Introducing Liam to the world!

On Tuesday, I thought my water had broken it turned out to be a plug that holds the sack of water. This was good news. I was hoping that they would bump up my Non-Stress Test (NST) to that day. But the doctor decided that one more day wouldn't hurt. Which is fine. Mom was driving down from Seattle and wouldn't be there until Wednesday. Mom got into town on Wednesday just in time to take me to my NST. An NST is where they do an ultrasound to measure how much amniotic fluid you have left available for the baby. The normal amount for an overdue baby at 41 weeks is 7-12oz. I had 1.8oz available. Needless to say they admitted me that hour.

So Wednesday they started me on what’s called Prostaglandin Gel to attain a higher effacement value. Because I was dilated still to a 1 and at 50% effaced. They gave me two doses of the gel each one being six hours apart. So I took the first one at 7:00 pm and the second at 1:00am. They checked me and I was dilated to a 2 and 80% effaced. The gel worked! Then at 7:00 am Thursday morning is when they started me on the Pitocin. I was having contractions before, but they were hurting sooo bad. I didn't quite want the epidural yet mostly because I have heard it can increase the duration of your labor. No thank you. They gave me Fentanyl to take the edge off of the contractions. It worked quite well mostly because I was seeing stars and felt like I was sitting on the Scrambler at Lagoon.

I did this for about an hour, with the spinning feeling and slight pain. The nurse said that Fentanyl only last an hour, once that hour was up I was in excruciating pain again. I was just about to ask for another Fentanyl, then Dr. Gourley (pronounced like Girly), Dr. Glenn's Replacement, came to talk with me about how I was doing and talk about what is going to be happening within the next couple of hours. He could tell that I was in pain and he suggested that I get the epidural. But he wanted to break my water first. He switched the fetal and contraction monitors to and internal monitoring system, and broke my water. Then all hell broke loose. Since I didn't start out with enough fluid in me, breaking my water began to suffocate Liam. His heart rate dropped so low that I was rushed to the OR for an emergency C-Section. Liam was delivered at 9:24 am on 5/21/2009 he weighed 7lbs 8oz and is 20.5in long. I was in and out of the OR within 9 minutes. I really have to thank the staff of doctors and nurses I had. They were absolutely amazing. There wasn't a lot of time to explain to me what was going on, and I was kinda freaking out. Since there wasn't enough time for an epidural when I woke up from the C-Section and had no pain medication in me. I was in the most unbearable pain I have ever experienced in my entire life! They gave me Morphine as soon as they could. Meanwhile, Patrick was with Liam as they were doing different tests and cleaning him up in the nursery.

After the delivery they moved me down to the Mother and Baby floor. I finally got to see Liam for the first time! He is so beautiful! I feel extremely lucky to have such a healthy child! The rest of the day was a breeze. We were with Liam and our family throughout the day. It was nice to have their company. I do have to admit I was severely drugged so I wasn't as attentive as I would have like to have been but like I said, I was drugged. Me and Liam also started the adventures of feeding. During the C-Section Liam had swallowed a lot of blood. So he wasn't terribly hungry. He actually kept spitting it up. Poor baby! We talked with a lactation consultant and she got us started on the right track. The hardest part about that day was the nurses making me get up and walk. Even though I was still pretty drugged by that time it took all my concentration and pain management to be able to walk 5 feet. But mission accomplished.

Friday was our relax day. We got feeding down, nap time figured out and I finally got solid food and not just Chicken Broth. I don't care if its good for the soul, I like a good solid sandwich. :D I started walking around a lot, mostly because I was told the sooner you walk the quicker your recovery. With Percocet and Motrin, my new friends, I was able to start walking quite well. So well in fact I was impressing the nurses. Friday was a great day!

Saturday was even better. We were released two days early because we were doing so fantastic! Now we are home and just getting adjusted to life at home. Second day in and I think we are doing quite well. I do have to say having my mom here with me makes it 10 times easier than it would have been otherwise. Thanks Mom! And thank you to everyone who as provided and offered their support to us it means so much. We are so grateful to have such a wonderful group of family and friends around us. Thank you!