Third Hospital Visit....

..and last!!!!

On Wednesday the 3rd of September we had an appointment with Dr. Robertson at Methodist Hospital. We went in thinking we would be sent home and ready to wait another week. Well that was not the case at all. He made a few phone calls and the next thing we got told was to be back at the hospital that night after 5 to be set up for induction. So of course we went home and waited for 5 to show up and headed to Methodist Hospital. We got to Methodist and checked into Labor and Delivery, which has some of the greatest nurses in the world. We got checked in, filled out paper work and then they inserted a pill to get things rolling while we settled in for the night. Some contractions had started, but the sleeping pill they gave me did nothing, so they gave me a shot of something in my IV and I was out withing seconds according to Derek

Thursday morning was pretty eventful with my water breaking on its own around 6:30 am. They started the Pitocin drip along with magnesium (to prevent seizures since I was pre-eclamptic) at about 9. Contractions came and went as I was occasionally checked to see how dilated I was. Throughout that time, I felt pretty good as they had also started my Epidural around 9am as well. However, the epidural ran out so they started me on another batch. Around 4pm, I was dilated at about 3.5 cm but feeling a lot of pain and pressure as the baby's head was pushing on the front right of my hip. The anastealogist gave me a shot Lidocaine and I slept though some contractions, and between others, for about an hour. About 1 1/2 hours after the lidocaine shot, I was at about 5cm. I had some hard contractions where the good news was that in 15 minutes, I went from 5cm to 7cm, the bad being that I could feel the contractions very intensely. At that point, they called the anastealogist up again, and he gave me a shot of something else "that would hopefully get her though the rest of the ordeal". In about an hour, I went from 7cm to no cervix from what they could tell, so it was about time to begin pushing.

The nurse, Lisa, did an excellent job at coaching me and telling me how to push correctly. Derek was putting me under some pressure as well as he really wanted to have Caitlin on his birthday, but there was only about 4 1/2 hours left in the day. After some strong pushes, we had to take a break to get my oxygen levels up to get the baby's heart rate back up. Pushing went pretty fast after that as I soon was crowning. Unfortunately, Dr. Thatcher was 20 minutes away, so I had to breathe though some VERY intense contractions as they couldn't start the birth without her. After about 15 minutes, I was growing very agitated wondering where she us, but she showed up on time at 20 minutes.

Pushing with Dr Thatcher went really well. After about 5 or so minutes of hard pushing, we had our baby. We sighed a collective breath of relief when we found out what the sex was (she had a very pink room waiting at home), Derek snipped the umbilical cord, and we cleaned up. All in all, it went really well, but I felt faint when the nurse told me a bit later that my epidural had pretty much worn off 2 hours before, and I essentially went without the painkillers.

Mom and Marty were still at the hospital and were able to come in right away (they were waiting in the hall) after Caitlin was born. Derek called up his mom who was already in town, and she and his siblings came shortly. It was all very surreal, but a very joyous occasion. Even now we both have times where it's hard to believe we have a baby in our home.

After the birth, they moved us to a clean birthing suite. They didn't want to move us downstairs yet to Maternity as I was on a Magnesium drip for another 12 hours, and during the night, the nursery noticed Caitlin's oxygen levels dropped slightly). They put her on a monitor but all worked out. Around 10:00 the next day, they moved us to Maternity where we remained for the next day an a half. We were happy to share our joy with family and friends, but it turned out it could be a bit much at times. Nearly all of our immediate and extended family showed up to see the baby, and share in the love. They next day, with much waiting, we were finally released to go home where we had more family and friends waiting to see the new baby.

The first night was rather uneventful except we were exhausted, and due to the occurrence of a thunderstorm as well, we convince mom to stay. We couldn't have done it without her. At about 2am, she woke up hungry, but wouldn't really eat (we had issues with her falling asleep while nursing throughout the previous day, and it didn't get any better. We finally resolved to Derek giving her an ounce of formula and wrapping her up. I was immediately out, and Derek took over watching her (and sleeping with her in the bassinet next to her in a different room so that I could rest).

And the rest is history. We may be taking her in tomorrow to the Dr as she hasn't had a stool movement in a day and a half but the On-call doctor thinks it's because she hasn't eaten much and she's in the phase between eating from me and eating on her own. She is also starting to look a bit yellow on the skin and eyes, so we want to have that checked out as well.