The day started off with my weekly appointment with my OB. Jared and I went to our 9:30 appointment, driving in separate cars so we could both head in to work afterward. My appointment this week was with Dr. Dabling, who I had just recently met in the ICU, but hadn't seen her yet as my doctor. She seemed super nice in the ICU both to me as a nurse and to the patient that we were caring for. So she comes in to see me and I had big plans to have her strip my membranes in hopes things would start moving quicker to get my little boy out! She does the usual fetal heart tones, cervix check (which I was dilated to a 2 and 75% effaced), and she measured my fundus. Everything looked fine and dandy, except the fundus measurement. There was no growth over the prior couple of weeks. She was concerned that my amniotic fluid levels may be low, so we did an ultrasound. The ultrasound tech measured the fluid levels at about 10, which is the low end of normal or acceptable, but baby was only measuring in the 15th percentile. We then went back in with Dr. Dabling who called over to the neonatologist. Dr. Dabling was concerned cause both numbers were pretty borderline but neither of them alone were means for induction. The neonatologist didn't seem overly concerned, but Dr. Dabling kept saying she just didn't feel right about it. She ended up scheduling us for a nonstress test over at the hospital to get a better look and idea of what was going on with our little guy. Luckily we had about an hour and a half to go home, eat some lunch, and pack a hospital bag (cause I kept putting it off). She told us there was a good chance I'd be getting my wish of having our baby that day, but if it wasn't that day, she was going to set me up for induction at 39 weeks, which was three days later. So Jerry and I wound up at Utah Valley Hospital for our 1:30 appointment. The nonstress test showed the amniotic fluid levels at 6, which they want the level to be 8 or higher. So, when that was all finished, they sent us upstairs to labor and deliver to start the process of bringing our little guy into the world!
We did all the admit stuff and got settled in our room, which had a stellar view of Timp, and the pitocin was finally started at about 4:15 pm. I knew I wanted to get an epidural, cause why not take advantage of modern medicine, but it was a matter of when. I ended up deciding I'm paying for it whether I get it now or in a few hours, so may as well get it now! And boy am I glad I did it when I did cause the anesthesiologist (Dr. Martin, who knows my dad well) was about to head in for a c-section that would have tied him up for a while, and they came in to break my water while he was gone. They broke my water around 6:30. I started off with the usual heart tone and contraction monitors they put around the belly. It wasn't too long before they had to switch out the external monitor for an internal monitor so we could better see the strength of contractions and the affect of the contractions on baby's heart rate. There should be acceleration of the heart rate with contractions, but our little guy was having decelerations with every contraction. I had to stay propped up to my left side cause the decelerations were not as extreme to the left as they were when I was turned to the right. Dr. Bennett was the OB on-call that night. She and our nurses were so on top of everything! They were in our room frequently telling us everything that was going on and what they could or may need to do about it. Dr. Bennett told us early on that there was a strong chance that we may be welcoming our baby via c-section because of the decelerations, but we'd give him a good chance. So over the 5 hours, the nurses were adjusting rates and turning on and off the pitocin according to my contractions and the heart rate. With time, our little guy's heart rate started regularly dropping down to the 60's with the contractions and Dr. Bennett came and had a good talk with us about a c-section. She spent a lot of time with us addressing our concerns. She explained that because this c-section would be occurring due to complications with the baby, and not complications with me and my abilities to get baby out, our chance of c-section on the next child is barely higher than any other person. She also went over statistics of likelihood of complications with each additional c-section if that were for some reason the case with future children. She was very comforting to us. Even though things clearly weren't going as hoped, I felt calm the whole time cause Dr. Bennet, Dr. Martin, and my nurse Melodie were so attentive and informative. Eventually, our little guy's heart rate dropped down in to the 40's, even with the pitocin off. At that point Dr. Bennett came right in and said we didn't have much of an option anymore, a heart rate of 40 was unacceptable. So within minutes I was back in the surgical suite getting prepped for surgery. Dr. Bennett with the assistance of Dr. Ludlow were doing their thing to get me prepped and Dr. Martin was up at the head of the bed with Jared and I doing an amazing job keeping me comfortable but still awake so I could experience everything. He was so good about explaining everything that was going on to Jared and I. I couldn't see anything, but they had a clear sterile drape so Jared could watch everything going on while I listened in to Jared, Dr. Martin, and Dr. Bennett telling me everything. At 10:21 pm our little boy was born. Everything had gone perfectly with the c-section. Jared was able to hold our little boy right away and show him to me. I of course was not able to hold him yet, but it was so special to see my amazing husband holding this sweet little angel we'd been waiting to meet for 9 months. Soon after that, Jared went with the nurse to get our baby all taken care of and they upped my medication and finished the surgery. I was still somewhat awake, but don't remember much until we got back to the L&D suite. Once the anesthesia wore off enough I was able to hold my sweet baby boy again. Our little Anderson Ray made it to us safe and sound. He tried to give us a few scares in the process, but thanks to an amazing medical team, he made it to us perfectly healthy, just little.
After a little while, we transferred down to Mother/Baby. We didn't get down there till about midnight, and with all the excitement and everything going on, didn't go to sleep till about 3:30. We just couldn't stop snuggling our little angel and had to get started on the feeding! We spent three days in the hospital since I was a c-section. It was a good experience there, but boy was I ready to go home come Saturday evening! I was real tired of sitting in that hospital bed!
Bringing Anders home was exciting and crazy. It was truly the beginning of a totally new life for Jared and I! But boy, has it been amazing! Our dog Louie has loved Anders and is super protective of him! Anytime I'm nursing Anders, or he's laying on my lap, Louie comes over and pushes the blankets to cover Anders up. Or he'll sit on the back of the couch above me and watch over Anders. It really is sweet to see! It also amazes me how I can sit and stare at Anders all day long and never get bored! It's so amazing how this tiny little human can bring us so much joy! And so amazing how in an instant you fall so deeply in love and nothing else matters! My prior post talks about all the fear and worry I had about becoming a mother and in an instant, those feelings were washed away with sheer joy. It's been so fun having Anders in our life these past eight days and to transition into motherhood. Everything changes so much and despite having no idea what you're doing, everything comes so naturally because of the love you feel. I am so in love with my little Anderson Ray!
