Nerdykitten's birth story
Apr 12, 2016 9:49:09 GMT -5
Post by nerdykitten on Apr 12, 2016 9:49:09 GMT -5
It isn't super exciting and I am sorry it is a bit late!
Thursday morning my alarm woke me up as normal at 6:29. I had made it to 34 weeks and everything had been good at my two appointments that week so we thought I might make it to 4/20 which was my schedule C-section baring nothing else happened. I went to the bathroom and thought something felt a bit off, but decided to continue into the kitchen to make breakfast and prep my lunch for work. In the kitchen there was a gush of fluid and I texted my co-worker who picks me up not to bother as well as my boss. I puttered around for a few more minutes to see if anything more happened and within ten minutes there were two more fluid gushes. I left my toast in the toaster and texted my husband that I was pretty sure my water broke and he needed to come home so we could head into L&D. I went downstairs and told my mother I was pretty sure it was time and that Chris was on his way home. I went back upstairs and got dressed and finished packing the go bag.
We arrived at L&D at 8:02 and started the check-in process. All of the nurses remembered me from when I had come in due to being rear-ended on the 29th of February. Let me tell you it is truly a pain to be hooked up to the three baby monitors as well as the contraction monitor. Dr. Kenny was the laborist on call again as well and explained the few tests they would do and that even without the results she was positive it was amniotic fluid so my OB would be down in about 30 minutes. She came back a few minutes later with some not so great news however; the NICU was on diversion status for the first time in over two years. My OB would be having conversations with the rounding neonatologist to see what the likelihood of people being discharged by noon which would influence exactly what would happen. Evidently it was possible one or two babies might get discharged, but there was still no guarantee. My OB checked and little boy was at -1 station and despite not feeling them I was having timed contractions meaning active labor. This meant I could not be moved to the other hospital, but once my babies were born they would be headed over there without me. There was so much paper work in triplicate to fill out due to the transfer it was crazy. During this time they also set-up my IV, it took them two tries, as well as drawing some labs. Once everything came back clear it was time to go into the OR.
They wheeled me back around 11:15 to get prepped for my spinal. Let me tell you it is super hard to hunch over as they request when your uterus measures 46 weeks, but overall it went fairly smooth. I really had wished they had let my husband be the one in the room standing in front of me helping me stay still during the spinal, but the nurse was really wonderful. After that they had me out on the table, basically in crucifixion style with my arms out, and the anesthesiologist started pushing some meds while the nurses prepped the operating area. They checked my spinal which had numbed me up a bit further than planned, but not far enough to cause an issue. At this point my husband was allowed into the room and the drape was lifted so I couldn’t see what was going on. They must have cut into me at this point because the anesthesiologist said you are good there was no grimace on her face. I talked with my husband for what I thought felt like ten minutes, but who knows how long it really was, at which point I said I would have thought we would have heard babies by now. Promptly after saying that we heard the first cries of Damian Grayson born at 11:49 AM, followed by his sister Laurel Elizabeth in the same minute, and Gwendolyn Julia at 11:50. I really couldn’t feel much of anything during the C-section and it is weird knowing people are cutting things out of you and sewing you back together without any sensation.
Laurel was very tiny at 3 lbs. 5 oz. and 15.5 inches long. They brought her out to Chris to hold and show me as they were stitching me back up before whisking her off to transport as they felt she would need the most intervention; though she didn’t need the CPAP as badly as her sister in the beginning. Gwendolyn weighed 3 lbs. 14 oz. and was 17 inches long, but needed extra time on the CPAP to help her lungs keep the appropriate amount of pressure when breathing. I did not get to see her at all before she was transported away. Damian weight 4 lbs. 8 oz. and was 17 inches long as well. He didn’t need any assistance breathing and was very stable so he was the last one to be transported to the other hospital. I was moved back into a PACU room by 12:20 and they brought Damian in for me to hold while we waited for the transport to return for him.
At 3 I was moved up to the room that would be my home until Saturday morning. It was really hard to be there knowing that my babies were 2.5 miles down the road. One of the nurses forgot they had to divert the babies and said something about getting me up and about so I could get the NICU which made me want to start crying. The other hospital was stellar at calling and letting us know how the babies were doing. Laurel did have to be on the CPAP with 25% oxygen at first and Gwendolyn continued to stay on the CPAP with just room air for the pressure. All the babies were moved to phototherapy by the evening, but there were no major complication for any of them. While it wasn’t the birth experience I expected everything went really smoothly and had stellar care given to us.
Thursday morning my alarm woke me up as normal at 6:29. I had made it to 34 weeks and everything had been good at my two appointments that week so we thought I might make it to 4/20 which was my schedule C-section baring nothing else happened. I went to the bathroom and thought something felt a bit off, but decided to continue into the kitchen to make breakfast and prep my lunch for work. In the kitchen there was a gush of fluid and I texted my co-worker who picks me up not to bother as well as my boss. I puttered around for a few more minutes to see if anything more happened and within ten minutes there were two more fluid gushes. I left my toast in the toaster and texted my husband that I was pretty sure my water broke and he needed to come home so we could head into L&D. I went downstairs and told my mother I was pretty sure it was time and that Chris was on his way home. I went back upstairs and got dressed and finished packing the go bag.
We arrived at L&D at 8:02 and started the check-in process. All of the nurses remembered me from when I had come in due to being rear-ended on the 29th of February. Let me tell you it is truly a pain to be hooked up to the three baby monitors as well as the contraction monitor. Dr. Kenny was the laborist on call again as well and explained the few tests they would do and that even without the results she was positive it was amniotic fluid so my OB would be down in about 30 minutes. She came back a few minutes later with some not so great news however; the NICU was on diversion status for the first time in over two years. My OB would be having conversations with the rounding neonatologist to see what the likelihood of people being discharged by noon which would influence exactly what would happen. Evidently it was possible one or two babies might get discharged, but there was still no guarantee. My OB checked and little boy was at -1 station and despite not feeling them I was having timed contractions meaning active labor. This meant I could not be moved to the other hospital, but once my babies were born they would be headed over there without me. There was so much paper work in triplicate to fill out due to the transfer it was crazy. During this time they also set-up my IV, it took them two tries, as well as drawing some labs. Once everything came back clear it was time to go into the OR.
They wheeled me back around 11:15 to get prepped for my spinal. Let me tell you it is super hard to hunch over as they request when your uterus measures 46 weeks, but overall it went fairly smooth. I really had wished they had let my husband be the one in the room standing in front of me helping me stay still during the spinal, but the nurse was really wonderful. After that they had me out on the table, basically in crucifixion style with my arms out, and the anesthesiologist started pushing some meds while the nurses prepped the operating area. They checked my spinal which had numbed me up a bit further than planned, but not far enough to cause an issue. At this point my husband was allowed into the room and the drape was lifted so I couldn’t see what was going on. They must have cut into me at this point because the anesthesiologist said you are good there was no grimace on her face. I talked with my husband for what I thought felt like ten minutes, but who knows how long it really was, at which point I said I would have thought we would have heard babies by now. Promptly after saying that we heard the first cries of Damian Grayson born at 11:49 AM, followed by his sister Laurel Elizabeth in the same minute, and Gwendolyn Julia at 11:50. I really couldn’t feel much of anything during the C-section and it is weird knowing people are cutting things out of you and sewing you back together without any sensation.
Laurel was very tiny at 3 lbs. 5 oz. and 15.5 inches long. They brought her out to Chris to hold and show me as they were stitching me back up before whisking her off to transport as they felt she would need the most intervention; though she didn’t need the CPAP as badly as her sister in the beginning. Gwendolyn weighed 3 lbs. 14 oz. and was 17 inches long, but needed extra time on the CPAP to help her lungs keep the appropriate amount of pressure when breathing. I did not get to see her at all before she was transported away. Damian weight 4 lbs. 8 oz. and was 17 inches long as well. He didn’t need any assistance breathing and was very stable so he was the last one to be transported to the other hospital. I was moved back into a PACU room by 12:20 and they brought Damian in for me to hold while we waited for the transport to return for him.
At 3 I was moved up to the room that would be my home until Saturday morning. It was really hard to be there knowing that my babies were 2.5 miles down the road. One of the nurses forgot they had to divert the babies and said something about getting me up and about so I could get the NICU which made me want to start crying. The other hospital was stellar at calling and letting us know how the babies were doing. Laurel did have to be on the CPAP with 25% oxygen at first and Gwendolyn continued to stay on the CPAP with just room air for the pressure. All the babies were moved to phototherapy by the evening, but there were no major complication for any of them. While it wasn’t the birth experience I expected everything went really smoothly and had stellar care given to us.
