Lucy's pregnancy was a fairly easy one. At first I was not too thrilled with having to find a new doctor. I absolutely loved the doctor I had in Columbia, but that hospital is now an hour drive away so Caleb talked me out of going there so we wouldn't have that long of a drive during labor. I tried seeing the doctor here in Eldon, but she and I just kind of clashed. Ironically one day she suddenly was "no longer with the company". There was another doctor who took her place at the clinic here in town, but I just didn't have warm fuzzy feelings about staying with this group of doctors. Once my insurance got approved I switched to a doctor in Jefferson City with JCMG. It was definitely a decision I never regretted. My new doctor was just fabulous. She and I discussed some of the issues I had with my first doctor and she put my mind at ease that I wouldn't have the same issues with her.
Throughout my pregnancy the only physical issue I really had was that my iron levels were lower than ideal, but it wasn't a huge concern. Every thing was smooth sailing and we decided to induce at 40 weeks. Since my doctor doesn't work on Fridays, we had to induce a day early instead. I'm pretty particular about having my doctor deliver my baby so I wanted to make sure she would be around that day.
That morning we showed up at 6:30 at the hospital. The nurses asked me if I had a birth plan. I told them I need an epidural and to birth a baby. That's my plan. They said that was easy enough. My doctor came in around 8 and broke my water. Shortly after they got my pitocin going. After the first uncomfortable contraction I told my nurse that I wanted my epidural. Since I barely had time to get an epidural with Cade, I wanted to make sure I got it in plenty of time this time around. She went ahead and paged for the anesthesiologist. He was there shortly after and gave me the epidural. By this time my contractions were in full gear. Once they had me lay down the anesthesiologist was doing test doses to make sure that my epidural was working. Except it didn't. He tried and tried but nothing was making it work even the slightest bit. After a little while he decided that it wasn't worth messing with it anymore and he was just going to replace the epidural. So all of the tape got ripped off of my back, the numbing shots given again, and the giant needle put in again. After they laid me back down again my left leg started going numb. I was super hopeful that this one was finally working. The nurse turned me to my other side and I knew at that moment that there wasn't going to be time for the epidural to work. Lucy was there and ready to come out. I told the nurse that my body was starting to push and she checked me and quickly went and called for my doctor. My doctor was already on her way to the hospital for another patient but my nurse insisted that she needed to come to my room first. The next thing I knew my room was full of nurses and my doctor and it was show time. It fortunately only took two contractions to push her out, but oh my....that pain was absolutely the worst pain I have ever experienced, and I certainly wasn't mentally prepared for it. I pushed her out so hard and fast because of the pain that I have strained muscles that I didn't even know existed. I also had a few tears that needed stitches....and that also is not pleasant without pain meds. There is a numbing medicine they can give for that but it comes in the form of a shot.... Again, not pleasant. So basically the only part of my "birth plan" that went as planned was that I had a healthy baby in my arms.
They put her on me immediately and left her there for a few hours. I got to nurse her for quite a while and just enjoy her squishiness. Eventually they came in to help me get up and help clean her up and weigh her. Caleb's parents had brought the boys up shortly after that to meet their baby sister. A few hours after that, the boys came back up but this time also had their cousins and aunts and uncle with them!
The first night went pretty well. Although being adrenaline-filled post-partum wreck, every time I tried to lay down and get some sleep the events of the day would just replay over and over in my mind and all I could think about was the pain I had gone through. Eventually exhaustion set in and I was able to get a few hours of sleep. Fortunately the nurses at this hospital are just fantastic in that they don't wake you up if you are sleeping. It was amazing! And when I was awake the nurse made sure to do what she needed to do so she didn't have to wake me up later, like taking my blood for the doctor to have results for during her morning rounds. This isn't what I was used to from my other deliveries.
The next morning a different doctor came to check on me since my doctor was off. She said that my hemoglobin levels were concerning. Pre-pregnancy my levels were at a 13. Anything below 11 is considered anemic. I was down to 7.7 after delivery. Yikes! That next day I experienced a lot of light headedness and just felt off. The doctor wanted make sure I showered at the hospital since there was a seat in there in case I needed to sit down. I also couldn't take a hot shower. Anything less than scorching hot water to me isn't worth showering in, so I wasn't super thrilled about that. I made it through a shower though without problems and they put me on an iron supplement to try to boost those numbers higher a little bit faster. Later that morning we found out that one of the nurses thought she had heard a heart murmur on Lucy. They went ahead and ordered an echo to be done on her just to make sure. I wasn't too concerned about it because two pediatricians and another nurse all didn't hear it. I assumed they were just trying to make that nurse happy because she was so insistent that she heard it. It turns out she did have a little hole in her heart but it wasn't one to be concerned about. The cardiologist didn't even recommend a follow up. Her pediatrician she saw at 4 days old thinks that it is probably closed up by now because it should be more obvious when he listened to her heart and he didn't hear any signs of it. So yay for that! Also while she was in the hospital they said that her bilirubin levels were high. We had to get those tested again on Sunday at the hospital, then again Monday at her doctor's office, Tuesday at the hospital at the Lake, and then again Wednesday at the doctor's office. Finally her numbers peaked and we didn't have to worry about that anymore. Not knowing from day to day if your baby is going to have to be readmitted to the hospital can be taxing. Of course if she was I wanted Caleb to be with me so we were trying to work out who would be available to take the boys each of those days.
My parents also came to visit on Friday. It was nice to have them there with us when we came home. They left a little bit before we did so ,y dad was able to drop my prescriptions off for me and my mom already had a load of laundry folded before we got home. Caleb's mom dropped the boys off that night too. She graciously watched them for two nights and Seth and Jillian were amazing to help us out on Friday and watch the boys while Caleb's mom had to work. It was such a blessing all around to have friends and family who stepped in to watch the boys or were available to watch them. Hopefully my boys didn't ruin any chances with Uncle Seth and Aunt Jillian of ever having more cousins to play with. ;-)
There were several things about this hospital that we really liked better. One being that you dont have to switch rooms from labor and delivery to post-partum. Also, Lucy never once left our room for anything. Everything they needed to do they came to our room for it, even the hearing test and the heart echo. All of the nurses and doctors we saw were amazing.
One thing that I found amusing...when we checked in to the hospital they apologized that it took so long but they had to change my name in the system. I asked them what they were changing it from since I had filled out my pre-registration form just a couple weeks beforehand and obviously nothing had changed since then. They told me they had to change it from Haley to Smith. I was confused as to how they even knew my maiden name was Haley. They asked if I had ever been to St Mary's before and I told them no, other than being born at the St Mary's in St Louis. They brought me some forms later to confirm my information on, and they had my old Centralia address and a phone number I didn't recognize. This address and phone number kept popping up on forms and I kept correcting them. Even one of the prescriptions they gave me when I was discharged had this incorrect information. My dad noticed it when he went to drop off my prescriptions, except he actually recognized the phone number. It was my parents' home phone number from their house they lived in before they moved to Fenton in 1992. There is really no other explanation as to how they had this except that they had to have had my information in their system from when I was born 29 years ago. I still dont know how they had my Centralia address, but either way, they've been apparently keeping tabs on me for awhile.
Lucy is now almost 2 weeks old and just as perfect as can be. She doesn't like to sleep when the boys nap though and sometimes doesn't like to sleep at night. I think she doesn't like when the house gets too quiet! We have had a few 5-6 hour stretches at night which has been amazing. Once we got past the jaundice issues and having to feed every 2 hours, I was ready for a longer stretch of sleep! Caleb is also amazing at letting me nap on the days that he's home during nap time. He knows I get cranky when I dont sleep. ;-)
Lucy Grace, you are loved beyond measure. I'm so excited to have a baby girl.
These were from their day spent with Uncle Seth and Aunt Jillian. They got to play in a hammock!
Lucy Grace is so blessed to have you & Caleb for parents and Liam & Cade for big brothers! I enjoyed reading your story, every birth is different, but very special. We're thrilled to be grandparents again, there's nothing else like it.
ReplyDeleteI loved reading this! I totally understand the epidural. Didnt work for me with Haiden but I pushed for an hour it was horrible, had stitches where they shouldn't be. So I am so sorry you had to go thru that but you forget the pain and move on. She is precious and adorable.
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