 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
Samantha
Hi all, I wanted to write and tell you all about our newest addition...Samantha Riley. Our baby girl was born on Tuesday, September 28 at 2:24 pm following a scheduled induction. She was 6 lbs 6 ozs and 20 inches (born at 37w6d). Jay and I couldn't be more thrilled. Sydney is having a little trouble adapting but I think that it is expected with a 21-month old.Birth Story:
I went into the hospital Monday afternoon (the 27th) to get hooked up to the Heparin IV...I stopped taking my Fragmin Sunday evening. They put the Cervadil (cervix ripener) in that night and I had a bit of cramping overnight. By morning, I was 2 cm dilated. They turned off the Heparin at 4 am so that I could get an epidural and the Heparin would clear my system by 8 am. At 8, I was taken over to L&D but had to wait and wait and wait because there was an emergency caesarian in front of me. When the anesthesiologist left that, he came to me. By then my contractions were every 2 to 3 minutes but still not too strong. They gave me the epidural (what a difference from a natural delivery with Sydney!!!) but then the contractions petered out. This was noon. They ruptured my membranes and started the oxytocin (pitocin to you) at 12:30. Things got moving again.
At 1:30 she checked me and I was at 3 cm. At 2:00 I started to feel the contractions again...apparently I had a patchy block and could feel the contractions on my left side (still better than before). She checked me and said I was 4 cm. However, each time I had a contraction the baby's heart rate dipped down. They decided that the baby must be pushing on the cord somewhere and went to go get some sort of fluid infusion machine to pump my uterus back up. While the nurse went out to get this machine, I had about 6 VERY strong contractions. I asked my sister if it was possible that the baby could be coming out (felt an overwhelming amount of pressure) and she asked the nurse to check me again when she got back in the room. The nurse did and I was complete and the baby's head was right there. 4 to 10 cm in under 10 minutes...intense! Anyway, I pushed for about another 10 minutes (4 or 5 pushes I think) and Samantha was born! I'm glad it was a girl because we had only settled on a girl's name...down to three or four for a boy and were still fighting over whether to circumcise or not!
Aftermath:
We only got to hold her for a few minutes when my sister (a pediatrician) decided that she needed to go to the NICU right away. We got a few pics in and off she went. I expected this because Sydney went to the NICU for 24 hours but apparently Samantha wasn't doing as well as Sydney did.
Her grunting was very bad and she couldn't breathe very well. They attributed this to immature lungs due to my diabetes and not being well "wrung out" due to the fast delivery. Her sugars were okay but she couldn't eat and breathe...too much for her. They hooked her up to CPAP (forced air/oxygen machine) and put a food tube down her nose to her stomach. She also had an IV (once they shaved her head and put it in a vein there...very scary looking) to keep her sugars up. She stayed there for four nights. It was the scariest time in my life. I don't know how parents hold it together that have children that stay there for weeks or months.
One time she crashed (not heart but stopped breathing and turned purple) while we were there and they were running around calling for doctors stat and such. They nearly knocked me over with my IV pole. Four people were crowded around her little isolette and I was terrified.
However, she got out of the NICU and into my room for 24 hours before we were discharged. She is nursing now but not gaining too much weight. She was a little late in learning and still has trouble eating and breathing. They were concerned about her weight loss (from 6 lbs 6 ozs to 5 lbs 12 ozs upon discharge) but I begged them to let us go with a promise to follow up with my family physician. I had been in the hospital for nearly a week at that point and was tired of being there.
They eventually let us go and she's been doing well ever since. She only gained 20 grams by her doctor's appointment and I have to go again next week but any gain is good right?
Sorry this is a novel but I'm just so excited and thrilled to have her in my arms and home with us. Suzanne.
Homozygous FVL
Heterozygous MTHFR
Gestational Diabetes (possible diabetic for life)
2 Beautiful Daughters!