My Rylee: October 2008

I went in for my last appointment that I had scheduled.The Dr performed their routine examination and discovered that my water sac was bulging out through my cervix, it was very thin and as they were checking me for dilation/effacement, the Dr broke my water in the office.....

Soooooooo, upstairs we go, Haylee will be born today or at least by tomorrow and I was sooooo happy and sooo excited.

Now I had thought that I had a lot of my water break during my office visit, but boy was I wrong.... I got in my gown and all ready for labor, started having contractions and things were strengthening as they should and going as planned. No need for pitocin, because my body was doing it all by itself, no need for concern because the baby's heartrate and contractions were all normal..... Now, they don't like to 'check' your progress too much after your water is broken because you are at a higher risk of infection, and the baby is protected anymore from the water sac because it has bursted.....

As the baby would move and with each contraction, I would have gushes of water flow, to sum it up literally, and I really do mean literally.... it was as if having a faucet turned on full blast for about 3 hours... I seriously had NO IDEA there could be that much fluid and couldn't imagine a possible drop remaining.....

I had been up in the room for quite a while now, I got settled in by 4pm and the Dr finally came around 8pm to 'check' my progress and to do her rounds.Like I had said, my contractions were doing great, I was doing great, starting to be in a little bit of pain, but handling things greatly.... Me'anwhile, I had lots of family coming in to visit me and the whole time I was really needing to pee, but I became sooo distracted, or plain forgot, and my bladder was extremely full.... It's such a major PAIN to use the bathroom, so that was another reason I had held it soo long. It's such a pain because you have to unhook all the monitors, drag your IV pole, etc.... You're hooked to soo many machines that it truly is a pain!

The Dr came in like I had said, and did her 'check' and I instantly knew something was wrong, She yelled sarcastically at the nurse,"you haven't checked her" "check her" and she stormed out of the room.... I totally freaked out, I was like "what does that mean? is it time? is something wrong?" The nurse continued to 'check' me as the Dr returned to the room. The nurse said "what is that?" and the Dr said "it's her umbilical cord!" With all of my water flow, it had flushed the umbilical down and out right at my cervix, nearly inside the opening to the vagina, Haylee's head was then on top of the cord. The Dr said "the only thing that is keeping this baby safe right now is the fact that mom has a completely full bladder" The fact that I hadn't peed, had made my bladder serve as a cushion to prevent Haylee's head from constricting the cord. The umbilical cord was thus prolapsed. The absolutely scary thing about this is, If I would have gone to pee like I needed to, I would have had to disconnect from the monitors, which would thus cancel the monitoring of the baby's stats, I would have emptied my bladder which would have caused Haylee to constrict and cut off her umbilical cord, and by the time I would have made it back into bed, hook back up to the monitor, and determine that there was a problem, Haylee would have died before there would be any time to intervene.... we had no idea the cord was there and my bladder was keeping her safe and thus didn't set off any alarms as far as her heart rate and contractions.... All seemed normal and fine.....

They instantly had to rush me into a C section, and I was initally told that I would have to be completely knocked out. I absolutely freaked out, and cried, and panicked.... Here I was worried if my baby was ok, I was going to miss her birth, didn't know how long I would be knocked out and when I would get to see her after she was born, and then the fear of knowing that they were going to cut into me, I was beyond scared, about everything... it was horrible!!

I was able to receive a spinal tap after all, but I was not able to sit up like you should to receive it and it was given to me laying on my side. This made it soo very complicated and it took many many attempts to get it, which was soo very painful, and soo scary, It finally took and then Haylee was born, during her birth, they had to hold Haylee's head up off of the cord as they operated, because my bladder was emptied as I had to have a catheter, which by the way, I filled with 1200cc of urine, that's well over a liters worth, I really did have to pee...

Anyhow, we are blessed with our new baby girl, and boy oh boy does she look like Rylee! She was 8 pounds 14 ounces, and 20 inches long, born at 845pm

we are doing well, I am a bit sore at the incision line, but doing well, and Haylee is having a hard time with her sugar levels, they are too low, so we are supplementing with the nursing supplement method, a small tube is taped alongside my breast and it dispenses formula as she nurses... this has brought her sugars back up, so we won't have to do this anymore...

thanks for all your sweet comments, thoughts, and prayers, we are soo blessed!

Now are you ready for pictures galore????????

in no particular order, and I will caption these later, here are some pics!