Over the last year, we have bought a new house, had some work promotions and had received wonderful news that we were expecting our 2nd child after over 2 years of disappointments. That is the main reason I am blogging today. I want to jot down our 2nd child's birth story.
We got the exciting news that we were expecting, back in October of 2014. Though with all the disappointments, miscarriages and waiting, I decided to not let anyone know that we were expecting until I was about 14 weeks along. It was hard to keep it away from others. I literally did not go over to my parent's house like I usually did fearing that my Mom would be able to tell. With this pregnancy, it was different than my first born. I was extremely sick with sinus infection symptoms, in which 3 rounds of antibiotics could not cure. With that I had lost 10 pounds in the 1st trimester.
The timing of the 14 weeks gestation, brought us to around Christmas time. I was able to develop a family Christmas card announcing the pregnancy. I got all the family cleats and bought our 2nd child's their own pair, lined them in a row at the indoor soccer facility field. It fit my personality well.
Now came the waiting game. We found out in January of 2015 that we were having another girl. As well, that she was measuring small (surprise, surprise) and that they wanted to move her due date back from June 11th to June 22nd. This was not the first time we had been told that. When I was about 8 weeks along, I had a little scared and had an ultrasound. With that ultrasound they wanted to move my due back to June 22 from June 11. Then when I have my ultrasound at my 12 week, they moved my due date back to June 11th from the way she was measuring. It seems that my due dates get predicted incorrectly.
With this pregnancy, I did well with the weight gain. I did not gain more than 5 pounds, even after losing the 10 pounds during the 1st trimester. I was in my 3rd trimester as of March 23rd and for some reason, things seem to drag on from there. We were planning a baby shower for me because with 5 years apart of the girls and both being born in a different season, I didn't have much. Plus, after a few miscarriages, I gave up on everything and gave some things away. My shower was scheduled for May 16th and my amazing sister-in-law was hosting it for me.
Here comes the good parts. . . on morning of Thursday, May 14th, 2015 I started to have really bad cramping. At first I thought it was constipation, so I called my Mom and she brought me some miralax. Of course that did not help, since it takes up to 2 days to work. My Mom took Natalie to school and then was going to call me to see what I decided to do. I called the on-call doctor to see what they wanted me to do. They told me to go to Labor and Delivery just to be safe. Mom came back to take me to L&D. I get there and they put me in Trauma Room 1. I do not think they were expecting to keep me. Well after many tests, pain medication, monitoring and waiting, they tried 2 different medications to stop the contractions. Well one seem to help it. They then sent me home with a pill form of the medication plus a paid medication. I get home, my Dad picked up Natalie from school. I was able to get her ready for bed and was able to fall asleep. The night I felt like I could sleep other than I did wake up every hour.
The morning of Friday, May 15th, 2015, I decided to take another day off of work to rest. My Mom picked up Natalie to take her to school for me. Well ever since I woke up to get Natalie ready, I started to have actual contractions. These ones were different from the day before. They were not continuous, but actual contractions. They would begin and stop and the pain was go away fully once they stopped. Thursday, they did not act like that. I then get out my notepad, pen and new watch to track the contractions. Mom had asked what I wanted to do before she left with Natalie. I told here I do not know. So she left with Natalie and I went to the bathroom. That was when I found blood. I called Mom and she came to pick me up and take my back to L&D.
I get admitted to a regular L&D room this time. They put the baby on the monitors and talked to my doctor. I was given the contraction stopping medication again to see if that will help. This time it didn't stop them but stretch the time between each contraction. Even though they were monitoring me, I was still keeping track of the contractions. I was only put on morphine and fetatine for the pain. This time, they didn't seem to help at all. Well after another entire day of them trying to stop the contractions and testing, they decided to put me on 23 hour observation. I was moved up to the maternity floor to be monitored at about 4pm. During that time, my contractions got closer and closer together and were a minute long. I could no longer sit or lay down during them. The pain meds did not help and with all of this, I was no dilating at all!! When they moved me up to observation I was a 1+. At about 11pm I was contracting one minute apart and one minute long and still only dilated to a 1+. I was hurting so badly, I was screaming from the pain and could only stand during each contraction. About 11:30pm I started to bleed down my legs. The charge nurse on the maternity floor made the L&D floor take me back because they were not equip to take care of me in case of an emergency. So I was taken back to the L&D floor. At that time they were only giving my the pain meds that were not working.
At 1am in the morning of Saturday, May 16th, 2015, my Mom had had enough. She went out into the hall and made the doctors give me an epidural. I was relieved that I finally got it. My doctor was able to come and check me once I got my epidural, that is when they found I had a blood clot behind my placenta. It seemed to be detaching my placenta from the uterus. She gave me 2 options. They could either slow down my contractions and keep me at the hospital for another week to give the baby more time in the womb. But that it could possibly make either myself or the baby develop an infection and risk our lives in delivery. OR they could proceed with the delivery and put the baby in the NICU. I wanted Jon to be in on the decision with me. I was able to get him on the phone even though he was on the pad at work in Wyoming. We got a NICU doctor in with my OB to discuss what is going on and what our options were. Jon and I both decided that it was better and less of a risk to deliver now than later. So Jon got ready to leave work and to head home and they gave me some pitcen to help along the delivery.
I was able to sleep some and they came in to check my progress ever couple of hours. Jon called me about 6am to tell me that he was on his way from Pinedale. We were still trying to go for a VBAC delivery because I did want to experience it. Though I did say if we needed to do a c-section for the health of myself or the baby, we will do it. Around 10:45am we called Jon to see where he was and he had pulled over to sleep because he wanted to make it home alive. Well about 11:00am the baby's heart rate jumped up to the 200s and they decided it was better to do a c-section than to wait. I said okay and asked my Mom to called Jon. He was in Park City when we called. My Mom got dress for the c-section since Jon was not there yet. They prepped me and took me into the operating room.
The physician that did my c-section was my OB's partner and she was amazing. She saw I was having anxiety about something and it was about having my arms tied down. She said she would not tie them down as long as I do not touch my stomach. I knew I would not do that.Plus I was worried about the shaking the drugs will give me during and after. I though had found out that if I breath deeply throughout the procedure and after the shaking would decrease. During the entire time I was concentrating on my breathing and it worked! It was nice not having that bad of the shakes after the procedure.
Jon did arrive while I was in the operating room. They got him dressed and he got there 2 minutes after they got our daughter out. She was handed to the NICU through the window to be evaluated. They did take him to the NICU to see her and they did let my Mom go even though grandparents are not allowed. I think they let her because she had been with me this entire time.
Hadley Jean Whitehorn was born at 11:43am on Saturday, May 16th, 2015 (34 weeks and 5 days) weighing 5lbs 9oz measuring 18 inches long. She came 5 1/2 weeks earlier than her later due date. . They only had her on oxygen for 5 minutes and never had to be put back on. She did end up in the NICU for 8 days. It was hard to not have her in my recovery room with me. I was not able to see her until about 2 hours after she was born. They had to wait until I was be transferred up to the maternity floor. Then if I wanted to see her I had to ask someone to wheel me down to the NICU.
The NICU experience was better than I thought. They respected my wishes and help me establish breastfeeding with her unlike my experience the first time with the nursery and Natalie. There was never a time that they were not updating me on Hadley and what the physician's decided to do. Hadley had to be on photo therapy for 3 days due to her hyperbli count. She had an IV in for 6 days to help with her fluids and lipids. She had done so well with eating that they took her off the fluids and lipids earlier than expected.
I was no discharged until the follow Wednesday, May 20th. When I had the c-section, my uterus was contracting so hard that they had to cut me vertically perpendicular to the first cut in order to get Hadley out. Because they had to make this extra cut, I will no longer be able to have a vaginal birth. If I get pregnant again, I will only be going as along as 37 weeks and go in for a scheduled c-section. Also, I was told I am also not allow or extremely warned to not get pregnant again until 18 months after the c-section. It does make me sad that I am no longer able to have a vaginal birth. I really did want to experience it.
The day I was being discharged, I woke up to a major headache like a migraine. Every time I would sit up it would come on full force. But once I laid down it went away. Come to find out I had what is called a Spinal Tap Headache. It is more common with a Spinal Tap but can also occur with an epidural. When they go in with the needle they accidentally nick your spinal fluid cushion causing a leak. It could take up to days for the effects to come out. Basically the spinal fluid in my spine was linking out and was not able to cushion my brain as I sit up. They gave me a couple of options. I could go home and rest for a few days and it would heal itself. Well, I couldn't rest for a few days because I still had a daughter in the NICU. I went with the Blood Patch. He had to do the Epidural needle hole again then draw out 20cc's of my own blood and shot it down the epidural hole to create a patch and the spinal fluid would stop leaking and refill. When he did the hole again, he was surprised and said I was leaking so much fluid that if I did go home to have it heal on it's own, it would not have done it. The bad part was that he had to try and find a vain to take 20cc's of blood out of. He seriously poked me like 5 times. It really looked bad. After he shot the blood down my spine I had to lay there for 45 minutes. The downside to the blood patch, I would have back pain for a couple days after. On the good note my headache went away once the hour was up. Another thing that sucked, after the hour was up I had to pack up to leave. It was really hard not leaving with Hadley and leaving her there.
I was back a couple hours later for Hadley's cares and to feed her. For the next 5 days I was compute back and forth from home to the hospital to take care of my baby girl. Jon was amazing and took care of Natalie and surprised me with getting Hadley's crib together. I came home from the hospital on Thursday, May 21st, Jon took me into Hadley's room and had set up the entire room. Crib, crib set, clothes and all. That definitely got me crying my eyes out. He has been amazing during the time this has all been going on.
With Hadley being so early I also didn't have anything ready. My Mom, Dad and sister-in-law, Amanda, were amazing and went shopping for me and Hadley to make sure we had what we needed when we both got home. We had to postpone my baby shower and we are still going to have it since Amanda still has all the stuff for it.
This pregnancy and birth was a event to remember and I do not think I will ever forget. We are extremely blessed and thankful that Hadley arrived safe and sound and is now home with us. Can't wait to see her grow with our family.
