She's here!

Well, she's been here for 5 days now.  Born Saturday, September 24 at 2:57 p.m. via stat c-section (oh yeah, more about that further down) weighing in at 7 lb 3 oz and 20 1/2 inches.

But before we get to the details.  Previously.........

In the last episode, I was scheduled for induction Monday, September 26.  I went in the Friday before for my last OB checkup.  All was well.  The doc I saw was actually going to be at the hospital Monday afternoon so we figured I'd probably end up delivering with her.  Yes, she looks like she's 12 years old, but I really do like her.  She's very straight forward and I get the sense that even though she's the least experienced at the practice, she's actually quite a good doc.

Anyhow, I was driving away (to the Blinds to Go store - don't ask) and I received a call from the surgery scheduler at the practice.  Did I want to go in this evening (Friday, September 23) and get induced tomorrow morning (Saturday) instead of Monday morning?  The doc who was head of the practice (and the doc who had done my D&C at 13 weeks of the Trisomy 18 pregnancy the previous year) was on call all day Saturday and I would deliver with her.  I told her I needed to call Mr.Right.  So I did.  We decided that, despite my desire to let babygirl come to full term (Sunday) and have a chance to come on her own, that this might actually be a good idea.  We like Dr.A and it would actually give Mr.Right a few more days at home with us.  And the fact that I hadn't progressed at all (read, no real dilatation) from the previous week meant it probably didn't matter if I was induced on Saturday or Monday.

So, we decided to go for it. I headed for home thinking about all of the things I'd been procrastinating doing because, gee whiz, this baby wasn't going to come until Monday!

I went in about 8 p.m. on Friday evening to the hospital.  After having to go back down to the lobby to wait for a room to open up, Mr.Right headed for home and left me there.  We figured he'd be more useful if he'd gotten a good night's sleep at home instead of on a recliner in the hospital room. As it was, I was shortly called back up to labor and delivery and put in my room, but with all the things they had to do - put in an IV, do an ultrasound to verify the baby's head was down, put in the cervidil (to soften my cervix), put on the monitors after the cervidil was placed and, finally, removing the monitors, bringing me my last food (jello, natch) - I never really got to sleep until about midnight.  My trusty British Airways eye shades and newly purchased ear plugs let me sleep a bit, but the anticipation had me up looking at the clock every hour or so.  Finally, about 6 a.m. they woke me up to remove the cervidil and break my water.

Mr.Right arrived about 7 a.m. and the pitocin was started.  We chitchatted with the nurses, Dr.A and he did work and I mostly lay there watching the baby's heartbeat on the monitor.

A first indication, although we didn't realize it at the time, that all might not go swimmingly was the baby's heartbeat got kind of erractic and dipped below 80 a few times not too long after they'd broken my water and started the pitocin.  So, they started an amniotic infusion - basically to replace some of the water to make the baby more comfortable.  This proceed to drip out of me for several hours.  At that point, they also decided to place an internal monitor - that monitored the strength of the contractions more accurately.

The contractions finally got to be fairly intense around 10 a.m. and I asked for the epidural.  It took nearly an hour to get but I made it.  Finally, about noon Dr.A came again and checked me - only 2 centimeters dilated, but she wanted to give it another 2 hours before making a decision.  Somewhere between 1 and 2 my parents and Mr.Right's mother showed up.  We chitchatted (the epidural was heaven!!!) until about 2:30 when while talking with my mother, Mr.Right and I both noticed that the baby's heart-rate was once again bouncing along around and underneath the 90 mark.  Just as Mr.Right was about to walk out to get the nurse, she came in.  They had me roll from one side to the other to see if things changed.  They didn't.  The heart-beat got more erratic and lower.  At about the same time, 4 more nurses came into the room.  It was suggested that the grandparents leave.  At this point, it was probably 2:40 or 2:45.  Things started moving very quickly.  I was given a shot to stop contracts.  I was told to get on my hands and knees (quite a feat with legs that felt like they were both asleep and tons of wires and catheters come out of me and tangling around me).  About this time, Dr.A came huffing and puffing into the room (and she's very fit - so she was out of breath, we later found out, because she'd run up the stairs from the lobby (to the 3rd floor)).

We were going for a c-section, stat.  The anesthesiologist was somehow there and I swear he practically had to hop on the gurney with me as they were rolling down the hall at top speed in order to put the additional medicine in my IV to make the epidural work for the c-section.  We rolled into the OR and mostly I remember talking with the anesthesiologist, asking him what I should and should not be feeling and trying to make sure I was actually feeling the block before they cut in.  At some point as I was still saying this to him, he said, "they've already made the incision."  In 33 seconds after the incision was made, the baby was out.  I heard her cry, but by the time someone pointed out that if I turned my head to the left I could see her at the table where the neonatologist was working on her, someone had stepped in my line of sight.

Next I saw Mr.Right come into the room, crying.  It still makes me tear up to think about how upset he was.  I later learned that they left him outside the OR door, because there were too many people working around me. He headed for the baby on the table.  And then he headed for me.  I tried to tell him it was all right.  And, it was.  The baby was perfectly find.  The neonatologist actually left and they continued on with the usual things - vitamin k shot, ointment in the eyes.  Eventually, Mr.Right was able to bring the baby over and hold her next to my head so I could kiss her.  We got a picture.

Then they left.  And I spent the next - who knows how many minutes - being sewn up.  Dr.A is incredible, really.  She was talking to me through the whole sew up procedure.  She took out my fibroid near the cervix since it was where she'd made the incision anyhow.  She kissed my cheek before she left to let the surg techs finish up the sewing up.

I ended up having to wait around then for the radiologist to come to do an x-ray.  Apparently, when they do a stat surgery and there's no time to count the instruments before the surgery they have to order an x-ray just to make sure nothing has been left inside :-)  Nothing was.  No airport scanner issues here.

Finally, off I went to the recovery room.  Mr.Right was there with the baby in a bassinet.  He'd been holding her for 1.5 hours.(!)  The grandparents and my sister were allowed to come up for a very brief time only.  After some time, we were finally transported to the post-delivery area and our room for the next two days.

Yes, folks, I came home on Monday afternoon after the Saturday afternoon c-section.  I just couldn't stand it in the room in the hospital anymore.  It felt like I was crawling the walls.  And basically my OB and the pediatrician cleared us to go if we wanted.

So, that's the story.  Kind of dramatic, huh?  But all's well that ends well.  Babygirl is absolutely perfect.  Everybody says she's beautiful (of course! ;-) And we think she truly is.  She has so many expressions I want to take a picture of every single one.  And at 5 days old only I'm already realizing this time with her at this stage of her life is going to be soooooo short.

More on the first 5 days in another post.

I leave you with this pic: