Junebug_CJ
Maman to Zoë and Zach
- Joined
- Oct 12, 2009
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Might as well do it now as I can't settle baby for sleep to have a nap of my own! 
My original due date was June 7th, which happens to be my birthday
I had decided I wasn't allowed to go into labour until I had finished knitting her coming home sweater, booties, bonnet and scratch mitts... Was watching "Avatar: The Last Airbender" cartoon series (second season for other fans) and finally finished the outfit! The finishing touch was sewing the ribbons onto the bonnet. Got up to use the loo, came back to watch the next episode when my waters broke on our couch (microfibre and luckily easy to clean!). This was Monday May 31st at 9PM, the day I reached 39 weeks exactly.
Called the doula, who suggested a nice long walk with DH to help bring on contractions. We did that, but no contractions. Called her back at 11PM and she said to get some sleep but she expected my contractions to start during the night. If so, we were to head to the hospital and advise her. Otherwise, we were to head to the hospital at 6AM to avoid the rush hour traffic (normally 35 minute drive but with early morning rush hour can take 2 hours).
Went to bed and had a hard time sleeping I was so excited! DH was freaking out, not knowing what to expect. Woke up with the alarm at 5:15AM, no contractions. Waters kept leaking at a slow pace, had soaked 2 pads during the night....
Headed downtown, at 6:15 AM and sure enough got stuck in traffic! Arrived at hospital at 7:30 AM, and since I was not yet having contractions, went to my office to do 1 hour of work before admitting myself (I'm a physician in the hospital where I gave birth). Headed over to admitting at 8:30AM, and had my first contraction on the way there.
Went to triage, got checked out. Only 1 cm dilated, and contractions every 4 minutes. Because it had been over 12 hours with rupture of membranes, they decided to augment my labour with oxytocin. Was transferred over to labour and delivery, where we had a nice labour suite. I was started on the IV with constant fetal monitoring and oxytocin. My doula arrived, and so did my mother (at 1PM, she had a 5 hour drive to get to us). Continued having stronger and stronger contractions, but when they checked me again 4 hours later (2PM), was still at 1cm with no progress. They progressively bumped up the dose of oxytocin, and the contractions were getting stronger and stronger. By 3 PM, I had such bad pain I accepted a dose of morphine, because the anesthesiologist was not yet available to do my epidural, and the OB team was doing an emergency C-section (so no one to examine me). By 7PM, the morphine had run out, still no OB team or anesthesiologist... In the meantime I was having severe nausea and was vomiting every 30 minutes, along with strong contractions (8/10 on a pain scale). Finally, the anesthesiologist came around 11:30PM to do my epidural. The OB team was still not available, so the nurse examined me. In 9.5 hours since the last check, I had only progressed from 1 cm dilated to 2 cm....
Anesthesiologist came around and it took 2 attempts to successfully perform the epidural. NOT fun when you're having 8/10 contractions... This is when all hell broke loose. I'm normally hypotensive with my blood pressure 95/55. Well, it dropped to 70/28 and baby's heart rate became undetectable. Next thing you know I've lost consciousness and tons of medical staff were in the room trying to bring up my BP by pumping me with fluids and changing my position to try to find baby's heart beat. The oxytocin had to be stopped. Poor DH was freaking out. He's the one who filled me in, I obviously have no recollection of this part of things. Took them about 45 minutes to stabilize my vitals. Finally I came to, and they decided to let me sleep to see how I progressed during the night. The plan was to check me out at 3AM to see how things were going, and to slowly resume the oxytocin to help with my labour.
The night was not restful. Baby kept having late decelerations (heart beat slowing down at the end of each contraction), which in medical terms indicates cord compression (NOT good for baby). So they kept interrupting my sleep to change my position, readjust the monitors, etc... Finally at around 2AM, they switched the fetal monitoring to internal (a little probe at the tip of baby's head) and at the time the resident placed the probe, she noted additional bulging membranes, so ruptured these. This was reassuring, because it meant that this was likely what was preventing baby's head from descending further to dilate the cervix. At this time, I was 4cm dilated. The plan was to check me at 6AM to see what was going on, but that things should really progress now that there was nothing between the cervix and baby's head...
Roll on 6 AM: staff OB comes in, one of my colleagues for whom I have a load of respect. He examines me and announces that 1) Still 4 cm 2) Baby's head can't come down any further because my pelvis is too small 3) even if it could, baby is sideways so no way she can come down regardless. For those who know me, I had been afraid of this because I am really small in the hips, and had initially requested a C-section which was booked for May 26th. I ended up cancelling it the day before because I decided to not let my fears interfere with the whole labour process. Well, seems my instincts were right!
I was consented for the C-section, was in the OR for prepping by 6:45 AM, and DH was brought in at 7:10 AM. Zoëlle was born at 7:18 AM on June 2nd weighing 3190 grams (7 lbs 1 oz), with her eyes wide-opened and checking out her environment It was so emotional and unreal, we were both sobbing we were so happy... We were both exhausted...
We were all brought into the recovery room by 7:45 AM, where she was placed skin-to-skin and immediately latched to the breast. We were on I was transferred over to the post-partum ward at 9:00 AM, where our family joined us to meet her...
Things went as well as they could for the first 24 hours, my recovery went quite well. Then I woke up on June 4th with the worse head-ache ever. I couldn't stand at all, had to lie down. Turns out it was a post dural puncture headache (the anesthesiologist who performed my epidural - indicated as "complicated to achieve" in my chart, accidentally knicked the dural sac). Took the team 1 day to diagnosis it. Plan was to discharge me on Saturday, June 5th. That morning, the anesthesiology resident came around and she agreed with the diagnosis, so I was consented to a procedure called blood patch, where they take 20ml of blood from your arm, perform another epidural, and inject the blood in the epidural space where it forms a clot to stop the dural leak. By 11:30AM Saturday June 5th, I was back in the labour and delivery suite, where the head of anesthesiology performed the procedure at noon. I had to lie still for 2 hours, so baby was brought to me, where I was taught how to breast feed lying down (one good outcome due to this complication!). The procedure immediately resolved the headache, thank goodness!!! At 2:15PM, we were back on the ward and were discharged by 5PM...
I've been doing OK with my surgical recovery, but looked like an inflated balloon due to all the fluids they pumped into me to manage my low blood pressure. Needless to say, I am opting for an elective C-section next time around!!! Especially now that the CPD I suspected has been confirmed. Oh well, I gave it a shot and have a beautiful baby girl now!!!
Here are some pictures...
My original due date was June 7th, which happens to be my birthday
I had decided I wasn't allowed to go into labour until I had finished knitting her coming home sweater, booties, bonnet and scratch mitts... Was watching "Avatar: The Last Airbender" cartoon series (second season for other fans) and finally finished the outfit! The finishing touch was sewing the ribbons onto the bonnet. Got up to use the loo, came back to watch the next episode when my waters broke on our couch (microfibre and luckily easy to clean!). This was Monday May 31st at 9PM, the day I reached 39 weeks exactly.
Called the doula, who suggested a nice long walk with DH to help bring on contractions. We did that, but no contractions. Called her back at 11PM and she said to get some sleep but she expected my contractions to start during the night. If so, we were to head to the hospital and advise her. Otherwise, we were to head to the hospital at 6AM to avoid the rush hour traffic (normally 35 minute drive but with early morning rush hour can take 2 hours).
Went to bed and had a hard time sleeping I was so excited! DH was freaking out, not knowing what to expect. Woke up with the alarm at 5:15AM, no contractions. Waters kept leaking at a slow pace, had soaked 2 pads during the night....
Headed downtown, at 6:15 AM and sure enough got stuck in traffic! Arrived at hospital at 7:30 AM, and since I was not yet having contractions, went to my office to do 1 hour of work before admitting myself (I'm a physician in the hospital where I gave birth). Headed over to admitting at 8:30AM, and had my first contraction on the way there.
Went to triage, got checked out. Only 1 cm dilated, and contractions every 4 minutes. Because it had been over 12 hours with rupture of membranes, they decided to augment my labour with oxytocin. Was transferred over to labour and delivery, where we had a nice labour suite. I was started on the IV with constant fetal monitoring and oxytocin. My doula arrived, and so did my mother (at 1PM, she had a 5 hour drive to get to us). Continued having stronger and stronger contractions, but when they checked me again 4 hours later (2PM), was still at 1cm with no progress. They progressively bumped up the dose of oxytocin, and the contractions were getting stronger and stronger. By 3 PM, I had such bad pain I accepted a dose of morphine, because the anesthesiologist was not yet available to do my epidural, and the OB team was doing an emergency C-section (so no one to examine me). By 7PM, the morphine had run out, still no OB team or anesthesiologist... In the meantime I was having severe nausea and was vomiting every 30 minutes, along with strong contractions (8/10 on a pain scale). Finally, the anesthesiologist came around 11:30PM to do my epidural. The OB team was still not available, so the nurse examined me. In 9.5 hours since the last check, I had only progressed from 1 cm dilated to 2 cm....
Anesthesiologist came around and it took 2 attempts to successfully perform the epidural. NOT fun when you're having 8/10 contractions... This is when all hell broke loose. I'm normally hypotensive with my blood pressure 95/55. Well, it dropped to 70/28 and baby's heart rate became undetectable. Next thing you know I've lost consciousness and tons of medical staff were in the room trying to bring up my BP by pumping me with fluids and changing my position to try to find baby's heart beat. The oxytocin had to be stopped. Poor DH was freaking out. He's the one who filled me in, I obviously have no recollection of this part of things. Took them about 45 minutes to stabilize my vitals. Finally I came to, and they decided to let me sleep to see how I progressed during the night. The plan was to check me out at 3AM to see how things were going, and to slowly resume the oxytocin to help with my labour.
The night was not restful. Baby kept having late decelerations (heart beat slowing down at the end of each contraction), which in medical terms indicates cord compression (NOT good for baby). So they kept interrupting my sleep to change my position, readjust the monitors, etc... Finally at around 2AM, they switched the fetal monitoring to internal (a little probe at the tip of baby's head) and at the time the resident placed the probe, she noted additional bulging membranes, so ruptured these. This was reassuring, because it meant that this was likely what was preventing baby's head from descending further to dilate the cervix. At this time, I was 4cm dilated. The plan was to check me at 6AM to see what was going on, but that things should really progress now that there was nothing between the cervix and baby's head...
Roll on 6 AM: staff OB comes in, one of my colleagues for whom I have a load of respect. He examines me and announces that 1) Still 4 cm 2) Baby's head can't come down any further because my pelvis is too small 3) even if it could, baby is sideways so no way she can come down regardless. For those who know me, I had been afraid of this because I am really small in the hips, and had initially requested a C-section which was booked for May 26th. I ended up cancelling it the day before because I decided to not let my fears interfere with the whole labour process. Well, seems my instincts were right!
I was consented for the C-section, was in the OR for prepping by 6:45 AM, and DH was brought in at 7:10 AM. Zoëlle was born at 7:18 AM on June 2nd weighing 3190 grams (7 lbs 1 oz), with her eyes wide-opened and checking out her environment
It was so emotional and unreal, we were both sobbing we were so happy... We were both exhausted...We were all brought into the recovery room by 7:45 AM, where she was placed skin-to-skin and immediately latched to the breast. We were on
I was transferred over to the post-partum ward at 9:00 AM, where our family joined us to meet her...Things went as well as they could for the first 24 hours, my recovery went quite well. Then I woke up on June 4th with the worse head-ache ever. I couldn't stand at all, had to lie down. Turns out it was a post dural puncture headache (the anesthesiologist who performed my epidural - indicated as "complicated to achieve" in my chart, accidentally knicked the dural sac). Took the team 1 day to diagnosis it. Plan was to discharge me on Saturday, June 5th. That morning, the anesthesiology resident came around and she agreed with the diagnosis, so I was consented to a procedure called blood patch, where they take 20ml of blood from your arm, perform another epidural, and inject the blood in the epidural space where it forms a clot to stop the dural leak. By 11:30AM Saturday June 5th, I was back in the labour and delivery suite, where the head of anesthesiology performed the procedure at noon. I had to lie still for 2 hours, so baby was brought to me, where I was taught how to breast feed lying down (one good outcome due to this complication!). The procedure immediately resolved the headache, thank goodness!!! At 2:15PM, we were back on the ward and were discharged by 5PM...
I've been doing OK with my surgical recovery, but looked like an inflated balloon due to all the fluids they pumped into me to manage my low blood pressure. Needless to say, I am opting for an elective C-section next time around!!! Especially now that the CPD I suspected has been confirmed. Oh well, I gave it a shot and have a beautiful baby girl now!!!
Here are some pictures...
They are so worth all the pain!
but a lovely lovely little girl! She is gorgeous
Rest up...your baby is GORGEOUS! Love her name!!! x
