On Wednesday, March 4th, I woke up at 8:30 and my water broke! Thank you, Tiffany! I called the hospital and the OB nurse at the hospital told me I could take about two hours to get my things together and then head to the hospital. At 10:45am we were on our way to the hospital! Despite me having very few contractions, Ryan drove like a crazy person! I guess he was excited!
We spent the rest of the day hanging out at the hospital waiting for some big contractions. Unfortunately they never came. My doctor came in to deliver the bad news... we had to start a pitocin drip. This was my worst fear. In fact, the first thing I told the nurses when I was admitted is that I did not want pitocin! I had no choice, because my water broke and after 12 hours there is an increased risk of infection.
My contractions started very slowly. Finally, I was starting to feel some real pain but I didn't think it was quite bad enough for any drugs. This time around I wanted to try to go without the epidural, but I was pretty set that I wanted to use the IV drug called Fentanyl. My nurse, Ami, suggested a hot bath and I gave it a try. It felt really nice, but after about 10 minutes my contractions were bad enough that I wanted to get the drugs. I got out of the tub and scrambled to the bed. Nurse Ami checked my cervix and told me it was too late and I would be delivering my baby very soon!
Everything from that point on is sort of smashed together! I remember the nurse asking me to let her know when I felt like I wanted to push. I quickly responded that I wanted to poop and she jumped into action! Apparently that is the same feeling! With Clay I never experienced that because of the epidural.
Within a few minutes the doctor and another nurse entered the room and I began pushing! In about a half hour, Amelia's head appeared. Unfortunately, so did the umbilical cord. It was wrapped loosely around her neck. Within seconds my emotions turned from excitement to fear...
As the doctor tried to routinely move the umbilical cord over Amelia's head it ruptured! She needed to be delivered that instant and her shoulder was stuck. The doctor ordered the nurses to push hard on my abdomen while I pushed with all my strength! Amelia was born at 5:57am on March 5th.
Amelia was rushed to the crash cart to clamp the umbilical cord and stop her from losing too much blood. Unfortunately, she did not start breathing on her own either. The doctor, nurse, and a respiratory specialist worked with her to get her to start breathing and finally things were starting to look up for her!
Once she was stable they let me hold her. After about 3 minutes, they took her away to run tests and do a chest xray. Ryan went with her and I anxiously laid in the hospital bed.
About 2 hours after she was born, Amelia was determined to be healthy and I was able to hold and admire my perfect baby girl!
However, that's not were our story ends...
We spent the better part of two days in the hospital and were excited to be heading "home" with Amelia but we were waiting on results from one last blood test. And of course the results were not good! Amelia had high bilirubin levels and needed to stay at the hospital overnight. She spent the the next 24 hours under bilirubin lights and her blood was checked every 12 hours.
The next day we were told again we would need to stay the night for her to have another 24 hours of phototherapy! Things had not improved as much as they had hoped for and she needed more time.
Finally the following morning (March 9th) we were told we could go home and bring Amelia in for one more blood test in the morning! We spent a relaxing day at Bill and Sue's house and enjoyed cuddling our new baby! I also spent some time packing up because we were planning on taking a ferry the following evening to finally get home.
This brings us to today... We went into the lab this morning to have Amelia's blood tested and about an hour and a half later we received a call with the results. Amelia's bilirubin levels had risen quite a bit overnight and we were to be admitted to the hospital immediately to get her under the lights again!
So I am sitting here watching my baby girl get her suntan on. Ryan rebooked our ferry home for tomorrow evening and Amelia will be tested again in the morning to determine if we actually get to get on the ferry this time!
It has been very difficult to watch our precious baby be unhealthy. Ryan has been a giant ball of stress and anxiety! He has a hard time even being at the hospital. So I have sent him on numerous quests for food and supplies.
Ideally, as each day passes, her liver will mature and start affectingly eliminating the bilirubin on its own.
So after all that has happened in the last 5 days I think we can accurately call Amelia our little miracle!
