The Tale You Were In: May 2012

Our little baby girl has arrived and is already five weeks old! I can't believe how fast she's growing and how much she's already changed. The weeks have flown by since her arrival and I've been meaning to post a baby update about her birth story, as well as the first few weeks of parenthood.

My official last day of work was the last Friday in March, and early Saturday morning (the next day), my water broke around 6:40 am. KC and I scrambled to get ready, and we rushed to the hospital and were admitted around 9:00 am. After spending the entire day at one centimeter, Dr. Olmstead (the first OB/GYN to attend me) wanted us to consider being induced, as the risk of infection goes up once your water breaks. We decided to wait until 5:00 pm and finally gave the okay for some pitocin. Unfortunately, one of the nurses (we had many) missed the vein in my arm and ended up pumping the pitocin into my muscle instead of my blood stream. The next nurse on duty had to stop the IV and the induction so the swelling in my arm could go down.

The next doctor, Dr. Kelly, suggested speeding up the dilation with a foley tube (a long tube that has a little balloon at the end of it which inflates and forces the cervix to dilate). It was inserted and meant to be used over night, however, the pain and discomfort were so great that they ended up giving me pain and sleeping meds so I could rest.

When I woke up Sunday morning, April 1st, I had dilated to three centimeters. My stubborn cervix hovered at 3/4 centimeters for most of the day and Dr. Kelly began to prepare us for the possibility of a c-section. This was really the one thing I was absolutely against, but the reality of the situation was that the longer I went without delivering, the higher the risk of infection or distress to the baby. Our nurse that shift was Nancy (who ended up being on duty twice during our four day stay) was determined for me to have a natural, vaginal delivery, so she re-administered the pitocin and continued to up the dose. Eventually, the contractions began to grow more and more uncomfortable and increasingly painful, so we decided to go ahead with the epidural. Having read about the pros and cons of this particular pain medicine, I felt secure and comfortable in my choice, but was wary of the giant needle that I imagined would be inserted into my back. However, when Dr. Right, the anesthesiologist, came in, he assured us that the prick would feel like a bee sting and that the pain relief would be almost immediate. Sure enough, the needle poke was brief and stung, but wasn't nearly as bad as I had feared.

My last real meal had been Saturday, around noon, and afterward the nurses had limited my food intake to jello, toast, broth, and juice. At that point, it looked as though a c-section was unavoidable, so I was cut off from food altogether. Finally, an evening cervix check revealed that I was at seven centimeters, and because I was progressing, they decided to up the pitocin. I began to feel the contractions in spite of my epidural, so they administered another medication for the pain, which allowed me to sleep briefly before I reached ten centimeters. At this point, Nancy was once more our nurse and Dr. Stewart the OB/GYN on duty. I was fully dilated and ready to push around 11:00 pm, and after an hour and a half of pushing (and some puking), Ava Grace Schwartzkoph arrived at 12:24 am on Monday, April 2nd. She came out as cool as a cucumber, bright pink and calm and chubby as they laid her on my chest. I cried with happiness and relief. It was such a sweet, surreal moment, that transition into motherhood. She was eight pounds and nine ounces at thirty-nine weeks, and twenty-one inches long. A perfect, beautiful little girl, and so alert.

My high school friend Natalie was our baby nurse and gave her her first bath, which she screamed through. They took her vitals and administered some newborn vaccines, and helped me try to breastfeed her. She initially latched on, but continued to have trouble with it throughout our hospital stay, which meant several visits from the lactation consultant.

After running a couple of tests on her, they determined that her white blood cell count was higher than normal, which was a possible sign of infection. She was put on antibiotics her first night, and we were told that we would have to stay until Wednesday in order for them to finish administering the antibiotics and receive the live culture results. KC stayed with me all four nights, and we received many visitors who showered us with gifts, flowers, and food (my parents and sisters, Pat and Dad, KC's parents and sister, my Aunt Carol, Pastor Bill Colton, Michelle and Andrew, and Kami).
After a whirlwind of doctors, nurses, hospital staff, pediatrician staff, and lactation consultations, we were discharged on Wednesday at 11:00 am and headed home to begin our adventure of parenting!