Lara's birthday! Part one!

I figured that since it's her birthday and all, I'd post her birth story!   I'll tell you all about our day later!

The delivery part is pretty detailed.  Please don't read it if you're squeamish!  I pointed it out so you can skip it if you want.  I'm still dealing with lasting issues from this fall, so it's always in my head.  Thank God I got a beautiful, healthy, happy little girl out of it!

This was taken the night before I fell down the stairs.

So it all started Thursday morning (Jan 22^nd 2009.  37 weeks pregnant) when I fell and did the splits down the stairs. I couldn't walk and had a blinding pain in my pelvic/groin area. I managed to make it to my cell phone and called Tom. He came home and helped me into the car and took me to Emergency. 

They weren't too eager to run any tests or do an exam even! They did a non stress test and since I said I wasn't spotting they gave me a Tylenol #3 prescription and sent me home. I went from there right to Dr Debbie's office (my O.B and family doctor) for my regular O.B visit. The baby's heartbeat was strong and she told me to call her if the pain got worse. 

I was in agony all Friday and called her that night, she told me to go to Obstetrics the next day, get a pelvic X ray and she said she'd meet me there. She said the X ray wouldn't hurt the baby as they do chest X rays on newborns all the time. They wanted to make sure that my pelvis wasn't broken as they wouldn't let me deliver over a broken pelvis. She told me that they would try and keep my pain managed until they could induce me the nect Thursday when I was 38 weeks.  

Tom and my brother Tommy, sister and Nieces were my Nurses at home for that 48 hours and were totally amazing! I couldn't lift my legs into or out of bed on my own, couldn't even move without crying out in agony. They had to literally lift my legs and support me when I walked to the washroom.

On Saturday morning, Tom and my brother brought me to the hospital. The wonderful nurses gave me Morphine which helped so much! They did a non stress test and sent me for the X ray, which was painful, but the Morphine helped! They put me in a regular room. At around 2pm, Dr Debbie came in and examined me. She felt my hips and around my pelvis, she told me she might have seen a small crack on my pelvis, but I should be OK to deliver. She told Tom and my brother to leave the room and started the internal to see if I had any injuries there, and she said the baby's at +3 station! Her heads right there! And you're 2-3 cm dilated and 90% effaced! And the waterbag is bulging. She turned to the Nurse and said I guess you don't want me to break her water here eh? The nurse said they were going to move me to a L&D room where the doctor could break the water. Them she left the room and I was alone, dumbfounded. I came in for pain management and ended up being in labour! Tom and my brother were no where to be found, so I texted my sister "Apparently Im in labour! Theyre going to break my water! Holy shit!" Tom came in and I told him and he got a big grin on his face. We were going to have our baby!

They moved me to a L&D room and there was a line up of women in labour, so they held off breaking my water. All I wanted was my sister Mary to be there with me. She'd had 4 kids and has always been a huge support person for me, so somehow she showed up, I was given another dose of Morphine, lol!

At around 7 pm, Dr Debbie came in and broke my water and checked me again, I was 3 cm dilated. She said that the baby being so low in my pelvis was adding to the pain I was feeling and delivering the baby would help a lot with that.

I was feeling a lot better after the Morphine and was tired of being in bed, so I got up and decided to walk if I could to get labour going. I started having "I think I'm having a contraction" shortly after 8pm and they were every 5 minutes lasting about 30-40 seconds. I went back to the L&D room and they started an IV and started up the Pitocin at 9pm, they upped it at around 10ish and I started having really strong contractions right on top of each other. The Nurse checked me somewhere around 10:30 pm and said I was still 3cm. I decided then that I wanted an epidural because if these are this strong and close together at 3 cm, I didn't think I could handle going to 10 cm. She called Dr Paul (Dr Debbie's husband, my other family doctor who moonlights as an Anaesthesiologist -- Gotta love small town hospitals!) to come and do my epidural.

If you're squeamish, stop here!  Start again below!

While I waited, I started vomiting violently while having back to back contractions, not fun. Dr paul came in at around 10:45 pm and started the epidural. He'd stop whatever he was doing while I had a contraction, then start up again. While he was inserting it, I started grunting and bearing down. Dr paul said "I know what that sound is! Maybe I should check you when I'm finished here!" Low and behold, at 11pm, I was 10 cm. He told the Nurse to call Dr Debbie. She came and I started pushing. Still in disbelief that I was in labour, let alone that I was at the pushing stage!

I pushed and pushed and brought the head down quickly, spent 40 mins on my back trying to get her head around the pelvic rim. I'd push and push, and at the end of each push my sister, Tom, or the Dr or Nurse would tell "me that's it! Just like that!". But after so many pushes, I couldn't push like that for long! I decided that on my back was counter productive and said "there's gotta be a better way to do this!" Dr Debbie told the Nurse to go and get the squat bar, which she gave Debbie a look for, apparently, only Dr Debbie asks for the bar, lol! Somehow I managed to get up on my haunches and push while using gravity. I still don't know how I did it, with every contraction I'd jump up, grab the bar and squat to push! After 3 days of not even being able to move, it was incredible!

At 11:55pm, her head came out, with a tight cord around her neck, Dr Debbie told Tom to cut it quickly, I gave one more big push, and Lara Blaise flew out! Debbie put her on my tummy and she was ghostly white, as I was thinking "she's white! What is she doing still on me!" someone grabbed her and ran her to the warmer. At this point my sister just about passed out apparently!

Dr Paul came in to deliver the placenta and stitch me up, Lara was born with her elbow up beside her head and tore me a new one!!

Ok!  That part's over!

Dr Debbie worked on her for a long time getting her to breathe, and what seemed like a thousand years, we heard her first feeble cry, after about 5 minutes.

Her first picture taken.

I didn't even ask her APGAR score, I could guess it was almost as low as it could be, save she did have a heartbeat. Debbie kept helping her as her breathing was poor, she did bloodwork, started an IV and helped her breathe for 70 mins before she felt she could hold her own, and brought her to me.

She was hooked up to everything, but was breathing on her own, and her eyes were open!

What a relief! As a pediatric Nurse, I knew what had just happened, and how bad that was, poor Tom had a hard time keeping me sane when I knew what was happening, Kudos to him! He was an awesome coach!

My sister Mary was the one taking the pictures.  It was a scary experience for her too!  She was so happy to hold and love Lara!

She was so beautiful! Way smaller than I'd expected, but the most gorgeous thing I'd ever seen! Perfect in every way!  Her official weight is 6 pounds 3 ounces, but that was after she was resuscitated and was pumped full of fluid.  Dr Debbie estimated her weight at 5 pounds 14 oz.  

Debbie explained what had just happened, and how dire the situation was. She said that the bloodwork showed that her blood count was very low, and in all likelyhood I'd haemorrhaged when I fell and that's where her blood loss was from, a placental abruption.  The baby was grunty and singing, which means her breathing was still not very good, and she needed to be watched. Dr Debbie was on the fence if she was going to send her to a NICU somewhere. In the end, she decided to watch her for a bit, and she slowly improved. At 4am, Dr Debbie decided she was ok to go home, and came in to my room to tell me that the baby had settled, but needed to be watched closely by the Nurses overnight, and that she'd come back in the morning to see how Lara was doing.

At 8am, I arose from a sleepless night and got Tom to go to the Nurses station to see how Lara was doing. They brought her to me, awake and peaceful! That day she didn't have a suck reflex, and was very listless, but her breathing was good. Her blood sugar was low at birth, so she stayed on the IV for 4 days getting her bloodwork checked every 4 hours.

On Tuesday she started breastfeeding and perked up a lot! With a good latch, and obvious appetite! That day her jaundice reared its head and she ended up under the lights overnight. 

On wednesday morning, her bloodwork came back good, and the IV and lights were stopped and she was allowed to stay with us!

Wednesday the doctor told us "no visitors" and we worked on getting the breastfeeding down pat, and on Thursday morning we were sent home!

After this whole event, my doctors were upset with Emerg that an Ultrasound was not done on me when I fell. Had they done one, they would have seen the placental abruption and Lara probably would have been delivered on Thursday. She was born a sick little baby, and some of that could have been prevented had an ultrasound been done.

An inquiry has been started at the Hospital regarding this whole thing, and a protocol is being put in place of what to do if a pregnant woman comes in with ANY kind of Trauma.

I have to say, our little hospital is a wonderful place with an excellent, competent staff. We don't hold any grudge against the Emerg staff and doctor that saw me there. Mistakes are made, and that doctor feels gravely ill about it. Even the best doctors make mistakes, they just only make them once. I will always be a supporter of the small town hospital, they have a big job, and sometimes face way bigger events than any big hospital, and with less resources at the ready!

The Obstetrics staff went above and beyond during my stay, I had the charge Nurse as my nurse the whole time, and I had a semiprivate room to myself for the entire 6 days, which meant Tom had his own bed! The were attentive and very supportive, explaining everything that was being done, and were all great breastfeeding coaches. I'm sure we got exemplary treatment because they were afraid we'd sue, but that doesn't matter, we appreciate everything they've done.