Birth Story (only a month late)

Sorry this is so late, but I thought I'd get it all down on paper, and it has taken quite a bit of time.

After my 38 week (and 5 day) OB appointment on Friday(10/3), I had a number of questions about getting induced, as I had been extra uncomfortable for several weeks. I had an internal and I was at 1cm dilated, and was ripe for induction. All the previous week, I was getting up every 1-1.5 hours, and that was on 2 percocet, and 1-2 ambien per night. I was ready to have this baby, and it felt wonderful to be able to start discussing inducing within the next 10 days (sometime before my Oct. 12 due date). Anyways, I decided to wait to set an induction date until my next appointment for the good of my little boy, well my little boy had other plans.

On Saturday (10/4) I woke up feeling extremely emotional, and tired, so DH decided we would have a day in with no errands, and it was really wonderful to just rest. DH had to pick up a medicine prescription for himself, and we decided to get some Chipotle before watching the CU v. Texas football game. I got something spicy, half joking with DH that it would send me into labor. Well after we got home and ate, the contractions started. So DH decided to start timing them, and they quickly became over 1.5-2 minutes in length, and were coming every 12 minutes to start, and moved to every 3-8 minutes. After a couple hours of timing, DH decided that we were probably on our way to L&D, so he got the hospital bag list that we wrote weeks earlier, and we FINALLY packed the hospital bag. We then called the OB, and let him know about the contractions, and he wanted me to come in immediately for a labor check. Off to the hospital we go. I have to say something told me that they wee just going to send me home, so I wasn't getting my hopes up.

When we got there it was already 10pm, and I got checked pretty quickly, and found out that I was only 1-2 cm dilated, but my contractions were of irregular intensity, but just as frequent as DH and I had been timing. We had the option to stay and walk for an hour, or go home immediately, and we chose to walk. After an hour I was checked again, with no change. The OB sent us home at 1:30am, and told me to go ahead and take my nightly meds of 2 percocet, and an ambien so that I could get some rest. I was told to return if the pain got worse, and boy did it!

All night long, every hour I got up to pee, and each time I was in excruciating pain, but each time I was able to get a bit of sleep. At 6:30am, I woke up and once again did the bathroom run in pain, and came back and laid down. I was in A LOT of pain. I couldn't fall back to sleep, and it was a constant pain that didn't seem time-able. I woke DH up at 7:30 in tears of pain. The pain was significantly worse, and DH threw clothes on both of us and got us in the car and headed back to L&D. I was in SUCH EXTREME pain, they got me into triage very fast, and I was checked almost immediately. I was at 3-4 cm, and I was having very regular strong contractions every 3-4 minutes. I was -1 station, and 80% effaced. The nurse was unsure of Sean's position in the womb, so they do a quick ultrasound to make sure that he was head down, and find that he is, but facing to my right. My IV fluids were started, and the first round of antibiotics were started because I was Group B Strep+. They admitted us and got us in a room by 9:45am. I was dealing with the shakes during every contraction, the nurse said that it was due to the stress and anxiety of labor rather than the temperature in the building. Deep breaths were the only way to control the shakes.

By 10:15am the nurse gave me a dose of Staedol while waiting for the anesthesiologist to get out of a c-section, so that I could get my epidural. Staedol felt wonderful, and allowed me to relax more easily through the pain of the contractions that were coming every 2 minutes or so. Felt like a warm blanket being placed over my whole body. By 10:30am I was checked again right before receiving the epidural, and was a solid 4cm dilated. At 11:00am the anesthesiologist came in to do the epidural. It took him about 15-20 minutes to get it in properly, and then another 15 minutes for the pain to subside. My DH actually got to help hold me in place during the procedure which was a real surprise because he HATES blood and needles. At 11:40am I was checked again, still 4cm dilated, decision was made to break my water. I was told to rest at this point, and that it could be a little while before I was fully dilated. I think it hit me right about this point that I was actually going to have my baby that day, and they weren't going to just send me home like a crazy person. I remember a little sign on the wall saying "10/5 Happy Birthday Sean" it was really very surreal, and I remember asking my nurse if she thought that Sean was really going to come before midnight, she was pretty sure he would be here before the end of her shift at 8pm. Once I got over the realization, I decided to take a nap.

At 12:45pm the nurse came in to monitor my contractions, they seemed to be coming every minute at that point. The nurse told me that if she were on pitocin they would probably have turned it down because of how frequent the contractions are coming. Around 1:15pm the doctor was unsure of the quality of the contractions that I was having, so he decided to insert a pressure monitor catheter to get a better idea of the quality of my contractions. This results in a "geyser" and 2nd water break. By 1:45pm the doctor determined that the quality of the contractions was not as good as he would hope with as many as I was having, so he ordered a "whiff of pit" which was the smallest dose of pitocin that could be administered. I was then monitored very closely by the nurse to make sure that the contractions were doing what they are supposed to be doing. The contractions were doing a lot better, but the pitocin needed to be turned up just one more notch it order to get the contractions to be perfect.

At 3:00pm the doctor came to check me again. I was Fully dilated, +1 station, fully effaced. Sean was still slightly to my right, so doctor told me to lay on my right side, and that we would start pushing in about 30 minutes whether or not he had returned. By 3:30pm the nurse explained to DH and I the procedure for pushing. I took only one practice push. The nurse then told me to just relax, and she would be back really soon to do some real pushing.

At exactly 3:40pm the real pushing starts. I could feel the pressure with each contraction, so I was able to tell everyone when I needed to push which was about every 2 minutes (3 pushes of 10 seconds each per contraction). The nurse quickly called the doctor as well as the rest of the delivery team. I only screamed through the last two pushes when the ring of fire feeling was present, and at exactly 3:57pm, Sean was born.

I didn't get to see his face for about 20 minutes, but I could hear those beautiful lungs. Sean was wisked across the room to be checked out by the NICU team for respiratory distress from all of the narcotic pain meds that I needed to be on for half the pregnancy for the kidney stone. Within about 5 minutes, the NICU team had given Sean 9-9 on his apgar scores, and told us that he was in perfect health. DH told me that the first thing Sean did as the NICU team was checking him out was to pee ALL over the place, it made Bri crack up, and the NICU team frantically look for a diaper. Anyways, Sean measured in at 7lbs 15.4 oz, and 19 inches long (although within a week he had already grown an inch, so we are pretty sure that it wasn't that accurate).

As for me, I received a 2nd degree tear, and it took a while to stitch me back up. I have been healing very well over the last few weeks, and we have all settled in as a family here at home.

27w 4d... Wow its been a while... LONG Update

Wow.... I am officially in the third trimester.

I guess I need to give everyone an update on whats been up with me over the past month. Well its all about getting used to a new normal.

First of all for those that don't already know, we released the name of our little boy. He is officially Sean Patrick McLaughlin. He is also really beautiful. We had another ultrasound on
July 2nd, and the little one is so incredibly gorgeous. We got several 3-D pics of him, and there was at least one that looked just like Bri, and another pic that really resembled my family, so who knows who he will look like in the end. They told us that he already weighed 2lbs at that appointment, and that was 2 weeks ago. He was also measuring 3 days ahead of his expected size. I think we have a big boy coming our way, everyone keeps guessing that he will be in the 9lb range when he is born, I don't know how I feel about all that, but as long as he is healthy then I'll take it.


Second, Brian, my sister and I took a trip to Charlotte, NC over the 4th of July to see his family for the last time before Sean arrives, and take my sister to her final college visit. It was nice to see everyone, and it was such a fun trip. The family threw me a baby shower while we were down there, and we received a bunch of cute outfits, as well as our Pack'n'Play, diaper genie, and a beautiful solar system mobile. We were so incredibly blessed to have so many people excited for us to have our own baby. One incredibly speacial memory from the trip for me was when my niece was talking to me about baby Sean, and she wanted to brush baby Sean's hair, she gave baby Sean a kiss, and put her ear up to my belly to listen to baby Sean. It was such an incredible feeling knowing that even a 2.5 year old understands that we are going to have a baby, and she is so excited about it.




Well, I guess I should get down to my health... I am doing as ok as can be expected. I am still on percocet every 5 hours, and have been for over a month now. Since being in the hospital, I have been seeing the OB every week, just so that they can keep a close eye on me, my pain and our little Sean. So far, Sean is doing wonderfully(as mentioned above), and I am going in for monthly growth scan ultrasounds to keep an eye on him to make sure that he continues to grow as expected. Every time I go into the OB, I know I am a special case... there is one doc that really understands what is going on without us explaining the whole situation, and we have been seeing her a lot, however, we have had a couple other appointments with other docs in the practice since being in the hospital, and each time we have had to explain why we are being seen so often, and whats going on with us. I know that there really isn't a ton that they can do for me, but its frustrating when they can't read my chart BEFORE they come talk to me.

I am also seeing a urologist once a month, mostly to do urine cultures, and to make a plan to remove the stone after Sean is here. It sounds like they can't do any procedures until around 2 weeks after the birth, which of course is frustrating, because it will come right in the middle of the bonding, and the first couple weeks or Sean's life will be full of doctors appointments and surgery for me. That is really hard to accept, and I am trying very hard to work through all of my emotions.

Today I saw a pain management specialist for the first time, it was such a waste of my time. I do know that my OB said that I would need a plan to get off the pain meds after the stone is out, but really I feel like he didn't do anything except take my money, and treat me like I might try to sell my pain meds on the street... it felt great. I will have to see him everytime I need a med refill now... at $40 a pop... what a frustration.

I guess my health is just a big waiting game at this point. Oh yeah, and I am not allowed to work at all. The doctor thinks that it would be too stressful for me to be working in a technical field with my incredibly slow response time. I have had a couple breakdowns over the last couple weeks wondering if I will ever be able to do my job again, or ever be able to think technically again. Its hard when I should know the answer to something off the top of my head that I just cannot recall, and its like my mind just has a huge block. Brian keeps reminding me that it is all temporary, and I will be my old self soon enough. I guess only time will tell.

Oh my, what else.... over the past month, Brian and I have been trying to make progress on several house projects, starting with repairing the leaks in the basement. Well we thought that it would be a pretty simple fix, and while it may have been pretty simple, it seems that it isn't as simple as we had thought, and we are going to have to get a serious professional out to fix the problem. This means that we are going to have to proceed with the nursery painting and such even without finishing the basement. We figure we are going to need to have a place for Sean before too long, so it is getting higher and higher on our priority list.

Oh yeah, my other sister came and stayed with Brian and I for about a week and a half, to help with our house projects. While she was here she created a number of art pieces for Sean's nursery. They are so incredibly beautiful, and so appropriate for what Brian and I do in real life. She painted a sunrise over the earth, a pair of merging galaxies, a supernovae, and the Orion nebula. They are really remarkable.





Wow that was a lot of information for one post.

22w3d... Hospitalized... Scary Couple of Days

I apologize in advance for any spelling and grammar errors, as I am hopped up on serious pain killers.

On Sunday night, I was having serious back pain, and blood in my urine, so I called the on call OB, and was told over the phone that I probably had a bladder infection, and that they were going to call in some antibiotics that should clear it right up. Well, DH put me to bed, and went to get my meds. Well, I took my meds, and fell asleep, but slept terribly. I stayed home from work on Monday, trying to help myself heal.

At about 8pm on Monday night, I had another bout of serious back pain, and still had blood in my urine, even after being on the antibiotics for 24-hours. Well I called the on-call OB again, and she decided to have me come in to L&D and get a urine sample, and to double check for a possible small kidney stone(she didn't think this would be the case.) Well after my urine came back with no bacteria in it, she decided to send me down for a renal ultrasound. We got a very quick look at our little boy. He was waving at us as if to let us know that he was still perfect. Anyways after that, it was pretty obvious that I had a stone in my right kidney, but the tech didn't tell us anything else at that point. Well when the OB came to tell me the results, she revealed that it was the biggest kidney stone she had ever seen, just over 2 centimeters. She also said that she was going to admit me into the antipartum unit until a urologist was able to assess the stone.

Well I was in the hospital from Monday evening till today at noon. Basically, I have a massive kidney stone that will NOT pass on its own. If I weren't pregnant they would shock pulverize it and it would turn into powder/smaller pieces, and I would expel them (painfully I might add). Anyways, they can't do that before our little boy is born.

So for the rest of the pregnancy they can only manage the pain, meaning that I will be on percocet/every 4 hours and an antibiotic/ 1 per day. Unfortunately that means that I can't drive for the remainder of the pregnancy, or whenever I am on the percocet. The OB asked that I should get my disability paperwork from work, and start my disability leave now, through 6-8 weeks post-partum. I am not on bedrest (at this point), but I am supposed to take it easy because of the narcotics.

Well I am sure I have regaled you all with enough info for a while, but I figured that I'd update everyone. I also found out that The NEST and my blog are blocked from the hospital internet. I'll be blogging a lot more in the future, since I'll have less to do.

BTW, if anyone else has had to deal with anything even CLOSE to any of this I would LOVE to hear from you. There was SO much information that I had to take in during the last few days, I am a bit overwhelmed.

Thanks for making it through the long story.