So, as you are no doubt aware by now - I had the baby. :)
Ok, now that I dropped the big piece of news, let me write you up his birth story. On Friday, October 30, I went in to Maternal Fetal Medicine for my routine non-stress test and modified bio-physical profile (read: they strapped me to monitors and checked my blood pressure). Well, over the last few weeks, my BP had been rising; I've always had relatively low BP, so this was pretty concerning for me. Well, on the 30th, my BP at the first go was 160/110. I also woke up that morning with a headache that two Tylenol never even touched. The nurse flipped me onto my side, turned down the lights and just had me close my eyes for a little bit before taking it again. It was still high. So she waited until almost the end of my 20 minutes NST and then took it again. When it remained high, she informed me that she would "have to tell on [me]." Sigh. So she went and talked to one of the three docs in MFM and they decided that I should go over to L&D triage to be monitored for a while. They also (of course) wanted me to pee in a cup over there. At this point, they were only mildly worried about
pre-eclampsia as I hadn't had any protein in my urine before, but they were checking nonetheless.
Chad was out in Florissant for some training, so he was (conservatively estimating) about an hour and a half away. Since I didn't want to alarm him over nothing, I decided not to tell him that they were monitoring me. I figured that if they just sent me home, it was no harm, no foul, but if they decided to keep me, well, I could call him then. Fast forward an hour and half of having my blood pressure taken every 15 minutes and peeing 3 times: my blood pressure readings were all over the place. At that point, they decided to admit me for observation in the Women's Pavilion. I also (joy) got to partake in a 24-hour urine collection. Sigh. So I called Chad and tried to reassure him that everything was okay. Of course, he left immediately to come back to the Springs and was a nervous wreck. The Women's Pavilion was pretty nice, and they gave me vicodin for my headache (thank God), though it didn't really work until I got the second dose. Again, they had to monitor my BP, but they didn't have to do it every 15 minutes. But still - have you ever tried to sleep with a BP cuff on?? NOT FUN. And of course, they came in and woke me up at 4 am to get a blood sample.
In the morning, Dr. Klein came in and talked with me. She said that if they found any protein in my urine, they would begin induction that evening. At the end of the day, there wasn't any protein in my urine, so they released me home on bed rest. OMG. Bed rest is awful. I have no idea how those women last months on bed rest. I was on bed rest for all of two and a half days and I wanted to kill myself. NOT FUN. Dr. Klein instructed me to call Monday morning to schedule my induction.
Now, let me pause here. I did not want to be induced. I had heard no real positives to endorse induction, so that's where I stood on that issue. But with my blood pressure being so erratic and high, it was more stressful on the baby than an induction would be. Now, I might be stubborn (okay, okay, I AM stubborn), but I'm not stupid. I didn't want my baby to be distressed.
So I called Monday morning and they said that I would need to call L&D that evening at 8 pm to make sure that they had a bed available for my 9 pm induction. Wow. Okay. So I called at 8 pm and sure enough, they have a bed. At this point, I was a ball of anxious energy. Chad gathered the bags and went out to the Rav, only to discover that the battery was dead. Damn. So we get out the jumper cables and leave his truck running for 35 minutes, trying to charge the dead battery on the Rav - to no avail! Finally, I tell Chad to just take me into the hospital in the truck and he can deal with the dead battery later (we wound up having to buy a new one, it was that dead). So we get to the hospital almost an hour after my scheduled induction time and they take me to my L&D room. Bed wasn't as nice as the ones in the WP, but the ones in L&D have to break down. You know, for when you have the baby. So go figure that they're not as comfortable.
So about 10:30 that evening (mind you, this is Monday, November 2), they administer the first dose of cytotec. (It ripens the cervix and promotes the inital dilatation.) It's a vaginal suppository, so you have to lie prone for quite some time after they place it, hence why my doctor scheduled my induction to begin at night. God bless intelligent doctors! They then administered the next dose 3 hours later and a third dose 3 hours after that. By 7 am, they decided that they would begin a pitocin drip (a synthetic oxytocin, the chemical your body releases to start actual contractions) via IV. I was feeling NOTHING. I thought - this is a breeze! I progress through a few more centimeters of dilatation in blissful ignorance. Then, at 10:30 am, they decided to break my water. (Side note: weirdest feeling ever!) The contractions started to feel a bit stronger after that, but not really. An hour later, they were upping my pitocin to really get the contractions going.
Everything was progressing along well enough until the noticed that with my contractions getting stronger, my blood pressure was creeping up, and, scary part, staying up between contractions. My nurse came in and said that she knew I was hoping for a pain-med free labor and explained about my BP. She said that if I wanted, I could try a half dose of fentanyl to take the edge of the contractions, which should allow my body to relax between them and hence reduce the stress on the baby. So I consented to a half dose. About an hour and a half later, the fentanyl didn't feel like it had worked at all and I was starting to get that pounding BP headache again. I caved. I asked for the epidural. (They also gave me the rest of the fentanyl dose, as they would just have to toss it.)
I know I said I didn't want an epidural, but when they tell you that your body is creating stress on your baby, you tend to forget about petty fears, like getting a needle stuck in your back. Getting the epidural HURT. VERY BADLY. But I was able to sleep some after receiving it, which helped me to relax and lower my BP. (Just for kicks and giggles, I want to throw out there that my nurse said I was handling the contraction pain very well before they medicated me, so I felt proud of that.) And even though I had a dead leg from the epi, it was totally worth it. (I have to admit that next time, I'm probably just going to get the epi.) About 8 pm, the contractions were soo painful that I had to hit the button on my epi - and it didn't work. It had run out. It took them a little time to get another bag of the meds, so I was back to feeling those contractions (not so fun). At 9 pm, they checked me and said that I was at 8, almost 9, centimeters. I was still waiting for the epi to kick back in and was pretty much mindless of everything else. Fifteen minutes later, I was frantically paging the nurse because I HAD TO PUSH. She checked me and was surprised that I was right! She had me practice push but quickly stopped me. Apparently, I practiced too well. They were rushing to page the doctor to come in to my room. They quickly broke down the bed and had me scoot down to the bottom. Twenty-seven minutes and one episiotomy later, I gave birth to our son, Wylie Joseph Thorner at 9:48 pm on November 3, 2009. He was 6 pounds, 11 ounces and measured 20 3/4 inches long. He was breathing well on his own and crying strongly, so they didn't need to take him to the NICU.
The next morning, they took Wylie to give him a chest xray to check on the CCAM. It was not present on the xray. THIS DOES NOT MEAN THAT THE CCAM IS GONE. In fact, it is fairly common that the smaller CCAMs do not present on an xray. What this does mean is that at about 3 mos of age, Wylie will go in for a CT scan of his chest. IF the CT scan is clean, we will adopt a monitoring attitude (this is very unlikely, but not improbable). If the CT scan shows the CCAM (which is most likely will), we will begin to discuss a course of action for surgery. As I have stated before, not removing the CCAM is not an option as they have a tendency to turn malignant later in life. But for now, he is having no problems breathing and is a happy baby boy. We couldn't love him more!
