Hello Hello!
Jason and I officially became parents July 8th @ 1041 am! Alistair definitely gave me a workout and a half. It all started to unfold July 6th at 430pm when they decided to jump start my labour with a cervidal gel. It just gave me "bad menstral cramps" which I've never had in my life. So I got a taste of what some of you ladies deal with on a monthly basis! Ack so sorry for you! Anyhow the gel just softens the cervix or opens up the door that Alistair was behind. So I only got one gel and the next morning the cervix had thinned by half and I was one cm dialated. One has to get to 10cm dialated before one can start pushing the little one out into the new world. So I still had a bit quite the distance to go. I was having coupling contractions though so they were constantly monitoring me as they like to have you have one at a time rather than two back to back. At 430 pm July 7th they decided to start the oxytocin drip which goes IV. This drug actually causes the uterus to contract and makes things speed up pretty hard and fast. So until this point I had just taken some tylenol. Cramping increased and by 1030pm I was still finding things quite la dee da and I was 3 cm dialated. Then my water broke. WOW thats bizzare. It like you suddenly have you're own personal lake to sit in and everytime you take the lake away it decides to come back! My nurse and I were laughing as it really was quite unreal and since I have had polyhyramnios (extra water around Alistair) I sure had a ton of lakes to make. Well this lake making business turned everything up a notch and my la de da early labour was no longer. Wow all you mamas have received a new vouch of appreciation from this girl. I really was doing ok until about 3am July 8th. By this time it was like Alistair was slamming up against a door that just would not open. I'm not sure if they were telling me this to make me feel better or I'm just one of these new age moms that "can't handle" what all my ancestors have but the charge nurse on that night said have the oxytocin drip makes labour occur much faster and intensely than if I had been not been induced. But HOLY SHYT is all I can say. At 0330 I got some morphine which stopped the contractions from occuring for 50 sec with a 30 sec break to getting a 2min break but the intensity and length increased with the nausea and hotflashes still making me all the less happy. Honestly when the contractions occured I get to a point thinking how the hell am I going to do this and then I'd get relief and think "o ya I'm ok I can do this!" At 430am the charge nurse came in and said the anesthesiologist was doing an epidural on another lady and would I like one. Well I have ALWAYS said never would I get an epidural. Don't like the idea of something going into my spine and millions of woman have done without so "No thanks!" Well she let me go through a few more contractions and then said "Do you really think you can go on with this for 7 more hours?" "No flippin way!" So Dr. Kilpatrick (sp?~ who actually went to elementry school with Dr Page) came in and chatted with me and gave me an epidural! O my goodness! DRUGS ARE GREAT!!!! I guess epidurals can be patchy or not effective but this guy was phenomenol, or his drugs were! I fell asleep instantly and woke up at 830am and had gone from 3 cm to 8cm dialated. I was still super numb and could just feel a dull ache but all the health staff were impressed how quick I accelerated to 8cm and of course I was too. So still happily numb I got to 10cm at 10am and then they wanted me to start pushing. Well that was a joke as I didn't have a clue when to push as I all i could feel was a random little ache. So my nurse had to watch the NST machine which was monitoring Alistairs heart rate and my contractions and when she'd see one on the monitor she'd get me to push. Very bizzare as I couldn't even tell that was happening. Apart from my nurse having a visual and saying yep your doing it right or pushing in the right way. Anyhow Alistair didn't like the activity and at 1030 out came the good ol monster metal forceps! When I say he didn't like the activity a babes heart rate decreases naturally with contraction and then it should bounce back after the contractions stop and his wasn't . He'd go from 120 down to 60 and stay at 60. So I got into a very attractive position with 10 onlookers plus Jason at my side (who I must say should become a doula! He was one phenomenol coachand supportor!) The 10 onlookers were there for me and Alistair. So anyhow they got the forceps in position and then with the so called next contraction they told me I was having they got me to perform 5 repetitive prolonged pushes and all of a sudden they're like Jason look at this! And there was Alistair peeking out to greet the world. I couldn't believe it. So out he came. He wasn't breathing on his own at all and was completely limp. But for you nursing folk his APGAR was 1-9-9. In other words he perked up nicely. I only saw him for a split second between my legs and he was taken to the resus room. As soon as they had him intubated and ventilated which was immediately, Jason followed him to the NICU. But that wasn't the end of the road for me! Ya if it rains it fricken pours. The placenta is suppose to follow shortly after like 15 min or less. Well 50 min later its to the Operating Room for Julie. They want to manually remove the placenta. Sounds great hey! Well they gave me more drugs through the epidural which tends to cause one to shake but I wasn't prepared for what was to come! Anyhow when they got me in there they found that I had placenta accreta which is when the placenta attaches abnormally deep into the muscle wall of the uterus. Yepp thats the pouring part! So they had to cut some of the uterus wall to remove my placenta. So what was a quick in and out was a prolonged process. But the worst part was the drugs were making me convulse and I was having a problem taking a nice long deep breath to relax. Instead it felt like my diaphragm was jerking. Ya so it fricken poured! By the time I got into the recovery room I have to say I definitely had a panic attack. Another time to say HOLY SHYT! It is not fun when you can't breath or do mind over matter to control yourself. Anyhow as soon as the drugs were not pushed into me I started to get relief and Jason was again great at keeping me mellow by talking me dowbn and massaging my incredibly tight neck and back muscles. So finally at about 5pm I got to see my little guy (oo that still makes me tear up!) Anyhow he's lovely! I wish I could post a picture but I don't have access to do that here from the hosptial. So a couple more days and he'll be on here. He's gorgeous! (of course I'd say that~ LOL~ O gaud that made me teary again!) He's got my toes! Larger second toe then great toe and high webbing between the 2nd and 3rd. Then he has Jason's nose, mouth, and ears. His hair is curly and blonde( I guess Jason was blonde at birth)! We still haven't seen his little eyes as he has been sedated and paralyzed from the get go. But frick he's a cute little son of ours. We can touch him and place our hands on his head, hand etc. but no holding at the present. There is just too many lines. As for is congenital diaphragmatic hernia situation he is doing REALLY well!! So much better than we ever anticipated. He hasn't had to be on more then 30% O2 while vented which is great. He's actually sitting at 23% right now and we breath 21%. So thats a great thing in the scheme of things. Plus his lung size on xray appears quite large for a child with CDH. The whole team is happy. They are having to play with increased Right Ventricle pressure in his heart and a "Soft BP" but all in all that is incredible if thats where are concerns lie. He's on lowest dose of Morphine (20 mcg), some epinephrine to keep his BP up, Provine or Proline (can't remember right now) to keep his ductus arteriosus open (which is a natural shunt in the fetus pulmonary/ heart system which closes at birth but they want to keep it open to decrease the pressure in his heart until post surgery, he's got total parentral nutrition which means he's being fed a liquid diet directly into his venous system, and he gets some albumin once in awhile when they need to pick up his BP. So we are so very happy. The team here is incredible. Every morning at 8am the whole team does rounds to each NICU bed. There is the Neonatologist, perinatologists, bedside RN's, clinical co-ordinator RN, surgeons, respiratory techs, and all the "fellows" or physicans upgrading to be neonatologists and perinatologist, and students galore from every faculty. And this team always insures that we as parents are completely involved. EVERYONE has a super compassionate non sugar coated approach that is very supportive. They ALL want us to ask questions and be involved as much as possible. Plus they all seem to have this way of making the environment light and comical yet allow us to maintain this wonderful level confidence in the team. And all this doesn't just happen at the bedside. Its in the hallway,doorways, outside, whereever. So yes we are very impressed and feel confident that Alistair is in the best hands. The surgeon, Dr Skarsgard, came to see me while I happened to be with Alistair and clearly explained his plan. So they are hoping to have Alistair in the OR tomorrow morning at 815 am and the Dr is going to try to do the surgey using a laparascopy method rather than making a large incision. A laparascopy is just making minimal incisions and inserting the tools rather than one large one. So as long as he remains stable and no unexpected patients come in and bump Alistair off the slate he will be having surgery tomorrow. It is a relief to already be at this point but of course its an anxious time too. (oo theres the tears again!) So I'm still a patient at the hospital as I had antibiotics running and a catheter until noon today. So tomorrow I will like be discharged and Alistair will be on a road of post surgery recovery!
Well again thanks so much for all of your wonderful support. I will be thinking of all you family members heading to another family wedding in Fort St. John tomorrow. All the best to the bride and groom~ Jaclyn and Daine! Have an extra great time!!!
Lots of Love ~ Julie
