On Friday the 26th I rolled out of bed and headed to the hospital for one of my usual non-stress tests. I didn't even shower that morning, number 1 because it was early, and number 2 because I figured it would be like any other test and I would be home in an hour. I left the house at about 7:30 and promptly got stuck on our street because of all the snow. I luckily was able to get the car going and made to the hospital safely. I went in for my test and everything started off as normal. After about a half hour the nurse came back and explained that the doctor on call had looked over my strip (which shows the baby's heart rate) and had expressed that there were a few too many dips in the heart rate and so he wanted to get an ultrasound to see what was up. They originally thought I could just have low fluid levels. They put the order for the ultrasound in at about 8:45am. Then I sat hooked up to the monitors and waited and waited and waited some more. They didn't come and get me for the ultrasound until 12:00 pm! I didn't care about having to wait so long. At least I had a book to read, my Nintendo to play, and TV to watch, and I didn't have to worry about Lilly because she was at home with her daddy. I went for the ultrasound and the tech thought that everything looked great and the fluid levels were fine. After the ultrasound I headed back upstairs to labor and delivery to await official results of the ultrasound. I once again sat in a room and waited for about another half hour. (by this time I had been doing a "non-stress test" for about 4 1/2 hours) The nurse came in and we chatted just a little more about things and then she went to call the doctor. They almost sent me home and then were going to call me if they needed me to come back but the doctor thought it would be a good idea to hook me back up to the monitors again for another 1/2 hour or so and then see what was happening. So I got hooked up again and waited some more. After about another hour the nurse decided that the doctor really should see things and got him to look again at my strip. The nurse just said that she felt like things really weren't on the up and up and really wanted to make sure everything was fine. After about 7 hours of doing a "non-stress test". The doctor came in and explained that everything looked fine and there really wasn't much to worry about. The only thing they were nervous about was the drops in heart rate. The doctor said he didn't know if the baby was just grasping the umbilical cord or if it was possibly wrapped around her somewhere. The doctor pretty much said that it was up to me. I had to decided weather we should just induce or wait and see on Monday. The nurse was obviously a little nervous about the tests and I said that I was ready to go, especially since I had been on bed rest for 5 weeks. The doctor and nurse agreed and decided to check things out. Luckily I was already dilated to a 3 and about 50% effaced. So all of a sudden we were having a baby. I called Aaron, he packed up Lilly and took her to my sisters house and then he came to the hospital. By 4:00 pm I was on pitocin and ready to go. The nurse thought I was a little too smiley so every time she came in she just upped the dosages. The problem was that I was kind of happy the entire time anyway! By 9:00 pm the doctor came in and looked at my strip. Every time I had a contraction Molly's heart rate would go way down, and then come up. They decided to watch a little longer but were sort of preparing for an emergency c-section, especially if I didn't progress fast enough. I was only at a 5 by this point. At 10:15 pm they checked again and said I was at a 7. They were all getting pretty nervous by this point (and so was I). Finally at 10:30pm I told everyone that I was ready to go and by 10:38 pm Molly made her appearance. She ended having the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck! We were certainly blessed to have the nurses we had that really took the time to make sure they felt comfortable with my tests. I think things could have ended much differently otherwise.
Heather, Meridian, and Molly
3 comments:
oh heather, it was so fun to read about molly's birth day! and i'm so glad too that those nurses were looking out for you so well. good job heather, mama of 2!!!
You look so good for just having a baby! Congratulations! I am so glad that the nurses were on top of things and that you and Molly were well taken care of.
Heather, not sure if you know who I am, but I am one of Aaron's friends from Mink Creek/Preston. I bet you feel so blessed to have such diligent nurses. I'm glad to hear things turned out the way they did. I have a blog too, but it's private. If you'd like to look at it then I need your email address. It wouldn't hurt to have your email anyway so we can stay in contact. Congratulations.
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