Monday morning they took me in for my ultrasound, ironically I had an ultrasound scheduled for that afternoon, so I told them they shouldn't plan on me coming in later on. They just went through and measured Ele and thought she would be around 3 pounds which was spot on for a 31.5 weeker. though they are only accurate within about a pound or so. They discussed with me that they felt she would be alright and they have many kids that early do incredibly well. They also said since I was now closer to 32 weeks than 31 was a huge benefit. Most babies born at 32 don't have developmental issues, and they tend to do incredibly well. It was really comforting to hear that. They sent in a NICU consult to tell me what I should expect. Basically they said lungs were the main concern and it's great it looks like I'd be able to get both steroid shots before she would be born. There were a few other concerns but nothing they felt they couldn't fix. That was Dr. Stoddard, and he is the sweetest man ever. They then started talking to me about what would be happening tomorrow, first they would try to soften my cervix tonight so I could try for a vaginal birth. Then they would start pitocin tomorrow and see how it went. They told me I needed to be aware that a c-section was a real possibility, again I felt a huge peace about everything I knew I was in good hands. I had a few friends and families come and visit throughout the day and it was going well. Apparantly I wasn't incredibly coherent or didn't realize I wasn't explaining well because Nate didn't realize that Tuesday was baby day. So I settled in for another long night, sent Nate home but told him to come in as soon as he woke up.
Tuesday November 9th:
They gave me the last dose of medicine before the pitocin, and then waited until noon to start the pitocin. I was starting to progress slowly but after every contraction Ele's heart rate was dipping. This is a sign of distress and so they had to turn off the pitocin. I was only dilated to a 1, so in last efforts to have a natural birth they broke my water. And we were able to get a heart rate monitor on Ele's head. I went into natural labor and didn't need any pitocin. After about four hours I was only dilated to a 3. Ele's heart was still dipping after each cotraction and my blood pressure wasn't looking good. We discussed it with our doctor and decided that a c-section would be the safest option for both Ele and I. So I received my epidural a little before 7PM. I was taken into the operating table and I still had a very calm comforted feeling. I remember feeling relaxed and not even nervous about the surgery I was about to go through. As they told me there would be a lot of pressure as they delivered her, I started repeating, 'everything is going to be okay, everything is going to be okay.' Nate said, 'Don't worry honey it will be alright.' And out came our baby screaming away. ( 2lbs 2oz , 7:39PM) It was the most amazing thing to hear her lungs working so well. Nate got to stand up and take pictures or her, and because she was doing so well they even held her over the curtain for me to see. The NICU respiratory team took Ele into the next room and Nate went with them. Doctors Dayton, and Gamette were closing me up and told me how vigorous she was, I found out later that vigorous is a medical term that means her heart rate was above 100 and she was breathing on her own. He continued to close me up and was so impressed that he could hear her crying for the next room, he commented again saying, 'Seriusly listen to her go, she's so strong.' It made me so happy. As they got me back into the bed to go to recovery they raised my dose of Mag (Magnesium Sulfate) and I started to drift off pretty quickly. They admitted Ele to the NICU and put a precautionary CPAP machine on here to help keep pressure in her lungs so they wouldn't colapse. They didn't need to use it but felt it was better to be safe.
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