Jillian's Birth Story

My daughter is sleeping peacefully away in her bouncer, so I thought I'd write a post about her birth to fill you all in on the craziness.  It definately wasn't easy, and was actually slightly scary for all involved, but we're happily home and healthy now.  Here's how our journey ended, in all it's traumatic glory. 

I woke up in the wee hours of the morning on the 18th to go pee for the umpteenth time and noticed my panties were all wet.  I didn't think much of it, just was mildly irritated, changed them and went back to sleep.  When I woke up for the day, it was the same thing.  I was starting to get a little worried, wondering what it was.  It wasn't until a few hours later, when we were walking around the BX and I had been to the bathroom 3 times in 30 minutes to change out a little pantiliner I was wearing that I realized "Oh my gosh, I think I'm leaking water."  We got home and called L&D, and were on our way.

By the time we got into L&D, it was around 3 pm on the 18th.  So by my now estimation, my water had been leaking for probably 8-9 hours.  Yeesh.  If you haven't ever had to get checked for leaking amniotic fluid, they use a little strip of paper that turns blue if it detects amniotic fluid.  But since there's a few factors that could affect the reading, they take a swab similar to getting a pap done and check it under a microscope for a ferning pattern.  Well my paper test turned blue right away, but my ferning test came back inconclusive, so the nurse said no, I probably wasn't leaking water.  The doctor did an ultrasound, which showed my fluid levels were slightly depleted, but it did show there was a pocket around baby that looked okay.  He said I was probably just peeing on myself or had a slight yeast infections, and it probably wasn't my water, but to come back if I started soaking through more than 2 pads in an hour. 

Now this is a really weird answer from a doctor, considering it's recommended your baby be born within 24 hours of a leak due to the risk of infection.  I was really unhappy to be sent home, especially b/c I just knew it was my water.  I started having more frequent and stronger contractions that night, but always irregular.  An appointment with my midwife for my 38 week check-up was the next morning, so I planned to talk to her in detail about what happened and get some answers as to what was going on with me.  I stayed up pretty much the whole night worried.  What was wrong with me, if not my water?

When I filled my midwife in on what happened, she was really concerned about me.  She also seemed shocked and apalled that I was turned away with what so obviously sounded like my water being broken.  My blood pressure ended up being pretty high (I attribute it to stressing about my water and losing water), so she sent me up to L&D to meet with the midwife on call, who was going to personally perform the amniotic fluid check for me and monitor my blood pressure for a bit.  The midwife did the check, and said she didn't even have to look at the slide b/c she could see so much of it pooling that it was obviously my water.  We had no idea how long it had been broken, just knew it was over 24 hours since I noticed the leaking.  It was decided I needed to be induced since my risk for infection was pretty high.

I started pitocin around 1:00 pm on the 19th.  By 2:30, I was in full on active labor, and coping well with it.  They upped my pitocin again an hour or so later, and suddenly my contractions were one on top of the other with no break in between.  It was around 5:00 when I was checked to be 7 cm and 100% effaced, and my pitocin was turned off in hopes to give me a break between contractions.  I decided then to throw my natural childbirth dreams out the window and get the epidural.  I think it was 6:00 or so when the lady came in to give me my drugs, and by 6:30 I was happy as a clam and laughing about having no feeling in my legs.  She did an awesome job, because I could still move my legs and feet, just not very effectively.  It really helped when it came time to push, since I could feel all the urges to push. 

Things started getting hairy around 10:30.  First off, I started to feel like I needed to push, and was checked to be almost fully dilated, except for a small lip of cervix on the right that needed to go away.  By 11:00, I had to constanly pant to get through not pushing, as it was still there.  Shortly after that, I started getting numb and tingly in my fingers and face.  I thought it was just because I was holding in a baby, but the nurse kept taking my temperature.  I started pushing at 11:30, with them taking my temperature after each pushing contraction.  It was rising apparently, and so was my heart rate.  By 12:30, Jillian's head was in sight even between pushes, but I was feeling really weird.  I can't describe it, but I felt completely unwell.  I thought I was just tired.  Shortly after that, the nurse ran to get the doctor, then came back bearing some news.

Because my water was broken for so long, I had developed an infection called chorioamnionitis.  Basically, my amniotic sac was infected, and it was developing into a huge health risk for me and Jillian.  My temperature was up to around 102 degrees.  My heart rate had increased to be faster than my baby's, with being around 150 between pushes and 160-170 during pushes.  Her heart rate was around 160 between pushes, and going down to 140-150 during pushes.  Our heart rates were literally crossing each other, and they were having a hard time discerning whose was whose.  At 1:00 a.m., the doctor came in and said that since Jillian was so close to crowning, she was going to use a vacuum extractor to get baby out, as it was becoming urgent that she needed to get here for both of our sakes, and I was too weak with fever to continue doing an effective job on my own.  If she hadn't been so close already I would have had to have an emergency c-section.  It only took about 5 minutes or so after the vacuum was in place until Jillian was born.  It hurt like hell, and I tore pretty badly, but she was 100% perfectly healthy.

Jillian Rene` was born at 1:22 a.m. on January 20, 2011.  She weighed 7 lb. 14 oz., and was 20 inches long.  Despite my health and complicaions, Jillian scored a 7 on her 1 minute Apgar and a 9 at 5 minutes.  She was 100% perfectly healthy.  She did, however, have to go to the NICU for 8 hours for monitoring just to be safe that the infection wouldn't present itself in her after birth.  We were both given antibiotics periodically for 48 hours following delivery.  I got to spend a half hour with her before they took her away, then got to visit her twice briefly before they released her to me on the mommy and baby ward.  She got to stay with me the whole time, except for one little mishap.  She somehow ripped the IV out of her arm, and had to go back to the NICU to get it replaced.  It took them 3 hours to find a good vein, and my poor baby returned to me with an arm full of poke marks.  It completely broke my heart.

My recovery has been good.  My fever went away pretty quickly after her birth, and my heart rate and blood pressure returned to normal, too.  My doctor said I was an awesome pusher, and if I wasn't sick she would have been out sooner.  It's scary to think about, really, that if I lived 100 years ago I would have probably been one of the women who died during childbirth.  I am so thankful for medical intervention and advancements to be able to determine how sick and was and do what needed to be done.  It wasn't as scary at the time while all of it was happening, since I was just worried about Jill, but now, *shudder*.

And the irony that shows this story comes full circle in a way:  the doctor who discharged me was the same doctor who sent me home the night before.  The look on his face when he saw me and was looking over my chart was priceless.  It changed from happy doctor to very uncomfortable really quickly. 

Marshall is the best dad in the world.  I knew he would be a great one, but watching him be so beyond-great-more-like-fantastic-amazing-wonderful with her has been one of the best parts of this experience.  And she really loves her Daddy, too.  I love the way they look at each other.  It makes me teary-eyed just thinking about it.

A funny highlight from labor and pushing:  After the vacuum was on and I was pushing, things went from 0-60 really quick.  At one point, probably while her head was coming out, the labor scene looked like the following scenario.  There were a good 8 people at least in the room crowded around, yelling at me to "Push harder!  Harder!  You can push harder than that!  Lisa Push Harder!!!"  all at the same time.  Meanwhile, I"m yelling "It hurts!  It hurts!  It really hurts!  Ow, it burns!  Waaaah!"  between pushes and grunting like an animal during.  Suddenly, Marshall, who had stayed relatively quite and composed during this whole process, starts hysterically crying and shouting out words that sound like a frantic mixture of "Push!  Oh my God!  Woah!"  and other inaudible, excited noises.  It was at that point that I knew something was happening, and right after that I was suddenly looking at my daughter.

I love her so much!  She's the most beautiful baby I've ever seen.  I don't even care if I'm biased, I'm calling it.  Jillian is the most beautiful, perfect baby girl to ever have been born.  And she is all ours.  ♥