Since some of you have asked for more details on Quincy’s birth, I thought I’d share the birth story that I wrote last week. This was written for my birth board, but obviously not all of you read that! There are still some holes that need to be filled in, but this is it, in a condensed nutshell.
7/2/10
Quincy’s Birth Story…
The condensed version…
After a fairly uneventful pregnancy (unless you count the 5 week migraine at the beginning of the 2nd trimester) we had figured we would be smooth sailing until August.
After ending up at the Childbirth center with contractions 3-4 minutes apart (stopped by terbutaline) and an elevated blood pressure on the evening of June 14th, I realized Miss Quincy was probably having other ideas.
From my little visit with the midwives at the Childbirth Center that evening, things just went a little nuts from there. I went from pregnancy induced hypertension (PIH – which happened with Sebastian too, just not until around 36 weeks) to pre-eclampsia seemingly overnight. I never had headaches, blurred vision, floater or any of the typical symptoms.
They had decided to monitor me with twice weekly NST’s for Quincy until my 24 hour urine showed different results than we were expecting. On Tuesday, June 22, after what was assumed to be an average appointment, I was admitted to the Antepartum unit at Swedish First Hill for pregnancy induced hypertension. After careful monitoring, a round of steroid shots for Quincy’s lung development, blood pressure medication and rest, they felt I was stable enough to go home on Friday evening (25th) and I would followup the next week with appointments at First Hill to monitor my pregnancy.
I spent Saturday chilling on the couch with Alan and Sebastian, watching tv and eating snacks. Very mellow. Alan and I watched Harry Potter and I went to bed. Around 3am on Sunday morning I woke up to what I thought was the absolute worst heartburn pain I had ever had. I took my blood pressure and it was 168/101. Since I had just been transferred to the OB group at First Hill, Alan and I had no idea who to call. After about 20-30 frustrating minutes on the phone, we decided to wake up Sebastian and drive to the hospital.
We got to triage and finally got some help (short version here!) the hooked me up to the monitors and contacted the doctor on call. Since they wanted to make sure that my chest pains were just heartburn, I had an EKG. As they were trying to get things under control, they decided to admit me back to the Antepartum unit, this time for the duration of my pregnancy. I was hooked up to an IV, Quincy and I were stabilized and that was that.
This is where things get hazy for me.
I know between Sunday mid day and Monday:
1.) I met with my awesome doula, Melissa Hebrst
2.) They started me on Magnesium Sulfate and battled the dosage for a long time because my kidneys started freaking out
3.) Started talking about delivering Quincy.
4.) I had at least one ultrasound
5.) My diet got changed a zillion times in a 24-36 hour period, including fluid restrictions (which sucks by the way)
On Monday afternoon (6/28) they decided Quincy and I were both stable enough to induce We talked about some of my wishes for my birth plan and they decided to induced without pitocin or an epidural as long as we both responded ok.
My induction was started with a tablet to help soften and open my cervix, which was already soft and somewhat effaced anyway. The plan was to allow those drugs to take effect and they would, after several hours, insert a folley catheter to help me dilate. The expectation was this would take quite some time and I wouldn’t be delivering Quincy until sometime the following day.
With Melissa and Sebastian in the birthing suite, Alan went to run some errands while we waiting for round one to do its thing. I started having contractions, nothing too significant, but was making my way through them. Right before Alan returned, they inserted the folley catheter (let me tell you that was bizarre) and that’s when things really started progressing.
I went from lingering contractions to holy mother of god contractions and FAST. They were stacked up on top of each other, wrapping around my core. It was crazy. And I managed them with no drugs!
Quincy did NOT like the catheter or the contractions kept moving away from the monitor (fiesty girl) Sometime around 11 they made the decision to remove the folley. When they did, my water broke, and everything went to hell in a hand basket. What happened in the next 15-20 minutes is a all a blur and was very very intense.
(this is where I need to talk to Melissa, my doula)
Shortly after my water breaking, Quincy began to have more decels and she crashed. The surgical team had me in the OR, knocked out under general anesthesia and had Quincy out in less than 6 minutes. She came out breathing on her own just fine, and they had Alan go with her to the NICU while Melissa stayed with me in recovery.
I woke up hazy and foggy to learn that my sweet baby girl had been born at 11:23pm on Monday June 28th, 2010, at 32 weeks, 3 days gestation. She weighed 2 pounds 14 ounces at birth and was 15.95 inches long,
Early Tuesday morning, they wheeled me down to see her and the nurses in the NICU placed her on my chest. Quincy immediately cooed and snuggled up. We had a short visit before they moved me to the postpardum unit.
It’s now Friday, and I am off the dreaded magnesium sulfate drip and still being monitored for high blood pressure. My c-section is healing nicely and as long as I take it easy and keep up on the meds, its not horribly painful.
Quincy is doing great. She’s getting some photo therapy this weekend for a very very mild case of jaundice. Pumping has been going great for me and Quincy has already had some breastmilk via her feeding tube.
7/11/10 – Update: I’ve been home for a few days now. It’s going to be a balance going back and forth to the hospital each day. Quincy has been kicked out of the NICU and moved to the ISCU. (Infant Special Care Unit) and all we need her to do now is grow. We don’t have a date of when they expect her to come home, but the guess is sometime around her due date.
We’ve hired a nanny for Sebastian but still need some help with playdates when she’s not available (she’s a high school student) so I can get to the hospital everyday.
We’re all doing as well as expected and are just taking things in stride.