Birth and first week stories

Here's the short story of Nathan's birth. It's not likely there will be a longer one, because the birth happened too quickly!  But, it is a long post.

On Friday, there was a funeral in our ward that I had agreed to play the piano for, if the baby hadn't come yet.  Since Camden so kindly waited to come until after my school choir performance at Abravanel Hall, I thought maybe Nathan would wait until after the funeral.  Anyway, that's a little side note.

On Saturday morning, I noticed liquid leaking more than usual, but didn't think too much about it.  I cut Brian's hair, went on a walk, and went to Home Depot.  I noticed that the liquid was not stopping, so I told Brian that I thought my water had broken.  There were no contractions, and I wasn't uncomfortable, so we just sort of went about our day.   I did call my mom and let her know. 

At about 12:30 or 12:45, I was in the living room watching Jungle Book with Brian and Camden, and I heard a pop and felt a bigger gush of fluid.  I ran to the bathroom to get cleaned up.  Within 10-15 minutes, I was having hard contractions.  Brian told me they were 2-3 minutes apart, for about 45 seconds each.  I felt miserable--hot and cold and weak, like when I pass out.   The rest is quite a blur to me, at least as far as the timing.  I know Brian put Camden in his bed and we had to use his cars towel for his blanket because his blanket was dirty.  I know Brian called my dear friend Brittny to come watch Camden. Brian also called our doula, Angie, who happened to be 45 minutes away from our house.  I know we drove to the hospital, and that contractions were quite terrible in the car.  I had one contraction right before I got out of the car, one half way to the door, another in the elevator, and another right outside the elevator.  With the last one, I got down on my hands and knees to see if it would help the pain.  A nurse went to get a wheel chair, made Brian stay to do the paperwork, and took me past triage to a delivery room.  My midwife was about 30 minutes away. 

By this time, I was dilated to 8, 100% effaced.  I needed to get my GBS antibiotics in asap, but the nurse kept telling me to not move.  I tried, but the contractions were so fast and so strong.  They kept telling me not to push, but it was out of my control.  The anesthesiologist was able to get an epidural in, which really helped, even if it was for a short time.  Someone said that it lengthened my labor by only 20 minutes.  That  time allowed the first dose of antibiotics to get in me.  12 minutes of pushing later, Nathan was born.  From the pop of the water breaking to birth was just about 2.5 hours.  What a day!

The next day, I felt like I was run over by a train.  My back is super sore (though it wasn't at all in pain in labor), and I have some streaks on my arms where it looks like small blood vessels or capillaries burst.  Since my epidural was not a continuous drip, it wore off very quickly.  I never lost all feeling, and could always wiggle my toes and feel hot/cold sensations.  I really liked this.  Overall, I recovered much more quickly than with Camden in every way.

Nathan had a more difficult time. Because he had such a fast delivery, a lot of fluid stayed in his lungs and he couldn't breathe well.  The doctor did several tests, one of which measures the likelihood of infections.  A normal score is 0, a sick kid is usually around 2 or 3, and Nathan was at 8.  There were a few causes: meningitis (which requires a 2 week IV antibiotic treatment) or another type of infection, which we would learn about from the blood cultures. 

On Sunday, the pediatrician came in and did a spinal tap to see if he had meningitis.  She stuck a needle into Nathan's spine to try and get the clear fluid out.  After 4 failed attempts, she stopped.  I was in the room, but the doctor and nurses blocked my view.  The next step was to wait for the blood culture results.  Each day, they checked a sample of Nate's blood to see if anything was growing in it.  Thankfully, they didn't find anything.  They did another chest x-ray and saw that his lungs were still murky.  Then we learned he had pneumonia.

Over the next few days, Nate was on and off oxygen, but by Wednesday or Thursday, he was all the way off.  We were looking forward to coming home on Saturday, even if we couldn't leave until 9:30 or 10:00, after his evening dose.  I knew Camden was doing well with my mom, but still very confused about all that was happening.  I wanted to come home.  I was able to come home around dinner time, but it got harder for me to go back to the hospital each time.

On Saturday, I felt so excited that the day had finally arrived.  When I went into the nursery, around 1:00 pm, I had taken about 2 steps through the door when the nurse told me they'd put him back on oxygen.  I burst into tears because I knew he couldn't go home if he'd been on oxygen within 24 hours of his discharge time.  They said that Nathan had been "desatting", which means his oxygen saturations dropped too low.  I felt devastated.  A different pediatrician said we needed to wait at least one day, possibly 3-4 days, or even longer.  I felt exhausted and frustrated.  After Brian came, I decided I needed to go home for a longer time.  This really helped me to relax and enjoy my family at home.

I went back to the hospital  that night.  In the morning, a different pediatrician came into my room and said we could take Nathan home on oxygen.  I asked him "when?"  and he said "today."  I felt all good emotions all at once.  Do you remember the talk--I think Elder Wirthlin gave it--about how Sunday would come?  How, after the darkness and anguish Christ suffered in Gethsemane and at Golgotha, the miracle of the resurrection occurred?  This is how I felt.  And, coincidentally, it was even Sunday.  And, the sun was shining in my room.
Throughout this week, Nathan has been on oxygen.  The monitor is a little annoying at night, but I'll take it any day over being in the hospital.  He looked so much like Camden at first, but he's changing into his own little person.  He's super sleepy still.  He eats well and hardly ever cries, at least so far.  :)

This post is quite long enough.  New pictures will come in the next few days.