What a crazy day….

Okay, so I have written little bits of information during the day, but here is the whole story (or as much as I can remember)

Last night at about 8:15ish, the nurse came in as they do every night to check my pulse, blood pressure, temperature and the baby’s heart beat. The baby’s heart beat is normally between 156-166 beats per minute. My pulse was normal (well at least for me anyways) sitting at 127 and my blood pressure was great. We then monitored the babies heart rate and it was showing 182 beats per minute. As this was kind of fast, the nurse said she was going to check up in about a half an hour and do the beats again. Low and behold when we did the next check, the beats were still high at 177 beats per minute. The nurse call the triage area and asked them to do a NTS (non-stress test). Basically they hook two monitors up to my belly to monitor the baby’s heart rate and this also prints on a piece of paper. The triage area agreed and off I went. They monitored me for about an hour maybe more, and the babies heart rate came down to about 166 beats (which is normal for him). The doctor looked at the results and said that due to the babies age, the beats per minute would fluctuate quite frequently and this was rather normal. After hearing that, I was sent back to my room.

Mark and I spoke on the telephone from about 11-11:30 regaling what the evening had held for both of us. At the end of the call, it was a normal night. I was tired due to the time of night and just wanted to go to bed. We said our good nights and went to sleep.

I woke up at 1:00am with some terrible back pain (of which I have not experienced during this pregnancy before). I thought to myself that maybe it was the angle I was at, but every position I was in did not releave the pain. I then thought maybe I need to use the facilites as I might be bloated and the baby might be pushing on a nerve or something. Well that didnt’ help either. I used the pull chain here to call the nurse. The nurse came in and I told her what I was feeling. She brought me a hot towel to put on my back to try to releive the pain and said she would be back. No more then 10 minutes later the nurse came back and I told her that the pain had not gone away in fact I felt a lot of pressure in my abdomen now too. She put me in a wheelchair and brought me down to the delivery area.

The nurses and doctors assessed me at that time, I think it might have been about 2:30ish but there was no clock in the room so I don’t know the exact time. They determined that I was 5 centmiters dialated.

They tried to call Mark with no avail so I told them to call my dad.  Dad answered and was told of the happenings and to try to get a hold of Mark.

I was then taken into the delivery room. I was hooked up to an iv and given iv fluid and penicillin for the baby. I was also hooked up to the monitor to hear the baby and to monitor the contractions. At first the contractions were painful but I could handle the pain. I keep my breating going (all going by the seat of my pants due to the fact that we had to cancel the pre-natal courses as I was in the hospital). Each contraction came and went and all the pain was in my hips and lower back. Finally I decided that it was time for the epidural. That was given to me at around 5 or 5:30ish.  iT started to work and I was feeling good, even able to close my eyes for a few minutes.

The doctors were still monitoring the baby’s heart beat and my contractions at this point…actuall all the way through the labor. The doctor told me that the babies heart rate had spiked into the 190’s and this was cause for concern. I was dialated at 7 centimers for quite some time so they wanted to break my water. I told them that if that is what they felt should be done, I was not going to question it. With each contraction my water was broken and then drained. The problem here is that the epidural stopped working on the right hand side and was only working on the left. I felt everything on the right hand side and becase the water was broken, the contractions were becomming more intense.

The neo-natal unit was there (I swear there must have been 15 or so people in the room). No one could get a hold of Mark at this point so I called my dad and my step mom Lyli into the room as I needed the support. It was not long after this that the doctor told me that the babies head had passed the cervix and the next contraction I could start pushing…talk about scary!!!!

I pushed and pushed. They made me grab onto my legs and push some more and finally out popped Ayden. I heard a teeny tiny squeel, they held him up so I could see him as well….I did not have my glasses on, but he looked almost redish brown to me and just so tiny…(to put humor into this, the first thing I thought of was…a brown baby, I didn’t do the mailman!!!! LOL).

They brought Ayden over to the neo team in the same room who worked on him, getting all the lines in that he would need to survive. As he is hooked up to a breathing tube, no more sound can be heard from him. I caught a glimpse as they put him in the incubator and wheeled him away.

My dad and Lyli called everyone and finally I got to speak with Mark on the phone letting him know that everything was okay but he needed to come to the hospital.

About an hour later, I was discharged back to my room, and low and behold Mark showed up! I was so happy to see him!

Mark went and saw Ayden in the Nicu and then came back to see me. He told me how Ayden was doing and we were both quite pleased at the care he was receiving. We then went to see him together and then brought some family in as well.

Ayden is so teeny tiny. But he has 10 fingers and 10 toes…he has a bit of hair on his head too.

We spent the day together with each other and some family.

It’s been such a crazy day, but I am glad that I got to share it with Mark and that Ayden is getting the treatment that he needs.

Thanks for everyone’s support!