I was admitted to hospital on Wednesday with fairly high blood pressure (168/105). It had been rising consistently over the pat two weeks and I also had quite a bit of swelling. My doctor tricked me by claiming it would be a consultation and they would get blood work back faster than the lab in her building. Of course the hospital got me and wouldn't let me go - except AMA. Doctors were afraid of PIH. I wanted them to treat only the blood pressure and monitor until labour started naturally, as I had no other symptoms, no protein in my urine and my blood tests were all fine. They were concerned that I could 'turn' at any time. After hours of discussions (literally about 4 hours) we decided to try Cervidil to get things moving. Minimal intervention, softening the cervix. Of course, because of my blood pressure I was confined to bed, so the 2 doses didn't work (I was 75% effaced and not dilated at all, with hardly any cramping). Yes, I did get a full day of lazing around and doing nothing, but I was worried about all the lose ends I had to tie up at home. We called my sister and let her know she was on dog-walking duty for Thursday morning.
We had a fantastic L&D nurse (they staff one-to-one) who spent a lot of time getting to know us and then advocating with the doctors on our behalf. She kept the teams of students away - we only had to deal with the head intern the entire time. She even went so far as to wait for a high-risk doctor (would be more aggressive) to go off shift before broaching discharging us with a more easy-going doctor. He agreed that after 24 hours my BP appeared stable, and I could monitor it at home and wait for labour to start on its own.
So Thursday evening I headed from hospital to pick up a BP monitor from a friend. We were home by 7:45 and I settled in to watch tv. At 8:10 my water broke and I lost my plug (it felt like she kicked it out - there was no mistaking what happened). Our friends had such a close call! Hubby called triage, then I started passing meconium. This made us hurry things up a bit. They re-admitted me at 8:45 and I settled in to start walking the halls. The same doc that examined me before I left came in to see how much I had progressed - I was now 1cm dilated, but with bad news - the doc wasn't feeling head, she was feeling bum. A U/S confirmed breech. She apparently spun around when my water broke. Although this meant the meconium wasn't circulating at all, it also meant c-section - no questions, no chance of moving her into position. Needless to say I was upset, but also realized I didn't have a choice, and was relieved that I hadn't laboured for hours before discovering this. A couple of hours and 14 staples later our sweetheart was in my arms and nursing like pro.
Funny surgeon who delivered her looked over the drape before he started and said, 'bummer, eh?' which really, I guess is funny (he was the guy that discharged me so he knew this wasn't our plan) but breech birth jokes? *g*
The spinal scared the crap out of me, as needles in my spine generally do, but the morphine they added to the mix helped me for the next day, so I can't complain too much. I was up walking the same afternoon, and off Tylenol by Sunday.
It turns out that while she turned head down around 32w, her legs never folded, (she had been frank breech) so even if she stayed head down, I wouldn't have been able to deliver anyway. This also means that every time I un-swaddle her, her legs shoot back up *g*
Our super-awesome nurse was off by the time we made it back to the hospital, so we called her Friday at 10 to let her know what happened and she came right down to the mother-baby unit to visit us. It was absolutely amazing to meet someone who cared so much. We actually had many, many great nurses during the whole stay.
By Friday afternoon, she was looking a wee bit jaundiced, and as I was trying to EBF, it meant I was up most of the night. She ended up losing 11.1% of her body weight by Sunday night, and while I really didn't want to, I ended up supplementing with formula. It is amazing the guilt trips they will put you through. If she wasn't jaundiced, I wouldn't have, but the jaundice worried me. 10% is such an arbitrary number, especially when you consider that she was c-section, so was full of the IV fluids they pumped in to me, plus, she didn't get the amniotic fluid 'squeezed' out of her. By Monday at noon she was back at 10% and we were discharged.
At our Dr's appt on Tuesday she had gained 100grams!!! back, so I started backing off on the formula. By the time we saw the lactation consultant on Thursday, she was up 200grams (they expect to see 23g/day) so we cut out all supplementing - no EBM, no formula, no bottles! I am so happy, and she is gaining like mad. We are back in to the hospital today for our final meeting with the LC, and I'm sure she's up mega grams again today. *g*
Mega curls after bath:
Serious baby:
