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toosutoIt's been a long week away from home. We had our scheduled appoint with the family practitioner at 2 PM last Wednesday (Sept. 1) After talking to her for a very brief amount of time (along with the usually weekly poking and prodding of Sara and the baby) she suggested that we check into the hospital tonight (around 7) so we could start the process of inducing. She let us know that sometimes it went very quickly but she had had patients take as long as three days to get active labor started. Woo hoo! What a plan! Sara was six days overdue and was all about getting to be done with that thank you very much. We checked in and got ourselves situated.
While we hoped that it would be quick, we were prepared: we brought Son of Gamebox™, CDs, books and various other items to make our stay enjoyable. By 11 PM the hospital had gotten Sara her IV and started on Cervidil. Cervidil is a suppository type drug that comes in 12 hour doses. We woke up Thursday morning to a gorgeous sunrise. It gave me that comforting feeling that this was going to go as smoothly and easily as the rest of Sara's pregnancy.
Thursday was pretty nice. We watched television, played Cribbage and Apples to Apples. That afternoon I picked Sara's step-mom up from the airport. She had scheduled her visit when we thought for sure we'd have Rona (originally we thought we were inducing by August 31st. There were visitors through out the day and things seemed pretty calm. By the end of the day there had been no change. No big deal, we knew it might not happen right away. They put Sara on a low dose Pitocin drip overnight to keep things going and we tried to sleep. They gave Sara some Ambien to sleep. Kathy (Sara's step mom) curled up on a recliner and I made the best of the second night on the roll out with a mattress that no dorm would keep.
Friday was still pretty easy: more visitors, more games. Starting in the morning they increased the dosage steadily all day. Sara was no longer allowed to eat (if the Pitocin did the trick she'd toss it all back up anyway) but it still went pretty well. Unfortunately Friday was uneventful, still no progress. Sara was contracting more but the baby hadn't moved, Sara hadn't dilated so were still at square one. Even more discouraging was that the instant they pulled Sara off the Pitocin the contractions stopped. We were unduanted, tomorrow, surely we would get to meet our lovely child and soon take her home. Plus Sara finally got to eat something.
Saturday morning (joy of joys) we had progressed! We were at one whole centimeter! They put Sara back on the Cervidil and we waited for the magic to happen. Six or so hours later the magic had shown up extremely late, completely winded and had forgot it's costume. They switched Sara over to Misopristol and we waited some more. But again at the end of the day no change from the morning. Sara was allowed to eat again and we attempted to rest again. I had taken to popping hydrocodone to mitigate sleeping on the roll out and Sara tried the morphine to stop the pain in her hips.
Saturday night was the worst night of all. The morphine didn't touch the pain in Sara's hips at all. In the morning, coming off of it she got very nauseated. They gave Sara one more dose of Misoprostol before breaking her water and putting her back on Pitocin. Other than being very sick it seemed to go well. Sara's contractions picked up in intensity and frequency. Unfortunately Sara was so worn out from the previous three days it was all she could do to cope. Midafternoon she asked for an epidural. Finally around 4 PM the OB came back and gave us the bad news: we'd tried our best but the Sara had only dilated another centimeter and the baby had only moved down to station -3. We could wait and see but he was pretty sure that either sooner or later we'd have to go into surgery. Two hours later I was ushered into surgery.
I am not even sure if I should try to describe it. It was wonderful. One of the nurses was kind enough to take my camera and shoot Rona as she emerged.
She was quickly out and taken to small table to be cleaned and scored. She's got a big mouth and she knows how to use it. (We have no idea where she might have inherited that at all.)
At Sacred Heart on the maternity ward every time a baby comes they play a series of chimes throughout the ward. As my family waited outside of surgery they heard the chimes and began to wonder aloud if the chimes were for Rona. Before they could finish the thought her wail made it's way out from surgery. Through two sets of doors and around the corner they could hear her at top volume. With in a few minutes of her arrival I was able to take her over to Sara. Also please note the 1-Up wristband, I had been wearing it for several days in anticipation of getting our extra life, no one at the hospital got it.
I was then whisked out to take the baby down to the nursery to be weighed and measured and to meet her family.
None of them were very interested at all.
And of course neither were Sara and I.
She is so beautiful, tiny and perfect. Sometimes I can't believe it. We got home this afternoon and I have this little person in my house that we've known for only a few days. I can't stop thinking about her. Today I was holding and singing American Pie as it came through iTunes and the amount of love I have for her hit me in the chest like a ton of fucking bricks, flung off the bed of a trucking careening around this happy accident I seemed to have stumbled into. I couldn't sing, couldn't talk. I could only lean down and kiss her again on her eyes and tell her how happy I was she had come and how very much I love her.
OK, can't see the keyboard as clearly as I could a second ago. I am deliriously happy right now. And I have a date with two very special little ladies.
While we hoped that it would be quick, we were prepared: we brought Son of Gamebox™, CDs, books and various other items to make our stay enjoyable. By 11 PM the hospital had gotten Sara her IV and started on Cervidil. Cervidil is a suppository type drug that comes in 12 hour doses. We woke up Thursday morning to a gorgeous sunrise. It gave me that comforting feeling that this was going to go as smoothly and easily as the rest of Sara's pregnancy.
Thursday was pretty nice. We watched television, played Cribbage and Apples to Apples. That afternoon I picked Sara's step-mom up from the airport. She had scheduled her visit when we thought for sure we'd have Rona (originally we thought we were inducing by August 31st. There were visitors through out the day and things seemed pretty calm. By the end of the day there had been no change. No big deal, we knew it might not happen right away. They put Sara on a low dose Pitocin drip overnight to keep things going and we tried to sleep. They gave Sara some Ambien to sleep. Kathy (Sara's step mom) curled up on a recliner and I made the best of the second night on the roll out with a mattress that no dorm would keep.
Friday was still pretty easy: more visitors, more games. Starting in the morning they increased the dosage steadily all day. Sara was no longer allowed to eat (if the Pitocin did the trick she'd toss it all back up anyway) but it still went pretty well. Unfortunately Friday was uneventful, still no progress. Sara was contracting more but the baby hadn't moved, Sara hadn't dilated so were still at square one. Even more discouraging was that the instant they pulled Sara off the Pitocin the contractions stopped. We were unduanted, tomorrow, surely we would get to meet our lovely child and soon take her home. Plus Sara finally got to eat something.
Saturday morning (joy of joys) we had progressed! We were at one whole centimeter! They put Sara back on the Cervidil and we waited for the magic to happen. Six or so hours later the magic had shown up extremely late, completely winded and had forgot it's costume. They switched Sara over to Misopristol and we waited some more. But again at the end of the day no change from the morning. Sara was allowed to eat again and we attempted to rest again. I had taken to popping hydrocodone to mitigate sleeping on the roll out and Sara tried the morphine to stop the pain in her hips.
Saturday night was the worst night of all. The morphine didn't touch the pain in Sara's hips at all. In the morning, coming off of it she got very nauseated. They gave Sara one more dose of Misoprostol before breaking her water and putting her back on Pitocin. Other than being very sick it seemed to go well. Sara's contractions picked up in intensity and frequency. Unfortunately Sara was so worn out from the previous three days it was all she could do to cope. Midafternoon she asked for an epidural. Finally around 4 PM the OB came back and gave us the bad news: we'd tried our best but the Sara had only dilated another centimeter and the baby had only moved down to station -3. We could wait and see but he was pretty sure that either sooner or later we'd have to go into surgery. Two hours later I was ushered into surgery.
I am not even sure if I should try to describe it. It was wonderful. One of the nurses was kind enough to take my camera and shoot Rona as she emerged.
She was quickly out and taken to small table to be cleaned and scored. She's got a big mouth and she knows how to use it. (We have no idea where she might have inherited that at all.)
At Sacred Heart on the maternity ward every time a baby comes they play a series of chimes throughout the ward. As my family waited outside of surgery they heard the chimes and began to wonder aloud if the chimes were for Rona. Before they could finish the thought her wail made it's way out from surgery. Through two sets of doors and around the corner they could hear her at top volume. With in a few minutes of her arrival I was able to take her over to Sara. Also please note the 1-Up wristband, I had been wearing it for several days in anticipation of getting our extra life, no one at the hospital got it.
I was then whisked out to take the baby down to the nursery to be weighed and measured and to meet her family.
None of them were very interested at all.
And of course neither were Sara and I.
She is so beautiful, tiny and perfect. Sometimes I can't believe it. We got home this afternoon and I have this little person in my house that we've known for only a few days. I can't stop thinking about her. Today I was holding and singing American Pie as it came through iTunes and the amount of love I have for her hit me in the chest like a ton of fucking bricks, flung off the bed of a trucking careening around this happy accident I seemed to have stumbled into. I couldn't sing, couldn't talk. I could only lean down and kiss her again on her eyes and tell her how happy I was she had come and how very much I love her.
OK, can't see the keyboard as clearly as I could a second ago. I am deliriously happy right now. And I have a date with two very special little ladies.
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Date: 19 Sep 2004 17:28 (UTC)