Will Reilly be our artist?? He drew this all by himself earlier and it really IS a dinosaur...
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Day 3 at home...
Sorry for not updating the blog sooner. We've been getting settled back in as a family and disinfecting everything! Laney and Reilly had doctor appointments yesterday. Laney weighed in at 8lbs, 12oz with her diaper on, so she did infact lose a bit in the hospital. She weighed in at 8lbs, 12oz last Monday completely naked. Reilly weighed a whopping 36lbs and did great. It does look like he had Fifths Disease, but it's over now and he was no longer contagious when Laney came home from the hospital. Laney is doing well. Her cough seems much better today and she has an appetite again.
I am going to attempt to keep this blog up and running to keep everyone up to date on what's going on with the family. It seems like it was easy for everyone, especially family, to pop in and see what the latest was. I actually find blogging very theraputic, so I hope to be able to continue updating at least a few times per week.
I am going to attempt to keep this blog up and running to keep everyone up to date on what's going on with the family. It seems like it was easy for everyone, especially family, to pop in and see what the latest was. I actually find blogging very theraputic, so I hope to be able to continue updating at least a few times per week.
Saturday, January 30, 2010
She did it!
Miss Delaney made us think that she would have to go back on oxygen last night. Around 7:30-8:00, she started trying to drop her saturation levels into the 80's, so I got RT in here and he grabbed her canula, started across the room with it, and suddenly her O2 was back in the 90s (93 to be exact). So, we waited it out. It's now 8:46, and she held them through the night!!! Also, it is now 32.5 hours since her last albuterol treatment. I can confidently say that I think we might be past that for sure. Our biggest issue right now - her poor chest just hurts from the cough. So, through the night, she'd cough and then cry for 15 or so minutes. I don't want her to be in pain, but seriously this is mild compared to what we've been through. We are waiting for RT and the doctor to come in this morning, so another update will come. Oh, and poor Laney is spending her first snow in the hospital...
Friday, January 29, 2010
Free of cords - at least for a little while...
We got to unplug Laney earlier and give her a bath. It's the first time since Monday that I've held her without cords. It was the best thing ever!!
She managed to not need her albuterol treatment at our 12:00 RT rounds. Though, I really have only found 2 RTs that I don't like since being here and of course it was one of them. He's not coming back to see Laney - ever.
She also had a really good nursing session and is snoozing happily with an oxygen level of 96% right now. YAY! Oh, and she's found her thumb several times today --- will she take after Reilly and be a thumb sucker?
She managed to not need her albuterol treatment at our 12:00 RT rounds. Though, I really have only found 2 RTs that I don't like since being here and of course it was one of them. He's not coming back to see Laney - ever.
She also had a really good nursing session and is snoozing happily with an oxygen level of 96% right now. YAY! Oh, and she's found her thumb several times today --- will she take after Reilly and be a thumb sucker?
Big update - lots of good news
Sorry it took me so long to update -- I really was afraid to jinx anything. Delaney has been off of oxygen for 1 hour, 45 minutes at this point and kept her saturation levels good while sleeping. Now that she's awake, they're great! She's still mad at the nasal canula as they left it just incase. I think that I will ask them to remove it in the near future as it seems to be aggravating her.
It is now 11:19am, in just 11 minutes, it will have been 11 hours since her last albuterol treatment. This is GREAT news!!! She's not made it longer than 6 prior to today.
Her preliminary blood culture results are in and --- drumroll please --- NO BACTERIA GROWTH!!!
Now for the best part - and I need lots of good thought, prayers, vibes, whatever it is that you do. As long as Laney stays off O2 today and does well with it, we have a good chance of going home tomorrow!! The hospital's pre-discharge person came in this morning even, so I'm staying cautiously optomistic!!! I can't wait to be reunited with the boys :).
Bottom line - today is going to be a good day - I can feel it!!!
Well, good morning boo bear!!!
So, we slept through our 4:00 RT visit, but what that means is she didn't have albuterol at that time! So, we're now at almost 8 hours since our last breathing treatment. She's wide awake this morning and fighting the nasal canula. She keeps finding it and yanking it out! I also don't know what her temp was at that time (obviously), but our new Care Partner has already been in this morning and her temp was 98.9. Perfect!!! We have a new ped today, not really sure how I feel about that. Good news is that the NP is not here today, so that means she won't have the opportunity to scare the crap out of me. Laney is holding her O2 levels at 99-100 this morning, so I assume that we try to come off O2 this morning when the RT comes in.
3:30am update...
First, yes I know I should be sleeping. However, the nurse just left and RT will be here soon, and in the morning the visits will be a blur. So, just a short and quick update. RT Casey came in at 12:30 to check on the bear. She was a bit wheezy in the right lung (same as she has been), so she got an albuterol treatment and has been sleeping soundly since. At the same time, she bumped her O2 levels from .2L to.1L, so almost completely room air. She's been holding her O2 levels nicely since. Right now, they're 96%. For the record, I will be soooo happy when I'm not obsessing over monitors. I think I look at that monitor 5-6 times per minute (at least). Anyway, she's doing well - temp at 12:30 was 98.1. Perfect! She also had a mini nursing session around 1:30 and a pretty good one just a few minutes ago. We should have preliminary blood culture results in the morning, so fingers crossed that there's no bacteria growing. Oh, and we got a solid 2 hours with her awake last night, just what Mike and I needed from her. We were able to play and cuddle with her.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Bright eyed!
Delaney is the most awake she's been in 2 days! Her big eyes are so bright - so I thought I'd share!
At 8ish, she had her albuterol treatment by RT Casey. Mike found humor in the spanish soap opera channel. Shannon is our Care Partner for tonight and she just came to check her temp.
Laney nursed so well tonight - we got 4 good nursing sessions in this afternoon (and even a really wet and poopy diaper!).
Super quick YAY!!!!
And no pics to go with it, but still a YAY!
I asked Ruby (see post below) to bring a scale in tonight while Shirin was dropping off the most yummy food since I thought she had lost weight. Her birth weight was 8lbs, 13oz. Monday, when we checked in, Laney weighed in at 8lbs, 10oz and tonight weighed in at 9lbs, 1/2oz. YAYYYYYY!! She's not lost weight and infact (probably) gained a small amount (she was weighed with her gown and diaper on tonight). So, while she's not nursing great (though she did have a great session just about 45 minutes ago), she's not losing so that's one less battle to fight!!!
I asked Ruby (see post below) to bring a scale in tonight while Shirin was dropping off the most yummy food since I thought she had lost weight. Her birth weight was 8lbs, 13oz. Monday, when we checked in, Laney weighed in at 8lbs, 10oz and tonight weighed in at 9lbs, 1/2oz. YAYYYYYY!! She's not lost weight and infact (probably) gained a small amount (she was weighed with her gown and diaper on tonight). So, while she's not nursing great (though she did have a great session just about 45 minutes ago), she's not losing so that's one less battle to fight!!!
By request ---- Mike's version of Laney's birth story
Jill, I was able to see your FB comment through email --- so here ya go (and it debuts for most everyone else!). Mike is such a great writer and I'm so glad to have this (and Laney will be too when she's older!)
My birth story
My wife and I were blessed to find out she was pregnant with our third child in the spring of 2009. Being that this was our third, I was under the impression that things would play out exactly the same as the previous two births and it would be a walk in the park (not for her of course, but as the husband your duties are quite limited during birth). Our first two were textbook cases of induction due to hypertension in which we went to the hospital and left with a baby after numerous bouts of drugs, an epidural, some very select four letter words that I did not know my wife knew, and finally a bouncing baby boy each time. Recovery afterwards was certainly difficult, and my wife felt defeated in having to take drugs to overcome the pain. After all, women were made for this right?
So long story short, two inductions, two babies, one circumcision (the parents were baffled) one breastfed baby (the other bottle fed because we knew no better), one exhausted mommy two times over and one very busy family when it was all said and done.
So one day my wife and I are driving and she asks me (or rather tells me) “I think I want to hire a doula this time.”
I said “A do-what”. My ill-fated attempt at a pun was ill-received and met with slight but noticeable disdain. I wasn’t foreign to this concept because my wife would be one you would consider, well, “crunchy”. Ok, so she’s as hippy as hippy gets. A public-nursing, sling wearing, no vaccinating, very opinionated, did I mention sling wearing, mommy-club mommy. Our kids sleep in our bed, never had to cry it out, and certainly were more content riding on my or her back rather than using their own two feet (at least until they realized they could run). So my first impression of a doula was basically a birth coach, or so that was how I thought my first impression would go. Actually, my first impression was “oh my God who is this woman taking my place during my kids birth?”
Initially the feelings of failure flooded my psyche because never before did I feel I let her down. In hiring someone to attend our birth, my wife single handedly told me I wasn’t supportive and would rather a stranger take care of her during birth than her husband of seven years.
Lets fast-forward shall we to THE MEETING. We met Angela Hathaway at our home and to say the least deep down I was not “thrilled”. After all, this was my replacement and why would anyone be excited to meet the replacement Daddy. To be honest, I can’t hardly remember a thing we talked about during the first meeting. I burned up our time together listening in and out playing on the computer. The conversation replays in my head as type type click click water birth, type type click Cesarean, type type Los Angeles, click click click mucus plug. I draw the line at the mucus plug and pretty much turn inwards at that point for the duration of the meeting.
Some of the highlights were things like HypnoBabies, induction, water-breaking, basically a run down of what she wanted for her birth. My wife having used mostly medical intrusion in coping with the pain was anxious to have a natural birth free of drugs and interventions including breaking her water. Looking back I realize that I didn’t understand the importance of her doing this on her own (especially since it is supposed to be our last child) and how it would effect her confidence as a mother and as a woman.
So numerous sessions later, more talks of “birthing time”,” pressure waves and my favorite “mucus plugs” we find ourselves on the home stretch to birth. At this point we have found out we are having a girl, have had numerous ultrasounds, and rapidly are approaching a due date that she never came close to in the past. Both of our boys being inductions were born at 37 and 38 weeks. My wife hits 40 weeks and believes she will stay pregnant forever. Each day we try everything to induce labor. Castor Oil, walking, Primrose oil, and other unmentionables are just some of the things we tried in order to make this baby come out. At the time I worked two jobs, one of which was in the evening hours (if you call 2am to 5am evening hours). I was at work and she calls to tell me she is feeling it is time, she’s uncomfortable, and she is calling the DOULA. “Great” I say reluctantly and I finish my work and head home to find our friend Tracy and Angela there tending to my wife Amanda.
“You should probably rest right now,” or something of that effect escapes Angela’s mouth and, I must admit, at 5am sleep sounds wonderful. So I went to bed.
Now as you notice a lot of time passes and not much is really said due in part to the fact that men have a difficult time equating themselves to women during times of pregnancy because of two reasons. (A) we are not the pregnant one and (B) we are not the pregnant one. Ok, so maybe only one reason but it is true. Men find it difficult to retain the little details that their counterpart holds so dear to them because in fact they don’t feel participatory in the act unless it is during conception and delivery. Now of course, during conception, life is GOOD. During delivery, life is scary; and I don’t mean scary like scary movie scary but scary as in Holy Shit there is something alive sliding towards me and I don’t have on my catcher’s mitt kind of scary.
Hours pass and my wife walks around the house in a circles which if you have ever seen my home is pretty impressive since we can stand shoulder to shoulder down one hallway and touch both walls. Tracy leaves and labor begins to progress. After a couple guesses at how dilated she was, some serious use of a breast pump, and lots of walking my wives’ contractions begin intensifying. All the while we are listening to HypnoBabies which does help during the beginning of labor; however, my wife in the midst of 40 weeks never really got into the program like she should have and coping was becoming steadily more difficult. So she wasn’t the only one to blame I probably could have been a little more supportive of the whole HypnoBabies idea but honestly I couldn’t help but fall asleep each time and wake up wondering why I had the need to push with each powerful pressure wave…anyways.
Finally after hours of listening to this same track over and over again, and a lot of coaching from Angela on methods to try and get things moving, we decide to head to the hospital…an hour away…at 6pm. We begin our voyage to Pineville, North Carolina and luckily hit no traffic on the way there. Unluckily, my wife has begun transitional contractions and amidst the void of terrifying thing coming out of her mouth I hear “Either I’m SH*TTING or she’s coming out. The entire ride she is sitting on her knees in the front seat and Angela is riding behind us while I pat her bottom thinking “holy crap is there a seat full of pooh or a seat full of baby!? Fortunately neither happen and we arrive at the hospital around 7:15pm. Of course, on the ride down I am reflecting on the fact that here we are going to the hospital to have a baby with no anesthetic, hormones, interventions and we did it on our own with the assistance of our doula. And yes, while in the car on the way down, I utter the words “Honey, in looking back, she was worth every penny”.
Thirty minutes later after more obscenities I never knew existed, a couple pissed off registration nurses, a bathtub clogged with a towel because there was no plug (and no chance in hell she would make it to the tub), being checked and discovering she was at 9.5cm, our doctor almost not making it, some very “artistic” photos taken by our friend Tracy who barely made it, one very scared Daddy and an even more scared Mommy we ended up with a beautiful baby girl delivered naturally as intended by God. My wife was so proud that her water broke on its own, and after delivering our baby girl no two people in the world would be as high as we were. As a husband, and after the scary part of delivery, it is easy to reflect on the past. Our coaching from our doula was worth every cent and should we ever be blessed with another child, I would do it again in a heartbeat.
There was no magic, no intrusion, no voodoo or anything that she did that remotely came close to replacing me. I was freed up to take a nap during the dull points, but given freedom to do what I thought necessary to support my wife during the “good parts”. Angela will even say it herself, “I sat my ass on the couch, you two did all the work.”
At 8:30pm the action is over, the nurses are gone, and there is my wife holding our daughter with the biggest smile on her face and tears in her eyes. This moment would soon be disturbed by the on-duty facilities worker bringing us a stopper for a tub that never got used. “We drove all the way down here so you could get in that tub and you didn’t even need it” I say with a smile. Amanda doesn’t flinch but instead is busy nursing our new baby and all is well with our story. Thank God for our friends and family who helped us, the medical staff at our hospital, and to Angela with whom we are eternally grateful for a flawless natural birth.
My birth story
My wife and I were blessed to find out she was pregnant with our third child in the spring of 2009. Being that this was our third, I was under the impression that things would play out exactly the same as the previous two births and it would be a walk in the park (not for her of course, but as the husband your duties are quite limited during birth). Our first two were textbook cases of induction due to hypertension in which we went to the hospital and left with a baby after numerous bouts of drugs, an epidural, some very select four letter words that I did not know my wife knew, and finally a bouncing baby boy each time. Recovery afterwards was certainly difficult, and my wife felt defeated in having to take drugs to overcome the pain. After all, women were made for this right?
So long story short, two inductions, two babies, one circumcision (the parents were baffled) one breastfed baby (the other bottle fed because we knew no better), one exhausted mommy two times over and one very busy family when it was all said and done.
So one day my wife and I are driving and she asks me (or rather tells me) “I think I want to hire a doula this time.”
I said “A do-what”. My ill-fated attempt at a pun was ill-received and met with slight but noticeable disdain. I wasn’t foreign to this concept because my wife would be one you would consider, well, “crunchy”. Ok, so she’s as hippy as hippy gets. A public-nursing, sling wearing, no vaccinating, very opinionated, did I mention sling wearing, mommy-club mommy. Our kids sleep in our bed, never had to cry it out, and certainly were more content riding on my or her back rather than using their own two feet (at least until they realized they could run). So my first impression of a doula was basically a birth coach, or so that was how I thought my first impression would go. Actually, my first impression was “oh my God who is this woman taking my place during my kids birth?”
Initially the feelings of failure flooded my psyche because never before did I feel I let her down. In hiring someone to attend our birth, my wife single handedly told me I wasn’t supportive and would rather a stranger take care of her during birth than her husband of seven years.
Lets fast-forward shall we to THE MEETING. We met Angela Hathaway at our home and to say the least deep down I was not “thrilled”. After all, this was my replacement and why would anyone be excited to meet the replacement Daddy. To be honest, I can’t hardly remember a thing we talked about during the first meeting. I burned up our time together listening in and out playing on the computer. The conversation replays in my head as type type click click water birth, type type click Cesarean, type type Los Angeles, click click click mucus plug. I draw the line at the mucus plug and pretty much turn inwards at that point for the duration of the meeting.
Some of the highlights were things like HypnoBabies, induction, water-breaking, basically a run down of what she wanted for her birth. My wife having used mostly medical intrusion in coping with the pain was anxious to have a natural birth free of drugs and interventions including breaking her water. Looking back I realize that I didn’t understand the importance of her doing this on her own (especially since it is supposed to be our last child) and how it would effect her confidence as a mother and as a woman.
So numerous sessions later, more talks of “birthing time”,” pressure waves and my favorite “mucus plugs” we find ourselves on the home stretch to birth. At this point we have found out we are having a girl, have had numerous ultrasounds, and rapidly are approaching a due date that she never came close to in the past. Both of our boys being inductions were born at 37 and 38 weeks. My wife hits 40 weeks and believes she will stay pregnant forever. Each day we try everything to induce labor. Castor Oil, walking, Primrose oil, and other unmentionables are just some of the things we tried in order to make this baby come out. At the time I worked two jobs, one of which was in the evening hours (if you call 2am to 5am evening hours). I was at work and she calls to tell me she is feeling it is time, she’s uncomfortable, and she is calling the DOULA. “Great” I say reluctantly and I finish my work and head home to find our friend Tracy and Angela there tending to my wife Amanda.
“You should probably rest right now,” or something of that effect escapes Angela’s mouth and, I must admit, at 5am sleep sounds wonderful. So I went to bed.
Now as you notice a lot of time passes and not much is really said due in part to the fact that men have a difficult time equating themselves to women during times of pregnancy because of two reasons. (A) we are not the pregnant one and (B) we are not the pregnant one. Ok, so maybe only one reason but it is true. Men find it difficult to retain the little details that their counterpart holds so dear to them because in fact they don’t feel participatory in the act unless it is during conception and delivery. Now of course, during conception, life is GOOD. During delivery, life is scary; and I don’t mean scary like scary movie scary but scary as in Holy Shit there is something alive sliding towards me and I don’t have on my catcher’s mitt kind of scary.
Hours pass and my wife walks around the house in a circles which if you have ever seen my home is pretty impressive since we can stand shoulder to shoulder down one hallway and touch both walls. Tracy leaves and labor begins to progress. After a couple guesses at how dilated she was, some serious use of a breast pump, and lots of walking my wives’ contractions begin intensifying. All the while we are listening to HypnoBabies which does help during the beginning of labor; however, my wife in the midst of 40 weeks never really got into the program like she should have and coping was becoming steadily more difficult. So she wasn’t the only one to blame I probably could have been a little more supportive of the whole HypnoBabies idea but honestly I couldn’t help but fall asleep each time and wake up wondering why I had the need to push with each powerful pressure wave…anyways.
Finally after hours of listening to this same track over and over again, and a lot of coaching from Angela on methods to try and get things moving, we decide to head to the hospital…an hour away…at 6pm. We begin our voyage to Pineville, North Carolina and luckily hit no traffic on the way there. Unluckily, my wife has begun transitional contractions and amidst the void of terrifying thing coming out of her mouth I hear “Either I’m SH*TTING or she’s coming out. The entire ride she is sitting on her knees in the front seat and Angela is riding behind us while I pat her bottom thinking “holy crap is there a seat full of pooh or a seat full of baby!? Fortunately neither happen and we arrive at the hospital around 7:15pm. Of course, on the ride down I am reflecting on the fact that here we are going to the hospital to have a baby with no anesthetic, hormones, interventions and we did it on our own with the assistance of our doula. And yes, while in the car on the way down, I utter the words “Honey, in looking back, she was worth every penny”.
Thirty minutes later after more obscenities I never knew existed, a couple pissed off registration nurses, a bathtub clogged with a towel because there was no plug (and no chance in hell she would make it to the tub), being checked and discovering she was at 9.5cm, our doctor almost not making it, some very “artistic” photos taken by our friend Tracy who barely made it, one very scared Daddy and an even more scared Mommy we ended up with a beautiful baby girl delivered naturally as intended by God. My wife was so proud that her water broke on its own, and after delivering our baby girl no two people in the world would be as high as we were. As a husband, and after the scary part of delivery, it is easy to reflect on the past. Our coaching from our doula was worth every cent and should we ever be blessed with another child, I would do it again in a heartbeat.
There was no magic, no intrusion, no voodoo or anything that she did that remotely came close to replacing me. I was freed up to take a nap during the dull points, but given freedom to do what I thought necessary to support my wife during the “good parts”. Angela will even say it herself, “I sat my ass on the couch, you two did all the work.”
At 8:30pm the action is over, the nurses are gone, and there is my wife holding our daughter with the biggest smile on her face and tears in her eyes. This moment would soon be disturbed by the on-duty facilities worker bringing us a stopper for a tub that never got used. “We drove all the way down here so you could get in that tub and you didn’t even need it” I say with a smile. Amanda doesn’t flinch but instead is busy nursing our new baby and all is well with our story. Thank God for our friends and family who helped us, the medical staff at our hospital, and to Angela with whom we are eternally grateful for a flawless natural birth.
A shower, a nursing session (or two!), and thanks
So, I went home - to an empty house. Managed to get a shower (and do some alone, loud crying), do a quick (and I do mean SUPER quick) check on CPM, stopped at Starbucks for coffee (because they don't "allow" me to have it on my breakfast tray), and came back. Walked in to find Laney had just woken up and was ready to nurse!! She actually nursed for almost 15 minutes!!! That's the reassurance I needed. While I was gone, Ruby (our care partner - think Bailey from Grey's with Wanda Sikes' voice...I really really like her), came and took Laney's temp (rectally only from now on) and it was 99.9. Not too bad, definitely not as bad as last night. Anyway, after I nursed Laney, I ran back downstairs and saw the boys for the first time since Monday morning. They asked where Daddy and Laney were, and were ok with my answer of Laney being very sick and needing us here. Finn nursed (YAYYYYYY!!! - I was so scared that this would force weaning on him) and as I was buckling them back in - Finn said "my want you". I can't wait til my family is reunited, as things are supposed to be. Anyway, I took the hike back to our room, opened Laney's new boppy (thanks mom and dad!) and put her on it...she loves it!!! It's not flat like our other (thanks to daddy sitting on it for the last few nights in the AWFUL recliner). Anyway, get this - she nursed again!!!! And took a couple of teaspoons from the syringe with daddy.
Gayle (respiratory therapist) came back in and gave her her albuterol treatment around 4:30 and Laney is resting peacefully - holding her O2 saturations on .2L of oxygen (down from .3L). We will hopefully get to drop it to .1L by the end of the evening in attempts to wean her off of it. So, now we are waiting for the doctor to come in.
And thanks to everyone for your thoughts, prayers, and emails. They really help me get through the hard times (and if nothing else, they help to get a good cry out!). More updates later...
Ok, present time...
Laney is snoozing on Mike's lap. My reasoning for making this blog is to keep everyone updated as well as keep my head straight because days are running together and treatments and doctors..arrrgg!!
So, last night, Delaney was put on oxygen - 1/2 L, at some time during the night they bumped it down to .3. She did great. Gayle, our Respiratory Therapist for the day came in and said she sounded better than yesterday morning. We decided to forego her albuterol treatment this morning because she was sounding good. We were also able to take her off the oxygen, but within 10 minutes, she landed herself back on.
So, last night, Delaney was put on oxygen - 1/2 L, at some time during the night they bumped it down to .3. She did great. Gayle, our Respiratory Therapist for the day came in and said she sounded better than yesterday morning. We decided to forego her albuterol treatment this morning because she was sounding good. We were also able to take her off the oxygen, but within 10 minutes, she landed herself back on.
On Wednesday evening, she also spiked a fever of 101.8. By 5am, it was back to normal. Since 5am though, she's been running around a 99.8.
The NP, Jen, just left. They are concerned about her fever. Unfortunately during this conversation, I basically "checked out" after the words spinal tap, meningitits, and antibiotics were thrown out. I guess I have a new worst nightmare, and well it includes the words meningitis and spinal tap. REALLY??? How in the world can my precious perfect baby be so sick?????
Then the on call ped came in, agreed with me that we watch her and wait for her blood cultures to come back (I guess I forgot to mention that they drew blood for a 24 and 48 hour culture this morning around 4:30 - and I wasn't allowed to hold her during it. My little girl is a trooper though and was content as long as the assistant rubbed her head during the whole process). I just want my little girl better and home and my family back together. This is hell, absolute hell.
Around 12, she got another albuterol treatment and took a bit over an ounce by syringe. I'm desperately trying to ward off IV fluids, but I JUST WANT HER TO NURSE!!!! This is not how I ever, in my wildest and most terrible dreams, imagined that our first weeks would be spent. Get better baby girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(FOR FACEBOOK FOLLOWERS - This hospital has facebook and the mommies network (and babyzone and babycenter and mothering, etc, etc, etc) blocked here. I can sometimes access it through my phone, but that's a big sometimes so all future updates will be here)
Monday, January 25th
Reilly and Finn had been sick with colds (or what we assumed were colds) during Laney's first 2 weeks of life. On Friday morning, Laney was pretty snotty, but not too horrible. It progressively got worse over the weekend, so I moved her 2 week appointment from Wednesday to Monday. At Dr Lane's office, they did a RSV test which came back positive. Off to the hospital we went. We're at the Jeff Gordon Children's Hospital, where we thought we'd be just overnight for observation. We were wrong. Laney's progressively gotten worse through the week. They began racinephrine treatments on Tuesday and Wednesday night she had to go on oxygen. They are weaning her from the racinephrine treatments and have now begun albuterol.
Birth Story of Delaney Cait
Birth Story of Delaney Cait Zibell
On January 11, I woke up at 2am with my first contraction. I’d been having prodromal labor for a month, but these were different. I sent DH to his second job and told him to hurry and get his work finished. I laid in bed until about 2:30am and loosely timed contractions, sleeping between them. At that point, they were about 5 minutes apart and I sat on the birth ball and timed them with contraction master. At 3am, I called Angela, my doula, and told her that labor had begun. Around 4:15am, she arrived and DH arrived home shortly after. Around 4:30, we called Tracy (my bff) to let her know what was going on. We then determined that Delaney was posterior and Angela and I worked through about 45 to an hour of contractions with ice and positioning to get her to turn. Once she turned, I labored with inconsistent contractions. Tracy arrived around 6am. At 6:45, I began getting nauseas and went upstairs to see DH (who was napping). I slept for just over an hour and woke up ready for contractions to become rhythmic. Contractions were anywhere from 2-20 minutes apart at that point. My aunt arrived from Tennessee around 10:30 and took my 2 boys out for the remainder of the day. I sent DH on some errands and around 2pm, I got in the shower with DH. Tracy left to go spend some time with Emma. Things began picking up in intensity, however they were not consistent still. We danced, rocked, and spent some great moments together as a couple, working through the contractions. Around 5pm, I began pumping to try to get a rhythm going and it worked. I began having contractions every 3 minutes, lasting around a minute to a minute and a half. By 6, I had the shakes and nausea had returned. We decided that it was probably time to begin the hour drive to Pineville. It became clear shortly after we left that transition was coming. The drive was awful. I was no longer able to stay on top of my contractions and would alternate between counting and screaming obscenities. By the time we were at the Providence Road exit, I needed to push. DH drove a bit faster and we pulled into CMC Pineville with Angela hot on our tail. I had a hard time getting out of the van and once I was able to, the nurses were waiting for us. Tracy arrived right around the same time. The nurse checked me and said I was at 9.5 cm. Another doctor came in, as mine was still on the way and checked me again. Then, my doctor arrived, held a tiny bit of cervical lip out of the way and allowed me to push. My water broke with the first push, to which I announced that “it had actually broken on its own!”. Three pushes later, Delaney was born, just 30 minutes after pulling into the parking lot of the hospital. It was the best birth of the three (the other 2 were medicated inductions). Delaney weighed in at 8lbs, 13oz and 20” long.
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