Life in the Neonatal Intensive Care

Piper was carted off to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. While my doctor was tending to me, one of the NICU staff calls my husband over. Frankly, I would have preferred the man to come over where it would be easy for me to hear, but I have amazing eavesdropping powers. I quietly listened as he explained that they needed to take my daughter down to the NICU.

I had to wait before I could go down there, but after a few minutes, all the grandparents and my husband went down there. They took pictures of her for me, as did the NICU. They sent me a card with her picture and a nice little note about who her doctor was and stuff. I was waiting in my room for her doctor to come talk to me, which felt like eternity because he had a baby that was more critical than my little one.

While I waited, I got to eat, finally, and after I ate, the nurses gave me some pain meds. Then my nurses bring a wheelchair to cart me down to the NICU. When I got down there to her, they had already taken her off the CPAP, which pushed air into her lungs for her and got her on a cannula with almost room air. The respiratory therapist I spoke with indicated that he got a lot of fluid from her lungs. She seemed to be improving rapidly, but they had to keep her until all her tests came back.

When I spoke to her doctor, he described several potential issues. She has fluid in her lungs, a low blood volume, and acidic blood. They were taking care of all the issues, but she was hooked up to everything under the sun. It was sad to see my little pumpkin attached to all kinds of doohickies.

When I went for my last visit of that first evening, I had the opportunity to hold my baby. I watched as the nurse gave her the first bath, and watched as my little one desperately looked for some food. She was hungry, but lung-issue babies are not allowed to eat the first 24 hours. It made me feel like crap, and by the time the bath was done, she passed out. As much as I wanted to hold my baby, I felt rest was better for her and opted not to hold her then.

Knowing that my baby was already vastly improving, I went to finally take a shower. It felt sooo good. I hadn't realized how tired I was. The nurses said I was moving around very well for someone who just had a baby. I guess it was the adrenaline. I couldn't just stay put while my little one was in trouble. However, being up for two days did me in and when because I managed to convince everyone (husband included) to go home and get some decent rest, I was all alone to sleep. Some people might think poorly of my husband for leaving me by myself, but I insisted on him going home.

The next couple of days were a blur of pumping milk, breastfeeding the baby, and just waiting for news. On her second day of life, Piper was allowed to eat, but they would only give her 6 cc's of food at a time because of the lung thing. The only way to side-step that was to breast feed her. So I meandered down the hall every three hours to let my daughter eat as much as should. After that first day of eating, they let her eat as much as she wanted.

She went into the NICU on Tuesday morning, and she finally got to come home Sunday morning. Original problem-wise, it took three days for her blood cultures to come back, and about that same time, her doctor found the issue of a low resting heart rate, so low in fact, it was a concern. So from the time it was discovered until Sunday, this was monitored in case it was an issue. As it turned out, it was a non-issue and it seems her heart rate is just low when she's asleep.

The thing that really got me going was her doctor. One minute it would be, "This looks like a non-issue," and the next it was, "We need to keep an eye are her." He was back and forth that by Saturday, I was in tears. The first time I cried through this whole ordeal. I was just frustrated beyond belief and all I wanted was my baby at home where she belonged.

The bottom line is that Piper suffered a hard labor and delivery. That's all it was. Things are groovy now and she's as healthy as a horse.

Labor and Delivery Part II

So, by 1:00 A.M. Tuesday morning I am finally dilated to 5cm and by 1:30, I hit 6cm. All I can think is, Woohoo, I am finally going to have this baby. By 3:00, I am dilated 7-8. Then comes another snag.

By about 5:00, I am dilated almost completely. The last part we are waiting for is that a small part of my cervix won't thin out. I think that it may have been related to scar tissue from a biopsy, but we will never know. As time goes on, the nurse says that a decision will have to be made soon if I don't finish dilating or at least progress enough for manipulation of the baby's head.

Then I realize that I am starting to feel my butt again, and my pain is getting bad. Looking back, I remember the anesthesiologist warning that having an epidural as long I had increased the risk of the tubing going out. However, it is shift change, and I call for my nurse to come help me with the pain. The nurse I had for the night shift was great, but I had to call more than once for this new nurse, and she really seemed to have an attitude. She turns up my epidural, says it will take about 10 minutes to take effect, and that I should expect more pressure. Thanks, for that clarification. During my internal exam, she seems very rough with me and it was quite painful.

When they tell me I can start pushing, I give it all I got. My mom said that pushing took a whole 25-30 minutes tops. I was ready to be done and it showed. The nurse was annoying though. Finally I decided to just ignore her and do it my way.

At 7:59 A.M., my beautiful little girl came into this world weighing 7lbs. 2.7oz. and at a length of 21 inches, which included her conehead. My ob/gyn laid her on my abdomen and I got to touch her head before she was taken to the warmer to be cleaned up and evaluated. She didn't make any sounds until she had been over there for some time. I was quite worried and I hope that I never again have to experience what happened next.

Going into Labor

I actually went into labor the morning before my due date, which was Tuesday, January 31, 2006. That previous Sunday, my husband was scheduled to go into work that night as usual, but he decided to call off because I was having some some strong cramps, and he seemed to think that he would need to be at home.

Well, we decided to try to assist the onset of labor with some sex. It's supposed to work, and in our case, it did. The second time we had sex, very early Monday morning, I had some regular, light cramping. So at 5:30 A.M., I am lying in bed reading a book because I decided to take it easy. At about 6:45, the cramps become severe enough that I can no longer concentrate on the story. I decided to hop in the shower, because all the advice is to test for Braxton-Hicks by doing something different from what you were doing, i.e. from resting to active or vice versa.

I called my mom for her opinion about it being the real thing, and the doctor. It seems this guy does really well with high-risk, but I always felt kinda ignored. I know more than tell him that I think I am in labor, then he says go to the hospital. So we take care of the dogs and we load up my bag, the baby's bag, etc.

We get into observation... and we stay there from 8:45 until almost 2:00 P.M. They can't decide whether to admit me. The nurse doesn't seem inclined to because I am not dilating fast enough and my contractions aren't starting from the top of my belly, but she can IV me because I am dehydrated. She teased me by asking if I was ready to get up and walk, and the whole time, all I have been saying to my husband and my parents is that I want to walk.

Finally, I am admitted because my ob/gyn called for an ultrasound which showed an aged placenta. There's no way I am going home until I have this baby. By this time, not being able to walk around like I want to, I am in severe pain. I really wanted to go natural, but they call for an epidural as I am wheeled to my room. The funny thing is that they have to give me an injected pain killer just to get me to sit still long enough for the epidural.

After I am finally numbed to most of the pain, I learn from my nurse that my ob/gyn considers 2:00 P.M. too late to order Pitocin to assist my dilation. I was only dilated to 2cm when I got a room, and by 11:00 P.M., I finally hit 4cm. They ended turning down my epidural that evening because it slowed my labor so much. By about 11 or so, I asked for it to be turned back up.

My poor husband in all this, he was tired from being up all Sunday night, while I slept, and all day Monday, so I finally convinced him to go home and get some rest when I quit progressing. My mother-in-law stayed with me that night as I also told my parents to go home. Little did I know that excitement was just around the corner.

Playing Catch Up

Okay, so I did the whole prepare for the baby thing and then I went and had her. What happened there was the most terrifying experience yet. I now understand many of the things mothers say. The next series of posts will cover the birth experience up until this point. Then we will move on to other things. Like writing, or lack thereof. I am trying but I am searching for a job and taking care of a newborn. Plus there is this other thing called housework that I need to do.

However, today I am devoting solely to telling the story of my daughter. More to come.

Yeah, What I Said Before

So I make this huge proclamation about how I am going keep up with the blog and such. Then I disappear for a month. I have a good excuse this time, I promise. I was moving and had to wait for Internet and other things before I could hook back up with the online world. As it is, I am sitting on the floor with the keyboard in my lap. The hubby has to move his surround sound equipment before I can put my desk where it needs to go. Work has been hampering progress. We are short-staffed and I just don't have the energy or stamina to do anything besides eat and sleep when I get home. It's been horrible and the husband is giving me crap. I keep asking him if he knows what it is like to grow a baby.

I visited the doctor again yesterday and got some interesting news. I have gained a whole 2 pounds so far this pregnancy. My blood was lower than last month's reading and this is the second month this occurred. I see a pattern but the doctor didn't say anything about it. I did mention that I didn't always get to eat at work because sometimes I couldn't take a break to do it. He didn't seem too thrilled about that one and said I would start getting very dizzy if I didn't eat regularly. I got a note to take to work that says I need to take more breaks. He said all of this before I could even mention that I almost fell on my face Sunday at work because I couldn't stop to eat anything.

I have this unnerving urge to write, but a topic seems lost to my brain so I am going to go mull over something.