Saturday, September 29, 2012

Sophie's here!!!

Here is the crazy story of how Sophie made her big debut! :)

On Tuesday afternoon we went in for our normal 38 week check up. I wasn't able to see my doctor because she was busy in labor and delivery. I saw a nurse practitioner who I did NOT prefer (for more reasons than I am about to list). At one point, she left the room to come back and say "Ok, here is what we are going to do... you are going to go have a few tests done because these are the things that are wrong: you have high blood pressure, protein in your urine, and your uterus was measuring small." Tears began to roll down my face.  I have never had any issues throughout the whole pregnancy. My doctor and nurses would make fun of me for being such a 'boring pregnant woman.' I was so confused. She hurried us out and we went to the desk to check out. The desk lady asked us "when" we needed to take these tests, and we had no idea. We were so lost and confused and didn't know what was going on. I had to go draw blood, do another urine test, and see an OBGYN at-risk specialist. When we saw the specialist he walked in the room and said "Do you know why you are here?" We laughed and said no idea. He was nice enough to take the time and explain to us why we were there. Basically, I had a restricted uterus. Meaning baby girl had stopped growing and fell below the size charts. He did all the measurements of her brain, different bones, her abdomen, and so on. As the different measurements for each were showing up on the TV, you can imagine the look on my face as I try and picture my sweet baby girl with a big brain, small forearm, normal femur bone, small tummy... I was thinking how deformed and un-proportional my baby will be! haha. The specialist then turns to me and says "are you ready to have your baby today?" I literally sat there thinking oh my gosh! is he serious? how do i respond to this? I shook my head in disbelief and he responds "is that a no?" in which I respond... "umm, no, that's just a really weird question!" He says "I'm sorry, but are you ready to have your baby today?" after this sinks in for a while and we confirm with the doctor that this is a done deal and there's no going back, we begin to call family (my parents who have to drive 12 hours) and my work telling them I'm not coming back this afternoon. We are escorted to labor and delivery. Hubby runs to our apartment and grabs are packed bags. Thanking God I had washed all her clothes and sheets and finished packing our bags just 2 days prior. We get settled in our room and start the pitocin. I'm at 1cm and say "this is going to take a while, isn't it?" yep!

Arrived to our room.
So here comes the meds... Due to the high blood pressure, I am diagnosed with preeclampsia. First I am givin pitocin (to start the induction) and magnesium (for preeclampsia so that it does not cause seizures during labor). I had multiple nurses come in and say, "Ok, so do you understand what's going on here...?" pointing at my IV stand. "pitocin is to have your muscles contract and magnesium is a muscle relaxer and we are hoping the pitocin wins" ohhhh, well ok. Yay for a chemical war going on inside me. The magnesium made me feel awful! Hot, dizzy, and nauseous. The nurses kept asking me if I was having trouble breathing (Apparently a side effect of magnesium). I just said no, but I feel like my hearts racing. They began to monitor my pulse which I was right and had escalated to 145. At this time I had 3 doctors standing there staring at me as I am feeling miserable like they were waiting for something bad to happen. I just remember telling my husband "I do not like the way this makes me feel." Then they gave me medicine for the nauseousness, which in turn made me sick (or I was still getting sick from the magnesium, whichever you prefer).

My IV stand

Then came the pain medicine. That made me even more sick and again some more medicine for nauseousness. Then the epidural. My anesthesiologist was really nice. Him and and my husband got along great talking about medical school. After he was done, he said "How does that feel?" I said good. He said "good I'm glad I did well on my first one!" not funny doctor! not funny! Hours later after the epidural I began feeling contractions on half of my body. It was obvious to me that one of my legs was much more 'dead' than the other. So I asked to have the anesthesiologist come back and fix it. My biggest fear was the medicine wearing off right before it was time to push. A lady came in, who didn't introduce herself, and gave me more medicine. A few hours later, the the epidural was wearing off on now the other side. I remember I kept saying to my husband "I don't want to be a weenie, I just want to get it fixed before it's time" over and over. So I asked an anesthesiologist to come back again. Apparently the previous resident that came in (and didn't introduce herself) didn't write down how much she gave me on my charts. So this doctor was a little hesitant giving me more and not knowing when I received the last dosage. Awesome! I think he called her and figured it out and ended up giving me more. He informed me that if this one didn't work, than I was out of luck because I was reaching my max amount. Looking back, I'm not sure why I wasn't freaking out to my husband by the doctors comment. Just a couple hours later I began pushing. I was pretty close to not saying anything because I didn't want to be 'that' pregnant woman constantly complaining. So glad I decided to speak up and have them come back a third time to fix it.
During the middle of the epidural, a resident came in to break my water. I will never forget this moment... a minute after my water broke, she says "Ok, well everythings looking really goooooo" And she stops and stares at the monitor and can't finish the word good. She pushes the emergency button, doctors and nurses come flying in, they lay my bed directly back and hook me up with an oxygen mask. My husbands head is in my face and I'm trying to stay calm. Apparently, when the water came out the umbilical cord tightened and was wrapped around her neck and her heart stopped. Her heart rate came back and everything was ok, but we were seconds away from a c-section.
I was in labor for 30 long hours (33 if you count all my tests that were done before labor and delivery). There's always that saying that night nurses are so much better than day nurses, which I didn't believe was fully true because I think I'd be cranky if I had to work all through the night every night. But I have to say it was 100% true for us. We loved our night nurse and actually had her twice! Ha! She came back the second night, and I look at her and say "We're stillllllllll here!" She was also the nurse there with us while Sophie was born and took us to post-partum. So thankful for great nurses!
Sometime during those 30 hours, I actually had to listen to someone else go through labor next door and she was a screamer. Can I just say that was the worst thing ever!!??!! Sitting there listening to someone scream and think "that's going to be me in a few hours" is awful. She was a bad screamer too! They should sound proof those walls better in the hospital, just sayin. Nobody wants to hear that. Hubby thought it sounded like they were killing her (that comment at the time wasn't helping either). We kept turning the volume on the TV louder and louder to drain her out, and I was trying to play mind games with myself and tell myself  "she's not having a baby, she's having open heart surgery and awake for it" anything to not believe it.
My doctor was actually at home when I started going into active labor. My nurse called her and told her it was time. And let me tell you... it took FOREVER for my doctor to get there (or it felt like it). I remember being able to hear my doctor through the phone as my nurse stood next to me, and turning to my husband saying "she better do valet !" Later we found out the reason why she was a little late was because she couldn't find someone to take care of her 4 kids (the littlest being a 5 month old and her husband being a doctor also). While we were waiting, I remember saying "I know she was at home spending time with her family, but she's my doctor and I need her here!" My husband kind of smirked and said "Ok, well remember this in the future when my patients 'need' me and I'm at home with my family." I remember grunting and thinking now's not the time to discuss this! But true statement, being on the other side and feeling the true need for my doctor to be there for me gives a new understanding. If my husband was smart, he'd use this moment against me in the future when I have a bad day and give him a hard time for leaving. And quick side note, I kid you not, while in active labor and a minute before baby girl was born, my doctor's cell phone went off. Her ringtone was a song and obviously she couldn't stop and reach in her pocket to turn it off so we all had to sit there and hear it out. Everyone laughed and I did NOT think it was funny at the time, but I do remember thinking "I guess that shows how she busted her butt up here and didn't stop to take the time and turn her phone off" which I was appreciative of.
...And then our beautiful baby girl was born! :) The first thing one of the nurses said to me was "It's still a girl!!!" Really? Was I supposed to be worried? That's a weird thing to shout out. The very first thing the doctor said when she held her up was "look at those long eye lashes!" She had a full head of brown hair and absolutely beautiful. NICU team was on standby and did there routine check up and she was good to go. So thankful she didn't have to go through NICU. She was born at 10:05pm 5lbs 9oz and 18" long. She was long and skinny and perfectly healthy.

Sophia's very first picture


Skinny and long

Footprints

Our sweet girl


I, on the other hand, still had high blood pressure and had to remain on the magnesium for another 12 hours and stay in the hospital an extra night instead of the standard one night. After being mesmerized by her beauty and in awe that she was ours, I stopped and thought... well wait a minute if she was perfectly healthy then why did we just have to through all that? Whatever. She's here, beautiful and healthy, and we're happy.

On our way to postpartum; swollen with 30 hours of liquids