A Long Overdue Update

Wow, where do I begin.? First of all sorry for taking so long to get this post up. Things have been busy and I never have the chance to get on the computer. So, to get you up to date. I'm happy to report that Jessica made her arrival on Dec. 17th at 4:58pm. She made it to her due date and was actually 4 days overdue.

The labour and delivery was an interesting experience to say the least. I did end up getting put on the induction list on the Monday before she was born (dec 14th) and I was called to the hospital on Wednesday evening (dec 16th). The induction started at 9:30pm with a dose of Cervidil. With Josh's induction all it took was the one dose of Cervidil to get labour going - he was born less than 12 hours later, so I was expecting a similar experience. This was not the case.

When the induction started I was dilated 1cm. They inserted the Cervidil with the plan to reassess me at 9:30 the next morning. Well I guess overnight the labour and delivery floor got really busy and by 7 am the unit was at capacity. Needless to say come 9:30 the doctors were very busy and were unable to come and assess me and sadly the Cervidil had done very little to get labour going. I mean it did start contractions but they weren't very strong.

A doctor finally came around at 11:30 am and recommended that I go empty my bladder before she assessed me because if she had decided that I needed another dose of Cervidil I would have to stay in bed hooked up to the monitor for two hours afterward. And so I did. When I got out of the bathroom the doctor was gone and I was informed that she had been called to the OR and would be back in a little while. An hour and a half later another doctor finally came in to see me.

At this point it was 1pm. The doctor removed the Cervidil and checked my cervix. I was only 3 cm. :( She decided however that I did not need another dose of Cervidil. She was able
to break my water and the plan was to wait an hour or two to see if that would be enough to start labour. If not, they would start me on Oxytocin. My contractions increased in strength and frequency but still it wasn't anything unbearable.

Just before 3 pm my nurse came in to check me...I was still 3 cm :( The oxytocin was started at 3pm and shortly after I noticed a definite change in the strength of my contractions and I was definitely more uncomfortable. By about 3:45 pm I had decided that I would opt for the epidural. The contractions were intense but still manageable and I since I ran out of time to get the epidural with Josh's labour I thought I would make my request before the pain got too bad. Plus I had noticed that Jessica's heart rate wasn't really stable. I mean it stayed within the "normal" range but it wasn't showing an "ideal" pattern. My concern was that if this was a sign that she wasn't tolerating the labour and if something were to happen requiring an emergency c-section I wanted to have an epidural in place so there would be no delays and so they wouldn't have to knock me right out.

When my nurse came in just before 4 pm to increase my Oxytocin I told her that my contractions were quite strong and I would like to get an epidural. She checked my cervix - I was now 4 cm and so I was able to get the epidural. She made the phone call to the anestheiologist only to find out that he is in the OR right now with a c-section but will come as soon as he's done. :( Shortly after she left, my contractions kicked it up a notch...or two....or three. I knew that labour wasn't going to last much longer and that epidural just wasn't going to happen.

When my nurse came in again (I have no idea what time it was but I suspect it was around 4:30) I told her that my contractions were crazy strong and I was in a lot of pain. She looked at the monitor - specifically at the reading measuring the strength of my contractions - and I could tell that she didn't really believe me or she thought I was a weeny. I acknowledged that the contractions on the screen didn't look that strong but I assured her that they were and I didn't think that the probe was positioned on my belly properly to get an accurate reading. She repositioned the probe and sure enough I was right. Her reaction was kind of like, " Oh wow! Hang on let me check you." I was 6-7 cm. And then the crazy nurse proceeded to increase my oxytocin again. Yeah, I don't think that was at all necessary. Labour was going full force and actually Jessica was showing signs that the labour was too intense for her. Her heart rate was starting to drop which would prompt the nurse to tell me to turn on my side to try and get her heart rate back up.

Anyway my contractions continued to get worse, Jessica's heart rate continued to drop and then recover with repositioning on my part and at some point my nurse finally decided it was time to turn of the Oxytocin. I could tell that my nurse was actually pretty freaked out. Probably by how quickly my labour progressed and by the fact that Jessica's heart rate wasn't stable.

Towards the end of the labour I was having to flip in the bed continuously back to side, side to back to try and get Jessica's heart rate up but it was no longer responding. I later learned that my nurse had to call a code ( code 222 - which is an alert that there is a baby in distress.). In the moment all that I was aware of was that all of a sudden there was a slew of people rushing into the room. The doctor had her hand inside me trying to stimulate the baby and attach a fetal monitor to her scalp. I'm not even sure if they got it attached or not because it quickly came to a point where the baby had to come out. Her heart rate was in the 80's and was not coming back up. The doctor was yelling at me to get the baby out. I just remember her saying, "push, push, push Corrie. Don't stop pushing until your baby is out. She's in trouble and you need to get her out of there.". Talk about motivation - I got her out in two pushes. Once she was out her heart rate recovered and thankfully she was fine - strong and healthy, weighing 6 lbs 13 oz.

The rest of our hospital stay was rather uneventful except for the extra day we had to spend there because Jessica had developed jaundice and required photo therapy.

The first couple of weeks at home were a bit rough mainly due to Joshua's difficulty with adjusting to the new baby. I mean he was thrilled to have a little sister and loved to give her kisses but whenever she cried he cried too - like he screamed uncontrolably. I figured we would have that problem because Josh is very sensitive and he doesn't like it when other kids cry, scream or yell, but I was really hoping that wouldn't be the case. Wishful thinking I suppose.

The first four weeks were tough. Jessica seemed to want to nurse constantly and Josh was a wreck every time Jessica cried, which let's face it, was often. Plus of course he was dealing with the fact that he now had to share me. He used to have me all to himself and now this little baby was taking all my attention. It's a tough adjustment to make.

Probably our one saving grace was that my mom had arrived from British Colombia just before Christmas and was able to give me a hand for the week that she was here. She was able to offer Josh some distraction whenever Jessica started crying and that most likely saved me from going clinically insane.

Anyway, we all survived that newborn phase and Jessica is now 3 1/2 months old and doing well. Josh has settled in to our new routine and no longer cries or freaks out whenever she is upset, which is a welcome relief.

And just to update you on Josh, he is doing fantastic! His speech has really taken off and we are consistently getting 4 word sentences from him, which is truly amazing. We used to get so little out of him in terms of verbal expression it's just been an awesome experience to hear his little voice and to hear him say things like ' I wuv you mommy'. It melts my heart. His speech therapist is thrilled and no longer has any open concerns about his speech development. Based on my report she says that Josh is near age appropriate for verbal expression. Yay! Way to go Josh! Hopefully she'll be able to discharge us soon.

Well I guess I'll wrap this post up. The problem with being so behind with my blogging is you end up missing out on a lot of the little details. But suffice it to say we had a nice Christmas and a wonderful Easter (the weather was amazing!) and everyone is doing well. I have a bunch of pictures I want to post....I think I will do that as a slideshow in a future post - my goal is to have it up by the end if next week. I got an iPhone for my birthday from Robb which is how I have been able to finally get this post finished, but I will need to get on the main computer to do the slideshow.

Thanks for being so patient with me and for taking the time to check in on us!