rate dropped again. The nurse quickly had me turn on my side and started oxygen. Within just a few seconds, the door to my room opened and a team of probably 10 doctors, residents, and med students were in my room. My midwife and the anesthesiologist came back as well. Another high-risk doctor, Dr. Strauss, kneeled down next to me and told me that he was very worried about the baby’s heart rate. He explained a few more things that I really don’t remember and then finally said, “My point here is that we need to do a c-section and we need to do it now.” I told him that my husband wasn’t there and he told me to call him and tell him to turn around and come back. They brought me my cell phone and our conversation went a little like this…

Me: Hey, Jase. Where are you?
Jason: About to drop Kinsey off at Alicia’s house. Why?
Me: Um, they’re going to do a c-section--like right now.
Jason: Crap.

At this point, most of the people in the room were laughing at how matter-of-factly our conversation seemed to be going. The doctor told me that it would take about 10 minutes to get everything set up but that he couldn’t wait for Jason to get there. They told me they were going to do a spinal tap instead of an epidural because it was much quicker. If her heart rate dropped again before the spinal was in, they were going to put me under and take her immediately. All this sounds scary, and it was, but I wasn’t really worried. They seemed very confident in what they were doing and the calm feeling I had felt during the blessing had never left me. The nurse told me that she had never seen anyone remain so calm in a situation like that.

Meanwhile, Jason was driving like a mad-man to get Kinsey dropped off. He pulled into the parking lot of our friend’s house, got Kinsey out of her car, put her carseat on the sidewalk, said something about an “emergency,” and headed back to the hospital, tires squealing.

They wheeled me into the operating room and rolled me onto my side. Usually, when someone is given an epidural or a spinal, they sit up and lean against another person. In my case though, the doctor had said that he wanted the baby monitored the whole time. This made it necessary for me to remain lying on my side. They had three people holding me in the right position so that they could get the needle in. Apparently there is a reason they don’t usually have you lie down. It took three tries and about 10 minutes to get the needle in place. It was possibly the worst 10 minutes of my life. I could feel the needle moving around (sorry this is gross) and it hurt. I think I would rather have had 10 hours of hard contractions! There is one bright side to the whole thing-because it took so long to get the needle in, Jason was able to make it in time for the surgery. The instant the spinal took place they made the incision. The baby (she still didn’t have a name at this point) was out within just a few minutes. They showed her to us briefly and then took her straight over to the NICU team that was in the room. We heard her cry a few times but it was weak and sporadic. They kept telling us that she was “fine” but that is all they would say. They finally weighed her (4 lbs 10 oz) and then told us that they were going to take her to the NICU because she was having hard time breathing. They finished the c-section (21 minutes from first cut to final stitch) and wheeled me back to my room. I stayed there for a few minutes and then they took me up to my tiny recovery room and took Jason to the NICU. I missed my giant window.

I don’t remember how long Jason was gone before he came back from the NICU. I don’t remember what I did in the meantime. When he did come back, he told me that she had a rash of some kind on her body and was having hard time breathing but otherwise seemed ok. She still didn’t have a name at this point.

The whole morning was crazy. My appointment for the ultrasound was at 10:00 am and the baby was born at 12:31 pm. While we had expected to have a baby that day, we certainly didn’t think it would be so fast. It was really weird to be pregnant one second and then not the next. I felt like my baby had been ripped out of my body (she kind of had been) and it seemed like some part of me was missing. Not being able to see her or touch her made it worse. At the same time, I was glad that she was here and doing ok, if not great. I was glad that the drama of the pregnancy was over and I tried to get ready for what was coming next.



So there it is. If you are interesed in reading about my pregnancy and the first few days of Kaitlyn's life and still don't have an invite to her blog, let me know. Oh, and if you asked to be invited before and didn't get added for some reason, let me know that too. I didn't leave anyone out of purpose but I'm sure it is possible that I accidentally forgot to add an email here or there.