Happy Birthday Luke!
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| Before. :) |
Yesterday, July 20, Dave and I checked into St. Vincent Women's Hospital at 5:30 a.m. for our little guy to be induced, due to my high blood pressure throughout the last few months of pregnancy. It was exactly a week before my due date of 7/27.
We were so excited and ready to meet Luke! My doctor is in a practice of eight others, and she luckily happened to be the one on call to deliver yesterday, so we were super excited about that. We didn't think there was any way we would get that lucky to have her deliver him.
We got into our room around 6 a.m. or so and waited a bit for a nurse to come in and start my IV's etc. I was super nervous about that part, just because I have never had an IV before! They started it in my right arm and hung some fluids, nutrients and the Pitocin to induce.
Dave and I sat and talked for a while, invited our moms and my dad into the room when they got to the hospital, and spent most of the morning in anticipation of our little guy. I never thought I would want anyone else around when in labor, but it was nice to have family around to pass time with before contractions really got bad.
They upped my dose of pitocin every half an hour, and I started to feel some slightly uncomfortable contractions around noon or so. However, the party really started when they broke my water around 1 p.m. Dr. Hughes examined me, and I was around 4 cm or so at that point. As SOON as she broke my water, the contractions went nuts! I had wanted to feel a few of them before getting an epidural, so Dave helped me breathe through 5 or so before I decided I was in fact in a lot of pain, and READY for some drugs! However, lucky for me, St. Vincent was unbelievably busy that day (so much so that they had to send some scheduled inductions home because they didn't have enough rooms/staff to cover them) so my nurse Amber (who was great) let us know that we were a few down on the list and would have to wait a bit longer. That was NOT what I wanted to hear at that point! However, I survived mostly thanks to Dave helping me through, and the anesthesiologist got into the room a little before two. She was wonderful and put me at ease abour the whole process, even though at that point she could have done whatever she wanted to me to stop the pain! The whole process was very simple, a small needle poke and some stinging as the lidocane went into my back, and then I didn't feel a thing after that. It took about 10 mnutes for the drugs to fully kick in, and it was an amazing feeling once they did! My legs were a bit tingly but I had total relief from the pain. Now, apparently Pitocin can cause worse contractions than natural labor, but either way, people who do childbirth naturally are CRAZY.
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At that point we could just relax so Dave pulled the recliner over and we watched some TV and took a nap. When Dr. Hughes came in around 4 p.m. or so, I was about 7 cm dilated. We were super excited that things were progressing and getting closer! At that point, my mom came in so that Dave could go get some dinner before I was fully dilated and ready to push. We hung out for a while, and after close to an hour I started to feel what felt like a muscle cramp initially. Dave came back in the room, and that cramp worsened and gradually turned into an extrememly painful pressure in my right pelvis, and then moved into the middle of my stomach. We let the nurse know, and she checked me again, and I was 10 cm, with just a tiny bit left to dilate before pushing. Super exciting, but also incredibly painful. They wanted me to keep having this pressure so I could tell when contractions were to help push, but after 30 minutes or so they realized I was in too much pain to push effectively so they gave me an additional "delivery dose" they called it of the epidural. I could not believe how much that pressure hurt. It was much worse than the contractions, mostly because the pressure means your body is ready to push, but since I wasn't quite dilated they wanted me to resist and not. So it was incredibly painful until those drugs kicked in.
Right around 7 p.m. they were ready to have me start pushing. Dr. Hughes was in the room for a few "practice pushes" to make sure I was doing it right before she left to check on another patient. Turns out, I'm pretty good at it. Of all the skills to have! So I pushed in total for about an hour and a half (average for first deliveries is apparently 3 hours!) with the Dr. in and out of the room checking on me. As I learned, you push with each contraction, and after having to deal with that pressure, I really enjoyed pushing, it felt so good to work with your body instead of against it! So I pushed 3 times through each contraction - the quicker you can keep those three pushes together, the better, as it forces the baby down quickly. Now, probably after an hour of pushing or so I was exausted, and started yelling really helpful things like "why can't you just pull him out!!??", "why isn't he out yet??" , "how much longer is this going to take??" - I didn't know how much more I could do, but it's amazing what your body can accomplish, even if you don't think you can. Dave and our nurse were SO supportive during each push and I have no doubt were huge in getting me though that. Around 7:45 or so, Dr. Huges came back in and was there until the baby was born. She helped tremendously as well letting me know how close the baby was getting and when I had really great pushes to keep more going like that. Like I said, I had no idea how much longer I could go - I felt SO exausted!
Probably around 8:05 or so, we were getting super close to the little guy being born, so the nurses transformed the room, pulled out the table with all the delivery tools and got the baby warming station ready. At St. Vincent, you labor, deliver and recover all in the same room, and typically they will clean the baby up and he gets to stay with you as long as you want in there - zero separation.
Now, in the meantime, we had gotten a new nurse, Wendy, who was also fabulous. She helped me push for the last hour or so after the shift change.
Now, here's where it gets crazy. We knew we would have a large child, clearly, Dave and I are not small. So as the baby was coming out, Dr. Hughes warned us he would have a cone head - which is normal as babies are put under so much pressure as they pass through the birth canal, but we had no idea what else was to come! The toughest part of pushing is to get the baby's head under the arch of the pelvic bone, they rock back and forth for a while before their head gets completely under and really ready to come out. Here was the problem. Remember when I said apparently I was good at pushing? I mean, I was really good. I got his head and shoulders through there, and then as he was ready to deliver, his head came out, but his shoulders got stuck. Now normally, the doctors see signs that this is going to happen and can be prepared essentially for a potential c-section or other measures that may need to be taken to get a baby out. But, they had no idea this was going to be an issue for me since I had gotten him under that pelvic bone. So, I felt tremendous pressure and knew the head was out. I kept waiting for them to lay a baby on me, but they didn't. At this point it got crazy. The next part of this story was only two mintues of my life, but seemed like FOREVER.
Dr. Hughes started saying things like "his shoulder is stuck, let's try this" and instructing my nurse and the charge nurse what to do. Dr. Hughes was up on the table trying to maneuver the shoulders out while the nurses were literally punching my pelvic area trying to force the baby's body out. I was in tremendous pain and screaming at this point. Dave was fabulous. Still holding my hand and talking me through everything, even though I was screaming, I still heard all of his encouragement and it helped so much, even though I'm sure it did not appear I could hear anything at all! After what had to have been a minute or so, Dr. Hughes told the charge nurse to call the NICU and have someone there. A team of 3 NICU doctors and nurses were in the room within probably 30 seconds or so. Dave said after about a minute, Dr. Hughes' attitude shifted. At first it was ok, let's try a few procedures and see if we can get this guy out, and then it was like, this baby is coming out NOW. They were all working so hard to get the baby out. I know Dave was terrified, but I was in too much pain to really know what was going on, finally I felt a huge pressure, and then relief. He was out. They passed him over to the NICU doctors and were filling us in as much as they could. We were so nervous, and kept asking questions as to what was going on without a lot of answers at first. There were probably 7 people in the room at that time, so it was super chaotic.
After a couple of minutes, we could start to hear the baby fuss, and then finally cry. Like I said, as he was coming out, his head made it fine, but his left shoulder got stuck under my pelvic bone and would not come out. So, while they were working the shoulder for those two minutes, he was without oxygen besides what residual amount was in the umbillical cord. He was completely purple when he came out. They had to help kick start his breathing, but quickly he was doing it on his own, little champ. Initally we knew they were worried about the lack of oxygen, and potential damage to his collar bone/shoulder/nerves in his left arm, but not too much else. They asked us what his name was, weighed him in the room, and once he was to a stable place, wrapped him up, let me hold him for a few seconds, and then wisked him off for testing and treatment. Woah. Talk about a lot happening in a little amount of time.
At this point, we could really take a breath and try to figure out what happened! Dr. Hughes the whole time had been working on me, delivering the placenta and doing all the other fun things that have to be taken care of after a delivery. She explained about the shoulder, and why they had to call the NICU, etc. and helped reassure us a bit that everything was going to be ok. She let us know that they had tested the umbillical cord and it had quite a bit of oxygen in it while he had not been breathing, so they were much less worried about any damage, etc.
Again, thank God for epidurals because after all that pushing and pulling, I felt ok! Once it had quited down, Dave went and shared the news with our families, who had waited all day in the waiting room for us! They had let him take a few pictures, so he had some proof to show them!
After about a half an hour, I was able to drink some water and juice, and we invited our families back to the room. It was so nice to have people there to support us and get us through everything. After another 20 minutes or so the NICU doctor who was fabulous, came back down to give us an update on the little guy. Basically, they had done a chest x-ray to check on his lungs and collar/shoulder bones, which had come back fine, no damage to either. He was acidotic and had needed fluids, so they gave him a big bolus, or basically ball of fluids all at once, to counteract that, and was breathing on his own. Because of his coloring at birth (white/gray once he was breathing) they were worried of infection, so they started him on antiobiotics immediately as well. She also told us she didn't want him feeding because in a traumatic birth like that any oxygen in the babies system is shunted to the most vital organs like the brain/heart/lungs and the intenstines are the last organ to get any oxygen, if we tried to feed him most likely that organ would not be functioning correctly and could cause more problems, so he would have to be on fluids for nutrition. She let us know he would need to spend the night in the NICU, but if he did well, he could be moved to the Continuing Care Nursery in the morning. That's a special nursery for babies that don't really need the NICU but still have an IV in etc. and need a bit more care.
Are you overwhelmed and exausted after reading all of that? Yup, we were also both of those things after living it. Once I was done with my recovery time, which was helped along by McDonalds fries from my little brother, they took Dave and I up to the NICU to see Luke and finally get to hold him! The NICU is a hopping place at St. V. They have NINETY beds, and he took the 86th so there was a lot going on up there. But, we felt very fortunate that he was one of the lowest risk babies there.
Might we mention he was also clearly the largest at 10 pounds, 12 ounces and 23 inches long. WOAH. We knew we would have a big baby, but that was way beyond even what we expected! So, if any of you out there heard me complain about how uncomfortable I was at the end of pregnancy - you know know why!!!
We spent some time with the little/big guy and then Dave walked our family in two by two to see him. I held him the whole time, since it was easier than passing him around with all his little IV's etc. When everyone had seen him, they took us up to our post-partum room and we got settled in, ordered some food, and tried to digest all that had just happened to us. What a whirlwind. Minus the last two minutes, labor and delivery was about what I think I had expected, and a one of a kind experience. I felt really proud of myself for making it through, pushing well, and delivering basically a three month old ;)
I just need to say again how amazing Dave was through the whole thing, I knew especially at the end he had to have been terrified (I would NEVER want to see him in as much pain as I was in, and I know that he hates to see me in any pain, much less blood curdle screaming pain) but he was SO supportive and loving and helpful through the whole thing. I am so lucky to have the best partner in the world. I could NOT have done that alone.
So when it was all said and done, we have a great, healthy baby and were so blessed to be in a hospital with a great NICU, fabulous doctors and nurses, and one that let us have family to surround and support us throughout the day.
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| After!! :) |
I have felt pretty good recovering the past few days, much better than I expected. And it has been nice with him in the nursery for both Dave and I to get some rest.
So, there, in a not so small nutshell, is how Lucas Allen Yaraschefski made his very memorable debut into the world. We are so lucky and so thankful for how everything turned out. We can't wait to be able to cuddle Luke whenever we want and have him with us all the time! Thank you everyone for all of your love, calls, texts, and support for our family. We are so blessed to have all of you in our lives.
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