As I imagine all, or most, of you know, Adelyn Ruth was born on February 19, 2010 at 5:13pm measuring in at 7lb 12oz and 21.5 in. I think Debra Rienstra says in best in her book "Great With Child"...
"first the deep attentiveness of pregnancy, then the harrowing intensity of birth, then that surrender of the self to demands that press the boundaries of endurance and to a small person who, once here, will make any previous life seem impossibly incomplete."
So, here are the details of Adelyn's debut into and the first few days of life, hopefully not too much information :)
I checked into the hospital around 5pm on Thursday, Feb 18, at which point Dr. Gowen inserted a
Foley Ball into my cervix to begin a mechanical induction and get my cervix dilated to around 4cm. I was given an Ambien to help me sleep since I might be feeling "light cramping". That was a bunch of BS. As soon as the ball was placed into my cervix, I began having contractions. Around 230-300am, I took a cytotec (I think thats how its spelled) pill to thin my membranes. Again, semi-painful contractions. Not anything to write home about, but definitely more painful than Ambien would take care of! The Foley Ball fell out around 4am, at which point I was 4.5-5 cm dilated. Dr. Gowen came in around 7am and broke my water and started me on Pitocin. I was also given an epidural. It stopped working relatively quickly and I was given stronger doses as the day went on because the Pitocin was working its magic! By 230 or so I was ready to push. Dr. Gowen came in and told me it could take up to 2 hours- NOT a fan of that since I know two people who recently had children and they both pushed for 17 and 20 min. I was trying to be optimistic, even though our little one was being quite stubborn, and had been throughout the pregnancy! Well, after 60+ min of hard pushing (the epidural had quickly worn off at that point to, so I was able to feel exactly when a contraction was coming and the need to push- pushing was actually quite a large relief to the contraction. I would like to think that my 17 yrs of swimming gave me some abs to do that part quite well! After an hour, however, she still had not begun to progress down the birth canal, so Dr. Gowen 'went in' and checked things out. Unfortunately, little Adelyn decided to make one more stubborn move prior to her debut. She had turned out of the breech position; however, she decided to position her self posteriorly, which means that instead of face down with her chin tucked in, she was face up, with her chin tucked in, causing the crown of her head to be pushed into my pelvis. Both Dr. Gowen and his partner tried to manually turn her (another pleasant experience, let me tell you). Since I could still feel the need to push, they boosted my epidural drugs so that I could have a semi rational discussion about my options without pushing on her anymore. He told me that she may have still been able to come out naturally, but chances were unlikely and if she did, it probably would have caused a 4th degree tear. We decided that c-section was the best option for both mom and baby. I went in to the OR around 430pm, completely exhausted and basically passed out. They prepped me for surgery and Miss Adelyn was born at 513pm (after a difficult time getting her out!). I apparently have a very small pelvis, and even if she was positioned correctly, there is no guarantee I wouldnt have needed a c-section anyways. She definitely had a set of lungs on her, thats for sure. She is a very healthy girl. She rated an 8-9 on her
Apgar score and the pediatrician said that she was in perfect health, aside from being quite bruised and swollen from being jammed into my pelvis. Most of that has since gone down, though.
She and Paul rolled out to our recovery room after about 10 min while I was being cleaned/stitched up. Adelyn was greeted by her Grandparents Laws, her Nana and Pop-Pop Moerman and her Great-Grandmother, Mama. I was wheeled back to the room a little before 6 and after about 15 or so minutes of meet and greet, everyone left, giving Paul and I some alone time with her. I nursed, she slept and, of course, I did not get too much sleep. I woke up at some point with the worst headache I had ever had in my life. I attributed it to pushing, and thought I had actually given my self an aneurysm. I mentioned it the next day to the nurse and my doctor, but didnt think too much of it. I took a rather large Motrin and went on with my day despite the pain. Adelyn slept most of the day, fed some, slept some more, was oohed and ahhed over. The life of a baby... Sunday brought an even worse headache, which, I soon learned was a
Spinal Headache because of the epidural. The anesthesiologist had nicked a vein, which apparently caused a slow leak, which was why it was not determined immediately. He was very apologetic, but it did not help the pain. Finally, after not being able to lift my head off the bed for about 24 hours (the only source of some relief is to take gravity's effects off the spinal column), I was given a blood patch. Relief came instantly. The headache wasnt gone, and i had a pressure in my back from fluid that shouldnt be there, but it was 3943284978% better than it had been 5 min prior. It took about 24 hours after my blood clotted for the spinal fluid to completely fill again. She had a bili test done to test for jaundice, and unfortunately, her levels had gone up 3 points so we had to put her under lights. She seemed to thoroughly enjoy her spa day, even later when we had to put more lights on top of her and she had to wear goggles to protect her eyes. Monday night was a rough one for us, we arent sure if its because she slept so well under the lights or if she was being poked and prodded too much (she had her hearing test done then as well) or a combination of all of the above, she would NOT sleep unless either Paul or I held her. We would set her down after we thought she was asleep, 5-10 min later she was wailing again. I guess there will be many nights like this.
She was released last night around 7 and we headed home, very excited to know that we would all be sleeping in our own bed after 5 days of hospital (aka jail) uncomfortable-ness. The night went as smoothly as we could have hoped for. Now we are just hanging out and enjoying life as a family of three. Will post pictures later....
I was a little tired at this point, but SO happy she was finally here!
She may be bruised, but Adelyn knows her Daddy (3 min old)
In the recovery room before I got back from the OR
Mama and Adelyn Ruth
Mama Alice, Nana and Daddy Joe
Big eyes!
Home Sweet Home!
Our little Papoose
Uncle Ben's roomie knitted this tiny hat for her. We were able to use it on our first outing!
