KATIE ROSE VERNON
8 LBS 6.8 OZ
20 1/2 INCHES LONG
6:13 PM
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2009
My last post was October 23rd. That seems like so long ago and that so much has changed since then I hardly know where to begin. So I left off announcing Erin and Ashley's new babies and the fact that I was starting maternity leave 2 weeks early due to gestational hypertension...
Halloween weekend came and we went to Ben and Meredith's house for the evening. Ben's sister, her husband, and their 2 kids were there as well. Kids are walking petri dishes of germs and Meredith, Kelly, baby Emma and I all ended up with stomach flu Monday and Tuesday after Halloween. Note to parents: If you even SUSPECT your child may be sick, please let people around you know - ESPECIALLY pregnant people. Stomach flu is never fun, but at 38 weeks pregnant it's REALLY horrible.
I had a regular doctor appointment on Tuesday that I thought about cancelling due to the flu, but I figured because I had the flu I should go and I was right to do so. My blood pressure was extremely high and the doctor sent me immediately to labor and delivery. She wanted me to be prepared to be induced that night if they couldn't get my blood pressure to come back down. 3 hours I spent in L/D before my blood pressure resumed it's normal high state. They let me go home but scheduled me to come back Wednesday night to begin the induction process.
Robbie took the day off Wednesday and we spent the day doing little things around the house knowing that when we came back we would have our baby. We also layed in bed together and watched t.v. cherishing these last few hours of it being just us. We thought about what we wanted for our last meal and came up with nothing so we decided we would eat at the hospital cafeteria which is actually pretty good! Plus, I didn't feel much like eating anyway having had flu the day before.
We headed to the hospital around 4:30 because they told us to be in L/D by 6. I had a feeling before we left that I would see my doctor in the cafeteria and she would be mad that I was out doing something...sure enough we did see her, but she said it was ok since I was at the hospital. Dr. Augustyn and Dr. Chisdak tease me because when my blood pressure was so high I got paranoid about it and went to the grocery store to check it. When I called the doctor on call that night to report that even the grocery store monitor said it was high she asked me, "What are you doing at the grocery store?? You need to be lying down!" That incident later came up in the operating room.
The L/D rooms at Bozeman Deaconess Hospital are amazing! They redid the entire unit a year ago and we were all so impressed with the facilities and amenities in each room. My room was huge and had a couch and recliner in it. The bathroom was large with a jacuzzi tub and I cannot say enough positive things for the nursing staff. Wow. They inserted a drug called Cervadil to help soften my completely undilated cervix. Robbie stayed right by my side but I told him to go home and get some sleep because I needed him to be strong for me on Thursday. All night long I was extremely uncomfortable. Those beds are not meant to be used for very long. I slept as much as I could but it's hard with people checking on you every 15 minutes and having a blood pressure cuff squeeze your arm every 20 minutes and having monitors strapped around your belly.
Finally around 5 am I woke up having some pains that felt like real contractions. I timed them for 10 minutes and when they were happening every 3 I called the nurse in. As soon as she went to check me I knew my water had broken. That's a very uncomfortable event because every time I contracted, it "broke" a little more. I was a mess. I told the nurse I wanted the anesthesiologist to get there ASAP because I immediately started having contractions. I'm leaning on the wall, sitting on the toilet, leaning over the bed - anything I could do tolerate what was going on. After an hour and a half the anesth. showed up and I got my epidural. Ahhh, sweet relief. I felt great...for a while. Robbie and my parents arrived and all seemed calm in the world. I could still feel the contractions but it was so minimal compared to what it was that I thought, heck, if childbirth is like this, I could handle it.
I don't know why I'm making this face - probably because I didn't want my picture taken. This must have been before things got intense.
Sometimes though things don't go as planned. I was following a normal curve of dilating 1 cm an hour. When I got to 3 cm, I started feeling the contractions more severely and I could tell that feeling was returning to my lower half. The anesth. came back and gave me more drugs. That was fine for about a half hour. Then it came back, this time even worse. I endured that until the anesth. could get back to me to give me more drugs. This process kept going on and on getting worse each time the drugs wore off. For whatever reason the epidural was not working except when I got a big shot of it in my back. As the pain got worse, so did my blood pressure and as my blood pressure got higher so did Katie Rose's heart rate. The pain I was feeling in my left side was excruciating and I just cried and cried while the nurse and Robbie tried talking me (relaxation words) through each contraction. Robbie told me to think about Lima Peaks, and the Centennial Valley, and Ono Island and the beach.
I was dilated 8 cm when my blood pressure and KR's heart rate skyrocketed to the point that Dr. Augustyn said I was going to have a c-section. She said she wasn't sure why the baby's heart rate was so high, but she didn't like it and a decision had to be made. I responded OK, signed where I needed to which is really hard to do when you're in hard labor. As soon as they said I was having a c-section, darling Robbie got a nosebleed. Poor guy! They started prepping me for surgery and cleaning the room for the next patient. When we arrived Wednesday night there was no one else in L/D. By Thursday afternoon there were women overflowing into other units waiting for one of the 6 rooms. In 15 minutes I was prepped for surgery and got the spinal...ahh, relief! Robbie came in the OR and 15 minutes after that our baby was out and I could hear her scream. It was the sweetest sound I have ever heard. She wailed! They showed her to me and got her cleaned up. The first things the doctors said were, "Ohh, look, she has lots of hair! And 3 chins!" She scored an 8 on her APGAR test which I hear is a really good score. Robbie took her to the nursery while they stitched me up and vacuumed me out...a really odd sensation. They gave me a shot of Demerol and a pleasant calm came over me knowing my baby was out and we were all safe. When they pulled her out of me she was face up when she should have been face down. This could have been causing much more severe pain and back labor such that the epidural could not keep up without over medicating me. Dr. Augustyn said later that a c-section was probably inevitable due to her size and position and that the right decision was made.
I was taken to recovery where they have the best tasting ice chips I've ever had. I love Demerol. Robbie and Mom were able to come back there and tell me all about her. I had never felt so good in my life as I did right then. Robbie was my hero and I knew I had nothing to worry about.
