Elsie Rose
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
6:10am
8 pounds, 13 ounces
Monday we had a Dr. appointment to check her size and make sure everything was going good in the pregnancy since she was over due. Had a ultrasound and the fluid around her was pretty low. So the Dr. decided to induce labor. We arrived at the hospital around 5pm. Checked in and meet with our Dr. again. He said that he was going to give me a little pill for the first 12-hours that would start moving along my cervix because I still hadn't progressed at all. Then the pitocin would start at 6am to start the contractions.
At 6pm I received my first dose of Cervidol I believe is what it's called (not sure). About 15 minutes later I was having contractions about 3 minutes apart. At Midnight, I received my second dose and my contractions were a little more than a minute apart. At this point I was in a lot of pain and asked for meds. I was only dilated to 2cm so they couldn't do epidural yet. Gave me something in my IV that took the edge off for about an hour. At about 3:30am, got my epidural. 5:45am I was 10cm dilated and started pushing. 6:10am Elsie was born. Everything went way better than expected and we were alone and recovering an hour later! I never ended up getting the pitocin.
Wednesday morning we were getting ready to be discharged, both my Dr. and Elsie's Dr. had signed off on our release papers, we just had to wait for Elsie to get her last blood draw and they check her stats one last time. As they were checking her oxygen levels, they realized that she was only at an 82 where they like to see her as close to 100 as possible. So away to the nursery she went to get that checked out. In the nursery they do a oxygen check on her hands and feet and they were coming up 2 different numbers. Hands were in the mid-high 90's, where her feet were in the low 80's still.
At this point, Steve and I were waiting in our room, when the nurse comes in and tells us what's taking so long. She said that they just wanted to monitor her a little longer and that she would be back as soon as they heard anything. About an hour later, the nurse and a Neo-natal Dr. came in and explained that they wanted to do an ECCO to find out if there was a blockage anywhere in her arteries because of the two different oxygen level readings.
We were able to go see her for a minute before the test and she was happy and content. After the test results were back, they weren't 100% sure if there was a problem, but the Dr. at Rush in Chicago looked over the scans and wanted to transport her so they could have a better look. So we signed the papers to have her transported. However, here's where it gets tricky. Because they weren't sure if there was blockage, they wanted to put her on this medicine that keeps a vessel open that is only used while I was pregnant with her. This vessel within 24-hours of birth, twists and closes, because she doesn't need it any longer. So they wanted to put her on this medicine to keep that vessel open, so there wouldn't be any complications during transport. A side effect to this medicine is apnea however, so at the time, they wanted to sedate and tube her so if she were to stop breathing during transport, they would have ways to help her without having to pull over. Side note: they didn't end up having to do this because she did fine with the medicine on her own and they were able to monitor her long enough in the nursery.
They had a really hard time getting an IV hooked up to her, they tried her belly button, hands and then found a spot in her foot where they were able to put in a line.
Transport arrived around 6pm and she was taken to Rush in Chicago. We met with the Neonatal Cardiologist at Rush and she had run the same ECCO again and looked it over. Here we got great news that she looked over both scans, and although this connecting vessel was still open, she didn't see any blockage anywhere. However, they want to take Elsie off the medicine and run another ECCO and see after it closes. So that was great news! Hopefully after today, when they take her fully off the medicine they won't see anything again.
She did see however a valve in her 4th ventricle in her heart that was misshaped, but at this time nothing needs to be done. Just monitoring. So that was good news as well.
This morning they are going to take Elsie off the medicine and repeat the ECCO. We will have more information later this afternoon and we will try our best to keep everyone updated as to what is going on.
Thank you for all your prayers, thoughts and comments! They are greatly appreciated and mean so much to Steve and me!! It is so hard having a 8lb+ baby in a nursery full of babies that don't weigh more than 2lb. You look around and see all these teeny tiny hands and feet kicking and it really puts everything into perspective. It's so sad that they have to fight so hard for their lives. So if you can, say prayers for them as well. They are just so tiny and helpless. Thank you so much again for your prayers, we have the best friends and family in the world!!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
6:10am
8 pounds, 13 ounces
Monday we had a Dr. appointment to check her size and make sure everything was going good in the pregnancy since she was over due. Had a ultrasound and the fluid around her was pretty low. So the Dr. decided to induce labor. We arrived at the hospital around 5pm. Checked in and meet with our Dr. again. He said that he was going to give me a little pill for the first 12-hours that would start moving along my cervix because I still hadn't progressed at all. Then the pitocin would start at 6am to start the contractions.
At 6pm I received my first dose of Cervidol I believe is what it's called (not sure). About 15 minutes later I was having contractions about 3 minutes apart. At Midnight, I received my second dose and my contractions were a little more than a minute apart. At this point I was in a lot of pain and asked for meds. I was only dilated to 2cm so they couldn't do epidural yet. Gave me something in my IV that took the edge off for about an hour. At about 3:30am, got my epidural. 5:45am I was 10cm dilated and started pushing. 6:10am Elsie was born. Everything went way better than expected and we were alone and recovering an hour later! I never ended up getting the pitocin.
Wednesday morning we were getting ready to be discharged, both my Dr. and Elsie's Dr. had signed off on our release papers, we just had to wait for Elsie to get her last blood draw and they check her stats one last time. As they were checking her oxygen levels, they realized that she was only at an 82 where they like to see her as close to 100 as possible. So away to the nursery she went to get that checked out. In the nursery they do a oxygen check on her hands and feet and they were coming up 2 different numbers. Hands were in the mid-high 90's, where her feet were in the low 80's still.
At this point, Steve and I were waiting in our room, when the nurse comes in and tells us what's taking so long. She said that they just wanted to monitor her a little longer and that she would be back as soon as they heard anything. About an hour later, the nurse and a Neo-natal Dr. came in and explained that they wanted to do an ECCO to find out if there was a blockage anywhere in her arteries because of the two different oxygen level readings.
We were able to go see her for a minute before the test and she was happy and content. After the test results were back, they weren't 100% sure if there was a problem, but the Dr. at Rush in Chicago looked over the scans and wanted to transport her so they could have a better look. So we signed the papers to have her transported. However, here's where it gets tricky. Because they weren't sure if there was blockage, they wanted to put her on this medicine that keeps a vessel open that is only used while I was pregnant with her. This vessel within 24-hours of birth, twists and closes, because she doesn't need it any longer. So they wanted to put her on this medicine to keep that vessel open, so there wouldn't be any complications during transport. A side effect to this medicine is apnea however, so at the time, they wanted to sedate and tube her so if she were to stop breathing during transport, they would have ways to help her without having to pull over. Side note: they didn't end up having to do this because she did fine with the medicine on her own and they were able to monitor her long enough in the nursery.
They had a really hard time getting an IV hooked up to her, they tried her belly button, hands and then found a spot in her foot where they were able to put in a line.
Transport arrived around 6pm and she was taken to Rush in Chicago. We met with the Neonatal Cardiologist at Rush and she had run the same ECCO again and looked it over. Here we got great news that she looked over both scans, and although this connecting vessel was still open, she didn't see any blockage anywhere. However, they want to take Elsie off the medicine and run another ECCO and see after it closes. So that was great news! Hopefully after today, when they take her fully off the medicine they won't see anything again.
She did see however a valve in her 4th ventricle in her heart that was misshaped, but at this time nothing needs to be done. Just monitoring. So that was good news as well.
This morning they are going to take Elsie off the medicine and repeat the ECCO. We will have more information later this afternoon and we will try our best to keep everyone updated as to what is going on.
Thank you for all your prayers, thoughts and comments! They are greatly appreciated and mean so much to Steve and me!! It is so hard having a 8lb+ baby in a nursery full of babies that don't weigh more than 2lb. You look around and see all these teeny tiny hands and feet kicking and it really puts everything into perspective. It's so sad that they have to fight so hard for their lives. So if you can, say prayers for them as well. They are just so tiny and helpless. Thank you so much again for your prayers, we have the best friends and family in the world!!
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