Hamilton's Birth Story

Well, I worked up until 36 weeks pregnant, for which I am extremely grateful and pretty proud of myself! If you remember, we had tickets to Disney on Ice, which I blogged about here, and I was good with Baby B coming anytime after that. Well, I went back into work on Sunday night and had another crazy filled night. Extremely busy and to be honest it just kicked my butt! It was a busier night than average for a Sunday night and adding in that I was 36 + weeks pregnant, exhausted and having to run the CVVH machine during that shift, which requires a lot of bending, I was thinking it just may do me in. Well, when I got home on Monday, my ankles were non existent. This was the first time I had swollen in a pregnancy and I figured it was just because I had been on my feet for 13 hours and so I helped Clay get Little Love ready for school and I laid down for a long nap. When I woke up, my ankles were still incredibly swollen but I still felt fine overall. Clay picked up Little Love from school to help me out and I continued to rest on the couch. It wasn't until the following morning that they were finally back to normal. Whew, I sure was glad because I had been scouring my closet in search of pants and Fall items to cover up those nasty cankles for the remainder of the pregnancy need be. Anyways, I woke up around 5:00 am on Tuesday feeling a bit different. Of course, I'd been having contractions the whole pregnancy but these were different. They were slightly painful and felt somewhat menstrual type and crampy. The week before when Dr. W had checked me I wasn't dilated at all and only about 50% effaced but she had said that baby was extremely low. I could tell that for sure by where the contractions were hurting. I took L to ballet and then we ran an errand before heading home. My contractions weren't exactly timeable but the one's I had were, like I said, somewhat painful. I told Clay when he got home and he had a meeting out in Oakland for school that night so I just told him to have his phone close just in case.

Well, they never really got any closer together than about 10 minutes but I did tell Clay that I thought we'd have a baby in the next 24 hours if I had to guess! The next morning, I took L to school and I thought the contractions had about all but stopped. To be honest, I was a little disappointed. I think I was ready to get this show on the road because I never would have thought I would have still been pregnant or working by that point. I ran by Target for a couple things after dropping L off and noticed I had a few while I was up and around. I came home to rest some since I had not slept well the night before. I woke up just after lunch and decided to go ahead and call my office just to make sure these weren't doing any big changes. You see, the office had called me on Monday to inform me I was positive for Group B strep. This really freaked me out since I had plans for a VBAC and I knew I needed to get 2 doses of antibiotics before delivery. I just had no idea how quickly I would progress once real labor set in since it was all new territory for me. I got an appointment for 2:45 and had to see a different doctor since mine was at the other location that day. When I called, the nurse told me, "well, you're still a bit early, so I suggest you get in here as soon as possible." Well, that really freaked me out because I had spoken with Dr. W the week before and she had told me they wouldn't stop labor at this point so I had not been worried until the silly nurse said that. Of course, I got a little worked up and decided to bring my hospital bag and I grabbed the camera on the way out the door, thank Jesus! Clay was going to pick up L from school and meet me at the office in case they decided to do something.

When I got there, they took me back to a room and my initial blood pressure was high. I think it was 148/94 or something like that. The nurse told me to rest on my left side and she would be back to retake it later. I told her, I was a little worked up over what the nurse on the phone had said and I figured it would be high. Of course, I was also having contractions that were hurting so I was blaming it all on that. When the nurse came back to re-check, my BP was 125/72, a little high for me but just fine for where we were. When Dr. H walked in the room she mentioned the BP and I told her what had been going on and that I was just worked up when the nurse initially took it. She checked me and said I was only about 1 cm dilated and no change in effacement. Again, I was disappointed. I began to wonder if I could really do this whole labor thing since I was already hurting and the contractions obviously weren't making any changes. She hooked me to the monitor to look at my contractions and they were about 10-12 minutes apart but since my cervix wasn't changing, she said to keep on doing what I was doing and see Dr. W on Thursday for my scheduled appt. Before we were leaving she decided she wanted my BP check just once more, just in case and then I could go. Well, of course, it was up again about the same it was initially and since I had been resting and on the monitor she said I needed to go to L & D across the street. Clay had arrived with Little Love while I was on the monitor and we had already been making plans to go get pizza for dinner. So, of course, I was mad. I'm not going to lie. I was really wishing I had not come in that day and just dealt with my contractions at home. I didn't want to go to the hospital and I felt my BP was just up because of stress.

We moved both cars into the parking garage, just in case and headed into L & D. I had admit paperwork from my doctors office so I didn't really have to wait long. My nurse came to get me and Clay and L came back with me to get hooked up. My initial BP there was even higher! They took a series of BP's and they were all about the same but higher than it had been in the office. I was starting to wonder if something more was going on. My nurse came in and started an IV and sent off some lab work. I asked them what they would do if my labs were normal and they said they would at least watch me over night. Again, I was irritable. This was not what I had planned for my evening. I didn't want to be away from Little Love and I wasn't really ready for this. After sending off lab work and everything coming back normal, my nurse told Clay, "we are not having a baby today, you are welcome to get dinner." Clay told her that every time I am in labor and he leaves something happens, we all laughed and she said I would be fine. Well, boy were we wrong. My BP was not coming down so they gave me a dose of Procardia, the med I was on for contractions since 25 weeks is also for BP. When that didn't work, they called the doctor on call for my group and in walked Dr. K. She is the one that delivered Cooper. She decided to check me and said again no change from the office and that she thought we needed to have a baby! What! I just sent my husband and daughter to dinner and we hadn't even called our parents because we wanted more details first. She felt that the best thing would be to get the baby out because if my BP's continued like they were I could seize. I talked to her about my plans for a VBAC and she was in favor but told me we needed to start me on Mag Sulfate to help decrease my BP and risk of seizures and that she could do that and some pitocin overnight since my cervix wasn't making huge strides. I texted Clay to let him know we were having a baby, and quickly got a phone call back. I told him they needed to get their pizza to go and call our parents. I got really upset after she mentioned we needed to have a baby and my BP hit an all time high of 164/115. The nurses and Dr. K kept telling me to take some deep breaths and calm down but I just couldn't at that point. I was seriously starting to freak out. I didn't know what to do, I didn't want Baby B having Mag Sulfate because it can decrease their respiratory effort and I didn't want them to go to the NICU just because I didn't want a c-section. After much thought, I just told Dr. K to tell me what she would tell her daughter if she was in this position. Should I try to VBAC or just go for the section. She said, let's get that baby out and have a c-section. I signed all the paperwork, called my mom and Clay walked in the door just as they were placing my in the wheelchair to head to the OR. They weren't playing around this time!

I was so grateful to have my fabulous nurse Whitney with me, who stayed late just to be there. She was there during my stay in L & D with Cooper and then for delivery of Little Love so I was so glad she was able to be there again. I was so scared, I'm not going to lie. I didn't want to have another c-section but babies health was most important to me and I didn't want to give him any meds he didn't need. I knew we would do the Mag as soon as he was out and I was much more comfortable with that.

My spinal went sooo much better than last time and didn't hurt at all! The CRNA was fabulous and that made the process so much better. No pain, multiple sticks or spinal headache afterwards like last time. From the time I texted Clay to say we were having a baby to the time Hamilton was out was less than an hour! We were so excited when Dr. K said, "It's a Boy"! I think the smile still hasn't left Clay's face!!

Since Hamilton weighed less than 2500 grams, he did have to stay in an incubator for 12 hours in the well baby nursery but since I had to do 12 hours of Mag Sulfate after delivery to help control my BP and prevent me from seizing, it actually worked out well. In the morning when I was done with the Mag he was ready to come see me. It was actually not even a bad experience at all on the Mag and I think it was due to my excitement and adrenaline! I woke up to pump 3 times because I wanted to get my milk supply going before I saw him and I think I called down to the nursery a dozen times to check on him. He did great the entire time but it was such a new experience for me I wasn't sure what to do. :) I was up and at em at 4:00 am and ready for Clay to go and check on him and look at him but he had other plans, like sleep. I didn't get much sleep at all in the first 48 hours but that didn't bother me at all. I was just so loving having visitors come to see me and Hamilton and being able to show off my littlest love to all my friends and family. Such a special time that I will not soon forget.