You may remember from my last post that we were expecting a girl and everything had gone smoothly up to that point. I specifically mentioned that I was hoping that I wouldn't have high blood pressure like I did at the end of my first pregnancy. In a perfect example of Murphy's Law, I started having high blood pressure around 33 weeks. Although I didn't think much of it, because it had happened before and everything turned out fine, my doctor was concerned. I had to come in for extra testing, including a 24 hour urine sample, blood work, and a non-stress test, to make sure I wasn't experiencing pre-eclampsia. As I expected, all of my lab work came back normal, and baby was doing fine.
At my 36 week appointment, I had high blood pressure again. At first, all the physician's assistant (my doctor was out of town) decided to do was send me home on bed rest until my next appointment the following week. I wasn't exactly happy to be on bed rest, which is actually quite boring, but I was willing to do it if it meant I could stay pregnant longer and let my body go into labor on its own rather than having to be induced. But as soon as I got home from my appointment, another doctor called and said in addition to bed rest I needed to come to the hospital in two days on Saturday, the day I hit 37 weeks, for another non-stress test and possible induction.
This got me quite upset. I didn't fully understand why they were being so cautious this time when with my first pregnancy they were concerned, but weren't pushing so hard for an induction. I found out that in the last 6 months a big, new medical study came out saying that mothers with high blood pressure (even without other symptoms of pre-eclampsia) had better outcomes when they were induced at 37 weeks rather than letting them continue on with the pregnancy. So they were just following the statistics of the newest literature, which I suppose is hard to argue with, but when you're the one experiencing it all, you don't want to be treated like a statistic. The problem is it's really hard to predict what's going to happen with a pregnancy, and with two lives hanging in the balance, I can see why they'd err on caution.
Anyway, the Saturday non-stress test went fine, and the hospital sent me home without saying anything about bed rest. We went about life as normal until my next appointment on Tuesday. My normal doctor was back, but my blood pressure was still higher than they liked. My doctor started talking about induction, but I was really opposed to the idea, as I was planning an unmedicated birth. I was afraid of a more difficult labor due to the pitocin, plus the possibility of complications leading to the need for a C-section, and worrying if the baby might have problems due to being born early.
I refused an induction, but agreed to another non-stress test. To my surprise, the baby failed. We went back downstairs for a biophysical profile by ultrasound. Again, the baby failed. After all these failed tests, my doctor told us that it really was in my and the baby's best interest to go get induced right away. And so, without even going home to get our stuff, we went straight to the hospital. We hadn't even decided on a name yet, but we were having a baby!
I'll make this part as short and sweet as I can. They started the pitocin around 7 pm and I labored on my own until my body stopped progressing (at about 4 cm and 90% effacement; also, during this time we watched the tail end of Little Rascals and chose a name). I let them break my water around 2:30 am. After that labor got much harder, and I had to start using breathing techniques and changing position in order to cope with the contractions. I even hummed/sang my way through some of them. The most annoying part of all this was every time I'd change positions they'd lose the baby on the fetal monitors, so they'd have to come in and mess with it until they got the signal back. Also, I hate IVs and the associated needle and cords. At 4:30 am I was at 5 cm. An hour later, I was at a 9! Go body, go! Well, it did go. Suddenly, I felt unbelievably strong contractions and an involuntary urge to push. I could feel baby's head coming out, and I let the nurses know. Without much pushing at all on my part, our little girl was born at 5:37 am.
And now, the part you've been waiting for: pictures!
Right after she was born. Despite the induction, I was able to have an uncomplicated, unmedicated birth!
I was sooooo hungry, as the last time I'd eaten was 11:30 am the day before. That sandwich was heaven.
All clean.
Also, I guess I should mention that she was 6 pounds 1 ounce and 20 inches long. So tiny!
First photo as a family of four (whoa alliteration). Little Brown was somewhat confused about what was going on.
Blue with his baby girl.
I suppose that her blog code name will have to be Little Blue, seeing as that's what color her eyes have turned out (yay!). She looks a lot like her daddy. We sure love her!
And because this post is already forever long (even with me leaving out quite a few details), I think I'll end it here. Thanks for sticking with me! Hopefully I'll update again soon. But no promises. :)
TL;DR: I had high blood pressure, was induced, and had a baby 2.5 weeks before I expected. Everything went well and baby was born healthy. Love all around.
No comments:
Post a Comment