Story of Our Family: February 2009

Time for some updates! I am writing this as everybody is asleep between feedings and I am feeling very energized after two hours of sleep and some drugs.

Birth of Ely – not for the faint hearted

Also for Ely so that he has the story with every single detail I could remember.
We think Ely scared us at the hospital so that he could have a good story to tell. It's a good story because it has a happy ending. It's also a very lengthy story and we've shared it to some of our friends but not in it's entirety (because it would have taken us a very long time to go over it and not to mention that we were either half asleep and/or too drugged up (that would be me) to go over every detail. I was on morphine for two days. Sorry if you came by and I was not making any sense or "out of it". I'm blaming it on the drugs.

…
The adventure began when my water broke on Sunday at 1:20am. I had lost a lot of water but I wasn't having contractions so we took our time getting ready for the hospital (close to 3 hours). We had gone through a false alarm not to long ago so we were pretty dang sure that the water broke this time and thought that there was no real rush to get to the hospital.

Once we got to the hospital around 4:30 am, we got checked in by nurse Page. She showed us to the biggest room (a "suite") in the birthing area. She was a young (married) nurse. She seemed like the happy/laid back nurse.

I was sort of worried if she would be able to encourage me as I gave birth. I was expecting an old nurse who would order me through the process. As we were getting settled in, nurse Page commented how our room was missing everything. The heart rate machine was missing some parts as well as some supplies she needed to check me into the room. We were thinking how the room may be nice and roomy but it seemed like nobody had used it in a while because things were missing. As she was getting everything set up, she told us that we looked very calm. I believe this is where Sung mentioned that we've had a pretty easy pregnancy. We also told her that we had a false alarm last week and it got us prepared for today.

Nurse Page checked to see my water broke. Sure enough, the nurse confirmed that my water broke (she couldn't deny the fact that I was leaking everywhere and that my bladder was not the cause of it). As I was loosing yet more water at the hospital, I checked with her that if Ely was going to be okay even though I had lost a lot of water (I told the doctor 2 cups or so). She was not phased by it at all and told me that the baby will make the water and as long as I drank water, I was going to be okay. I was still very concerned (according to some googling, I found that the baby is initially surrounded in about 1 quart [4 cups] of water and it diminishes as you near full term). According to my math, I figured that Ely did not have very much water. Maybe she thought that was exaggerating the facts and an overly worried first time mom.

Since the nurse was not concerned by it, we did what we were told. At first, the doctor on call told the nurse that I should start on Pitocin right away. But with some convincing (I told the nurse I wanted to see if my natural contractions would start so that we can avoid drugs), the doctor told the nurse that we delay it for 2 hours. The nurse told us to walk around for 30 minutes for 2 hours, come back to have our heart rates monitored for one minute and every 30 minutes.

For the next two hours, we were feeling pretty relaxed and was waiting for contractions. The early phases of labor is supposed to be quite long so we were anticipating that maybe (&hopefully) by end of Sunday night or early Monday, we would welcome Ely to the world.

At 7am, nurse Page monitored our heart rates and signed off for the night. Sung and I sat by the window in the rocking chairs and waited for the new nurse. Around 7:05am, a lady walked into our room, sat on the chair, fumbled through the drawers to find our charted heart rates and contractions. She was a heavy-set old lady in her late 50s and looked very tired. She had me come back and sit on the bed to get my heart rate monitored. She hooked us up back to the heart rate monitor and started looking at the chart. She then pointed to my chart and looked at me and asked "is this your heart rate or the baby's heart rate?" I think she was talking to herself because she should clearly know that I had no clue. She took my pulse and said that my heart rate was much too fast for "this" (looking at the heart rate chart) to be my heart rate. As it dawned to her what was happening, she quickly yelled "I need help in here" and told the next nurse that came in that the baby's heart rate was in the 60s maybe for the last four minutes since nurse Page last checked.

Everything happened very quickly. Our nurse (to whom we were yet to be introduced to) yelled "I need help, I need help" and about 3 extra bodies were in the room. Another nursed asked our nurse if she needed more help and she told her "yes" and more nurse came. There was total of 6 nurses in our room (luckily it was the largest room in the birthing suite). All of them were running around asking the nurse Mary what they needed to do. There was also another person including myself in the room. That would be the husband who had the "deer caught in the headlight" look. I was sure that I had this look too but it was not helping the situation when the nurse standing next to me looked over at the other nurses (now each frantically doing something) and asked "what's going on here?". I wanted to ask that same question as this nurse held my hand and told me "everything was going to be okay" as I was getting teary and started to cry. I had a flash back of what the instructor told us from our childbirth class...that during the contractions and labor, a women's real personality gets intensified and if you were a bitchy pregnant woman, you were going to be a super bitchy women during the contractions and labor. As I was crying, I was thinking that since I was already a big sissy, I was going to be crying even more now.

The group of six nurses worked like a well-oiled machine. Everything happened all at once so I had nurses giving me directions from all directions. Nurse #1 held my hand and told me that "everything was going to be okay". Even if she wasn't quite qualified to tell me this, I was still relieved. Nurse #2 tied a rubber band tightly around my left arm for the IV. She told me that it was going to hurt and quickly shoved the needle into my hand and hooked me up to the IV. Nurse #3 held up my left leg up and yelled "I need another person to hold up her other leg!" (nurse #4 came to the rescue). Nurse #5 told me that "this is going to hurt" and tried to put the fetal scalp electrode on Ely. It took her awhile to get this onto Ely. She told the other nurses that I was only 3 cm dilated, 70% effaced, and -1 as she also added that she was having trouble getting it in because I was too thick. As she was continuing on with her efforts, she said "sorry hunny this is going to hurt but we need to get this on the baby". At this point, our nurse (nurse #6) looked over at me and said that they are doing everything they can for the baby and at this point, it was "all for the baby" and wanted me to understand that. I was very confused and sobbing at this point and really didn't care if I was in pain or not.

Before I even realized it and as quickly as the nurses rushed into our room, all but one nurse (our nurse) had left the room. They had me lying on my left side because they figured that the umbilical cord was constricted somehow and it may have been from me sitting up straight. Our nurse took a big breath and said "I guess it's about time to introduce myself. My name is Mary". We introduced ourselves. She asked us for the baby's name and we told her "Elyjah" and she said that it was a nice strong name and that people didn't use that name very much anymore (in a good way).

After she left (to call my doctor), I was thinking that I liked this nurse and she would be very good at guiding me through the birth process. At this point, we were in complete denial of the C-section since Ely's heart rate was stable. It was another couple of hours or so before "C-section" was mentioned again. At this point, I realized that my left arm was pulsating and was going numb. It turned out that the nurse had forgotten to remove the very tightly wrapped rubber band from my arm she used to find my vein for the IV.

Nurse Mary came back and told us that she's updated our doctor about what had happened and about Pitocin (inducing). Our doctor told her that to wait an hour to start Pitocin to let the baby stabilize. We were scheduled to start Pitocin around 9am.

Nurse Mary, Sung and I chatted for a long time. She was a republican (Sung was watching Meet the Press and Sung and Mary talked about politics). She was also a person of faith [she told us that "everything happens for a reason" (it was repeated many more times during the morning)].

She was also very funny. When we asked her if she had kids of her own, she said "are you kidding me? After this, I could never have children." She told us about her 15 nephews’ and nieces and how she took each out to for a special one-on-one date for a lunch or movie. Sung asked about how she enjoyed the birth part and something about the miracle of birth and she said that was the best part of her job. She said that she finally stopped crying when her patients gave birth about a few years ago. She told us that she had been a nurse since 1981. Sung asked her how many births she's witnessed to and she told him that she has worked since 1981, worked every weekdays and most holidays...and told him to figure it out. Did we mention she was sarcastic too?

While we were chatting away, nurse Mary quickly put down everything she was doing and told me to quickly switch sides and go onto my right side. Ely's heart rate had dropped again to the 80s. We didn't know how she was able to be alarmed to quickly and asked her about it. She pointed out that the beep that we had been hearing was the baby's and was able to quickly realize that Ely's heart rate was going down.

Nurse Mary told us that she doesn't quite know what happened inside because she can't see inside but it was clear that the baby was under stress. She also said that she needed to "point out the big elephant in the room" and said "I'm not a doctor but in all of the years of experience I have, something like this is going to require a C-section". I don't want to scare you guys but I don't like to withhold information". She mentioned C-section a couple more times before she excused herself to call our Doctor.

She told us that she had to tell us something funny. She said that when she started her shift, the head nurse had asked her if she wanted to choose between a couple having a C-section or another couple who will be easy. Nurse Mary told the head nurse that she "wanted to ease into the morning" and would like to be assigned to us. She thought that it was pretty funny that she "eased" into the morning. She also really found this funny after everything happened and we could hear her telling this story to the other nurses.

After a couple of hours of chatting, Nurse Mary left us to attend to another couple. We were pretty nervous for her to leave but she reassured us that she would be in the room next door and that she could se our chart from the other room so that if anything happened, she will come back to us right away.

She told us to try changing our position just a little bit since Ely had stabilized over the last couple of hours. With that last bit of wisdom, she left us to alone to ourselves.

To this point, I had been lying on my right side (leaning forward quite a bit in fetus position) trying not to move a muscle. I was starring at the side of the heart rate monitor and was getting quite bored. Since nurse Mary told us that I could move a little bit, I moved so that I would be more on my right side. At this point, Sung was hovering over me asking me what I was doing. Every time I would move one inch, we would watch the heart rate monitor and listen for his heart rate to see if it was dropping at all. I was doing fine but after the 3rd inch of movement or so, Sung told me to stop because Ely's heart rate dropped from 140s to 110. Nurse Mary said heart rate from 110 to 160s was fine but we didn't want to risk Ely's heart rate dipping any further. I quickly went back to my fetus position and waited for Nurse Mary to come back.

When Nurse Mary came back, she said that she noticed some declining in our heart rate but wasn't alarmed since it was in the acceptable range. We told her that we took her advice and was gingerly moving a little bit and it made Ely's heart rate drop again. She seemed concerned and came to the conclusion that Ely's umbilical cord was constrained somehow and the dipping heart rate wasn't entirely related to me being either on my back or on my left.

Another hour had passed and we were ready for Pitocin. Nurse Mary suggested that we waited because there were two other "emergencies" and in the case we needed more help because the resources were stretched so thin. By 9ish, the emergency C-section was taken care of. The other "emergency" turned out to be a false alarm. A lady had thought that her baby's head was partially sticking out even though she was too early for delivery and she was dilated only 1cm (she should be around 10cm if a baby's head can be sticking out).

By then, Pitocin seemed like the answer to our prayers. I hadn't had any contractions that I could feel and that was making me dilate beyond 3cm. Pitocin was going to help me have stronger contractions and help me efface more and eventually dilate more. Nurse Mary told me about all of the side effects of Pitocin but told me that the administering of Pitocin is very closely regulated and it's quite safe now. She said that a lot has changed since the earlier years of her career and there is hardly (if not any) emergency C-sections due to Pitocin overdose.

Nurse Mary started me off with the lowest Pitocin level and planned to increase it every 15minutes after monitoring me for one hour. My doctor had also wanted an intrauterine-pressure catheter (IUPC) placed inside me to monitor the contractions. Nurse Mary told me that it would be a bit painful but based on her assessed of my pain tolerance, she said that I would be okay. We planned to wait a little bit before using the IUPC. For the next 40 minutes we watched the heart rate monitor and the contraction indicator. Ely was stable. My contractions stayed the same as before.

Everything was going smoothly and all of the sudden, Ely’s heart rate started to decline. At some point, it was down to the 80s and would go back up to 160s. Nurse Mary had me flip from my left side to my right side to move whatever was constricting the umbilical cord. At this point, another nurse asked Nurse Mary if she need someone to call our doctor. Nurse Mary replied yes and continued to have me flip back and forth. In a few minutes, Ely stabilized. By then, there were many more nurses in our room and nurse Mary said that it was imminent that we’re going to have C-section. She said that she was sorry that it had come to this but without knowing exactly why or what is causing the heart rate declines, C-section was the only answer.

Nurse Mary requested scrubs for herself and Sung. She asked who the anesthesiologist was for the day and someone told her it was Dr. Ko. She quickly looked over at us and told us that it must be our lucky day because he was the best anesthesiologist. In the meantime, our doctor was notified of the situation and was on her way to the hospital. Nurse Mary got into her scrubs for the operation room and requested everyone to go on stand by because this was most likely going to be a C-section. She told us that while the doctor has not made the call, this was going to be a C-section because there was nothing else to do. Sung was given his scrubs and was standing by me as we waited for my doctor to arrive.

Nurse Mary was going over the charts and filling out her charts to show the doctor. Sung was watching TV. I was looking at the monitor and listening to Ely’s heart rate. I noticed that it was going down again from 130….110….90…78….I realized that nurse Mary couldn’t hear the heart rate and wasn’t facing the monitor so she didn’t know what was going on. In a quite shaky voice, I told Mary, “I think Ely’s heart rate is going down”. She quickly looked at the monitor and then looked over at Sung and said (in a firm voice)– “put your scrubs on, we’ve going to the operation room”. She quickly took over the situation and when the head nurse came, she told her that the doctor was not here but this is a C-section and we need to have everything ready to go before the doctor arrives. More nurses came to the aid and I was told to “keep your hand inside your bed” as they whisked (more like ran me) into the operation room.

Once we got to the operation room, they had to transfer me to the operating table and Nurse Mary briefed everyone that the baby was very sensitive to position that I was in. They transferred me so that I would be in the same fetus position. As soon as they transferred me, Ely’s heart rate dropped again and they had me flip to my left side and then to my right side. Once he was stable, nurse Mary came by to tell me that they were going to put a urine catheter inside me and that most people have epidural when they do this so it was going to be painful. As they were putting the catheter inside me, the nurse asked nurse Mary if I had been given epidural and nurse Mary replied that I had high pain tolerance. Sure enough, I didn’t feel any discomfort but it may also have been me having an out-of-body experience. Dr. Ko came by to told me that he was going to numb me with but the needle was going to be smaller than the needle used for epidural. He also had me drink two little sips of a bitter/sour drink that tasted like aged vinegar that will protect my lungs from the anesthetics. He warned that I was going to feel like my lungs are working but it’s because of the anesthetics. I remembered this from the childbirth class and the instructor’s comment about not be shocked by this and just remember to breathe.

As I lay on the table, now completely numb from the anesthetics, Sung held my hand and had a calm look on his face. At the least, it wasn’t the shocked look he had earlier that morning. We joked about how we had discussed on our way to the hospital that I was ready for the final D-day and if it came down to taking Pitocin or Epidural, I will be okay with it but I wasn’t mentally ready for a C-section. Sung mentioned how he should have read the chapter about C-section. We thought that it was a good thing that we went to the childbirth class and they covered C-sections. I told Sung that he was wearing the same scrubs that they showed in class. I also told him that this was like being on Dr. 90210 and Nurse Mary chimed in to say that that the show is very gross and bloody, and that this was not going to be anything like that.

In about 15 minutes or so my doctor showed up and got a quick briefing before the operation began. They put a drape between me and my tummy so that I won’t have to bear witness to the surgery. At one point, I thought they started working on me and I asked Sung if they were cutting me open. He said looked over and said “yes” and never looked back at the operation again. At some point, Dr. Ko came by and said that they were going to take the baby out now and it was going to cause some discomfort. I wasn’t really ready for this part. It felt like someone was sitting on my stomach. It was sort of like when I had my wisdom tooth pulled out and while I couldn’t fill the pain, I could feel the pressure and the tugging. It wasn’t pleasant.

Soon enough, a very vibrant crying baby boy emerged and my doctor said “it’s a healthy baby boy”. She held up Ely and Sung managed to see him but I wasn’t able to see him before they whisked him away to check on his vitals and clean him up. Our doctor made a comment that there was not very much amniotic fluid left but there was nothing wrong with the umbilical cord. She also added that the amnotic fluid was completely clear and not discolored - which meant that the baby was not under stress while in the womb and passed mecomium.

Across from where we were, a nurse asked “where the daddy?” and from that point on, Sung was busy attending to Ely. Nurse Mary must have sensed my disappointment of being left alone because she took over Sung’s spot and held my hand. At first I was so out of it that I didn’t realize who it was under the cap but I soon realized it was Nurse Mary and was relived to see her. It seemed like ages before the operation was over. At some point, I felt really empty and was phasing in & out. Dr. Ko leaned over and told me to breath harder because his machine was going to get mad and not work properly.

As soon as the operation ended, they whisked me back to our room. It was funny to see Sung pushing Ely in the bassinet car in front of us. I had yet to see Ely and was very anxious to see him.

Once we got to the room, nurse Mary held up Ely and let me hold him. It was a surreal moment. I would have thought that I would cry at this moment but I didn’t. I was just so thankful and filled with awe. While Sung and I were still getting used to the idea that the little body in the bassinet was Ely, nurse Mary rambled on about how important it was to keep Ely warm and she was a real Nazi when it came to this because you don’t keep him warm, he had to be given some kind of medication and she is against that. She also talked about how everything happens for a reason and found it funny how she was going to “take it easy” this morning and asked to watch over the couple with a straight forward birth.

In the 56 hour stay at the hospital, we had about 8 different nurses watch over us. Each one of them had their own particular style (even the way they swaddled Ely) and their 2 cents about certain things (breast feeding in particular) but none were as memorable, kind, funny, or sarcastic as Nurse Mary. Two takeaways from our Nazi Nurse – “everything happens for a reason” and “don’t be shy, remember to torpedo your breast to the baby when you feed him”.

We’re just so thankful that Ely is healthy and that there was someone watching over him. The first 48 hours we spent with him at the hospital was very laid back as he was not very demanding. It may have been the morphine that I was taking and was being transferred to him via breast milk but even at day 3, he is still laid back. Maybe it’s the other narcotics that I am taking. Nonetheless, he is still doing very well and most importantly, very much alive and healthy.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Ely is growing

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

The Introduction

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Ely Updates

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Pictures

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

First time....

First day with Elyjah Oliver Lee

Sunday, February 15, 2009

Not a false alarm!

No Valentines baby....

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Last time.....

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

For some laughs

Story of Our Family

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