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Chloe Ann: Birth Story
Hello all! I can't believe it's been a whole week since Chloe's birth and I still haven't posted the birth story! Well, here it goes...
I went in for a scheduled induction on Sunday, October 24th. The pitocin was started around 9:15 pm. They didn't get to aggressive with the pit until I had at least 4 hours of antibiotics on board because I was positive for Strep B. My OB came in to check on me once I was all set up,. He came in just for me, no other patients admitted ... how cool is that! He was dressed in a t-shirt and shorts. Too funny! He asked the nurse to break my water at 1am, and start an epidural whenever I wanted one. I was 3 cm dialated and 50% effaced.
I had regular contractions at that point, but nothing too awful. I definetly wanted the epidural before my water was broken, but didn't feel a huge need for it yet either, so I was torn. At 2am I went ahead and asked for the epidural because it seemed they were waiting for that to move forward with breaking the water. I finally got the epidural at 4am and they broke my water at 5 am. Way behind schedule in my opinion. The pitocin was also only turned up to a 4 at this point, which is apparently pretty low. When my water broke, they also discovered that there was meconium in the water, but only a staining of the water so not as bad as it could be.
The OB came back in around 7:30 and said he was shocked I was still pregnant and he hadn't been called... he expected (as did I) things to go much faster. He checked me and I was still at a 3 and 50% effaced ... I was like "you've got to be fricken kidding me". So they cranked up the pitocin and things started progressing finally.
This is where I lose track of time. I'm not sure when they checked me and when I started really progressing, but I know it was about 3 hours or so later when I was a 7-8 and by noonish I was almost fully dilated. This is also when Chloe's heart started having huge dips with each contraction. By now I also had an internal monitor for the contractions, so they used that catheter to put IV fluid back into the uterus, which helped a little, but not enough. The nurses also discovered that Chloe was transverse (turned sideways) ... the little snot! The OB came over and Chloe was delivered with forceps at 12:35 pm. He was able to turn her and we also then discovered that the cord was wrapped around her shoulders and she had a knot! She made a squeek of a cry after she was born, but not much.
The NICU team was waiting because of the meconium and intubated her in order to suction out the fluid. She required a few minutes of bagging, but otherwise started breathing normally on her own. Her apgars where 3, 5 and 9.
Oh, and she was 8 lb, 1 oz and 20 3/4 inches long.
Now the story appeared to be getting it's happy ending. Baby was doing well, her blood sugar was high, but normal (I was gestational diabetic) and the NICU team left Chloe behind with me in the labor and delivery room.
On the way to the regular room they took Chloe to the nursery to do another sugar test before I fed her. She was 17 ... that's where the bottom dropped out. Off to the NICU she went. She was asymptomatic the whole time ... even at a 17 which is really really low, but she needed sugar fast. They started an IV and slowly turned up her sugar over the next 24 hours until they were talking about an umbilical line. Things turned around at about 24 hours though. Two things changed. First of all, apparently there is some magic to the 24 hour mark where newborns can begin to control their own sugar levels, but the NICU nurse and I had also decided to start supplementing with formula. I don't know what made the difference, but the sugar stabalized and she was eventually weaned off the IV fluid. She went home finally on Friday afternoon. I was of course discharged on Wednesday night (let me tell you how much that *****!)
So Chloe is home now and doing well. We no longer need to supplement with formula and she is completely breast fed. We had a pediatrician appointment today and she's gained even more weight (up to 8.4) which is interesting because everyone thought she would lose weight once off the fluids.
Hope I didn't ramble to much... I look forward to hearing more birth stories!!!
Here is a link to the hospital photos: http://www.our365.com/NewbornPortraits/BabyDetail.aspx?birthid=f6ef3e71-2ab6-4456-a0da-3395f21d1237
I went in for a scheduled induction on Sunday, October 24th. The pitocin was started around 9:15 pm. They didn't get to aggressive with the pit until I had at least 4 hours of antibiotics on board because I was positive for Strep B. My OB came in to check on me once I was all set up,. He came in just for me, no other patients admitted ... how cool is that! He was dressed in a t-shirt and shorts. Too funny! He asked the nurse to break my water at 1am, and start an epidural whenever I wanted one. I was 3 cm dialated and 50% effaced.
I had regular contractions at that point, but nothing too awful. I definetly wanted the epidural before my water was broken, but didn't feel a huge need for it yet either, so I was torn. At 2am I went ahead and asked for the epidural because it seemed they were waiting for that to move forward with breaking the water. I finally got the epidural at 4am and they broke my water at 5 am. Way behind schedule in my opinion. The pitocin was also only turned up to a 4 at this point, which is apparently pretty low. When my water broke, they also discovered that there was meconium in the water, but only a staining of the water so not as bad as it could be.
The OB came back in around 7:30 and said he was shocked I was still pregnant and he hadn't been called... he expected (as did I) things to go much faster. He checked me and I was still at a 3 and 50% effaced ... I was like "you've got to be fricken kidding me". So they cranked up the pitocin and things started progressing finally.
This is where I lose track of time. I'm not sure when they checked me and when I started really progressing, but I know it was about 3 hours or so later when I was a 7-8 and by noonish I was almost fully dilated. This is also when Chloe's heart started having huge dips with each contraction. By now I also had an internal monitor for the contractions, so they used that catheter to put IV fluid back into the uterus, which helped a little, but not enough. The nurses also discovered that Chloe was transverse (turned sideways) ... the little snot! The OB came over and Chloe was delivered with forceps at 12:35 pm. He was able to turn her and we also then discovered that the cord was wrapped around her shoulders and she had a knot! She made a squeek of a cry after she was born, but not much.
The NICU team was waiting because of the meconium and intubated her in order to suction out the fluid. She required a few minutes of bagging, but otherwise started breathing normally on her own. Her apgars where 3, 5 and 9.
Oh, and she was 8 lb, 1 oz and 20 3/4 inches long.
Now the story appeared to be getting it's happy ending. Baby was doing well, her blood sugar was high, but normal (I was gestational diabetic) and the NICU team left Chloe behind with me in the labor and delivery room.
On the way to the regular room they took Chloe to the nursery to do another sugar test before I fed her. She was 17 ... that's where the bottom dropped out. Off to the NICU she went. She was asymptomatic the whole time ... even at a 17 which is really really low, but she needed sugar fast. They started an IV and slowly turned up her sugar over the next 24 hours until they were talking about an umbilical line. Things turned around at about 24 hours though. Two things changed. First of all, apparently there is some magic to the 24 hour mark where newborns can begin to control their own sugar levels, but the NICU nurse and I had also decided to start supplementing with formula. I don't know what made the difference, but the sugar stabalized and she was eventually weaned off the IV fluid. She went home finally on Friday afternoon. I was of course discharged on Wednesday night (let me tell you how much that *****!)
So Chloe is home now and doing well. We no longer need to supplement with formula and she is completely breast fed. We had a pediatrician appointment today and she's gained even more weight (up to 8.4) which is interesting because everyone thought she would lose weight once off the fluids.
Hope I didn't ramble to much... I look forward to hearing more birth stories!!!
Here is a link to the hospital photos: http://www.our365.com/NewbornPortraits/BabyDetail.aspx?birthid=f6ef3e71-2ab6-4456-a0da-3395f21d1237
Those are the hospital photos ... I couldn't believe it! They would have also done pictures with the other kids in them along with her. I was so mad I hadn't brought them there!
Congratulations! What great photos! Those are the hospital photos?!? Wow, I have never seen such great hospital photos before. With my last two they had the babies on a muticolored piece of paper (background) in a plastic bassinet and they just took the one photo of the baby by itself, lol. Maybe this hospital will be better.
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