Tuesday, November 27, 2007

1 Week Old

Corbin is a week old today! He had his first doctor's appt yesterday. The good news is that he is still 6 lbs 9 oz. Most babies lose 10% of their birthweight, and he has seemed to already regain his. Everything else checked out well, except that the pediatrician felt he looked a little yellow, so she ordered a bilirubin level. When we had left the hospital last week, his level was 3.3. The doctor was surprised when his level came back at 19.1. We upped his feedings & noted he was going to the bathroom regularly still.
Today, she rechecked his levels & it went down to 18. So no further interventions are needed now. It seems to just be because he is exclusively breastfed & therefore I guess at higher risk. Levels peak usually 4-5 days postpartum & he seems to have passed that point now.
It's been a crazy week with the sleep schedule, but I think we are getting smarter about it. I slept for 2 3-hour shifts in a row last night with the exception of a breastfeeding session & Jon slept for a 6 1/2 hour shift after that. We figured out that he needs to be completely swaddled tightly for him to tolerate sleeping on his back. We are going to try for his to sleep in our room again tonight, instead of doing shifts & see how that goes.
I leave you with a few pics. Here he is meeting the cat, in his swing & in daddy's arms/on daddy's belly;
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Thursday, November 22, 2007

He's Here!!

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On Monday at work, I had started to notice very tiny spurts of fluid sporadically. Since I had had so many false alarms, I assumed I was getting more incontinent. After all, these were just tiny droplets- not soaking anything. Incidentally, I had told nobody. I work in a nursing home & one of the residents wheeled herself up to me that afternoon & said, "You are going to have that baby tomorrow morning & he will be 7 pounds."

I came home that night knowing that my husband and I had put off our weekly cleaning schedule & had both promised to do our cleaning that night. We had a meatloaf dinner & I told him about that resident's prediction and my "very tiny concern" that maybe my water had broken. I told him not to worry because I wasn't convinced at all because of the tiny amounts, and promised that I wouldn't take him back to labor & delivery for another false alarm. I said, "But hey, maybe after cleaning tonight my water WILL break from all the squatting & bending."

We finished cleaning at 9 PM & had just sat down to check our laptops & watch a TV show. All of a sudden, I felt a warm gush. I yelled to DH to bring a towel & the hospital bag. This was it! I logged on one last time to update my online pals at pregnancy.org. And off we went.

When I got there I was so happy. We took a last belly shot in the L & D waiting room. I had no doubt in my mind that I would soon be a mommy! When we got back to the testing room, the nurse asked me if I was wearing a pad. I was, so I gave it to her to sample. She mixed something with it & said "Hmm, well, this is negative. If it was amniotic fluid, this would have turned ____ (whatever color it was supposed to turn)" But she told me to sit on this plastic pad & she would gather another sample. A couple of minutes later, I had another little pool under me & she took it. She gave it to the doctor on call & he looked at it. I heard him on the other side of the curtain saying, "It's negative. She's not in labor."

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The nurse came back to us behind the curtain. We were so upset. Not only because we were disappointed, but we were so confused! I remained adamant about my water breaking. I knew there was no way I could have peed myself that much & not realized! But she told me that the baby had probably just been kicking my bladder, etc.... The nurse & I bantered a little bit about it because I was obviously very upset. My DH started to get pissed & pulled off all the monitors from me. "We're going home. If we leave now, we can get in bed by 11:30."

The nurse was a little jolted by his reaction. She said "Wait wait- I need doctor's orders to release you first." So she called my OB & he ordered a speculum sample.

That on-call doctor that I already resented for calling that second sample negative came back to do it. Not many words were spoken. I'm sure he was a little pissed that he was "wasting his time" on a false alarm.

About 2 minutes later, while my DH & I were discussing how mortifying this was going to be (we had already called all family members this time), the nurse comes back & says, "Good news- you're ruptured & you're getting a bed!" We were on such a roller coaster of emotions at this point, that we both were almost crying.

So we get to the room about midnight & i get checked. Still that blasted 1 cm. I told my DH, "This is going to be a long night." They started my IV & got some orders to start pitocin, which they did around 1:30 AM. DH & I thought we would try to sleep until it kicked in. Well, we never quite got to, because almost immediately, I started to have very bad menstrual-like cramps & back pain. At that point, I called it a 7 on the pain scale, but if I had only known what to compare it to!! After an hour or so, my nurse checked me again & I was still 1 cm. Damn. I had thought for sure those contractions were doing something because they hurt so badly.

Almost immediately after that second check, things turned very ugly. These "cramps" started to rip right through me. They felt like someone was taking a knife to my back & gutting me. I started to throw up. At some point, my previously "high leak" became a low leak & let loose. I remember when that happened, I was simultaneously having one of those torturous contractions & throwing up. I wanted to die!

Thankfully, I had told the nurse at around 3(?) that I needed my epidural. She assured me that he was coming because this floor had their own anaesthesiologist & this was not a busy labor wing. Turns out, he was sleeping, so it took a few pages to get him in there. Arg!! But I was so thankful to get that epi that I didn't mind that he was late once I had it. But when the contractions persisted & I was still throwing up after 30 minutes, I realized that I was only half numb. It hadn't worked on the left side. So they paged him again & around 4 or so, I got another bolus in my catheter & I was finally numb! I had about an hour of heaven...

I told the nurse at 5 AM that I felt like I needed to push. She was very surprised & decided to check me. 10 cm!!! In less than 2 1/2 hours! No wonder it bloody hurt like that! Well, no one was ready. They paged my OB, but he was in the shower apparently. He called back & said he was on his way & get ready to push.

My mom had arrived around 5. Fortunately, I told her, she had missed the bad part. Well, that was not entirely true, because sometime between when they had paged the doctor & when he arrived, we had a very scary incident. My contractions were very strong on the graph & they started to stress Corbin. At some point, his heart rate was reading in the 40's. It was a long enough period of time for 8 people to come racing into the room, including on call doctors & even the anaesthesiologist again. They had my doctor and the operating room on the phone at the same time. I heard them say to get ready for a stat c-section. I was screaming "Is my baby okay??" and no one was answering me. It was my worst nightmare.

My OB, who was en route, ordered them to give me terbutalline to stop the contractions. My pitocin had been stopped of course when I had been determined fully dilated. They had me switch positions a lot. Finally, we had a position that worked & his heartrate went back in the 120's.

Doc arrived around 7 & I could finally push. Can you imagine sitting around fully dilated for 2 hours? It sucks. But I didn't realize just how sloooooooow of progress I would make anyway with my pushing. Since I had had an extra bolus of epidural, I would NOT feel any pushing movements, so they turned off my epi drip & hoped I would start to feel it. Thankfully, I did, and after 3 very long, stressful hours of pushing, our little boy was born & everyone was crying & happy & exhausted all at the same time.

Corbin Jonathan was born at 10:03 AM,
November 20, 2007
19 inches
6 lbs 9.5 oz
Apgar scores were 8 & 9

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We left the hospital yesterday & he weighed 6 lbs 9.6 oz. We are sooooooo thankful to have him here finally. We think he is just the cutest baby in the world, but what parents wouldn't think that?!



A very happy Thanksgiving to all!!!

Sunday, November 18, 2007

Nope! False Alarm!

Yeah, boo. The title says it all. Now I am so confused about labor.

Went to the hospital at midnight with very frequent contractions. They hooked me up & my contractions are INDEED intense & every (get this) 30 seconds to 3 minutes apart at the most. Most of them last over 1 minute, too. I am also 100% effaced!

But cervix is still stuck at 1 cm, so I was sent home after 3 hours monitoring.

The first time she checked me (warning, Too Much Information ahead!!), she pulled out a gloved finger covered in a big red souvenir right in front of my husband's face & goes "Yes, you do have bloody show!" My DH, who is very squeamish anyway, almost lost it!

Who knows when it will be when I go into active labor! When discharged this morning, they gave me the standard "5 minutes apart, 1 minute, for 1 hour" instructions & DH & I were like, "well, apparently, this is not an exact science, because we are already there & we're going home!"

Well, I guess the good news is that since I am 100% effaced, I should go quickly when I do actually start to dilate more. I will tell you this- I am done with the castor oil!

Saturday, November 17, 2007

Another Too Much Information Post

I took some castor oil today when the Buckeyes were deep into the 3rd quarter & sat on the birthing ball ever since. Went to the bathroom & noted that I have bloody show!! It's a sign that my cervix is dilating :)
It's amazing some of the things you get excited about during pregnancy!

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Possibly Maybe Soon?

Weeeeellll...
It all started this morning at work. I had horrendous "gas pains" that I couldn't even concentrate through. They were horrible, debilitating pains in my lower abdomen & they would last anywhere from 10-15 min each & then let up for about a half an hour at a time. Whatever the heck it was, I knew it wasn't right. So I call the OB office again & see if I can get my Fri appointment switched to today. And I could....
The 20 minute drive from work to the office was so painful I was almost in tears. I almost went straight to the hospital instead.
So I get there & they started to hook me up to the NST monitors & I was already contracting & she said "Oh, wow- that's a big contraction!" As soon as I was hooked up, we could see it was a big contraction. The uterine activity monitor was up in the 70's. I sat in the recliner, hooked up to the machine & whimpered through the contractions. They were so painful, I couldn't believe it. They were every 7 minutes. The medical assistant and the nurse each came in at different times & said "You may go to labor & delivery today. You seem like you are in early labor stages." At the end of my monitoring, I was seriously sweating so badly that they commented on it. Then the doctor wanted to check my cervix. I really thought there was going to be some huge change in it, but there wasn't. I'm at 1 cm. So that was a little disappointing! HOWEVER, the doctor made some comments that made me very hopeful. I hope, hope, hope he knows what he is talking about. He said "I might see you tonight at the hospital, or I might see you tomorrow or even this weekend." I'm not sure how he can make that call, since I thought "labor" was defined as changes in the cervix. But he seemed fairly confident about it. He said "Make sure to labor at home as much as possible." And he also mentioned that I am probably not going back to work.... and he still had me make an appointment for next week. Arg!!! I'm confused! So what I gather from all of this is that I am not yet in labor, but probably soon???

Monday, November 12, 2007

Nesting & Nausea



Above is a picture of Lula. She has taken to the Pack N Play lately, I think because the dog cannot bug her when she's up there. Just wait until she finds out it isn't hers!

Today I did my normal cleaning rotation, but I added to it. I also cleaned the baseboards, alphabetized the DVD's & organized the tupp.erware cabinet. I just felt like I should get those things done, so I guess that qualifies as nesting.

Also, after I was done, I was soooo nauseated & haven't felt right since. I am not sure if I just overexerted myself or if the baby just changed positions or what, but I feel horrible tonight! I have really only wanted bland foods since. I don't really feel like eating, but I know I should, so I am.

I just feel very off today. My belly has been tight all day, too, so it is extremely difficult to tell if I am having contractions. It feels like the skin is being stretched over a drum. I huuuuuuuuuuurt (whine).

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Too Much Information, I'm Sure

The doctor must have jostled things up a little bit. Last night, I lost a big chunk of my mucous plug! Yay! Of course, things could still look hopeful for weeks & I could still go until my due date, but I'm glad things are looking promising. He is welcome to come anytime after the OSU/Michigan game, which is also ironically the day I hit full term at 37 weeks!

Friday, November 9, 2007

36 Week Appointment

I started my internals today! Yay! We are near the end! The OB office seemed to be cheering me on, now. And I got free stuff! A diaper bag and a bottle tote filled with free samples of diapers, wipes, formula & coupons. I went down the checklist with the medical assistant, too: childcare taken care of, carseat is installed, etc.

I'm a fingertip dilated! This basically means nothing, but at least my cervix is not closed still. Effacement is extremely hard to judge for me because of my previous cervical surgery.

I started to drink raspberry tea and take evening primrose oil to help soften my cervix. This will not actually put me into labor, but it will help out what has already begun (so they say).

One week from tomorrow, I am officially full term! I am ready to go anytime after that. Especially after that because that is the day of the Michigan-Ohio State game and my husband will just die if I go into labor before that.

Thursday, November 1, 2007

I FELL!

I took an unexpected spill this morning during my morning walk. I went down a poorly lit street & didn't notice the step in the sidewalk. I tumbled right over it & SMACK onto my belly. I also felt a small gush of fluid.

Called the doc & he sent me over to L & D. It's pretty sad when the staff starts to recognize you. Anyway, they did a blood test to see if the baby's blood mixed with mine. I am awaiting those results, but I expect everything to come out okay. They monitored me for about an hour and a half. I had some contractions, but nothing too strong, so they let me go. My cervical fluid check was negative for amniotic fluid.

This pregnancy has been eventful to say the least. Here's a picture for the old scrapbook!

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