Baby update/birth story :)
This is a long post :)
Some of you know the details, some of you don't, so if it's redundant, I apologize. This is also being posted on my facebook.
The original plan was to do a vaginal birth, let it progress normally. However, the last few weeks, my blood pressure was slowly creeping up, and I was swelling a lot. Then towards the end of last week, I was getting headaches, tingling in my hands and feet, and some trace amount of protein in my urine, which meant that it was going to lead to pre-eclampsia pretty soon. I was also not dilating very fast at all, so my doctor put off induction as long as she felt comfortable doing so. When i went in on monday, she saw my blood pressure and some results from the monitoring they were doing with me at the hospital for the past two weeks, and decided it was time to induce me that week. So we got scheduled to go in the hospital the next night. We got there at 6:00 PM, they gave me cervix membrane thinning meds at 7:00. At that point, there was a change in nurses. This nurse checked on me a couple hours later, and said I was 90% effaced, and was a little more dilated, and called my doctor. She had said to go ahead with labor inducing drug. So we started it somewhere around 9ish. then there was another switch of nurses, this one was much more experienced. She checked me and said I was actually only 70% effaced, and was still just barely a one. So we had started the labor inducing drug a little too soon, but just kept it going anyway in hopes that things would improve. I could feel some contractions, but not many. i didn't get to sleep until about 4:30 because I was so anxious, and excited. My doctor stopped by at 8 AM, and checked me. I was still a 1, maybe a 1.2, and a little more effaced, but not quite 90% yet. She decided to break my water to make things go faster. All this time, we're gradually increasing the drug, the max level they normally go at is 20, and once I got to that point, I had asked for an epidural, because the contractions were getting strong, and I was feeling sick. Once I got the epidural, things were great and dandy for me. I was checked again several times, by 5:00, I was dilated to a 2.8, and 90% effaced. My doctor was going to a concert, and when she got back around 11:00, I was a 3+ and 90%. The problem at this point was that my blood pressure was now increasing, and I had a fever. The fever is what made them really worried, so the schedule the c-section, and about 40 minutes later i was in the operating room getting the surgery.
The surgery was hard. they had said it would be about an hour, turned out to be longer than that for two reasons. I was losing a ton of blood because my fatty tissue had an abnormal amount of blood vessels running through it, so they had to work with that for awhile before getting to do anything else. the other reason was because Kiernan turned out to be so big. They had trouble getting him out, finally they just had to yank him out, and you can probably see that in the pictures if you look carefully enough. Then it took quite sometime to get me put back together, cauterized, and stitched up because of the abnormal amount of blood vessels thing. I finally made it to the recovery room around 3:00 AM. There we took some vitals and such, tried to see if he would nurse, didn't work out, and I was still really loopy because of the morphine that was still in my system. Since he wouldn't nurse, we went ahead and said to take him to the nursery (that and we were both dead tired...). My dad, sister and her fiance came to see the baby around 5:00 before my dad and sister went to new york for the week (they had to leave the hospital by 5:30). and it was at that point that I was informed that Kiernan was in the special care nursery room. Apparently, they had noticed that when he cried he would go completely purple, and they were concerned about his oxygen and what was causing him to go completely purple. His lips didn't go purple, they stayed pink, apparently that's a very good thing. Turns out he did have low oxygen levels, either because of the infection that was causing my fever and got into him, or because he had too much fluid in his lungs.
Fortunately, he was well long enough for my dad, sister and her fiance to see him real quick. I then got to see him around 8 AM and was told they would be putting him on antibiotics for the possible infection, and monitoring him. When I saw him, he had three wires that hooked up to a monitor checking his heart rate, oxygen levels and breathing rate. He also has an IV in his head (they had a hard time finding a place for his hand, and you can see the bruises on both hands). And a big bandage around his foot where they take the blood for blood testing. It broke my heart, but I was glad to see that he was doing better. At this point, they informed me that he had been doing well, and that he definitely had fluid in his lungs. They also said they were going to do the antibiotics anyway just because of the risk of having an infection because I had the fever. he continued to do well throughout the day, and the nurse told us we might be able to keep him in our room that night (last night). So when I went back to and attempt feeding again (had issues, but happily, that is now resolved!), we asked the doctor, and he said no, not tonight, MAYBE tomorrow morning.
This morning, when i went to do the 4 AM feeding, turns out his blood sugar level was really low, and that concerned the doctor. He won't let him go until he's had two blood sugar results above 60 in a row. And Kiernan also was showing a small increase of signs of an infection, small, but made them glad they were doing the antibiotics. They will continue to do them until Sunday morning I believe. The doctor had also informed me this morning that Kiernan SHOULD be able to go home with us, depending on how things go today. We won't know until 6:00 (two hours), which is also the time we find out whether or not kiernan can be in our room with us or not. Then, at an earlier feeding, we found out that Kiernan has jaundice. But he'll still be able to be in our room with us if he has jaundice, so all that they are worried about now is keeping his blood sugar up. The last one tested at 82, so hopefully it's still up this time. They';ll take him out whenever he's schedule for his antibiotics, but will bring him back if everything is ok.
So all in all, the poor kid has had a hard time coming into this world, but really is doing well. Everybody keeps talking about what a big boy he is (he really is big!), and how cute he is (I also agree with them here too). He's now feeding every 2-3 hours. He was only feeding every 5ish hours yesterday, and would sleep a lot, hence why the blood sugar level was low, and was a concern. He is also more awake and active when feeding, so we're pretty sure he's ok blood sugar level wise now.
I'm recovering pretty well, they say. The special care nursery is at the other end of the maternity ward area, so Bryan or a nurse will take me over to the nursery in a wheelchair when it's time for me to go feed him. I wasn't really able to walk all that much yesterday, but I could move and shift in bed quite a bit. Today I've been able to walk short distances, and stand long enough to shower and enjoy the shower, so things are improving, it'll be kind of a long recovery process, but everyone says everything is going well, and I'm going to believe them. :)
I will be discharged on Sunday, and hopefully Kiernan will be as well, and then we'll finally get to be in our homes again! It feels like we've been here for a very long time, and we have. I haven't seen my apartment since Tuesday night, and everyone had expected me to be home last night. I'm excited to have Kiernan around us all the time soon, and to be able to go home soon. I feel much better than I have the past three weeks of my pregnancy, despite the fact that I have huge smile of stitches on my abdomen :) They say the morphine has worn off by now, I'm taking oral pain meds, and everything is pretty much tolerable. It only hurts if I'm walking for a longer period of time, and if the binder (i think of it as a belt that squishes all my innards together) isn't on very tight.
Other than that, things really are going well. :)
Some of you know the details, some of you don't, so if it's redundant, I apologize. This is also being posted on my facebook.
The original plan was to do a vaginal birth, let it progress normally. However, the last few weeks, my blood pressure was slowly creeping up, and I was swelling a lot. Then towards the end of last week, I was getting headaches, tingling in my hands and feet, and some trace amount of protein in my urine, which meant that it was going to lead to pre-eclampsia pretty soon. I was also not dilating very fast at all, so my doctor put off induction as long as she felt comfortable doing so. When i went in on monday, she saw my blood pressure and some results from the monitoring they were doing with me at the hospital for the past two weeks, and decided it was time to induce me that week. So we got scheduled to go in the hospital the next night. We got there at 6:00 PM, they gave me cervix membrane thinning meds at 7:00. At that point, there was a change in nurses. This nurse checked on me a couple hours later, and said I was 90% effaced, and was a little more dilated, and called my doctor. She had said to go ahead with labor inducing drug. So we started it somewhere around 9ish. then there was another switch of nurses, this one was much more experienced. She checked me and said I was actually only 70% effaced, and was still just barely a one. So we had started the labor inducing drug a little too soon, but just kept it going anyway in hopes that things would improve. I could feel some contractions, but not many. i didn't get to sleep until about 4:30 because I was so anxious, and excited. My doctor stopped by at 8 AM, and checked me. I was still a 1, maybe a 1.2, and a little more effaced, but not quite 90% yet. She decided to break my water to make things go faster. All this time, we're gradually increasing the drug, the max level they normally go at is 20, and once I got to that point, I had asked for an epidural, because the contractions were getting strong, and I was feeling sick. Once I got the epidural, things were great and dandy for me. I was checked again several times, by 5:00, I was dilated to a 2.8, and 90% effaced. My doctor was going to a concert, and when she got back around 11:00, I was a 3+ and 90%. The problem at this point was that my blood pressure was now increasing, and I had a fever. The fever is what made them really worried, so the schedule the c-section, and about 40 minutes later i was in the operating room getting the surgery.
The surgery was hard. they had said it would be about an hour, turned out to be longer than that for two reasons. I was losing a ton of blood because my fatty tissue had an abnormal amount of blood vessels running through it, so they had to work with that for awhile before getting to do anything else. the other reason was because Kiernan turned out to be so big. They had trouble getting him out, finally they just had to yank him out, and you can probably see that in the pictures if you look carefully enough. Then it took quite sometime to get me put back together, cauterized, and stitched up because of the abnormal amount of blood vessels thing. I finally made it to the recovery room around 3:00 AM. There we took some vitals and such, tried to see if he would nurse, didn't work out, and I was still really loopy because of the morphine that was still in my system. Since he wouldn't nurse, we went ahead and said to take him to the nursery (that and we were both dead tired...). My dad, sister and her fiance came to see the baby around 5:00 before my dad and sister went to new york for the week (they had to leave the hospital by 5:30). and it was at that point that I was informed that Kiernan was in the special care nursery room. Apparently, they had noticed that when he cried he would go completely purple, and they were concerned about his oxygen and what was causing him to go completely purple. His lips didn't go purple, they stayed pink, apparently that's a very good thing. Turns out he did have low oxygen levels, either because of the infection that was causing my fever and got into him, or because he had too much fluid in his lungs.
Fortunately, he was well long enough for my dad, sister and her fiance to see him real quick. I then got to see him around 8 AM and was told they would be putting him on antibiotics for the possible infection, and monitoring him. When I saw him, he had three wires that hooked up to a monitor checking his heart rate, oxygen levels and breathing rate. He also has an IV in his head (they had a hard time finding a place for his hand, and you can see the bruises on both hands). And a big bandage around his foot where they take the blood for blood testing. It broke my heart, but I was glad to see that he was doing better. At this point, they informed me that he had been doing well, and that he definitely had fluid in his lungs. They also said they were going to do the antibiotics anyway just because of the risk of having an infection because I had the fever. he continued to do well throughout the day, and the nurse told us we might be able to keep him in our room that night (last night). So when I went back to and attempt feeding again (had issues, but happily, that is now resolved!), we asked the doctor, and he said no, not tonight, MAYBE tomorrow morning.
This morning, when i went to do the 4 AM feeding, turns out his blood sugar level was really low, and that concerned the doctor. He won't let him go until he's had two blood sugar results above 60 in a row. And Kiernan also was showing a small increase of signs of an infection, small, but made them glad they were doing the antibiotics. They will continue to do them until Sunday morning I believe. The doctor had also informed me this morning that Kiernan SHOULD be able to go home with us, depending on how things go today. We won't know until 6:00 (two hours), which is also the time we find out whether or not kiernan can be in our room with us or not. Then, at an earlier feeding, we found out that Kiernan has jaundice. But he'll still be able to be in our room with us if he has jaundice, so all that they are worried about now is keeping his blood sugar up. The last one tested at 82, so hopefully it's still up this time. They';ll take him out whenever he's schedule for his antibiotics, but will bring him back if everything is ok.
So all in all, the poor kid has had a hard time coming into this world, but really is doing well. Everybody keeps talking about what a big boy he is (he really is big!), and how cute he is (I also agree with them here too). He's now feeding every 2-3 hours. He was only feeding every 5ish hours yesterday, and would sleep a lot, hence why the blood sugar level was low, and was a concern. He is also more awake and active when feeding, so we're pretty sure he's ok blood sugar level wise now.
I'm recovering pretty well, they say. The special care nursery is at the other end of the maternity ward area, so Bryan or a nurse will take me over to the nursery in a wheelchair when it's time for me to go feed him. I wasn't really able to walk all that much yesterday, but I could move and shift in bed quite a bit. Today I've been able to walk short distances, and stand long enough to shower and enjoy the shower, so things are improving, it'll be kind of a long recovery process, but everyone says everything is going well, and I'm going to believe them. :)
I will be discharged on Sunday, and hopefully Kiernan will be as well, and then we'll finally get to be in our homes again! It feels like we've been here for a very long time, and we have. I haven't seen my apartment since Tuesday night, and everyone had expected me to be home last night. I'm excited to have Kiernan around us all the time soon, and to be able to go home soon. I feel much better than I have the past three weeks of my pregnancy, despite the fact that I have huge smile of stitches on my abdomen :) They say the morphine has worn off by now, I'm taking oral pain meds, and everything is pretty much tolerable. It only hurts if I'm walking for a longer period of time, and if the binder (i think of it as a belt that squishes all my innards together) isn't on very tight.
Other than that, things really are going well. :)