Our Birth Story

So, um, yeah, I had a baby. Here's how the birth went down. In short, it sucked.

At my 39-week appointment, it was decided that we would induce that week due to my continued blood pressure issues and the fact that I now had protein in my urine. The plan was to begin the process on Wednesday night through the use of a cervical ripening agent and then to begin labor with Pitocin on Thursday morning, with a birth on Thursday or possibly Friday. As such, we checked into the hospital Wednesday night and the doctor inserted the first dose, then the nurses took over from there. I had to rest in bed for two hours after each dose, then was given an hour to be up and about before being given the next dose. I generally chose to spend as much of each of those hour reprieves in the Jacuzzi tub as was possible.

When Thursday morning arrived, they checked my cervix and determined that it had not begun dilating at all, so we decided to do one more dose of the ripening agent and then to start the Pitocin at 1:00 pm, which meant I wouldn’t be able to move around much—only within the room and only in positions that allowed the baby to be monitored. After that, everything becomes pretty much a blur for me. I was on the Pitocin all afternoon and into the evening with no dilation, but in a great deal of pain. When the nursing shift change happened around 6:00 pm, the day nurse said that I would be at a full dosage in an hour or two. An hour into that I asked the night nurse about that and she seemed skeptical about that time frame, telling me that full dosage was 30, and I was only at 18 at 8:00 pm. While I thought I could go another hour, there was no way I could go on for an undetermined amount of time, especially when no progress was being made. I insisted that we shut the Pitocin off. The nurse checked with the doctor and the new plan was that we would again try the ripening agent overnight and try the Pitocin again in the morning if progress had been made or to at that time consider a C-section.

Once the Pitocin was off, I climbed back into the Jacuzzi; only this time, the magic tub did not work. I continued to have agonizingly strong contractions that made it very difficult for me to walk back to my room after I got out of the tub. Observing this, the nurse decided to check me, because the contractions should have stopped when the Pitocin was stopped. This time, there was progress—I had gone from 1 cm to 5 cm in no time flat. Body had decided on a new plan and labor was proceeding. Once I heard that I was above 4, I immediately asked for an epidural. I had already asked for Stadol before she checked me because I desperately needed something to take the edge off and knew that this would have passed through my body by the time the baby was born (my main concern being that I wanted to breastfeed immediately and didn’t want the baby to be sleepy). They went ahead and gave me the Stadol right away because it would take a little while to call in the anesthesiologist and for him to do all the preparations necessary. It helped a little, but basically it served to make me really dopey. It didn’t do much toward pain relief at all. Once I had the epidural, though, I was much more comfortable and after the “booster” epidural, I was as happy as a clam and could no longer feel the contractions though I could still see them on the monitor.

At about 7:30 the next morning, it was determined that I had fully dilated and could begin pushing. The doctor was with me for the first few pushes and she checked the strength of the pushes and the progress that the baby was making through the pelvis. I continued pushing with everything I had for about an hour and when the doc checked back in, the baby had made very little progress downward. We decided at this point to go ahead with the c-section since the baby should have been further descended based on the strength of the pushes and the time that I had been doing them.

Once surgery began, it took some doing to get the baby out—he was stuck firmly in my pelvis and it took two nurses to help the doctor dislodge him. He also had the umbilical cord wound twice around his neck tightly. He wasn’t breathing well and his heart rate was depressed. They immediately whisked him over and began working on him, but we didn’t really know what was going on. They got him on oxygen and by the time they got a heart rate, he was above 60, so they didn’t have to do compressions. His inital Apgar was 3. Once they had him stabilized enough to move him, they wheeled him up by my head and I got to see him for just a minute before they took him up to the nursery and continued working on him in J’s presence. He was so dehydrated that they couldn’t get a vein to give him fluids and ended up having to go in through the umbilical cord.

It was six hours after the birth before I got to hold him for the first time or see him for more than that brief moment in the OR. The doctor told me later that if we had tried to continue pushing for another hour, then we very well might have lost him. I’m very glad that I didn’t know much of this at the time that it was happening and even more thankful that we have a healthy and happy baby that we were able to take home on his 4th day.

He is three months old now and doing great. Just this morning, he discovered a new toy while I was changing his diaper. And so it begins.

Nothing Like a Northwest Beach

I just need to put this somewhere so I can show it to someone. Ta-da!!

Goin' Crackers

I just had a long, thoughtful conversation with J regarding the relative merits of various kinds of crackers. And because I am a caring and considerate altruist, I will now share the outcome of that deeply philosophical discussion.

Triscuits:
Consensus reached. Not a cracker at all. Shredded Wheat masquerading as a cracker. Not good for dipping. Flavor is too strong (and nasty, imnsho) and overpowers whatever you pair it with.

Wheat Thins:
No consensus reached.

• I feel they are a good snack cracker with a nice flavor, but they are bad for dipping, because they are too small and too flimsy. They cannot hold any substantial weight and certainly not enough weight to support the amount of dip I like to heap upon a cracker.
• J supports Wheat Thins in any role and will choose them no matter what dip, topping, crudités, or whatnot may be planned for the pairing.

Saltines:
No consensus reached. It got ugly, in fact. I may or may not have pulled over to the side of road and attempted to order him out of the car, then refused to drive on until he admitted that my assessment was correct and that there were no takebacks. Maturity is overrated.

• I maintain that saltines are your basic, run-of-the-mill, average, ordinary cracker. It pairs well with its cheese equivalent of your basic block of medium cheddar. And to make it perfection, add some sweet gherkins. In fact, I had this combo for dinner.
• J rudely and arrogantly maligns the saltine and claims it is sub-par and far below the level of all other crackers. He claims that he *might* be able to accept them with peanut butter. Whatever.

Ok, so we didn't get very far. The conversation devolved pretty quickly once we hit the saltines impasse. Rest assured, though, that I will be sure to post results as they develop in any further cracker conversations. It's important that you have all the valuable decision-making tools at your disposal in time for your next snacking opportunity. See? I am such an altruist.

Random Photos from the Long Weekend

Oh, hai. Has it been five months already? Hunh. I'd explain, but eh.

Anyhoo, my parents are wrapping up their week-long visit and I took some pictures over the weekend that I quite like. So here they are. Enjoy. Or don't. I don't control you. More's the pity.

Golden Arches


Forest for the Stump


Holding Steady


Wind-Up


Peep Show


Hoffstadt Creek Bridge (2340 ft. long, 600 ft. tall)


Sredrig


Demarcation (Looking ENE from Elk Rock at the North Fork Toutle River)


Scoured at Thirty (Looking WNW from Elk Rock at North Fork Toutle River and Castle Rock Lake)


Another Tack


Storyteller

Songs I Like Better My Way, Vol. II

"O Tannenbaum"
Apologies to Germans everywhere

O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum,
You will burn so delightfully.
On Memorial Day when you're nice and dry,
The inferno will burn brightly.
The conflagration will be swell,
The flames will be like those in hell.
O Tannenbaum, O Tannenbaum,
You will burn so delightfully.

Home for the Holidays

This has been a fairly craptacular year for us and I was in no way looking forward to the holidays. We even contemplated skipping the whole thing this year. But in the end, I just couldn't stomach the thought of not having a tree and not having our usual Christmas Eve gathering for all of our friends who also don't have family nearby. So we decided to plough on, cut back, and do the best we could.

However, for the first time in my life, I derived absolutely no joy in the anticipation of Christmas. Usually, I'm as giddy as a six-year-old as the most wonderful time of the year approaches. This year, I understood perfectly those never before comprehensible people who hate this holiday. All I felt right up throughout Christmas Eve day was an impending sense of dread and obligation and an immense exhaustion. But as my friends arrived that evening and filled the house with warmth, laughter, and love (and delightfully inappropriate conversations); it felt like the perfect Christmas. It felt like home.

Morning Drive

Frosty fields with snow-covered mountains in the distance and the sun rising through a smattering of clouds shot through with pink and gold. Beautiful.