September 6, 2008
My Delivery Experience
Hello Family and Friends.
Most of you should know by now that I delivered Abigail Kathleen June on Saturday August 2nd 2008. This is our first child and we are so blessed to have her in our lives.
Throughout half of my pregnancy I had high blood pressure. I was put on bedrest at 19 weeks then again at 34 weeks. At my 36 week appointment I had a routine check-up at the dr’s office at 3:45pm. They, of course, checked my blood pressure and it was high like it has been for weeks. But, the problem this time was that I was experiencing a bunch of other symptoms that could be considered bad/dangerous for me and the baby. My midwife, Shannon, was going to once again take me to triage to get some labs done. The reason to go to triage is that the results from the tests would come back faster. So, she got me a wheelchair and I was waiting for her to come back and take me to triage. Luckily, I was not alone. Matt’s mom, Patty, took me to the dr that day. She called Matt to let him know what was going on and then I talked to him for a minuted and told him that if I needed him at the hospital that I would call him back. We were just going to wait to see what the tests results were going to be. When Shannon came back she said that there was a change in plans. I thought I was going home. She instead informed me that I was going to have my baby. She talked to another dr to get a second opinion and he told her that I would be better off having the baby instead of risking anything with the symptoms I was having. I was nervous but excited too that soon Matt and I would become a family. Patty called Matt again and informed him that he was going to have to come to the hospital. He left as soon as he could.
I was really hungry that day and wanted to eat but I was not able to. I was pretty bummed. I was only going to be able to have liquids, jello or popsicles. I told Matt to get food and eat it before he got to my room because I did not want to smell food that I would not be able to have.
Shannon, wheeled me up to labor and delivery and got me settled in my room. The nurse came in to give me my wrist band, told me to get undressed, got my iv set in, put on the sensors that monitor my contractions and the babies heart rate, the blood pressure cuff, and we did some paperwork. At 5:30pm it was time to start the induction process. I was given a tablet of cytotec vaginally and was going to get one every 4 hours until they decide to start pitocin if needed.
Matt arrived at about 6pm and that is when Patty left. We thought it was going to be a long night so we just relaxed and watched tv. I tried to fall asleep but couldn’t. I guess I was just too excited. The nurse, Stephanie, came in every once in a while to check on me. She was super sweet. Plus when I moved in the bed sometimes the sensors would move and she would have to readjust them. She came in at 9:30 and I asked her if I was going to get another tablet. Since my contractions were every 2-3 minutes apart they couldn’t give me another tablet unless the contractions slowed down. At this point I was only dialated 1cm. I seemed to have a long way to go. At 12am, Matt wanted to get some food form the cafeteria. It opens for a couple hours for the hospital staff to eat. So Matt went down there and was going to walk around and take his time. Well, at 12:15 my water broke. I felt a popping, then some pain and then the fluid coming out. It was pretty gross. I called the nurse to tell her what happened then I texted Matt to “hurry up.” I waited for a few minutes then tried calling him but the call dropped. He got back to the room about 12:30 and I told him what was going on. They checked my cervix again and I was dialated about 3cm.
I also started to feel my contractions. It hurt. they asked me if I wanted anything for pain and said I could have an epidural as long as Shannon said ok. I didn’t want the epidural yet so I got stadol. That was not a good idea. It didn’t take any of the pain away but made me so drowsy I could barely keep my eyes open and stay awake. The contractions continued to get worse and they were pretty close together. After just about 15 – 30 minutes I asked for the epidural. They called Shannon, she approved the epidural so the nurse got the dr to give me it. I was in pain and half asleep and when he came in he just started rattling off a bunch of information and such. I told him I wasn’t listening. He asked me a few questions that Matt answered for me but the dr had to hear the answers from me. He asked me if I had any questions and I did because I didn’t hear anything that he had said. I was not happy with this guy. He was kind of a jerk. I was getting upset and I started crying. He basically told me I had to settle down before he could do the epidural. He left the room for a few minutes so I could stop crying and get ready. The nurse was really nice and said that he is like that all the time. He came back in a started but he hit a vein and had to re-insert the catheder. It hurt a little bit but not too bad. Once it was in, it worked immediately. It was awesome. It took the pain away, I could feel a tiny bit of pressure but nothing compared to what I was feeling. The epidural worked for about 15-20 minutes I think. Then I started feeling the contractions again. They felt just as strong as before the epidural. We called the nurse to let her know so she got the dr and he increased the dose of the medicine in the epidural. Both times the medicine was dosed, I instantly threw up. It was weird. But Matt and the nurse were there to help me.
At around 2:20am I was dialated to 7/8cm so they called Shannon to get her to come to the hospital. She told us that she lived close but it took her about an hour to get there. Just about the time I was going to ask where she was, I heard her talking in the hallway. I felt pressure and I felt the need to push. Shannon came in and checked my cervix and I was fully dialated. She asked the nurse to get the cart with all the things she would need to deliver my baby. It was around 3:30 or 4am. I don’t really remember because again, I was really tired and was just lying there trying to get through the pain of the contractions and my eyes were closed. Matt was by my side this whole time. I just wanted him next to me to hold my hand to help with the pain. He did just what I wanted to. The epidural never kicked in. I progressed too much too fast and it never had the chance to keep up with me. I basically gave birth with no pain medication to help me.
Matt was on my left, Stephanie was on my right and they were holding my legs up. We did some practice pushes. Then the real thing started. I was told to push for 10 seconds 3 times in a row every time I had a contraction. I was able to rest and catch my breath between contractions then when I got another one I let them know and I pushed again. I practically fell asleep in between contractions because I was so tired from the medicine and from being up for so long. Shannon asked Matt to come look at the head so I would believe her that the baby was close to coming out. So Matt saw the top of her head and after that watched everything that was happening. I was ready for the delivery to be over. At one point I said “hurry up” out loud but to myself. I wanted to push more and harder so the baby would be born already. Well, I only pushed for about 45 minutes to an hour and Abigail was born. I saw her briefly before they started cleaning her up. Matt gave me a kiss and then he watched the nurses clean up Abigail while Shannon finished up with me.
I had to get stitched up because I tore. Out of 4 stages I was a stage 3 tear so it was pretty bad. I couldn’t feel her doing the stitching but I could feel her touching me with gauze to clean up. For whatever reason, the gauze hurt. Shannon thought it was strange that I said that the gauze touching me hurt but I never complained about the stitching.
Since this was my first baby, Shannon was really surprised at how fast I dialated and how good I did pushing and giving birth. We were all expecting me to be in labor for much longer than I was. It was less than 12 hours from the time I got the first pill until Abigail was born. She was born at 4:37am.
August 4, 2008
Abby has arrived!
It’s official, I’m a daddy and Amanda is my baby’s momma =O)
I’m going to write my story here of how everything happened and how we ended up being blessed a few weeks earlier than expected. There is a lot to tell and I want to tell as much as possible so that our family that can’t be here can still be connected to what is happening with our new family.
Friday 8/1, Amanda had an appointment with her midwife at 3:45pm. Mom took her because I had to work, plus its really great for them to share that experience. Amanda and I had been nervous for several weeks as many of you know because of her high blood pressure and some symptoms that she was experiencing. At this appointment her BP was still high and since she was having more and more headaches and abdomen pain, Shannon, the midwife, said that she would admit her to triage for examination and to draw some labs. So Mom called me at work to let me know and I talked to Amanda for a minute also. I told her to keep me updated. As we were talking, Shannon was double checking with the doctor on what to do and Dr. Kincaid said basically that the baby was better off out than in. So Shannon came back in and told Amanda the change of plans after they just hung up with me. The new plan was to take her to labor and delivery and induce labor. So right away Mom called me and told me and I couldn’t have left work any faster =O).
I told a few people and work and the manager on duty and headed home. I got a couple of things around but the car was already packed with a couple changes of clothes, the diaper bag, and most the items we would need to spend a few days in the hospital. I was about to leave and Amanda called to ask me to hurry up, even though it had only been about 20 minutes. I guess they were about to do the ultrasound to check where Abby’s head was and Shannon had said that if her head was up that they would have to do a C-section but they would wait for me to get there. So Amanda was really getting anxious then. It took me a little over an hour total to get from work to home, then from home to the hospital. Amanda looked comfy in her labor and delivery suite and Mom was there taking care of her till I got there. Shortly after I got there, Mom left and we settled in for what we thought was going to be a long night.
They had given one pill to Amanda that gently starts the inducing process and is normally followed by some more pills and eventually pytocin to really start the labor if the pills haven’t done the trick. Well it only took one pill to get Amanda over the top and into labor. She was having frequent, painless contractions and the nurse said because they were so close they couldn’t give her another pill for awhile. It was uneventful for the first 6 hours or so and I decided to go to the cafeteria. They open from 12am to 2am and I figured the food would be good and fresh. I had a great time walking around and eating some good food, which I ate down there. Amanda text messaged me to hurry up and I didn’t think much of it. I did finish right away though and started hurrying back. Waiting for the elevator, she called me but the call dropped. So I got on the elevator and hurried into her room.
She told me her water broke 15 minutes earlier!! Then her contractions were starting to become progressively painful. They gave her a bag of fluids and statol to take the edge off the pain. Basically the statol helped her for three contractions and then just knocked her out to where she was falling asleep between her contractions. I was right there at her side holding her hand and urging her through each one. I don’t know if I helped that much but I know that sometimes she just wants me there at her side and she feels better. So the contractions were getting worse and there was no telling how long it would take to go from the 3cm she was at when her water broke to 10cm and delivery. She opted for an epidural.
The nurse that does the epidural was a jerk. He wouldnt let me help her answer questions and kept rattling off all the info and directions on what he was goign to do while she was in the middle of a very painful contraction. She told him she wasnt listening and he just kept talking. She got really overwhelmed by the situation and started crying so he left the room. When he came back in he was much nicer thankfully. Epidurals are all those certain nurses do at Fort Sanders Hospital so he was very good even though he hit a vein on his first try. The medicine seemed like a godsend when it starting taking effect and the previously unbarable contractions turned to a little pressure.
Unfortunately that only lasted for about 8 to 12 contractions and it was back to being painful. The nurse came back and gave her two increased doses of epidural and both times it made her throw up before he was even done putting the medicine in her catheter. So I held her hair and took care of her and the throwing up seemed to make her feel a little better. The nurse checked her and she was already to 7cm in about 2 hrs. I guess normally women progress at 1cm per hour and Amanda was at 2cm per hour. The statol was still making her really drowsy and between contractions she was pretty much falling asleep, snoring here and there, only to wake up again and again to the contractions. Then an hour later she was already fully dialated and ready to push. We had to wait about a half hour for Shannon to arrive though and that was rough. The epidural just wasn’t able to keep up with hour fast she had progressed so she was basically delivering with no pain meds. So she went from water breaking at 12:15 to ready to push at about 3:30am.
Shannon finally got there which was a relief and our nurse held up Amanda’s right leg while I held up her left. We coached her into 3 pushes per contraction for 10 seconds each, which Amanda said seemed like they were counting to 100. She was doing really well and I think I was doing good helping her while not looking at was going on. I didnt think I could handle watching. Then Shannon asks if I want to see the head so Amanda knew she wasnt lying. I mustered up the courage to look inside and see the little white head and dark hair. Instead of being squeemish I actually got energized and really started encouraging Amanda to push and not give up. At one point she blurted out “hurry up”, I guess to herself haha. She really wanted to give up from all the pain but she really stayed tough and kept fighting. Then I watched Abby’s head come out and she looked like a conehead =O). I saw her face and head out and then another nurse stepped in and help Amanda’s leg while they pushed on her tummy to get the rest of Abby’s body out. Then Shannon got the cord ready for me to cut and that was pretty awesome. After that they took her to the warming table to do all their tests and clean her up a bit
I cried a little and kissed Amanda and was congratulating her, thanking her, and encouraging her. She couldnt see the baby so I was telling her what they were doing. Amanda was still really sleepy from the drugs and couldnt keep her eyes open. I watched in amazement at my baby on the table and it seemed surreal, like it wasnt even our baby up there. Then I was even more amazed as they put her on the scale and she weighed 8lbs 1.8oz at almost four weeks early. She is also over 19″ long. So it was good that we had her early or else she would have been 10lbs. The nurse brought her to Amanda and she held Abby for about 10 minutes while Shannon was cleaning her up. Then I held her for about 10 minutes until the nursery came and got her to get her assessed.
To be continued………..
July 25, 2008
Doctor Appointments
The last seven days have been somewhat of an adventure for Amanda and I. Since 19 weeks, Amanda has had high blood pressure which caused her to go on bedrest for a week at one point, and finally to stop working at only 33 weeks. On Friday the 18th she wasn’t feeling so good and checked her blood pressure at Walgreens, it was very high. She called the doc on call and was told to check again in an hour after laying on her left side. She did and it was even higher. So I left work a little bit early and we ended up heading to the hospital to get her checked out. It was about 10pm. Her blood pressure had of course went down once we got there. We didnt have the most informative nurse, the doctor didnt even come to see us, and Amanda was released. It was kind of frustrating and we were nervous because we didnt understand what to be looking for.
On Saturday I had Amanda check her BP once she got up and on a regular basis throughout the day, it was even higher than before. It was over 160/100 a couple of times and after talking to another on call doctor, we went in again around 4pm. This time the nurse was very friendly and helped us with our questions. Amandas BP was still quite high but no one was concerned since Amanda didnt have protein in her urine. She had all the other symptoms such as headaches, seeing spots occasionaly, etc, but they discounted those. The nurse told me to go get the car when it was time to go home and she would have Amanda wheeled down to the exit. She told us that the doctor wasnt able to come in. Well actually once I left, the doctor did come in to talk to Amanda and I really wish I would have been there. He basically had the attitude that we were overreacting and was asking Amand why she was all of a sudden concerned about her BP. If he would have understood her chart or even looked at them he would have seen that the BP had been a concern for our other doctors for the last 16 weeks. She was very upset by his arrogance and lack of understanding. We may have been overreacting but it was because of a lack of information on what we should be focused on. To insinuate that being concerned about our baby and mother is ridiculous. I really wish I would have been up there.
Then on Thursday Amanda had her regularly scheduled appointment with her midwife. Her BP was perfect of course but Abby’s heart rate was over 170 for several minutes. So guess what? She got admitted again and we were there almost 3 hours while she was hooked up to the heart and contraction monitor. Amanda has been having about 4-6 painless contractions for a week or more and the heart rate is just cause she is so happy and energetic. We already know she will be a handful =O).
So we know now to watch out for severe symptoms instead of checking her BP and also to watch out for painful, regular contractions. When Amanda asked how painful they should be, the nurse said “Oh you’ll know”. We will keep ya’ll updated. Love ya
July 20, 2008
Welcome
Hi Everyone,
Off to the right hand side is a list of categories. We have added a few to help organize the site and provide a quick link to videos, photos, our thoughts, etc. My thoughts post will be used for any thoughts, feelings, or news that I have. With all the changes we are going through, I’m sure there will be a lot of experiences to share. See you all soon.
