Our little man has arrived!
Elijah Blaze Mentze
May 21, 2012 (my birthday as well) at 2:59PM at 7lbs 3oz and 19in
He was an amazing birthday gift!
So what happened?
God had his hand on us all the way! We look back so thankful that nothing went to plan according to our plans. However, we got the result that we wanted.
At our birthing class the first week of May I met with our midwife for our session and we talked about my swelling of my hands and feet. She was a little concerned, but I had no other symptoms of Preclaymsia or PIH (Pregnancy Induced Hypertension). She made me take a 24 hour urine test just to make sure. I did the urine test, turned it in, and had blood work done *again*. The results came back normal except one reading on my kidney's that seemed a little off. Because Pre-eclampsia can progress so fast, they decided to continue to monitor me. No big deal, it's just the hoops you have to jump through to not be induced early. They sent me to have a NST (non stress test) and blood work done *again*. I passed with flying colors.
However, it's not over yet...
I had to do the 24 hour urine test again (now a week later) and then get blood work done *again* since I was so close to my due date. I did the test on Saturday and turned it in on Sunday (the 20th) and had another NST. The NST was fine however, when my blood work and urine test came back my urine went from spilling no protein one week previous to spilling 280mg (you are diagnosed with pre-eclampsia at 300mg). Because I progressed so fast, they officially diagnosed with preeclampsia.
So what do you do? There is nothing they can do. I didn't change my routine or diet at all. The only cure for it is to give birth. My options were to go on bed rest for a few days or be induced. Since I was at 39 weeks 5 days, with the guidance of the midwife we chose to be induced (this is on Sunday May 20th).
Another situation that came up previous to this was that I tested positive for Group B Strep. Again, not a big deal. They just have to treat me with antibiotics when I go into labor. Since I have a billion allergies to antibiotics I am a "special needs" patient. At one of our appointments I asked them to double check my allergies to make sure what they would give me would not allow me to react. They cross referenced a little more and it turned out they were not comfortable with giving me what they had planned and so the next step was to give me an antibiotic that can only be given at the hospital. The plan then became that I would be treated at the hospital and then go to the birth center to deliver. Because of the induction this placed us at the hospital no matter what.
So we got the news of the induction around 11AM on Sunday. We went out to lunch one last time as just us, and then came back for everything to begin. (DEEP BREATH)
When they checked me, my cervix was very soft but very far back (they assured me that it would move forward with labor progressing) and I was barely 1cm (if that). They checked me in and started with Sideateck (spelling?). This would soften the cervix and would be given every 4 hours. They strapped me to the bed with monitors and IV.
BTW: I really don't like hospitals because of all the nurses checking on me constantly and being strapped to things. Nothing personal nurses, just not my thing.
After about 24 hours had passed we had no progression except that my cervix was softer. This meant Pitocin was the next step. I really didn't want to go there at all...but once you start the process it's a snowball effect from there. So they started the Pitocin and also treated me for GBS (with an epi pin on hand just incase). After a little bit maybe 30-45min I reacted to the antibiotics (nothing severe). I also started the Pitocin and this is where things got interesting...
The pitocin began and I could start to feel some contractions but nothing severe...just mild cramps. As the contractions started I was just sitting and playing Banana Grams with Erik when I look over to the monitor and see a contraction starting. I could barely feel it and then I see the baby's heart rate drop from the 150's to 70-80's. The baby did not like that at all. In came the nurses where they asked me to lay down and put oxygen on. In my mind it's still okay but...what's going on? After the baby's heart rate went back up I needed to use the restroom and I just really wanted to get out of the bed. So they let me and I had to get back on the monitor. The baby's heart rate crashed again. After the first incident they had to take me off of Pitocin (I was on it for about an hour). The midwife was very concerned (but didn't show any signs of stress to us).
My thoughts were that if the baby can't even handle a contraction when I'm barely at 1cm what's going to happen when I'm at a 9-10? I also could only lay on my left side to get his heart rate back up. I also thought...how can I even get into a position to push if I can only be on my left side?
The heart rate crashed a total of 3 times. Once when playing banana grams just sitting, once when I went to the restroom and once when I just stood up to try different laboring positions.
The midwife started to talk to us about our options of progressing labor other ways and what they can do (because they had to take me off the Pitocin for the baby's heart rate to go back up). They could break my water but she said she wouldn't even do it because I wasn't progressing and she would ask another doctor to do it. She also brought in another doctor to talk about our options of breaking the water and placing a monitor on the baby to see what was going on or doing a c-section. They both said that in all their experience that this was most likely a cord issue and there is nothing they can do about it.
The midwife checked me again at one point and I still hadn't progressed beyond a 1-2 (they really couldn't even reach my cervix) and when she did that she pushed the baby's head up (his heart rate went up to normal).
Erik and I took some time to talk about it...we cried about it and we knew at that point what road we had to take. If we took the road of breaking the water and such it could end us in an emergency c-section. Not a pleasant experience. The alternative was to opt for a planned c-section.
We chose to have the c-section at that point. Within the hour there were nurses and doctors in our room prepping us for what was coming up.
It seems so easy to make the decision mentally but emotionally it was very hard. We were very freaked out and it took us time to "get there" emotionally. I chose to have a spine block (less recovery time vs. the epidural). They wheeled us in and they started in on everything. Erik was still in the hallway when the doctor came by and was able to bring him in. Everyone in the room was great. They knew the situation was really stressful for us and totally not what we wanted but they kept the mood light and fun. It was "just another day at the office" for them.
So as I'm on the table it's freezing in there and the medication makes you shake anyways so I felt very "out of control." After a little bit of time I started to smell this burning smell. I asked..."what's burning?" Well it was them cauterizing me...but it didn't register in my mind. The anesthesiology asked Erik if he wanted to see them take the baby out and he said yes (of course!). So Erik stood up just as they were taking him out. What they discovered is that the baby had the cord wrapped around his head, body, and arm AND was holding it. This kid did not want to be born. And who can blame him, it was warm on the inside...
Elijah Blaze scored a 9.9 on his Apgare test (dad is proud). From there it's a blur (but we took a couple pictures and videos). We went back to our room and within an hour we were moved to postpartum.
Because I started labor on my birthday they couldn't give me any food just in case I ended up with a c-section. I only had 2 pieces of toast for 24 hours. Every time the nurse came in for the next 24 hours I would beg for food. When they finally gave in I scarfed down another 2 pieces of toast and swallowed hard. I didn't care if I was a bit nauseated, I hate throwing up so I kept it down.
They also prescribed me some pain medication. They usually do a pretty strong narcotic. I HATE those! I feel completely out of my mind. After I felt like the pain was under control I asked that I have a non-narcotic pain reliever. The pain was totally manageable however, I was strapped to the bed for at least 24 hours. Getting up was pretty interesting and Erik had to help me move around and shower.
The first night Erik was responsible for taking care of Eli. He had to do everything. He's not super kid savey so he had a nurse show him something every time they came in to check on us...which was frequent.
The parade of nurses, doctors, pediatricians, baby hearing tests, birth certificate, photographer, people to check your vitals, midwives, lactation consultants came constantly. When they say to sleep when your baby sleeps...it's impossible. This was extremely frustrating to us, and bye the 2-3 night we were VERY ready to be done. We were exhausted. We had to ask them to come back at other times or just leave us alone. I know they are doing their job but at what point can you just leave us alone and adjust?
Eli ended up loosing 12% of his weight over the first few days in the hospital. This was very concerning, and he hadn't peed or pooped in 24 hours either. The nurses kept "telling us" to supplement to get his weight up. However, we hadn't tried all the breast feeding techniques. We met with one lactation consultant and she gave us some techniques but really forced her own views on us on how to breast feed. We also knew that a possible problem adding to the factor was that Eli was a bit tongue tied (which we got fixed about a week later with his pediatrition).
By Thursday morning my milk was in and he wasn't eating (ouch). We were tired and VERY frustrated and stressed. The lactation consultant came in again (a different one) and started working with us. She gave us some options and then also asked that people not come in our room to give us some space and time to rest. This was a heaven sent. She later came in and told us that the nurse said that we were interested in supplementing or pumping. We both looked at each other and said, "No, they NEVER suggested pumping...can we do that?" She then got us all set up to pump and WOW what a relief. Eli's weight went up and we were all set to pump and HE POOPED (and hasn't stopped since)!
By that afternoon we were allowed to be discharged (YEAH)!
Both of us look back and we are SO THANKFUL for everything that we went through at the hospital. It was VERY HARD emotionally to have to have a c-section and the next few days were just the hard and frustrating but we learned a lot. Nothing went to plan...nothing...but everything went according to God's plan and it's so much better than ours.
