Our delivery story.

So, I am finally getting around to typing up our delivery story..12 days later! :s Recovery has been long and painful for me, and that is my excuse. That, and I really don't have a sense of "time" anymore, the days just seem to run together. So...here is our story!

On Friday, March 25th, I had my regular appointments with the Antenatal clinic for a biophysical profile, and the Obstetrician. The Biophysical profile went well, she scored a 10/10. At my OB appointment, the doctor who was seeing me that day was going to be my delivering doctor on Saturday at the hospital. I will refer to him as Dr.M. Dr. M checked me and discovered that my cervix was still high and closed, and he sent me over to the hospital to have a tablet of cytotec put in overnight.

We headed over to the hospital, and arrived there at around 3pm. We talked with the nurses, and decided that we would go have dinner, and go see a movie, and return back to the hospital after we were done. My bestie from My life in Purple arrived in the city at around 5pm, and we went and had dinner with some friends, and saw a movie (Hall Pass). At around 9:30 pm we headed back to the hospital.

At approximately 10:30pm, they inserted the tablet of cytotec, monitored the baby for about 1/2 hour, then sent me to my room for the night. At around 2am, I woke up, and was crampy. I was unable to go back to sleep, so I called the nurse and she brought me something to ease my discomfort. I woke up at around 6:30am, had my breakfast, took a shower, and went over to Labour and Delivery at around 10am. Dr.M greeted us, and checked me. I had progressed to 3 cm and 80% effaced just with the single dose! So he decided to break my water. They sent me for a walk, and told me to come back in about 45 minutes. So my hubby went to get a snack, and my bestie and I walked the halls. At 11am I returned to L &D, and they checked me again... no change. So they decided to start the oxytocin in the I.V. During this entire process, they kept saying how I would likely progress very quickly once labour got going, so I was hopeful for a quick delivery, and hopefully by supper time. They let me eat some lunch and started the oxytocin at just after noon.

By 2:30pm my contractions were beginning to become uncomfortable. They checked me and I was only 3-4 cm and the baby's head was "high". Our little one had been having heart rate decelerations and they couldn't tell if it was her heart beat that the monitor was picking up, or mine. So the decision was made to put an electrode on her scalp to pick up her heart beat. I had not had any pain medications, and this procedure was the most uncomfortable part of my day thus far! Once the electrode was in place, they were able to track her heart beat.

At around 4:30 pm I had my epidural, and I was told that I was only 4-5 cm and that the baby's head was still "high". She was experiencing "compression" contractions, where her heart rate would rise as the contraction began..then dip during the contraction, and recover to normal afterwards. At around 5pm the nurse checked me because of these contractions. She was thinking that I would be dilating quickly. No luck..still the same. The doctor decided that we would continue with the induction, and monitor the baby closely. He told me that as long as she continued to recover from the contractions, he was OK with continuing.

By 7:30 pm I was on maximum dose oxytocin, and resting comfortably with my epidural. The nurse was monitoring the baby. My contractions were very strong and close together, coming every minute and a half and lasting 50 seconds. I had two strong contractions that she didn't recover from. The nurse tore the monitor strip off, and left us with a student nurse, and went to find Dr.M. 15 minutes later, Dr.M entered the room and said "Marjorie, I think it is time we have this baby. We need to do a c-section...she is not tolerating labour". I said "Do what you have to, just get her out alive!". By 8pm they were getting me ready for the O.R.

Kaedence Raine Gavel was born at 8:43 pm. The doctors moved very quickly to get her out, and she was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck and shoulders..she probably wouldn't have survived a vaginal birth. She sure did exercise her lungs though, and I could hear her crying as they did their assessments down the hall. After the doctor had finished the c-section, and stitched and stapled me back up, they discovered that there was a surgical sponge missing. They ordered an X-ray..and there it was! It was right up just under my rib cage! Dr.M was very apologetic and said that he would have to re-open my incision and remove the sponge and the procedure would take about another 1/2 hour. I was upset that I couldn't hold Kaedence during that time, and they allowed my DH to return to the OR with her while they re-prepped me for another surgery.

The doctor worked quickly, and removed the sponge. By the end of the operation, my epidural was starting to wear off, and I could feel the pressure of the staples as the entered my skin :s NOT a nice feeling!!! They moved me to recovery and I finally got to hold our little girl!

I stayed in the hospital for 4 days post-op. I could have stayed an extra day, but I really wanted to come home. I managed to come down with a chest infection on my first day at home, and I am now on a high dose of antibiotics to help me through that, but in the meantime, I am being forced to pump and dump my breast milk. We discovered that the antibiotics gave poor Kaedence the "poops" and a bad diaper rash. I will do another post soon about the woes of breastfeeding... I am still quite sore, and I am taking Tylenol and Ibuprofen for pain...along with the occasional prescribed morphine tablet at night to make me comfortable enough to sleep.

I can't believe that Kaedence is almost 2 weeks old already. I realized yesterday that I had to get some newborn photos done of her before she got too big! I am waiting to hear back from the photographer. In the mean time... The above picture is a shot of our little rainbow this morning... alert, after her feeding, and 12 days old already! She changes so much everyday.