Wednesday, October 7, 2009
The Kid is Alright
The kids get to see their new treasureOK, I'm back on track, ready to finish Emilia's story. I last wrote that I had left the doctor's office with strict orders to get to the hospital. When I got home Peter had arranged for Andrew and the girls to be picked up. My friend Melinda ,who by the way is an extraordinary mother to thirteen extraordinary children, took care of everyone.
We arrived at the hospital and told them our story. My doctor said she was going to call ahead so they would be expecting me. Well... they were not! So now they don't know who I am or why I'm there. They do seem to believe my story so they start the admitting procedures and put a call in to my doctor. And I wait, and wait and wait. Finally Peter was like "OK let's get going here"!
At last they bring me to my room and tell me a doctor will be up shortly to start inducing me. Four short hours later someone came in. The first part was a twelve hour suppository to soften my cervix. the nurses tried to be positive and tell me that since this is my fifth pregnancy , the suppository might just do the trick. If not they would start pitocin in the morning. Since no one really knew one way or the other for sure, I wanted Peter to stay at the hospital . Just my luck he leaves and I go into labor and he misses everything. So my sweet Melinda takes care of everyone, her thirteen and my four. This woman deserves a post of her own. One day she's going to get it whether she wants it or not.
They hooked me up , well the baby up to a heart monitor. And we saw that she was having decels. That freaked me out. But they were stopped by me changing positions. She was fine when I was in the most uncomfortable position possible. The nurses assured me that they were watching the monitor at the nurses station and if anything went wrong they would be right in. For the most part everything went OK, I couldn't sleep because I was too busy watching and listening to the monitor.
Poor Peter stayed with me through the night on that not so comfortable fold out bed. A nurse and I did have a great laugh at his expense. Late at night one sweet nurse came to check on me. I was warm, so earlier I had opened the window. The October air felt so good. Well, it got colder and I was fine but when the nurse came in she started to shiver, and asked me if I was cold. I told her I was fine. She looked at Peter who was rolled up into a tiny ball with just his nose sticking out. We started laughing so hard we were crying. She asked me if she should check for a pulse. We were on the floor laughing.
The next morning , I was supposed to go down at 7:30. Well in came the good news that they were backed up, and it would be a few more hours!! Great, what the heck was the rush to get here for! Seriously a few minutes later they came back and said I was going to the Labor and Delivery room at 9:00, GREAT!!!
Down we go and they get the Pitocin going and then we wait. I found out from my labor and delivery nurse that I was number nine on the list of women waiting to be induced that morning, but she saw my unusual situation and bumped me up, because she had a student with her that day and thought I would make an interesting patient. Whatever works! I was very grateful.
Things were moving slowly, I was walking around but Emilia kept having decels. The nurse waved me back and that was the end of my walking. I had to stay in bed. Emilia was not handling the Pitocin very well. Whenever the nurse turned up the amount Emilia would have decels.On top of that , whenever I had a contraction her heart rate was not recovering. That 's not very productive. I new if something didn't give I was headed for a c-section. We had been doing this all day, it was 3:oo and my nurse's shift was over. I was devastated, I didn't want another nurse. She decided to stay, imagine that, she called her kids at home and stayed with me. What a sweetie!
We filled out the c-section papers just in case. She said if we were ready to go , we probably wouldn't need them. She was right.Things began to move quickly.
With my other children I never opted to have them given to me the second they were born. I was fine to wait until they were swaddled (weak stomach). But with Em it was different. I wanted to be the first one to see her. I didn't want the expression of a doctor to tell me if she did or did not have Ds. At exactly 5:oo pm on October 22, 2008, Emilia Faith graced us with her presence. What a moment! What an incredible moment!
