Friday, March 5, 2010
Thursday, February 18, 2010
1 Month!
Time flies, right? So, at Devan's 1 month physical stats: 9lbs 10oz, 21.5 inches long. YAY! We're thriving!!!! She's soooooo close to smiling, but for now just looks at me with a Mona Lisa smile...like she knows something she's not going to tell me with the corners of her mouth twitching. A look I'm sure we'll become more familiar with as time goes on:)
Devan is doing well minus her congestion which makes her snorty by the end of the night, but that's just one of those things. And so far, Colin loves her, so we're just settling in and going along for the ride at this point!
Friday, February 5, 2010
Rocky beginnings....
So, Devan tolerated labor beautifully and had Apgars of 9 and 10. Nobody gets an Apgar of 10 unless you are the wife ofor the attending physician or the hospital president....this was her jinx, I believe. Like most newborns, Devan was having a little difficulty regulating her temperature so was placed under the warmer before we left L&D and again when we got to post-partum. No big deal...so was Colin.
So, while she was in the nursery, I got about 1.5 hours of sleep and woke up wondering why I hadn't heard anything about my baby yet. Hello, nurse? Can you come to my room for a minute? Thanks.
I asked my nurse what was going on with my baby. She said she was going to assess her and bring her to me. About 45 minutes later, no baby but here comes the nursery Nurse Practitioner. Hmmmm....what's up?
I was told that Devan had a retching episode and turned blue from vomiting so they wanted to watch her a little bit. At this point, I'm not really that concerned as this is not uncommon in newborns. Ugh...being a peds nurse is a detriment at this point. Ok...whatever. Keep an eye on her. Jake and I went to the nursery to see her and she looks awesome...sleeping under the warmer, no distress.
Hours go by...what's going on? Well, says the NP...we're concerned that she might have an infection with her temperature instability and her blue spell. Hmmmm...really? (in my head). Ok...blood work sent.
A little bit later...Devan had another retching spell...we would like to monitor her in the NICU. Seriously? ok.
In the NICU: no temperature instability. NG tube placed to get belly contents out and small amount of bile seen. Belly xray done. MDs concerned for septic ileus (paralysis of bowel secondary to infection). Want to do lumbar puncture (spinal tap). Ok...now it's getting a little concerning.
After initial tummy aspirate, no more bile and no more belly draining. Devan poops a few hours later and several times every day (no longer concern for ileus or other obstruction as her intestines are clearly working properly.) Xray read with no final diagnosis but with words "can not exclude pneumatosis." UGH. Pneumatosis is little air bubbles that get trapped in the bowel wall (to put it very simply)...not good and generally associated with severe diseases. Plan of care: 7 days of IV antibiotics and bowel rest.
I spent my time as an inpatient diligently pumping every 2 hours and walking back and forth to the NICU...which my body certainly paid for but totally worth it. I held her, got to know the nurses and already knew most of the pediatricians as I've worked with them all.
Ok...at this point, plan of care understood. The short story of all of this is that Devan began showing signs of hunger within her first 24 hours of life, never looked or acted sick, never had temp problems, additional retching or oxygen issues. Her treatment was very conservative and she did well. She was always strong (she kicked out her central PICC line!) The poor baby wasn't allowed to eat for 6 days (thank you to the attending that didn't make us wait that extra day!!). She was discharged after 7 days in the NICU and has been thriving ever since.
The experience of being discharged from the hospital after giving birth and not bringing a baby home sucked. All we can dwell on now, though, is how beautiful and perfect our little baby girl is and just enjoy that as of January 25th, 2010 she's home where she belongs;)
So, while she was in the nursery, I got about 1.5 hours of sleep and woke up wondering why I hadn't heard anything about my baby yet. Hello, nurse? Can you come to my room for a minute? Thanks.
I asked my nurse what was going on with my baby. She said she was going to assess her and bring her to me. About 45 minutes later, no baby but here comes the nursery Nurse Practitioner. Hmmmm....what's up?
I was told that Devan had a retching episode and turned blue from vomiting so they wanted to watch her a little bit. At this point, I'm not really that concerned as this is not uncommon in newborns. Ugh...being a peds nurse is a detriment at this point. Ok...whatever. Keep an eye on her. Jake and I went to the nursery to see her and she looks awesome...sleeping under the warmer, no distress.
Hours go by...what's going on? Well, says the NP...we're concerned that she might have an infection with her temperature instability and her blue spell. Hmmmm...really? (in my head). Ok...blood work sent.
A little bit later...Devan had another retching spell...we would like to monitor her in the NICU. Seriously? ok.
In the NICU: no temperature instability. NG tube placed to get belly contents out and small amount of bile seen. Belly xray done. MDs concerned for septic ileus (paralysis of bowel secondary to infection). Want to do lumbar puncture (spinal tap). Ok...now it's getting a little concerning.
After initial tummy aspirate, no more bile and no more belly draining. Devan poops a few hours later and several times every day (no longer concern for ileus or other obstruction as her intestines are clearly working properly.) Xray read with no final diagnosis but with words "can not exclude pneumatosis." UGH. Pneumatosis is little air bubbles that get trapped in the bowel wall (to put it very simply)...not good and generally associated with severe diseases. Plan of care: 7 days of IV antibiotics and bowel rest.
I spent my time as an inpatient diligently pumping every 2 hours and walking back and forth to the NICU...which my body certainly paid for but totally worth it. I held her, got to know the nurses and already knew most of the pediatricians as I've worked with them all.
Ok...at this point, plan of care understood. The short story of all of this is that Devan began showing signs of hunger within her first 24 hours of life, never looked or acted sick, never had temp problems, additional retching or oxygen issues. Her treatment was very conservative and she did well. She was always strong (she kicked out her central PICC line!) The poor baby wasn't allowed to eat for 6 days (thank you to the attending that didn't make us wait that extra day!!). She was discharged after 7 days in the NICU and has been thriving ever since.
The experience of being discharged from the hospital after giving birth and not bringing a baby home sucked. All we can dwell on now, though, is how beautiful and perfect our little baby girl is and just enjoy that as of January 25th, 2010 she's home where she belongs;)
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Labor Daze...
Thursday January 14, 2010 started out like any other day lately. Me getting up, getting ready for work and cussing the world that I'm still pregnant and have to go to work:) I got to work and noticed around 0800 that I was contracting but didn't pay too much attention...I was working and busy and didn't really have a good chance to time contractions, etc. I wasn't having any pain, just a little uncomfortable and had some new lower back aching. When I had a somewhat extended period of time to sit (like 15 minutes or so), I was able to pay attention to how frequently I was contracting...6-8 minutes. Hmmm...ok. So, I let Jake know and to be prepared just in case. After I left work, I decided to take it easy a little bit and try to relax, but the contractions were still 6-8 minutes apart, not painful, but not letting up. So...off to L&D we went. I was evaluated and found to have no change in my clinical exam from appt. earlier in the week, so we were given the option to walk around the hospital and come back to see if anything changed or to go home and wait it out since we're only about a 15 minute drive to the hospital. So, we opted for home. The contractions kept coming, but without pain. I was finally able to fall asleep around 1am and got some rest. When I woke up Friday morning, no more contractions. I was off work Friday and Saturday with my next scheduled shift on Sunday, so I just went on about my day as normal, with as much rest as I could get. Around 1 or 2pm....they're baaaack. Contractions back, a little worse than initially on Thursday, but still not really painful.
So, I timed them all day...same story. 6-8 minutes apart. So, we were told the night before that these were the reasons to come back: contractions 3-4 minutes apart, water breaks or can no longer talk through contractions. None of these were the case, so we just kind of hung out. Saturday, same story. Now, I had a decision to make. I have been contracting for 48 hours...do I go to work on Sunday or do I call it quits and accept that at any moment, maybe, finally, hopefully my real labor is going to start? Well, as I became a little more uncomfortable on Saturday, the decision was made...I'm done working and now we're just going to wait.
Good decision.
Sunday morning, Jan. 17, I was awoken at 0509 with a terrible pain in my back. It seemed to not really fully go away, but did intermittently get worse. Hmmmm...I think this is it. Around 0645, I got in the shower and whispered to Jake that I thought today was going to be the day and to just be ready. As we all got up for the day, I just again tried to relax and focus on what was happening with my body. I had the constant back pain and I was contracting, but they were the most irregular they had been in almost 72 hours. So, gonna wait it out at home, but called Kimberly over to watch football and be in the house in case we needed to go to the hospital. She was willing to watch Colin for us so we all just hung out....all day.
My contractions stayed irregular in frequency (anywhere from 5-14 minutes apart), but did get stronger. Around 5:30pm, I decided to call the OB on call and find out what she thought. Based on my story, she felt I was still in early/latent labor, but said that if I was starting to have more pain to come in and be evaluated to see if there was any change. Well, I was starting to have some difficulty speaking through them, so we decided to go....then Colin fell in the house and cut his knee open, so I decided we could wait to go to the hospital until after he went to bed.
Timeline:
8:30pm: arrived at triage at L&D
9pm: evaluated...4cm 80% effaced...hooray! This is it! We're not going home....orrrr wait...
9:15pm: Dr. wants to monitor the baby for 20 minutes and send me walking...excuse me? My contractions are now 4 minutes apart and I'm having some pain...manageable, but still pain.
9:45pm: Baby looks good on monitor...why don't you go walk and I'll check you in an hour and a half. Ummm....I can't walk anymore.
9:50pm: Katie our nurse (who also delivered Colin) reports that I should thank the OB attending because they're not going to make me wait. I'm admitted, IV started, etc.
10:15pm: Epidural? Yes, please!
10:45pm: ummm...excuse me....where's the anesthesiologist? Hello??? I'm ready.
10:50pm: Hello, anesthesiologist. I'm ready, where do I have to sign. If you were wondering who was doing the screaming, that was me....thanks. Let's go.
10:51pm: Anesthesiologist: well, I'm just waiting for the resident to say it's ok for you to get your epidural and for your labs to come back....me: (silently) are you effing kidding me?
11:00pm: OB attending: hmmm...you need some pain relief...let me call the attending.
11:05pm: Hellooooo anesthesiology ATTENDING and resident..yes, please...OWWWWWWW....OMGGGG!!!!!!!!
checked by OB attending...4cm, 80% effaced...going to give me continuous spinal and epidural...
11:10pm: sit up to get epidural....water breaks...thought I was having pain before...didn't realize it could get worse!
11:20pm: epidural in place...not fully working, but trying to give it time....8cm, 100% effaced. Yes, that was 4cm-8cm in approx. 15 minutes...hence, excruciating pain
11:50pm: OOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.....epidural not working...where's the anesthesiologist????
midnight: ahhhhh....thank you for completely numbing me. Maybe I can get some rest.
12:01-1am: dozing off....occasional doctor checking in on me to see if I feel the need to push as they suspect I've been ready since shortly after my epidural was placed. Nope, no urge to push. Just enjoying some pain free time right now. Thanks.
1:10am: OB resident...can I just check you? me: sure. OB resident: sooo, you're fully. Feel like pushing? Me: ummm...sure. Let's get this over with. OB resident: how long did you push with your son? Me: 39 minutes...and he was at -3. Ok.
1:15am: Started pushing.
1:36am: After 4 rounds of pushing (with no feeling, which was kind of awesome), Devan Mary Roche was born. All 7lbs 11oz and 21.25 inches of her:) I'm a good pusher. Baby's apgars were 9 and 10 (for anyone who is interested in that. And she's beautiful...looks just like her brother:)
So, I timed them all day...same story. 6-8 minutes apart. So, we were told the night before that these were the reasons to come back: contractions 3-4 minutes apart, water breaks or can no longer talk through contractions. None of these were the case, so we just kind of hung out. Saturday, same story. Now, I had a decision to make. I have been contracting for 48 hours...do I go to work on Sunday or do I call it quits and accept that at any moment, maybe, finally, hopefully my real labor is going to start? Well, as I became a little more uncomfortable on Saturday, the decision was made...I'm done working and now we're just going to wait.
Good decision.
Sunday morning, Jan. 17, I was awoken at 0509 with a terrible pain in my back. It seemed to not really fully go away, but did intermittently get worse. Hmmmm...I think this is it. Around 0645, I got in the shower and whispered to Jake that I thought today was going to be the day and to just be ready. As we all got up for the day, I just again tried to relax and focus on what was happening with my body. I had the constant back pain and I was contracting, but they were the most irregular they had been in almost 72 hours. So, gonna wait it out at home, but called Kimberly over to watch football and be in the house in case we needed to go to the hospital. She was willing to watch Colin for us so we all just hung out....all day.
My contractions stayed irregular in frequency (anywhere from 5-14 minutes apart), but did get stronger. Around 5:30pm, I decided to call the OB on call and find out what she thought. Based on my story, she felt I was still in early/latent labor, but said that if I was starting to have more pain to come in and be evaluated to see if there was any change. Well, I was starting to have some difficulty speaking through them, so we decided to go....then Colin fell in the house and cut his knee open, so I decided we could wait to go to the hospital until after he went to bed.
Timeline:
8:30pm: arrived at triage at L&D
9pm: evaluated...4cm 80% effaced...hooray! This is it! We're not going home....orrrr wait...
9:15pm: Dr. wants to monitor the baby for 20 minutes and send me walking...excuse me? My contractions are now 4 minutes apart and I'm having some pain...manageable, but still pain.
9:45pm: Baby looks good on monitor...why don't you go walk and I'll check you in an hour and a half. Ummm....I can't walk anymore.
9:50pm: Katie our nurse (who also delivered Colin) reports that I should thank the OB attending because they're not going to make me wait. I'm admitted, IV started, etc.
10:15pm: Epidural? Yes, please!
10:45pm: ummm...excuse me....where's the anesthesiologist? Hello??? I'm ready.
10:50pm: Hello, anesthesiologist. I'm ready, where do I have to sign. If you were wondering who was doing the screaming, that was me....thanks. Let's go.
10:51pm: Anesthesiologist: well, I'm just waiting for the resident to say it's ok for you to get your epidural and for your labs to come back....me: (silently) are you effing kidding me?
11:00pm: OB attending: hmmm...you need some pain relief...let me call the attending.
11:05pm: Hellooooo anesthesiology ATTENDING and resident..yes, please...OWWWWWWW....OMGGGG!!!!!!!!
checked by OB attending...4cm, 80% effaced...going to give me continuous spinal and epidural...
11:10pm: sit up to get epidural....water breaks...thought I was having pain before...didn't realize it could get worse!
11:20pm: epidural in place...not fully working, but trying to give it time....8cm, 100% effaced. Yes, that was 4cm-8cm in approx. 15 minutes...hence, excruciating pain
11:50pm: OOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW.....epidural not working...where's the anesthesiologist????
midnight: ahhhhh....thank you for completely numbing me. Maybe I can get some rest.
12:01-1am: dozing off....occasional doctor checking in on me to see if I feel the need to push as they suspect I've been ready since shortly after my epidural was placed. Nope, no urge to push. Just enjoying some pain free time right now. Thanks.
1:10am: OB resident...can I just check you? me: sure. OB resident: sooo, you're fully. Feel like pushing? Me: ummm...sure. Let's get this over with. OB resident: how long did you push with your son? Me: 39 minutes...and he was at -3. Ok.
1:15am: Started pushing.
1:36am: After 4 rounds of pushing (with no feeling, which was kind of awesome), Devan Mary Roche was born. All 7lbs 11oz and 21.25 inches of her:) I'm a good pusher. Baby's apgars were 9 and 10 (for anyone who is interested in that. And she's beautiful...looks just like her brother:)
Tuesday, January 5, 2010
38 weeks!
So, I am officially uncomfortable! I've gained about 41 lbs and am still working 40 hours/week with some 12 hour shifts...I'm DONE! The baby has dropped and I have started to dilate so we're hoping this baby doesn't come any later than her due date. If she's taking her time, I will be pleading my case to get induced the week that I'm due. So far, everything looks good and the baby and I are healthy so I can't complain too much..just ready to have my body back:)
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