Sun & Shower

I can’t believe it’s been a week already. It’s been such a blur.  The first few days were rough but I have felt significantly better each day.  I’ll try to recap the last week as best as I can remember.

Thursday - Brian posted some updates throughout the day.  Here’s a brief timeline of the events:

2:30 – Arrived at triage in immense pain.  I wasn’t supposed to get to triage until 6:30 but I was in so much pain that I couldn’t sleep.  I figured I could go early, get the epidural and get some sleep before being induced.  I was basically begging for an epidural immediately.  Yeah, so much for that all-natural birth plan. 

4:00 – The epidural took effect.  Ahhh… sweet relief.

5:30 – The doctor started the Pitocin, inducing labor.

9:00ish – The grandmas arrived.  I was allowed to have people in the Labor & Delivery room with me so they spent the day hanging out with Brian and me.  Not being in pain anymore, it was nice to have people around to pass the time with.  We were just waiting for the Pitocin to do its job.

1:00? – The doctor finally came to check my progress.  They had a busy morning at the hospital with six c-sections, including two sets of a twins and a set of triplets, so I hadn’t been checked prior to that.  9 cm!  Woohoo!  If I remember right, they also broke my water then and estimated it’d be time to push by 3:00.

3:00 – Not yet.

5:30 – Finally time to start pushing!  Let’s get this “thing” out!  Sometime in the afternoon, the contractions got strong enough that I could feel a “hot spot” in my right hip that the epidural missed.  So much pain!  Pushing actually brought some relief but dang, it’s hard work!

7:00 – Still no baby.  His head was so big that it couldn’t get past my pelvic bone.  My doctor suggested c-section.  WHAT?!  I skipped over those chapters in all my pregnancy books because there was no way I was having a c-section.  It’s amazing what all those hours of labor and pain can do.  I said I just wanted it done with so yeah, let’s do the c-section.  Then I looked at Brian and asked him what he thought.  That took him by surprise.  I was delirious though.  I wanted to make sure it was the right decision.  It was.

7:15 – I was taken to the operating room where I had to wait nearly an hour for the anesthesiologist to arrive and give me a spinal tap.  Because I had a hot spot with the epidural, they wanted to make sure there was no way I would feel the c-section.  That was a really weird feeling to not be able to move my legs at all.  Poor Brian was stuck outside not knowing what was taking so long.

8:00ish – Brian was allowed into the OR and sat near my head.  There was a screen up just below my shoulders so neither of us could see what was actually happening.

8:19 – We heard the doctor exclaim “Wow! What a big baby!” and then we heard Braeden’s first cry.  We both cried.  It was pretty overwhelming.  My doctor brought him around to our side of the curtain and in true movie fashion said “It’s a boy!”  Then they took him to get checked and cleaned up. 

10:00ish – After suffering through chills, shortness of breath and not being able to swallow, I was finally sewn up and moved to the post-op recovery room where Brian was waiting with Braeden, the grandparents and Aunt Annie.  I had been given morphine so I was pretty out of it.  I do remember begging for water and being told to sip it.  I didn’t listen and chugged it down because I was so thirsty.  Sure enough, I vomited.  It was so worth it though.  I hadn’t had anything other than ice chips in over 20 hours!

Midnight – I think I got to the Mom & Baby room around midnight, where I would stay until Sunday.  Braeden and I had nurses coming in all night long to check our vitals.

Friday – I spent the day in bed, in and out of consciousness, after not being able to sleep much the night before.  We got lots of visitors and Braeden behaved himself pretty well.  Such a little angel.

Saturday - I was forced to get out of bed and move around.  Once I was up, it wasn’t so bad but getting in and out of bed was tough.  I was happy to have painkillers.  More people came to visit and Brian was able to get out for a while.  I think he was getting cabin fever being stuck in that hospital room. 

Sunday - We got to go home!  First I had to have a small mental breakdown though.  One of the nurses had insisted on waking Braeden in the middle of the night for a feeding and he didn’t like it. After that he got really fussy and refused to eat in the morning.  I was so tired, I was willing to just give him a bottle so he’d get some nutrients and hopefully stop crying for a while.  Fortunately, the hospital sent in a lactation consultant who spent a lot of time with us and got him to latch on and eat.  He didn’t seem to like the bottle anyway so it’s good we got the breastfeeding thing fixed.  I now have a policy that I don’t wake him to eat.  He’s got a mind of his own and will only eat when he wants to.

Getting discharged from the hospital took a while.  A doctor came in and inspected Braeden pretty early in the morning.  He was cleared to leave but I still had to wait for my doctor.  As the clock crept closer to noon, I wondered whether we’d get to watch the entire Illini game or if we’d be interrupted.  My doctor came in sometime between 11 and 12 to check me and cleared me to leave.  It was just a matter of paperwork after that.  It took nearly two hours for the hospital to get everything together, reviewed and signed.  Naturally, the nurse brought the paperwork right around 2:00… when there was less than 30 seconds left in the Illini game.  I hear Chester hit a big shot but I missed it.  At least the Illini won!

Coming home was pretty anti-climactic.  Some people make a big deal about it but we were just happy to be out of the hospital and back in the comfort of our own home.  Ben and Carrie brought Guinness home to meet his little brother and he couldn’t have behaved better.  Guinness has been the perfect dog with Braeden.  He’s gentle, sweet and protective; watching over Braeden and giving him small kisses.  Braeden isn’t phased one bit.  I think those two are going to be BFF.

Monday – We took Braeden to the doctor for an introductory visit.  It’s a good program they have at the doctor’s office.  They have you talk to a psychologist about adjusting to life with a baby, a lactation consultant to make sure everything is going well with the feedings and a doctor to do a quick check of the baby and his weight.  Braeden weighed 8 lbs 7 oz.  It’s normal to lose some weight after birth but not more than 10% and he should gain it all back by his 2-week checkup.  The lactation consultant was a blessing.  I’d been given so much conflicting info from the different nurses and consultants in the hospital that I didn’t know what was right and wrong.  At this point, I’d figured out what I thought would work for Braeden, like sucking on a pacifier sometimes, and she assured me it would be fine.  Since then, things have gone much smoother for Braeden and me.  Oh, and the doctor marveled at his size and strength.  He’s going to be our little scholarship athlete!

Tuesday – Brian went back to work.  Fortunately, he works from home so he was still around to help me because I wasn’t very mobile yet. 

Wednesday – I started getting the hang of the night feeding schedule so I felt pretty rested in the morning.  My pain had also subsided quite a bit so I spent the morning cleaning things up, putting things away from the hospital and organizing the area around my rocking chair where I spend about 80% of my time.  I felt so much better after getting things under control around here.

Today - I finally got out of the house!  My mom and grandma came to visit and we met my great-aunt Lois for lunch.  I wanted to bring Braeden so I could get used to taking him places but it would have been a lot of effort for a short lunch.  I decided to leave him home with Brian and he behaved very well while I was gone.  It was so nice to get out and socialize with people. 

Now I’m home waiting for the Illini game to start.  Braeden has a full belly and is wide awake so he’ll be able to watch the game with me.  He’s been awake a lot today.  I’m hoping that means he’s going to sleep a lot tonight.  I could use some good sleep.

Thank you to everyone who came to visit in the hospital and at home.  And thank you to everyone who sent messages on email, Facebook and phone.  I appreciate all of the support.  Braeden is a lucky kid to have so many people care about him.  Thank you everyone who also sent flowers and brought gifts.  Your generosity has helped us out tremendously! 

Braeden Courtney Kieffer -2/19/2009 8:19pm

8lbs 12oz, 21″

After nearly 52 hours of labor and an emergency c-section, Braeden join the world kicking and screaming.  Mom and baby are doing great!

9cm, 100%, -2. We’re almost there!

After 35 hours of contractions the pain got unbearable, so we headed to triage at 2:30am. I was admitted, given an epidural around 4am, and pitocin around 5:30am. I’ve never been hooked up to so many machines and had so many tubes going in and out of me.

Now we’re just waiting, but at least I’m not going out of my mind in pain. My doctor will be here soon to check progress. Good thing, because the resident that has been checking on me looks like my friend, Ben, and that’s just creepy.

Both grandmas are here and excited for things to get moving!

I confirmed with my doctor this afternoon that I’ll be induced at 7 AM tomorrow.  Thank goodness! 

Still having a lot of back pain so counting down the hours until I get the drugs.  Can’t come soon enough.

Contractions got under 5 minutes apart for an hour so we went to triage about 6:30 this morning.  After all those hours of tolerating the pain, I had only gained a centimeter.  Are you kidding me?  I need to get to 10 before I can even think about pushing this bowling ball out!  How can I only be at 2?  Well, I am.  The contractions are doing something though – I’m at 90% effaced and the baby’s head is at -1 (GOOGLE IT OPIEZ).

The doctor had me walk around the maternity floor for two hours to try to get things moving.  It didn’t help.  There was no change.  I was just more tired than I already was from waking up at 3am and not being able to sleep.  They gave me the option to stay and get an epidural and wait it out but seemed to think I’d be better off at home.  They prescribed Tylenol and a heating pad for the pain. 

The contractions are tolerable when they’re only in my stomach but the majority are also in my lower back and I do not tolerate lower back pain well.  If you’ve ever seen me with a lower back injury, this is no surprise.  So it’s looking like an epidural for me, especially if I’m not going in until tomorrow morning.  That’ll be over 36 hours of consistent, painful contractions and that’s before the fun starts.

I’m going back to bed.  With the Tylenol and heating pad, I’m actually able to sleep for about an hour at a time and this will be my last chance to get some rest for months.  We could still wind up back at triage tonight but only if my water breaks – it’s the only sign of labor left.  More likely, we’ll go tomorrow and my doctor will induce me.

Today is my due date!  Only about 2% of babies are actually born on their due date.  Having set an induction date may have prompted this one to get moving… or maybe I should have gone for a 4-hour walk a week ago.

I got home yesterday around 3:00 and by 5:00 was having some pretty painful contractions about 10-12 minutes apart.  I’ve been miserable since then.  They wouldn’t be so bad if they’d stay in my stomach but most of them start in my back and are excruciating.  It feels like when I pulled a muscle and was having lower back spasms early on in the pregnancy.  I was able to sleep for a few hours but now the contractions are about 5-6 minutes apart and lying down isn’t helping anymore.

I was hoping to get through this without an epidural but after 12 hours of painful contractions, I’m not so sure.  I see now why chicks with long labors get the medication.  It’s sucking my will to live!  If my back didn’t hurt so much I’d be fine.  I guess I have a lower pain threshold there.  Putting an ice pack on it seems to help though.  Breathing and scented oils (jasmine and citrus) are getting me through the rest of the pain.  All those yoga classes are sure paying off now!

I don’t know yet when we’ll go to the hospital.  I’m thinking we’ll wait until the sun comes up and see if we can avoid having to go through the ER to get to triage.  I’d prefer to wait until my doctor’s office opens so I can go there and have them check to see how far along I am.  As miserable as I’ve been the past 12 hours, it’d be so much worse going through this at the hospital so I’m trying to stay home as long as possible.

Well, so much for my hopes of a quick and relatively painless labor.  I knew this kid hated me.  At least he/she seems to want to come out on his/her own though.  I’ll try to update later whether we go to the hospital and are admitted but I may be a bit busy.  Brian will have a laptop and the hospital has wifi so we’ll update at the first good opportunity.  It just might not be until after the baby is born.  Grandparents, don’t worry – you’ll get a phone call as soon as I’m admitted.

Saw the doctor this morning and I’ve made no progress since last week.  I’m still having contractions, as confirmed by the nonstress test, but they’re apparently doing nothing to get this kid out any time soon.  My doctor wants to induce Thursday because she’s concerned about my incredibly mild asthma.  I really don’t understand her concern with it.  I’ve had no asthma problems during the pregnancy. 

At 34 weeks, the baby was already measuring 2 weeks big so my concern with waiting another week to induce is the size of the baby.  Part of my weekly nonstress test is doing an ultrasound to make sure there’s enough amniotic fluid, so as long as the technician was looking, I asked her to estimate the size of the baby.  She’s not supposed to do it without an order from the doctor but said she would give me a very rough, unofficial estimate to help me decide whether to induce this week or next week.  She says the baby is currently 10 pounds! (+/- 2 pounds)  YIKES!  No wonder this kid doesn’t want to come out – it’s being fed too well! 

Given the size of the baby, we’ve decided to induce on Thursday if the baby doesn’t come out on its own before then.  Now I’m just waiting to hear back from the doctor’s office with the details.  As much as I wanted to avoid inducing, I’m relieved there’s an end date and I can start making plans.  We can let the grandparents know ahead of time when to head into the city.  We can make plans for Guinness and not have to leave him home alone in the middle of the night.  I don’t have to worry about missing any Illini games!

Knowing that I’m not likely to go into labor any time soon, I spent the day walking around near the doctor’s office.  The great thing about the city is that I was able to walk just a block to get a much-needed pedicure, walk another half mile to Borders for an iced decaf caramel latte (YUM!) and get some light reading for the hospital, walk another half mile to the bank and another block to run an errand before the baby comes.  I thought about walking to Clarke’s for some french toast too but my back was starting to hurt from carrying around this bowling ball in my stomach.  It was nice to get out and not spend yet another day on the couch.

Not that anyone is able to predict when natural labor will begin but like every other woman before me, I’m looking for any indication I can find.  Reading through my pregnancy books, I have all of the labor signs except the big two – painful contractions and water breaking.  The most recent sign came today and from what I’ve read, it happens the day before labor.  I’ll leave the details out because like most of this pregnancy/labor stuff, it’s kinda gross.

Another sign pointing to Tuesday is the weather.  We’re expecting a storm to come through sometime tomorrow.  The barometric pressure drop supposedly inspires labor in those who are ready to go and I’m pretty sure my body is ready at this point.  I’d be really surprised if I’m not more dilated now than I was a week ago.

And the final sign pointing to Tuesday is that I see my doctor for my weekly checkup first thing in the morning.  There are things she can do to help speed up the process if necessary.  We’ll see how the checkup goes and whether I need to start talking about what day to induce.  I’d like to avoid inducing labor if possible but this kid is expected to be huge as it is.  I don’t want to go too far past my due date… which is Wednesday, by the way. 

I’m trying to not get my hopes up but it’s really hard.  I’m anxious!  I’ve been in early labor for a week now!  I’ve had enough of this sitting on the couch being bored thing.  I didn’t even watch much TV today.  I’m that bored.  Of course, every time I try to do something productive, I get wiped out and need a nap.  So I’m stuck here waiting… and waiting… and waiting…

This kid better not be late.

I woke up this morning thinking today is the day.  Now that the Illini game is over though, I’m thinking maybe not.  I’m surprised that second half didn’t send me into labor.  Geesh!  Anyway, the baby feels like it’s too high up to do anything today.  It’s weird – sometimes the baby is down in my pelvis, other times it’s up in my ribs.  Right now its butt is in my ribs and it’s quite painful. 

With the Illini game over and no indication of going into labor any time soon, I need to figure out what to do with the rest of the day.  I’m still bored with sitting on the couch.  I could use some obsessive-compulsive nesting instinct right about now.