 |
| Click here to watch the video |
The waiting and waiting almost put me over the edge. The doctor in Ely was getting nervous because of her size on the ultrasound - 9 pounds 5 ounces, I was eating spicy foods - which I generally do not like, I had my inducing acupressure points dug into multiple times - by professionals and by Kevin, we were about to try castor oil. Then we saw the doctor, she consulted with other doctors and before we knew it, we were off to Duluth to be induced. When we got into that car, I knew Hypnobirthing and a natural childbirth were not in my future. Oh no.
We arrived on Tuesday night, started the inducing process, stayed in a hotel overnight and came in by 7 am for the start of my pitocin drip. Wow. Nothing really happened the first day, no dilation, no real contractions... so the doctors upped the ante. By 7 am the next morning, the drug they gave me was working in full force and within 10 minutes of restarting the pitocin, I was having CONTRACTIONS. I had about 15 seconds between each contraction... not cool. My water broke shortly after and I asked (maybe begged) for an epidural. By 10 am I was calmer and not in quite as much pain. By 3:30 pm, I started pushing. I pushed for 3 hours - 3 hours. She was coming out "sunny side up" (face up) and her heart rate was fluctuating in not a good way. The doctor looked at me seriously and gave me the option of a cesarean section. I vomited from the pain and exhaustion and signed the papers to get us to surgery.
Anika Soleil was born at 7:14 on Thanksgiving evening. We both had some complications - mine were infections (including a random case of cellulitis), and Anika had a little hole in her lung and air trapped inside her chest (which healed on its own), her blood sugar dipped to 40 (which is low), she passed her first poop in utero so the doctors were worried about pneumonia (which never happened) and she had an undetermined infection. She was in the NICU for 7 days. Thank god our doctor in Ely was cautious and sent up to Duluth before the snowstorms that hit the Northland Thanksgiving week.
Now we are home and figuring each other out.
2 comments:
Thank you for sharing this story. I can't wait to meet her. I love the picture in the slide show of the two of you looking at each other. The one with Kevin is a tear jerker, too!
congratulations Tara - things do not always go the way we like - BUT she is here - and beautiful - and now the real adventure begins! Welcome to parenthood you two!
Post a Comment