Logan's Birth Day

On Tuesday, September 22nd, I had a 37 week doctors appointment.  They checked my blood pressure and it was 140/90.  The previous week the doctor had told me that if my blood pressure was 140/90 on either number they would induce me on Wednesday the following week because of my gestational hypertension.  Sure enough my blood was exactly 140/90.  The week leading up to that appointment I had been thinking it wouldn't happen.  I had been praying that if it were to happen and the doctor did want to induce that I would know that it was the right call for me and the baby and that I could trust the doctor.  The induction wasn't scheduled but I was placed on an "on call" list.  Basically they could call me in at any time starting at 6 AM letting me know they were ready and it just depended on how many people they had walk in already in labor.

Wednesday, September 23rd, I received a phone call at 5:30 AM saying they were ready for me and to be there by 6:30 AM.  Luckily we had asked Michael's sister, Emily, if she would mind spending the night just in case we did get an early morning call.  Nathan woke up at 5:50 as we were trying to get out the door.  He was so sweet though.  He gave me a hug and without any prompting said "love you".  It totally melted my heart and made it so hard to leave him not knowing how the day was going to go.

When I got to the hospital I was dilated to a 2 and 80% effaced.  A nurse came in to give me an IV and tried to put it in such a weird place in my hand.  It didn't work so someone else had to come in and put one in my other hand.  It was so annoying because I had to have a blood pressure cuff on that would go off a lot to monitor my blood pressures.  So they put the cuff on the arm opposite my IV, which was the arm with the messed up IV.  Every time the blood pressure cuff went off I felt it squeezing in my hand.  It was so irritating!

The doctor came in and they started pitocin and he broke my water.  With Nathan I remember when my water broke and it gushed immediately.  This time it took a little longer but was just as gross.  Michael chose that moment to keep making me laugh which only made it gush worse!  I appreciate what he was trying to do though.  He is seriously the best labor and delivery coach ever!  He just knew exactly the right things to do and say to help and comfort me.  Not to be super TMI but there was so much fluid the nurse had to completely change over my bedding.  It was a super gross part of the day.

By the time the anesthesiologist came in to give me the epidural I had started feeling contractions.  I was glad she came when she did because they weren't too close together or intense yet.  However, the epidural did not work.  The nurse told me to give it 15 minutes and that the contractions should start to lessen.  I gave it a half an hour and nothing.  I had started having some pretty intense contractions and they were getting a lot closer together.  I was only dilated to a 3 at that point though.  The anesthesiologist came back in and moved the epidural up.  The first time she gave it I felt every pop and shock that she said I would.  The second time I didn't feel a thing.  Another super irritating part of the day.

A little after being given the epidural, around 11:45 AM, I started feeling nauseous and clammy.  The babies heart rate dropped from 120 to 70.  They gave me oxygen, laid me on my left side and stopped the pitocin.  Logan's heart rate went back up.  I was then dilated to a 4 and 90% effaced.  The nurse started the pitocin again about a half an hour later.

At 12:55 I was dilated to a 5.  I was starting to feel kind of frustrated and like labor was progressing kind of slow.  I had dilated about a centimeter every hour, which I guess is actually good.  I was fully expecting to be in labor for another 5 hours.

At 1:15 I started feeling contractions, and not just the pressure from contractions but also the pain.  The epidural started wearing off in my legs and pressing the button for more was not working.

At 1:30 I was dilated to an 8.

The nurse started getting things ready and got the doctor. She came back in around 1:40, then the doctor came in. He checked me and said that the baby was right there and would be out with just one push. He said since the baby was right there the epidural wasn't going to help. My left butt check was numb but I was feeling so much pain and pressure. The doctor was right though. I pushed twice and the baby was here. He was pretty blue, but not as blue as Nathan and he cried pretty quick. It was a really cute little cry. They took him over to clear his nose and mouth and wipe him down. A pediatric team of 6-7 nurses and I think a doctor came running in the room. The baby had come so fast that they didn't have time to get here before! It's completely nerve racking to have so many people gathered around the baby doing so many things. He peed like 3 times within 5 minutes! They gave him oxygen through a mask. He was crying off and on and then he started pinking up. His apgar score was 6 and 7. He weighed 6 pounds 9 ounces and was 18 inches long. (Side note: we were watching an Alaska State Troopers marathon while he was born.)

This was my view from the delivery room.  It sorta helped having something pretty to look at when the contractions started getting bad.

Minutes after Logan was born.  

The nurse handed Logan to me to hold for a minute before they took him down to the nursery to monitor him.  They were concerned because he wasn't pinking up fast enough.

I think I was kind of in shock from how quick delivery was and concerned because they had to give him oxygen and were needing to monitor him.  I had suddenly just had a baby and just as suddenly he was being taken from me.

This was about an hour after Logan was born.

At first he was given just a little extra oxygen to help him breath.  I thought it was cute how he was holding it.

At 5:30 that night they moved Logan into the level 2 nursery. A chest x-ray showed that he had a small pneumothorax and needed to be on oxygen. We got to sit with him in the nursery and got to talk to the pediatrician. The pediatrician said he doesn't think he has an infection or pneumonia but thinks he's just having a bit of a rough transition to breathing outside the womb. They wanted to monitor him through the night and keep him on the oxygen.

At 8 PM I went to see Logan and the nurse let me hold him and do skin to skin! She also told me that his breathing had gotten worse and they were going to recommend starting him on antibiotics. I held Logan for about 2 hours. It was so great to cuddle and snuggle my little boy! He had cute little sighs and a cute little cry. The doctor came and examined him after I held him and recommended doing a blood gas, which tests the level of carbon dioxide in his oxygen to see how effectively his lungs are cycling the carbon dioxide out.

At 10:15 they started a cpap, which forces pressure into his lungs and helps keep them inflated, and did more blood work to test to see if he had too much co2 in his lungs. The blood work came back okay.  The poor boy was not happy about any of it.

I finally got to hold him!

After he was hooked up to the oxygen but before the cpap.

The whole day was incredibly long and emotional.  All I wanted all day was for my little boy to be with me.  I was so worried about him all day and things just did not seem to be getting better like I kept wanting and expecting them to.  It was so hard to walk back to my room and leave him hooked up to so many machines and with so many tubes.