I have been wanting to write this post for weeks now, literally, considering Little Buddy is officially 2 weeks old, but I just keep putting it off and putting it off. And considering the whole thing is actually kind of long, I figured I would make it into two parts (Part Two). More writing for me and more reading for you all - just what you want right??
And for those that don't know the entire back story, I have included a bit of extra details in here...and for those that have been following every little bit of our story, sincerest apologies for the repeat info.
So yes, we had our baby, and he was a few weeks earlier than even we had anticipated. Our baby journey really began on December 18th, when we went in for an appointment the night before we were to leave for Ireland, to celebrate Christmas with Peter's family, only to have our midwife tell us we should cancel our flights, and to have my Dr. confirm her thoughts the next day. You can read more about all of that HERE! I was a wreck for a week or so. And that was Christmas...
And then came New Years, and the Dr. decided that ruining our Christmas wasn't enough and he wanted to ruin our New Years as well - those were HIS words not mine! So he decided after a regular appointment, that I wasn't going to be going home, and that I was going to be admitted to the hospital that very day, and I wasn't discharged until January 9, 2013. See I was diagnosed with high blood pressure really early on in my pregnancy so all of my midwife appointments have been coupled with a perinatologist who specializes in hypertension and high risk pregnancies. The Dr. was trying to do his best to stabilize my blood pressure with medication while monitoring the baby, hence the extra appointments and hence the hospitalization on New Years Eve. So yes, we rang in the New Year in a Hospital room!
You can read more about my hospital stay here HERE. Being in the hospital for a week and a half was a trial in itself, and yes, I had many freak out moments and breakdowns that involved lots of tears, and yes I wrote about it on the blog, but truly Gods hand was so very apparent in all of it.
The Friday before the baby was born the Dr. said that he could send us home, but he would lose sleep over it. Pretty sure I wrote about this in another post - but he said there was a 90% chance I would be fine, but the 10% chance is what's keeping me at the hospital. And he said...is the 10% chance worth it? And we decided it wasn't...and he said we would reassess things on Wednesday...well let's just say we didn't make it to Wednesday considering baby was born on Sunday.
And the 24 hour monitoring of the baby started again late Friday night. Little Buddy had a heart deceleration within an hour of monitoring, and they wanted to watch to see if it happened again and it did ...58 minutes into monitoring. If he had gone a full hour without his heart rate dropping, then they would have taken me off the monitor! But Little Buddy had other plans...and the staff were concerned. So I was hooked up to a monitor all Friday night and all day Saturday and all day Sunday.
And as much as I love hearing my babies heart beat, sounded like a galloping horse, it was all starting to stress me out. And if I wasn't anxious and worried before, I was now!
Saturday and Sunday were filled with visits from friends...and I was hooked up to the baby monitor for all of those visits and only allowed to unhook myself to go to the bathroom. However, Sunday had a different feel to it considering I started the day off throwing up. I ordered the usual breakfast, which consisted of a bagel with cream cheese among other things, and I threw it up before I even had the chance to digest it. You could actually make out what I had ate! And then I had some snacks later on in the day...and then I had some pizza for lunch ...and then I threw up ...ALOT! Far more than I think they wanted me to considering they put my IV back in my arm and starting shooting me up with all sorts of liquids.
And I felt terrible the rest of the day. I couldn't keep anything down and they thought I had the flu, but they stuck something up my nose and determined from that that I didn't have the flu. They couldn't figure out what was going on - so they put me on a fast, and they decided that not a single thing would be entering my mouth. But then they gave me a Popsicle - I mean I was so very thirsty!! And guess what? I threw that up too! But man, it was delicious while it lasted. And I kept throwing up even with nothing in me.
And let's just say that through all of this I was having contractions! And these weren't Braxton Hicks contractions - they were just a bit more intense and way more frequent, far too frequent for my liking to be honest. And there was one time where I had a contraction and I threw up either during or right after the contraction - yuck, makes me sick just thinking about how sick I was that day. So one of the Drs. decided that maybe they should check my cervix to see what was going on down there...and my cervix was dilated 2.5 centimeters and it was 75% effaced. Little did I know that I was experiencing the first stage of labor, and little buddy was ready to make his entrance into the world whether we liked it or not.
I remember thinking, WHAT?? I hadn't planned for this...my body is going into labor, but I'm only 33 weeks pregnant, nearly 34 weeks. How is that even possible? Was a vaginal birth an option... Peter asked and the Dr. replied with a maybe. I was shocked!! I had mentally planned for a c-section, and now they were telling me the baby might be able to come vaginally? Well guess what I did? I pulled out my childbirth book and read over the relaxation techniques and other various things that apply to a vaginal birth, just in case.
After begging for ice chips for hours, the nurse finally granted me my wish...and I was so content as I rocked in a nice comfy rocking chair and watched the season premiere of Downton Abbey. However, the contentment was extremely short lived - Little Buddy's heart rate decelerated and about 4 Drs. came running into our room declaring that they had lost the baby's heart beat. They put my bed down and an oxygen mask on my face and busted out the ultrasound machine to see if they could track down LB's heart beat, and sure enough they could! But they were concerned - perhaps he had just grabbed hold of the umbilical cord or perhaps it was more than that? They didn't really know! But what they did know was that each time I had a contraction his heart rate dropped, which could only mean one thing...LB wasn't going to be able to handle the contractions as they got a bit more serious.
And it didn't take long for the Drs. to come back into my room. They informed me that they had talked to my Dr. on the phone and that he said it was go time. And what did I do? Well I started crying of course, and the Dr. asked "Are you freaking out?" and I said through tears..."We are going to have a baby!"..."This is a big deal!"..and the Dr. kindly replied by saying..."It is a big deal!"
And before I knew it, they were taking my clothes off and putting one of those silly hospital gowns on me, and I was saying my goodbyes to my husband and they were wheeling me away in a wheelchair...
To be continued tomorrow (Part Two). But for now, I will leave you with the most recent photo of Little Buddy!
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