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.
