happy birthday miles

on tuesday may 12th, i went to an appointment with the specialist who had done our 2 major ultrasounds earlier in my pregnancy. this was an extra visit due to my gestational hypertension. my doctor had ordered an NST, blood pressure check, and a complete growth scan on miles. miles did great on the NST, my blood pressure was elevated but not much more than it had been the previous week. the tech doing the scan told me that miles was pretty small. his head measured in the 8th percentile, his stomach measured in the 5th percentile, and his femur measured in the 8th percentile. anything less than the 10th percentile is considered Intrauterine Growth Restriction (IUGR), which i was aware of from reading online so i kind of had a feeling of what was coming next. the specialist came in and redid some measurements and then let me know that she was going to recommend to my dr. that miles be induced as he would be 37wks the next day. probably he was not growing well because of my hypertension and leaving him inside would greatly increase his risk of complications and stillbirth. this was particularly true since he was not uniformly small, as his stomach was much smaller than the rest of him, which raised alarm flags even higher. it was about this point i started freaking out! not in a bad way, but in a wow, this is coming in a few days way.

i went out to the car and called ross who also started freaking out and then called my mom. i picked up a sandwich on my way home and then started thinking of all the things i needed/wanted to do before miles came. this made me very tired and so i took a nap! when i woke up i called my doctor to get the game plan. he went over the same information the specialist had gone over with me and then said he would like me to meet him at the hospital wednesday at 5pm to have this baby! i then called a bunch of people to let them know the baby was on his way, since i knew i wasn't going to be calling anyone right after he was born and i wanted to have the fun of telling people as well.

ross took off work on wednesday and we slept in a little before we started doing some last minute cleaning around the house all morning. his mom and sister arrived around noon, and then ross and i went out on some last minute errands. all this was particularly fun for me since i had been on bedrest for the past 2 weeks, but i was feeling very emotional and nervous about having this baby! ross and i both got haircuts and then went to get a few things at the mall and at target. then we came home, packed up our bags, and drove to the hospital!

we got checked into our room and they immediately hooked me up to the blood pressure machine and the fetal heartrate and contractions monitors. they called my doctor and he showed up a few minutes later and talked with ross and me for about an hour, telling us what to expect and answering questions. he left at 7pm and told us to enjoy dinner by 8pm because after that i would not be able to eat or drink anything until miles came, mostly because of the risk of needing to do a c-section. so ross left to pick up some things. he came back with some games and puzzles and charles came with taco cabana and then he and ross wrestled with our car seat. about 11pm, the nurse came and started my IV and then gave me some medicine (cervadil) that would take about 12hrs to get my body ready for labor. i must say that we had many shifts of nurses and all of them (except 1 really, but even she wasn't that bad) were just exceptionally friendly and helpful. we couldn't have been happier with the hospital, except ross wasn't impressed with the food or pull-out couch. but certainly things could have been way worse!

we then settled in for the night, though i was too excited/nervous to sleep at all, plus i was in some pain from the medicine. the nurse came in every few hours to check my blood pressure and the fetal heartrate monitor. she was also monitoring it via a computer at the nurse's station for the whole night. after a long, sleepless night, my doctor came in at 10am on thursday to check things out and get things going with an IV drip of pitocin. things had progressed a little bit through the night, but there was still a long ways to go. the doctor predicted a baby sometime around 7-11pm. the doctor came back for another check at noon, and then at 2pm when he checked me he also broke my water and declared i could have an epidural at anytime i liked. there was no turning back at this point, miles was definitely coming today!

up to that point i had been experiencing some pain, mostly cramping and lower back pain. the pain increased at this point and i began to feel very nauseous. about 4pm i asked for the anesthesiologist to come and do the epidural as i was rather miserable and nervous about throwing up everywhere. he came right away and it was not as bad as i had imagined it to be. he did about 75% strength and promised to come back if i would like him to make it stronger. about 5min later things seemed so much better! i was able to smile and chat with ross and the nurse.

the pediatrician oncall at the hospital came by and talked to us about the almost certainty that miles would need to spend some time in the Level II nursery. she also talked about the probability that he would not stay with us overnight and that he may even have to stay in the hospital for 1-2 weeks. she discussed the challenges he would most likely face and the things they were looking for. this probably should have freaked me out more than it did, but i was pretty medicated and sleep deprived so i was having some difficulty wrapping my mind around what she was saying.

we continued to increase the pitocin every 15-30min but the doctor seemed concerned. as my contractions began to increase, miles' heartrate was decelerating and i was not progressing very quickly. he frequently came in with a notebook and recorded information and told ross and i that this was make or break time and that things weren't looking particularly good for a vaginal delivery. about 5pm he turned off the pitocin and put me on oxygen. he also put an internal contraction monitor and a fetal heartrate monitor on miles' head so he could have a clear picture of what was going on.

this lasted for about 15 minutes and then suddenly i was in a great deal of pain. i tried pushing the button to see if that would help but that did nothing for me. the nurse was about to call the anesthesiologist back but then she was like oh, i know what's happening...your baby is probably dropping! sure enough she was right on, miles was on his way! my doctor checked in and thought miles was doing pretty good without the pitocin and with the oxygen and thought we were good to go.

we started the pushing process and my nurse was a very good coach and ross was a great help as well. about 5:50pm
the nurse pushed a button and called for a delivery table...stat! suddenly the room filled with about 5-7 nurses, all very excited. "you surprised us!" they said, as everyone was not expecting things to happen before the shift change at 7pm. the doctor came and about 15 minutes later out came miles. as soon as his head came out he started gurgling, even before the rest of him did. when he was fully out he started screaming and the doctor held him up and said "look here's your baby!" they asked ross to cut the cord. the first time he cut, it didn't go all the way through. after he cut through the second time, the doctor held up the cord and it squirted blood all over ross' face! both of them looked mortified but everyone got a huge laugh.

the nurses whisked miles away to the incubator that was right in our room and checked him out while the doctor finished up everything with me. they gave the doctor a hard time saying that he must have been sucking in his tummy on the ultrasound because he wasn't quite as skinny as they had thought and he was far more healthy than anyone expected. he beat the level II nursery weight limits by about 100 grams...or a bottle of aspirin as the doctor said. he had apgar scores of 9 and 9 and seemed to be doing awesome. they said he could stay in our room! one of the nurses brought him to me so he could eat. this nurse turned out to be our personal pediatrician's wife and she was really great. he had some trouble having the cheek strength to eat very well, but this was the last hurdle he would need to get over in order to go home with us (his temperature and breathing and blood sugars were good).

ross held miles for a few minutes and then i did as well before we ordered something to eat from the hospital room service. miles was then under the heat lamp warming up for quite awhile and one of the nurse's gave him a bath. no one could believe how great he looked and how healthy he was. he arrived at 6.17pm according to ross, but the hospital recorded it at as 6.20pm on may 14, 2009. he was 5lb 12oz and 19in long. his head circumference was 13cm.

ross' mom and sister had been in the waiting room and they came back to see him for a few minutes and then they left and ross, miles, and i settled in for our first night as a family! the nurses came in frequently and i had to wake up miles a few times to try to eat. we couldn't believe how tiny he was!

we relaxed all friday morning and then ross' mom and sister came to visit and also our friend grady came around lunchtime. and then my parents came to see miles in the afternoon. a lactation consultant came by to help us out with a supplementary nursing system to ensure miles was getting enough to eat since he didn't have much sucking strength. they also had me use a breast pump to make sure i would get a milk supply. ross was a big help with all of this as you would need about 8 hands to try to do all this by yourself. even during the night he was a trooper and got up to help me out. the doctor came by and thought things were looking good. my parents brought us dinner and we all ate together. some of my friends from school came by and then the rodelas and washingtons also came by that evening. we enjoyed showing him off! no one could believe how tiny he was!

we had a pretty good night friday but we were getting ready to be home! since miles was under 6lbs he needed to stay for monitoring for 48 hours before going home. on saturday morning my parents came back by and also the johnsons and ross' mom and sister came as well. the hospital pediatrician came by in the afternoon and signed miles off to go home. my doctor came back by and said i was good to go as well and started the discharge process. our pediatrician's wife came back and talked to us about caring for miles and then gave us a bunch of goodies and let us out the door! my mom came with us and we stopped for sonic drinks on the way home from the hospital. once we got home my mom made us dinner and got miles a birthday cake and a balloon with flowers for his homecoming. we couldn't believe he was here to stay!

ross and i had gotten in an "argument" on tuesday night about who was tougher and during the delivery process he conceded to me that i was perhaps tougher, though i imagine he was just trying to make me feel good. though i must say the doctor and nurses concurred that i was indeed tough. i will say the whole process had me very freaked out but in the end it was not as difficult or terrible as i had built it up to be in my head. though i don't think i would care to endure it without the epidural or the vicodin afterwards.

everyone had been telling me that childbirth is extremely painful but the result is well worth it. i found the pain to be less than i had thought and the reward to be far sweeter than i could have imagined.