Once in awhile Amy asks me to write down my perspective of a
certain event that has happened in our lives. Although this is something that I
should definitely do for myself anyways, it has become a bit more frequent over
the last two years. And so here we are again; another milestone, another
experience, and not unusual a medical one at that.
We were
sitting in the sacrament service of our church meeting early in November when
Amy told me she was having regular contractions. This was not unusual for this
pregnancy and normally due to some form of over-activity and the cure was
normally to sit down and relax for an hour and they would subside. The problem
here was, in sacrament meeting we had been doing nothing but sitting. I remember Camden needing a diaper change, and so
suggested maybe walking around would help the baby move positions and ease the
contractions when she got back. Well
that was a stupid idea! A little over an hour later, with contractions still 2
minutes apart and 10 minutes into my Sunday school class we were out the door,
dropping Camden off at Grandma and Grandpa’s house, and en route to Rose
Medical Center in Denver.
At this
point a few things were going through my mind:
1)
She is 33 weeks pregnant. Is this real?
2)
This is real. Is this why we came to Rose
because they have such a good NICU?
3)
If she is in labor, I didn’t eat breakfast. This
can’t be good. Don’t like your knees when we get there.
Well we arrived, and it being
Sunday had to check in through the ER. She was 2 cm dilated, 70% effaced. Long
story short, they gave her steroid shots to help the baby’s development should
she come early, which she tested positive for (although the positive predictive
value isn’t very strong ß
biostatistics!). We were kept 2 days. The food at Rose was delicious. We were
very bored. They stopped her contractions with blood pressure medication (the
common practice performed and little to no risk to baby).
We came home with a prescription,
modified bed-rest directions, and anxious/nervous minds about what would
happen. We cleaned the whole house just
in case.
Contractions happened again that
night, took the medicine, nothing happened.
Over the course of the next few
weeks Amy would have contractions 2 minutes apart for hours on end, sometimes
up to 13 hours straight.
Black Friday early morning
(sometime prior to 4am) Amy tells me she’s contracting, so she’s going to get
ready. I pack the bags again. We clean the house. Somewhere close to 6am we
decide to sit down and watch a tv show and see if they continue (Thank you
Suits). Contractions subside. Nothing happens again. Whew.
We ended up reporting to the
hospital a few more times for contractions, or fluid leaks, all ended up being
false alarms. But boy did I get good at speed cleaning, packing bags, and
loading everything up in record time.
By week 38 we stumbled upon the
Prodromal labor term. This fit what was happening exactly. Maybe baby just
wasn’t positioned right? Who knows. 38 week appointment Amy was checked: still
2 cm, still 70% effaced. Our doctor,
whom was chosen because he does not offer inductions, is very pro-natural
birth, offers an induction before
Christmas. What in the world? Lets review the pregnancy: Camden is
diagnosed with Chiari at 17 weeks = Amy contracts heavily for hours -> we go
to the hospital. Camden has surgery = Amy contracts heavily for hours ->
doesn’t tell anyone so we don’t go anywhere (So Stubborn!). 33 weeks very moving
Sunday hymns influence baby girl to want to join in the signing = preterm labor
-> hospital visit. 33 weeks to 39 weeks Prodromal labor, hours on end every
night, no progress. Yes, 7 weeks of labor. Yikes. After A LOT of thought and
consideration we accept the offer to be induced, but in the order of operations
we still want to do things as naturally as possible. Dr. says he is confident
once he breaks her water she could very well just go into labor and everything
will be gravy (not literally). Walk Flat Irons mall twice over the weekend
prior to induction to try and put Amy into labor, walking at least 3 miles each
visit (too cold outside to walk with Camden). Lots of contractions, but they
stop after a few hours this time, not to mention we are not going back to the
hospital again unless her water breaks, or the contractions are extremely
painful and different than before. Nothing happens. Whew?
Tuesday morning of December 22:
induction day. We are instructed to arrive at 6am. We arrive at 5:30am to check
in. Another couple arrives before us.
They get checked in first. Pretty sure they got a bigger delivery room.
We get the shaft again. From 6am to 8am we sit in the closet room (very small,
not much pacing room, and come to find out neither our Dr. or nurse both of 20+
years at Rose have ever delivered in this room before. Ultimate shaft!). After
two hours of doing nothing, Dr. finally comes and checks her. 2cm. 70%
effaced. All of those weeks of
contracting did nothing. Awesome. Were
they real contractions? Absolutely. Everything showed on the contraction
monitor each and every time. Perfect.
8:05am Dr. breaks her water. Here we go. Contractions are more
intense. She contracts for two hours, with more intense contractions. 10am the nurse checks her. A little
over 2 cm. 70% effaced, -2 delivery position.
No progress? Awesome. Shaft again. 7 weeks of labor and water breaking =
no progress for baby girl. Lowest dose of Pitocin is started. We request an
exercise ball for Amy. Nurse: “Let me see if I can find one”. Mind you we have been to this hospital many
times and I know for a fact there are multiple exercise balls in the closets of
every other room we have checked into prior to induction. Shaft again. Contractions are obviously more intense now.
30 minutes passes, where is the exercise ball? Nurse: “Let me see if I can
round one up”. 15 more minutes passes. Nurse: “I haven’t even had a chance to
look for a ball yet”. For the love why can’t we just get an exercise ball and
we will leave you alone! (The exercise ball really helped Amy in transition of
Camden’s labor, we also couldn’t get into the tub yet because Amy was still
hooked up to all the monitors due to Pitocin being used.) Finally after an hour
from initial request we get the flipping exercise ball. Then we leave the
nurses alone for over an hour. Magic! 12pm
we request a mobile monitoring system (which are wireless and waterproof)
so Amy can get into the tub. Nurse checks her: 6 cm, 80% effaced. Things are
working. Nurse: “Let me see if I can find the mobile monitors”. Here we go
again. I should note, in each of our previous visits the nurses immediately
offered mobile monitors. We know the hospital is busy on this day, 12 women in
labor at exactly the same time as us. BUT as far as we know we are the only
ones without an epidural, rendering mobile monitors available. 12:15pm Where are the mobile monitors?
Nurse: I haven’t even looked yet. Shaft. 12:25pm
Where are the mobile monitors? We really need to get into the tub to help
with these contractions. Nurse: Let me see if I can find some. 12:30pm Another nurse from one of our
previous visits passes by, immediately gets the mobile monitors. We get in the
tub until 2:30pm and leave the
nurses alone for two hours. MAGIC! Now
suddenly our nurse, as well as two others are constantly waiting on us, after
seemingly being annoyed by our requests earlier in the day. Our conclusion: they thought Amy saying she
would do it natural was a joke, and thought our requests were annoying if we
were just going to get an epidural. (I’m
in no way saying that getting an epidural is bad, everyone’s labor is
different. I AM however saying Amy is a FREAKING ROCK STAR). 2:30pm nurse checks Amy: 7.5 cm. 90% effaced 0 delivery position. 2:50pm Back to the tub. Intense back
labor. Baby is posterior. Could make labor long and delivery very painful. 3:15pm
back out of the tub. Nurse checks Amy: 8.5-9cm. +1 delivery position. Lean
over the exercise ball on the bed. 3:20pm
Nurse checks Amy: 10cm. Here we go. They call the doctor. He is there by 3:30pm. Amy is doing amazing. Breathing
through every contraction like a champ. Amy says she needs to start pushing.
Dr. says to give him 3 minutes to get everything ready. My thoughts: “3
minutes? You better do your best 30 second drill buddy she’s ready to push!
This is your job!” 3:37pm Amy starts
pushing. Baby flips to be anterior while this happenening, extremely painful.
For the first time Amy says she is in intense pain and doesn’t know is she can
do it. 3:47pm Kyra Gwenn Wright is
born, and looking very blue. Blue? Is everything okay? Dr. “We are a mile high,
all babies are born blue here”. Whew! Look at all that hair! 7 lb 4 0z, 20
inches, 8-9 APGAR. For the first time, we didn’t get the shaft!
The rest of our hospital stay was
very nice. It’s amazing how annoyed the nurses seemed by us up until they
realized we were serious about our birth plan. Then once they saw Amy doing
what she did, utter amazement, full support, didn’t leave the room, gave her
whatever she wanted. Dr. “Amy your control during that delivery was incredible.
I wish all my patients were half as good as you”. That’s my girl! I know I
couldn’t do it, but she can! Absolutely incredible.
Dr. Levy was incredible (although
some of his comments were ill-timed for Amy’s liking haha). He did a wonderful
job. Our nurses turned out to be great in the end. Although they are perfectly
terrible at putting in IV’s (to this day Amy’s entire hand is still bruised
from burst veins). As usual, the food was great, and I gained 4.5 pounds in our
1.5 day stay in the hospital. Perfect! We were home by the afternoon of the 23rd.
Kyra is beautiful. Amy is beautiful. Camden is…still unsure about who Kyra is.
But we are officially a family of four! And that, is definitely not the shaft.
-Garth
