Ok sorry had to be a parent for a sec :-) so lots to talk about and holy information over load batman. I used to read Allison's blog about Grant and marvel at the medical terms that she has to learn and now that I get to go through some of it...wow new found respect for her and her husband! There is just so much info they throw out at you all at once.
So let me bring everyone up to speed and go over some of the other things that happened on Tuesday. So first and foremost, Emma is doing awesome and I am so proud of her! She is drinking milk and breathing with out the respirator and doing all those things big kids do (she is a bit of a show off).
Tuesday I mentioned that Bianca was being worked on... Well lets just say that is the understatement of the year. Let me jump back in to the time line. So Bianca's water breaks around 3-3:30 in the morning Tuesday. We call nurses they call doctors and BAM she is in labor. Bianca is given magnesium to slow contractions and hopefully postpone for 24 more hours so we can get one more shot of steroids into Emma's system. Well Emma was having none of that so around 9 am we are rolled over to labor and delivery and after meds and half dose of steroids Bianca is tired and I am exhausted. She is contracting but not bad and not too often. She falls asleep and I knock out on the couch. I fall asleep so hard that I wake up with blankets and have no idea how they got there (Stephanie is a rock star let me tell you - not only did she take care of Bianca she covered me up and I didn't even budge. Yeah she rocks). Around 11:30 to 12:00pm we wake up and contractions start coming a little more frequently. Ill save the length of this and get to the grit of the story. Stephanie mentions to me that Bianca delivered Eva with no meds and although she was small that was painful and she took it like a champ, so she tells me, if Bianca asks for an epideral SHE NEEDS IT. Well let me say, I was not one to argue. At 2:30 ish she shoots up in bed and says, I NEED THE SHOT NOW!!!!
Well I was no fool, I ran out and got her the shot :-). The anastigeloigist (sp?) came in with his resident and asked my mother in law and I to leave outside. He assures me ten minutes tops. 30 minutes later I am still outside and one doctor leaves and another comes running in. Yeah let that sink in for a minute.... When a doctor runs some thing is not right. Well we freak out I am going nuts and texting Jarrod asking him about his experience with the huge needle (well his wife's). So they finally come out and I am told she is doing well but she had to be poked three times...three times with that needle! So she looks at me with tired eyes and says she is feeling numb. Well after a few minutes of ice chips Bianca lets me know that she is still feeling a bit on her left side, so she gets some more drugs and all is well.
Shortly after this point Stephanie calls the doctor to check and see how things are progressing. Doctor takes a bit, and then some more, and both Stephanie and I are like, "eh lets just check". So glad she did (again she is a rock star in my book) and sure enough Baby Emma was right there. Waiting another 24 hours...right out. Everything at this point becomes and all out blur. It was Bianca, Stephanie, my mother in law and me in the room and suddenly there were like 20 people in there. There was a team for Bianca, a team for Emma and everyone was just moving. It was really impressive to say the least.
On to the birth part - Emma had decided to see the world as soon as possible, so she came face first (hence the bruising on her little face) and came fast she did. I got to help with holding Bianca's left leg and her neck while she pushed. Once pushing began it was really 3 hard pushes and Emma was here!
She was passed on to the NICU team right away and Bianca was still pushing on the placentas. Emma was crying almost right away which was such a great sign. The doctors and nurses started her with a respiratory tube just to be sure and she was ready to go. I got to touch her and take a few quick pics before she was off to see Bianca. After a few minutes of holding darling Emma she was taken to the NICU and we were told that we would get to see her in a few hours.
At this point I have always thought, yup labor is all done and there is nothing else to do. Well to my surprise there is still lots to do here (yes yes I should have paid more attention to the "Miracle of Life" video we watched in high school). The doctors all had another patient that was on the table and ready for a c-section right away, so they all stepped out and told us to sit tight for 30-45 minutes. Stephanie stayed with us as things were cleaned up and we settled into the thought that we have a new baby girl and she was being cared for somewhere in the building. After a few minutes Bianca started shaking and I was starting to get worried. I could tell that everyone else in the room was getting a bit anxious as well since there was still more to do as there were two placentas still inside of her. After awhile Stephanie wanted to make sure Bianca was ok and we started talking and checking on her bleeding. Not much had come out which on the surface seemed good, but now that I think about it, there probably should have been some more stuff coming out.
Stephanie began massaging very gently on Bianca's abdomen and sure enough a whole bunch of stuff came pouring out. We both thought, "Yay the placenta" but no just the largest bunch of blood clots I had ever seen in my life...EVER. I will spare everyone the description of what it looked like or graphic comparisons to first person shooter video games, but needless to say it was not something anyone would like to look at it. In my defense though, Stephanie agreed it was a ton, so much so, that she saved the not so friendly looking ball of goo to show to the doctor; who she went to grab. Doctor came in, agreed and went to work on finding these placentas. If you ever wondered what forceps are for, I can tell you :-) with forceps the doctor gently pulled the umbilical cord and out came placenta for Baby B(Emma). There was much rejoicing and off we went to find Eva's placenta. Eva's cord had fallen off 2 days before and in fact, not much was left at all that had not already recessed back into the uterus.
Again I am going to spare some of the details or descriptions of the good doctors search for Eva's placenta (picture that scene in Indian Jones and the temple of doom when that witch doctor guy rips out the prisoner's heart - yeah something like that) suffice it to say, it was scary. So out comes placenta two after a few minutes all was out and sure enough Eva's placenta was pretty torn up and in pieces, but we were through the hard part, Emma was ok and Bianca no longer had anything left to come out.
At this point Bianca gives me a good scare - for the next 2 hours or so she begins to shake and shiver and freak out to the point that I honestly thought we were in serious trouble. Bianca's shaking only got worse once the placentas were out. Stephanie tries to get a pulse on her right side at the same time I try to get one on her left (hey I am a Boy Scout, I can find a pulse) and guess what?? Niether of us could. Stephanie found one on her neck but it was very faint. She was breathing and talking to us so she was alive :-) but she was not doing so well. They also tried to take a blood pressure and nothing was working. I won't go into the whole two hour story, but since they could not get a blood pressure the doctors could not administer additional medication and so we were forced to wait it out and cover her in warm blankets. She was very vocal in saying that she was not cold at all, but could not stop shaking. Her lips at this point were ashen white and she had gone completely pale.
After a few other doctors came in they were finally able to give her additional drugs the got her to stop shaking and rest still. By this time it was close to 3 hours from when we last saw Emma and I was getting pretty anxious. When Bianca finally settled down and I could ask her if she wanted any water or juice her response let me know she was just fine; "Can I have some ice cream?" Yes ladies and gentlemen after giving birth to perfect little Emma and scaring me half to death, all she could think to ask for was a pint of her favorite ice cream!!! and you are darn tooten I got it for her.
I will update on Emma's total status in just a minute. We are at the hospital right now and we are about to go through shift change so I will have time to write some more soon...
Shortly after this point Stephanie calls the doctor to check and see how things are progressing. Doctor takes a bit, and then some more, and both Stephanie and I are like, "eh lets just check". So glad she did (again she is a rock star in my book) and sure enough Baby Emma was right there. Waiting another 24 hours...right out. Everything at this point becomes and all out blur. It was Bianca, Stephanie, my mother in law and me in the room and suddenly there were like 20 people in there. There was a team for Bianca, a team for Emma and everyone was just moving. It was really impressive to say the least.
On to the birth part - Emma had decided to see the world as soon as possible, so she came face first (hence the bruising on her little face) and came fast she did. I got to help with holding Bianca's left leg and her neck while she pushed. Once pushing began it was really 3 hard pushes and Emma was here!
She was passed on to the NICU team right away and Bianca was still pushing on the placentas. Emma was crying almost right away which was such a great sign. The doctors and nurses started her with a respiratory tube just to be sure and she was ready to go. I got to touch her and take a few quick pics before she was off to see Bianca. After a few minutes of holding darling Emma she was taken to the NICU and we were told that we would get to see her in a few hours.
At this point I have always thought, yup labor is all done and there is nothing else to do. Well to my surprise there is still lots to do here (yes yes I should have paid more attention to the "Miracle of Life" video we watched in high school). The doctors all had another patient that was on the table and ready for a c-section right away, so they all stepped out and told us to sit tight for 30-45 minutes. Stephanie stayed with us as things were cleaned up and we settled into the thought that we have a new baby girl and she was being cared for somewhere in the building. After a few minutes Bianca started shaking and I was starting to get worried. I could tell that everyone else in the room was getting a bit anxious as well since there was still more to do as there were two placentas still inside of her. After awhile Stephanie wanted to make sure Bianca was ok and we started talking and checking on her bleeding. Not much had come out which on the surface seemed good, but now that I think about it, there probably should have been some more stuff coming out.
Stephanie began massaging very gently on Bianca's abdomen and sure enough a whole bunch of stuff came pouring out. We both thought, "Yay the placenta" but no just the largest bunch of blood clots I had ever seen in my life...EVER. I will spare everyone the description of what it looked like or graphic comparisons to first person shooter video games, but needless to say it was not something anyone would like to look at it. In my defense though, Stephanie agreed it was a ton, so much so, that she saved the not so friendly looking ball of goo to show to the doctor; who she went to grab. Doctor came in, agreed and went to work on finding these placentas. If you ever wondered what forceps are for, I can tell you :-) with forceps the doctor gently pulled the umbilical cord and out came placenta for Baby B(Emma). There was much rejoicing and off we went to find Eva's placenta. Eva's cord had fallen off 2 days before and in fact, not much was left at all that had not already recessed back into the uterus.
Again I am going to spare some of the details or descriptions of the good doctors search for Eva's placenta (picture that scene in Indian Jones and the temple of doom when that witch doctor guy rips out the prisoner's heart - yeah something like that) suffice it to say, it was scary. So out comes placenta two after a few minutes all was out and sure enough Eva's placenta was pretty torn up and in pieces, but we were through the hard part, Emma was ok and Bianca no longer had anything left to come out.
At this point Bianca gives me a good scare - for the next 2 hours or so she begins to shake and shiver and freak out to the point that I honestly thought we were in serious trouble. Bianca's shaking only got worse once the placentas were out. Stephanie tries to get a pulse on her right side at the same time I try to get one on her left (hey I am a Boy Scout, I can find a pulse) and guess what?? Niether of us could. Stephanie found one on her neck but it was very faint. She was breathing and talking to us so she was alive :-) but she was not doing so well. They also tried to take a blood pressure and nothing was working. I won't go into the whole two hour story, but since they could not get a blood pressure the doctors could not administer additional medication and so we were forced to wait it out and cover her in warm blankets. She was very vocal in saying that she was not cold at all, but could not stop shaking. Her lips at this point were ashen white and she had gone completely pale.
After a few other doctors came in they were finally able to give her additional drugs the got her to stop shaking and rest still. By this time it was close to 3 hours from when we last saw Emma and I was getting pretty anxious. When Bianca finally settled down and I could ask her if she wanted any water or juice her response let me know she was just fine; "Can I have some ice cream?" Yes ladies and gentlemen after giving birth to perfect little Emma and scaring me half to death, all she could think to ask for was a pint of her favorite ice cream!!! and you are darn tooten I got it for her.
I will update on Emma's total status in just a minute. We are at the hospital right now and we are about to go through shift change so I will have time to write some more soon...
I remember the post delivery shakes. It was really scary for me and my blood pressure was super low too. I remember it happening the first few times I pumped as well. I was worried that it would happen again with Miles delivery, but not at all. I really do think my body was going into shock with all of the stress it has been through and that is why it only happened with Grant. I am glad everything turned out ok!
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