A harrowing Labor and Birth Story...

Welcome to the world beautiful Norah Cate-we are head over heels.

Notice Mary isn't even conscious :(

A few disclaimers:

1.  There will likely be graphic TMI in this post so if you are looking for a clean version, stop here.
2.  I wrote this "As it was unfolding" so if its choppy, forgive me in advance.  I have CRS (can't remember shit) syndrome so if I didn't start getting it down, we'd lose so many of the details.

We arrived to L&D promptly at 5pm Thursday August 25th to begin the process of induction.  We were delighted to be put in a large and new birthing suite upon arrival.  Within minutes of arrival, they had her hooked up to monitor her and the baby's heartrate, and within an hour they checked her cervix.  She was still 1cm dilated and this particualr doctor said she was 50% effaced, baby was at -3 station.  Pretty sure she didn't go backwards from the 75% effacement our original doc gave us at 39 week visit, must be personal perspective.  But either way, this meant no progress in a week and a half.  So they administered the Prepidil gel onto her cervix at about 6:30pm.

They then took her off the monitors because everything in that arena was stable and they also indicated that she could in fact eat another light meal after she had 2 hours under her belt.  A 12-inch cold cut combo from subway is light right?

We settled in after playing some cards and watching some TV (obsessive coverage of Hurricane Irene) and fell asleep around 10pm.  DW was awoken by the lovely loose stool visitor around 11 and then by what felt like her water breaking at around midnight.  By 12:30am, we were pretty sure that's what it was as it was rushing out like she was peeing her pants every 30 minutes or so.  This also kick started her first real labor contractions, which were sporadic and manageable.  She slept on and off for about an hour at a clip for the rest of the night, and we were awoken by the nurse at 4:30am to get vitals and check her cervix again before they started the pitocin.

Cervix at 6am (ish) was almost 2cm, and 80% effaced -this was progress and we were happy.  The pit drip was connected, I fell back aleep and awoke at 7am to heavy breathing as if someone in our room was in labor.  Yep, it was her, and she was NOT a comfortable camper.  I kept thinking how is it possible to be so uncomfortable in only an hour's time?...I tried with futile effort to find a way to make her more comfortable, bottom line, she wanted her epidural.  I knew the nurse was coming to check on her soon so I went to get a cup of coffee and by the time I got back, nurse was in the room and epidural was ordered!  Dr. B (delivering doc) came in as well and checked her again -she was 3 "good" cm at 8am, making great progress.

Epidural was inserted without a hitch and within 5 minutes, she was a whole new woman with a new lease on life, feeling good, feeling strong.  She went from foot tapping with every contraction due to extreme discomfort and a pain scale of 7 or 8 out of 10...to not feeling anything -beautiful thing modern medicine is....truly.  Nurse actually came in around 10:15am and turned down her pit drip because she was having some strong contractions for no reason, she didn't need the dose of 6, so they cut it down to 3 (it can go up to 20 but most don't go past 10).  Her contractions at this point slowed down a bit and were coming every 2 minutes or so, rather than on top of eac other.  She also officially had her "show" at this time on the chux pad and the nurse was pleased with this because it almost always means that you're dilating. 

I kept myself busy by texting, IM'ing, and emailing family and friends with progress updates, some of which I initiated, and some of which I responded to.  She read her kindle her and there and emailed her mom progress updates as well.  We also listened to music on Itunes, Lady A and then the Wreckers...I had a little corner of snacks so I could stay energized (lucky me).  Did you know that Gatorade comes in cans?  Me either, but DW was thrilled to have something to drink with flavor, so that was a bonus.

It's 11:09am -and she is not only sleeping, but she is in fact, snoring.  Labor schmabor...think I'll take this moment of down time to grab a quick bite to eat.

11:24am -doctor just left after checking in.  She is a "full 4" and fully effaced.  Baby's head is now at zero station which means she is super low.  Nurse said this probably means 5 cm in reality (after the doc left the room) and she is likely now or about to be in active labor.  All that's left to do is dilate to 10cm and push.  They repositioned her so her head is down very low, this is supposed to help encourage he baby to move on down so that when we do get to the pushing oart -it's actually productive.

I had a yummy spaghetti lunch in the hospital cafeteria, was back in the room by 12:15, and we were both asleep by 12:30, woke up at 1:30.  She said she was having a lot of pressure in her bum and that her contractions were getting intense even through the epidural, not painful, but that she could feel them.  The nurse came in shortly after to check status and said she was 9 cm!  She indicated the doctor would be in shortly to confirm.  We even tried putting her on her hands on knees in the bed to try and coax the baby down into position, but unfortuantely we couldn't get the baby on the monitor this way so we had to abort that mission and head back to being on her back with the head of the bed down and her feet elevated above her heart.

Nurse came back in at about 2:45 because Mary was shaking from the epidural and uncomfortable and wanted to press that magical button that ups her dosage.  Nurse was gleeful to check her again positive she was completely dilated.  She went in, and said "OH" I still feel cervix, I would actually say she is 8cm.  Wha???  How the hell do you go backwards?  She said it's not that we went backwards, its that she missed a rim of the cervix when she checked previously - argh.  Guess all that packing up I did in the L&D room was a little premature...

Nurse did say at this visit though that Dr. B was predicting an 8 to 8.5 lb baby...looks like its back to mindless distractions like blogging and tv to hold us over until we can actually find out for real...current time is 3:05pm.  I've notified all close family that we expect this baby by 5pm.

5:51pm -NO baby and NO progress.  Dr. B came in after what felt like an eternity at 5:18 and checked her again and she was still...at....8cm -argh.  So they put an internal monitor in to measure the intensity of her contractions to help determine if she was laboring hard enough or just stuck at 8 for no reason, or maybe the baby was too big to get down, etc.  Nurse came in 15 minutes after internal monitor and upped her pitocin to 4 from 3, and stated "We can fix this, let's have this baby" which honestly was news to our ears because we both knew the alternative was to consider a c-section.  So now we wait some more for progress...

8:14pm NO baby, nurse has been by her bedside monitoring her contractions, cranked her pit drip to a 10, waiting on the doctor to come in in next few minutes to check status...lots of frustrated friends and family waiting to hear...

OK this is the part that I type out as Norah is next to me breastfeeding with her mama at 5 days old -that's how long its taken us to even consider recounting this adventure...

Sometime after that last live blog roll at 8:14, Dr. B came in and after a pretty short discussion, we waived the white flag and opted for a c-section.  DW had been stuck at 8cm for SEVEN HOURS, and Dr. B said she usually only lets new moms go 2 hours stuck -she just really thought she would get there.

So we prepped for c-section, in we went, and DW was so out of it from all the laboring and meds that she was essntially in and out of consciousiousness through the whole procedure.  She only remembers bits and pieces.  I kept waking her up once I had Norah in my arms saying "look!" and she could barely open her eyes. 

Norah was born at 9:4spm weighing in at 9lbs 2oz -we were all shocked at how big she was.  Turns out that the little lady was malpresented, meaning her little head was down but facing to the right rather than to the back, this is why she was stuck at 8cm...it's just too bad we made her labor for so long only to have to go in after her.

This is the part that gets scary...they wheeled her out of the OR back to L&D to recover.  At the same time, my mom, brother and son were in the room holding and meeting Norah for the first time.  All the while, DW is in and out of consciousness and still hasn't been able to hold Norah.  We placed Norah in the bed with her but DW doesn't really remember even having her.  The nurse was watching her blood pressure very closely, and I could tell things weren't wuite right.  I asked my family to leave, the nursery came to get Norah to do all of her intial checkups, and suddenly things got worse.  DW's blood pressure was very low and her pulse was over 150.  The nurses pressed on her belly to ensure her uterus as contracting as it was supposed to, and it was not.  The doctor then came in and confirmed what they wished it wasn't...

IN l&d recovery, again unconscious

She was hemorraging -her uterus was not clamping down the way it was supposed to and she was bleeding out.  The doctor tried one quick fix medication in the l&d room and realized pretty quickly that it wasn't working, so next option was to go back into the OR.

Options in the OR were numerous.  Option A was to put a baloon in her uterus to hold pressure against it to stop the bleeding, held in by lots of gauze in her vagina.  Option F was a full hysterectomy.  It took over an hour to prep for her surgery and get the right people in the room, and around 1am, off she went back to the OR.  I threw up.  I had several bouts of diarhea.  I curled up in a ball and handled myself with grace and style under pressure.  I tried calling my mom...no ansswer.  Tried calling my brother...no answer.  Tried calling the house...no answer.  Repeat 3 times...nothing.  I was completely alone, terrified that I was going to lose her, and overwhelmed at it all.  I remember the doctor coming in about 3am and saying that she was out, stabilizing, and that Option A seemed to do the trick and that all we could do now was wait and see.   She was in recovery awaiting a room in the ICU, Norah was safely being taken care of in the nursery, and I crashed and slept from 5am-7am.

At 7am I went to the recovery area adn to my delight -she was very much alive and had much better color than she did when she was wheeled away.  The nursery was able to bring Norah down to the recovery area to visit with her for what really felt like the first time.  They let us visit with her for a few hours.  DW was then moved to a room in the ICU around lunchtime (btw she couldn't eat and hadn't eaten since Thursday evening, it was now Saturday afternoon).  Norah wasn't allowed in the ICU for obvious reasons, very sick people and new babies don't mix well.

Then hurricane Irene started howling, the rain was blowing sideways and it wasn't long before the hospital lost power and was running on generator power.  Because of this, her doctor decided to keep her in the ICU overnight and not risk having to bring her back to the OR on generator power.  So they allowed me to stay in the postpartem room on the next floor down with the baby that evening while she slept in the ICU.

I beat a path into the halls and stairways of that hospital...from labor and delivery to recovery...from recovery to the nursery...from the ICU to the nursery...from the nursery to the cafeteria...etc etc - my feet actually hurt.

She stabilized in the ICU on Sunday afternoon and moved down to postpartem, where we stayed 3 nights and gained the full postpartem experience.  She got help from lactation consultants, our daughter was the start of the babu bath class, she walked around the hallways to start working her muscles again, and just as it was time to go home on Tuesday, we learned our power at home came back on after more than 48 hours off.

Thank you to my mom and my brother for taking care of the boy in a miserable powerless house for more than 48 hours.  My brother was fresh off of his tour in Kuwait and my mom attempted to abandon her post at the National Guard during one of the worst hurricanes in New Engalnd.  They ended up running a ogistic operation out of the postpartem room while watching the baby as I tended to Mary in the ICU.  Stressful for everyone to say the least but eternally grateful for their help and presence.

Dr. B told DW that postpartem hemmoraging tends to happen in subsequent pregnancies so that if we were planning on having more babies, she needed to be well aware of what we were facing.  We are counting our blessings and learning to be a family of four.