Thursday, July 8 was the big day--the day of our amniocentesis. I was terrified as we walked through the halls of the hospital to Maternal Fetal Medicine. I was terrified at the possibility of giving birth to a new life that day and I was terrified of the needle that was going to go into my uterus through the skin on my belly. This was doctor appointment #37.
Our appointment was at 10:15 a.m. First, the nurse started off with the regular old ultrasound, and it was actually really cool this time (not that it hasn't been the other times) because we got to see 3D images of our baby. Take a look!
Okay, this one's not 3D--just a profile picture of our baby!
I love this one! That's umbilical cord on the left side of his face...
His cute little foot--look at those adorable little toes!
So trippy... It's a boy!
Anyway, after the nurse was done with the ultrasound, Dr. Schemmer came in to take a look. Then it was time to do the amniocentesis... They made us sign a whole bunch of liability waivers before the procedure. I made Ryan hold my hand and I closed my eyes. Ryan watched. I was prepared for the worst, and surprisingly, it didn't really hurt. Afterwards, it kind of stung where the needle had gone in and I started having a lot of contractions, but it was fairly painless. They told us that they were going to have us go do a non-stress test and that they should have the results by the time we were done.
So we went over to do a non-stress test and my blood pressure was high once again, but aside from that, everything looked good. After the non-stress test, the results were not yet in. So we sat in the waiting room for quite a while before a woman came to tell us that the results were in and that our baby was ready. By now it was almost noon. The woman asked us for a number she could call us at when they were ready and told us that they were getting a room ready for us and that in the mean time, we should go get some lunch. So we gave them Ryan's cell number and walked downstairs to the cafeteria to eat--Ryan got a guacamole burger and I got my usual BLT. I was in disbelief the whole time we ate. I was really overwhelmed and couldn't keep myself from crying. I wasn't sad--I was terrified, I was happy, I was nervous, I was excited. I couldn't believe the time had finally come.
After lunch, we walked out to the car to grab a couple things because we still hadn't gotten a phone call. While we were at the car, I missed a call. I saw that I had a voice mail and it was from Labor and Delivery, calling me instead of Ryan to tell us that my room was ready. So we headed back upstairs and got ourselves checked in, and then we were taken to our room. By this time, it was about 2:00 p.m. I was told to undress, put on a robe, and get in the bed. So I did. They told us my doctor would be there soon to start inducing us (he had wanted to use a balloon, and the nurse said that if that's what he wanted to do, they would have to wait for him to come in and place it). The nurse told us that she expected that it would take at least 12 hours before our baby arrived, because it was our first baby and because we were being induced.
We waited for Dr. Glenn until about 4:00 p.m. He checked my cervix and placed the balloons. They also had me hooked up to an IV and added some sort of medication to it to help me dilate. Also going into my IV was glucose, because my blood sugars were going to be changing drastically during labor and I wasn't going to be allowed to eat (though I was given flavored ice chips and orange juice a couple times when my blood sugar dropped). Dr. Glenn left and we didn't see him again for a very long time.
After a fairly sleepless night, it was Friday, July 9, and Dr. Glenn came in around 4:00 a.m. to see how we were doing and to break my water. The baby was still floating and hadn't dropped yet. They were worried about breaking the water with all the extra fluid--they were concerned that the umbilical cord would come first, which would be dangerous for the baby. They said they wanted to keep an eye on him to see if he would drop and that if he didn't, we'd have to have a C-section. They gave me my epidural at this time and then the doctor started asking a nurse if they had a room open for a C-section. I heard her tell him that they didn't have anything scheduled for 7:30 a.m. so I assumed that that would be when they'd make a decision.
By 8:00 a.m. I was only dilated to 4 cm and the doctor still wanted to play the waiting game. At noon, I was dilated to 5 cm and I was told that the doctor wanted to break my water as soon as a room was available for a C-section (he wanted one ready in case there was umbilical cord in the way). They told us hopefully it would be within the next hour.
Around 1:30 p.m., the doctor finally broke my water. Luckily no cord was in the way, so they said they'd keep checking on me until I was dilated all the way. By this time, I was feeling quite a bit of pain during contractions. The anesthesiologist upped my dose on the epidural a few times until I was finally back to feeling okay.
We had several nurses during our stay in Labor and Delivery. We really liked all of them with the exception of one stand-in nurse while my nurse was helping deliver another baby. I can't remember any of their names now, but Ryan asked one of them if they'd ever had people take home their placentas to eat them (because we've heard of certain cultures doing that in addition to members of Scientology). She said she'd only ever had one person take their placenta home and they had to sign a whole bunch of papers and stuff before they were allowed to do so. She didn't know if they were taking it to eat it, though. That was the craziest thing she'd ever heard. She couldn't believe that there were actually recipes online for ways to eat it, such as placenta lasagna.
By 7:00 p.m. we were only dilated to 6 cm. By 8:30 p.m., we were at 9 cm. At this point we were so close and I didn't want anyone to stop in while I was pushing for two reasons. The first is that I think it would have been a terribly awkward and awful experience for me to have anyone there except for my husband. To be naked and exposed from the waist down with my parents in the room is not something I would have enjoyed. Second, I wanted the experience to be something Ryan and I could share. We wanted to be the first people to meet our son, and I felt that we wouldn't get to experience that magical joy if someone else were there wanting to see and hold the baby as soon as he was here. So I asked my family not to come again until they heard from me.
I know I really offended two people in my family that day by sending texts such as this one and I'm pretty sure that others were offended as well (most of my family didn't come to meet Max until the late afternoon after he was born, and this is the first baby on my side of the family). I understood that everyone wanted to know what was going on and how I was doing (though it would have been nice if someone had asked about my husband, too--he was as much a part of this as I was), but Ryan and I had been keeping everyone posted as we went along. My feelings were hurt that no one seemed to care what our wishes were. This was a big deal to Ryan and myself--this was the birth of our first child and we wanted just the two of us to be there for the experience. Even to this day over a week later, I still feel a bit of resentment towards my family for not understanding my requests and I think they still resent me for making such requests. And it hurts, but I'm ready to put it behind me and move forward. The pettiness that goes on around me drives me insane at times.
By 9:00 the doctor came in to see where we were, and we were at 9-1/2 cm. He also realized that the baby was posterior and wanted to wait and see if the baby would turn by himself. Shortly after this, I was in excruciating pain every time I had a contraction and was no longer numb enough to not be able to move my legs. I kept telling the doctors and nurses, but no one seemed to believe me.
Finally, I was just bawling through all of the contractions because I was in so much pain, so they finally checked my epidural and saw that was leaking and had pretty much fallen out. I think it was about 11:00 p.m. before they had a new one in, and as with the first, the dose wasn't strong enough to dull the pain. At this time, Dr. Glenn checked again to see if the baby was posterior, and he was. So he made the call--we were to have a C-section.
I was in and out of consciousness for the next 20 minutes thanks to the incredible pain I was feeling. I vomited twice. I kept telling everyone I was still in pain while they prepped me for surgery, but no one would listen. I'd been hooked up to a sugar IV for my labor, too, because of my diabetes, but when it was time to go, the anesthesiologist was insisting that I needed to be disconnected from it and leave my pump on. The nurses and I all kept telling him that I was a diabetic, that my blood sugars were continuously dropping, so I needed the IV, but he wouldn't listen. I was scared because it seemed like no one would listen to anything I said, and here I was, about to be cut open by them.
Finally I was wheeled into a C-section room. I had to sign a waiver and Ryan had to sign a bunch of papers saying he wouldn't touch anything in the room. He also had to put on scrubs. I was still in and out of it. Ryan said they counted each of the surgical instruments, though I don't remember it. I do remember feeling terrified as I clenched Ry's hand. I was told I'd feel some tugging and pulling but it shouldn't really be any worse than that. But it was. After they cut me open, I felt a lot of pain and discomfort. There was a screen in front of me so I couldn't see what was happening, but Ryan stood up so he could watch part of it.
After they were finally finished getting the little guy out, they asked if I'd like to see him. I said I did, so they held him over the screen for me to see. I felt a sudden surge of relief. I had been so terrified of a still birth and I don't think I'd have made it if anything had happened to my son. Immediately after they showed me our son, they gave me anesthesia to put me out so they could put me back together. I was out and Ryan went with the baby.
Ryan and I named our son Maximus Ryan Nelson. He was born on Friday, July 9, 2010 at 11:19 p.m. He weighed 9 pounds, 1 ounce, and was 21 inches long.
Here are some a few photos from little Max's first hours of life...
First, actually, here's Ry in his scrubs!
Poor baby Maximus and his cone head!
This is the first time Ry got to hold Max. I love the look on Ryan's face. You can see how much he loves his son already.
The first time I got to hold Max. It was nearly 3:00 a.m.
After I was stapled back together and had regained consciousness, they took us down the Mother/Baby floor. It was nearly 3:00 a.m. by the time they brought Max to us and I got to hold him for the first time. They left him with us until around 4:00 a.m., and because I was so worn out from the surgery and was unable to walk, poor Ryan took care of him for that hour. We were both exhausted--neither of us had slept well all week, getting ready for Max's arrival and then spending two sleepless nights in the hospital. I know Ry had an especially hard time. He watched me in pain for so long that night and couldn't do anything about it. He wasn't allowed to do anything but hold my hand. It had been a very difficult and emotional night for us both. We were relieved to be able to get a few hours of sleep when the nurse came in to take him for us.
The next morning, I was up at 7:00 a.m. because I'd texted all of our family shortly after Maximus was brought to us during the night and told them that we would be up to having visitors starting at 8:00 a.m. However, the doctors were keeping him in the nursery because his blood sugars were running low. I felt terrible. I felt like it was all my fault that he was having health problems and he wasn't even six hours old. I broke down crying about it in front of the nurse.
Finally, Max was was brought to us around 9:00 a.m. No one in either of our families had shown up, so we enjoyed getting to spend some extra time alone with our son that morning. We didn't have any visitors until around 11:00 a.m.
Most of our family did eventually all make it to the hospital to see us, as well as two of my friends from work (Amber and Noemi). We didn't have a ton of visitors, which was nice because I felt pretty exposed in my robe and I wasn't able to walk at all until Sunday. We did appreciate the visitors we had, though.
Here are the rest of our photos from our stay in the hospital...
Mommy holding her baby for the second time ever!
The stuffed animal Daddy bought for his first son while we were in the hospital!
Grandma Nelson and Baby Max!
Max and Uncle Cameron!
Grandma Mann holding her first grandson!
Aunt Melissa holding Baby Max!
Cutest baby ever!
I'm so upset I left all these papers at the hospital. At least I got pictures, I guess!
Our darling little boy!
Daddy feeding Max!
Baby Max and Chainda!
Uncle Corbin holding his first nephew!
Sean and Baby Max!
Grandpa Leonard and his first grandson!
Max and Michelle!
Maximus and Great-Grandpa Oleson
Great-Grandma Oleson and Maximus!
Mommy and Daddy's little sweetheart!
Aunt Kaylee and Baby Maximus!
Max and Grandma King!
Max and Grandpa King!
Baby Max with his pretty eyes open!
My staples from the C-section. Gross, yeah?
Daddy bought Mommy some flowers... :-) I love my husband!
HaHa, I love Ryan's face in this one! Max farted... :-)
Aunt B holding her first nephew!
Brooke's boyfriend, Klay, holding Max. He was pretty funny--he doesn't hold many babies!
Our stay in the hospital was okay, but I was anxious to leave. Our nurses were all really nice, but a majority of them forgot to give me my pills when it was time to take them, so my pain level got pretty bad quite often. On Saturday, two nurses had to help walk me into the bathroom and get me cleaned up. It was really awkward... When I finally was able to start walking on my own on Sunday, my feet were filthy by the end of the day--our room had definitely not been swept before we were taken to it. We were told we had to watch a video before we could leave the hospital, but no one ever told us what video it was or where it was so when we assumed it was the DVD about crying babies that we found, the nurse got upset with us. We had two chairs for visitors which was really inconvenient when family came to visit--there wasn't enough room for everyone to have a seat. And poor Ryan--one of those chairs folded out into a really skinny, uncomfortable bed that blocked the bathroom door. When Ryan walked around in the halls, he saw other rooms that were open, bigger, and had better seating arrangements. Why we got stuck in the unclean, crappiest room on the floor, I honestly don't know.
Max didn't have a pleasant stay, either... ;-) He was circumcised on Saturday and got his heels poked more than any other baby in the hospital to test his blood sugar and for bilirubin tests. The poor little guy kept having high bilirubin levels and had jaundice.
Finally, on Monday, we were given the choice to either stay another day or go home that day. We opted to go home unless Max had to stay another night. They said as long as we took him in to get a lab done the following morning, Max could go home that day. So the nurse took out my staples (which was painless but felt kind of odd) and put on steri strips, and we started packing things up, turned in the required paperwork, and signed a bunch of forms. I was told not to do dishes, not to vaccuum, and not to go up and down the stairs more than twice a day for a couple weeks (I don't listen very well, though... ;-)).
Ryan took all of our things out to the car and returned to our room. They required that I be wheelchaired out and that Ryan pulled the car around to the front of the hospital to pick me up. We got little Max all loaded up and Ryan helped me into the car. Then we headed to Walgreens to my prescriptions refilled.
By this time I was in a fair amount of pain. It was 3:00 p.m. I hadn't been given any of my pills since breakfast around 8:00 a.m. We showed Max off to the pharmacy crew and to my boss before taking him to visit my parents. After we visited my family, we went back to pick up my prescriptions and headed home.
I was relieved to be back home. As soon as we walked through the door, one of our cats, Gavin, saw the baby and ran for the basement. We all headed up to our bedroom to take it easy after such a long weekend.
I was still having a really hard time moving and getting around, so Ryan tried to do everything for me all week. He did most of the diaper changes and feedings and made me lunch and breakfast every day. It was a nice week. I really appreciated that he took an entire week off to help me and I really enjoyed that our little family got to spend Max's first week of life at home all together.
We took Max in for his bilirubin test on Tuesday and it came back high again. They asked us to come back and have him tested again on Thursday and to schedule a 5- or 6-day well child visit with Max's pediatrician. So on Wednesday, we saw Max's doctor. The nurse who measured Max "penned" him when she tried to measure his length. She got that he was 19-3/4 inches long, rather than the 21 inches the hospital logged. She measured him twice just to be sure, so poor Baby Max got "penned" twice! His weight was 8.11 pounds, which was the 49.44 percentile, his length was 19.75 inches, which is in the 39.19 percentile, and his head circumference was 13.5 inches, which is in the 16.2 percentile. The doctor came in to take a look at Max after the nurse left and said that Max seemed really healthy. So on Thursday we went back in for another bilirubin level test. I was so relieved to hear that this one came back normal. The nurse told us that Max's jaundice should go away within a few days.
Ryan's dad and brother, Josh, didn't get to meet Maximus until Wednesday. They had planned a trip and were going to be back in time for Max's birth when our amniocentesis was scheduled for July 13, but then the date got moved, so they couldn't be there. So we were glad when they came over on Wednesday to see him.
We'd like to thank my mom for making us dinner Monday and Tuesday night, Ryan's dad and step-mom for dinner on Wednesday, Ryan's mom for bringing us dinner on Friday, our neighbor, Kathy, for bringing us Magelby's on Saturday, and our friends Chalyse and Merritt for dinner on Sunday. It was nice to be able to take it easy all week while I was recovering and Ryan was so sleep deprived. We were both worn out from having visitors all week, too. Ryan and I don't have visitors often, but we had at least one person a day for over a week straight! We were glad to have them, anyway--just a little tired from everything! So thanks to all of you who did come visit us this past week!
Yesterday was Ryan's first day back at work, which meant it was Max's and my first day home alone together. The morning didn't go well for us... I've been trying to breast feed and it hasn't gone real well for me, so we tried that first thing yesterday morning and again it didn't go well. So then I started bottle feeding Max and he puked up milk all over himself and all over my shirt. Before I finished feeding him, he peed through his diaper all over my pajama pants. So then I went to change him, and as soon as I had a new diaper on him, he pooped. So I changed him again and he pooped again. So I changed him again, then I put him in his crib and grabbed the baby monitor so I could be sure he was okay while I was showering. Our baby monitor has a sensor to detect movement from the baby, and this includes the heartbeat. While I was in the shower, the alarm went off, meaning that the sensor wasn't detecting a heartbeat or movement. I panicked and hopped out of the shower, grabbed my towel, and ran to Max's room, still soaking wet. Max had rolled onto his right side, so the monitor wasn't picking up his heartbeat. I adjusted him and made sure he was on his back again before returning to the shower. Soon, the alarm went off again. I again panicked and ran soaking wet to the nursery. Max had rolled again. This happened one more time before I finished my shower. Ryan called me right as I was finally getting out, but I missed his call and had to call him back. He asked how our day was going and I started bawling about how terrible my morning had been. I was so upset. And the fact that my hormones are kicking in now just made it worse. The day made me appreciate having him home last week that much more.
Anyway, today has gone much better... And here are some photos we've taken since we got home from the hospital...
Mommy feeding Max when we finally got home from the hospital!
Max was so funny--every time Daddy repositioned himself, Max repositioned himself to be in as similar a position as he could!
Maximus and Great-Grandma Leonard!
Daddy and the lil' cuddle muffin!
I love how chubby his cheeks look in his car seat!
Max got "penned" at his first doctor appointment! Poor baby!
Baby Max and Grandpa Nelson!
We sure love this little cutie!
Big yawn!
Max and Uncle Josh!
Max getting his first sponge bath!
After Max's first sponge bath! He was crying about the diaper change, not the bath!
Our little frog man!
My boys! I love this picture!
Our little cutie pie!
Daddy and Maximus!
Mr. Max!
Chillin' on Daddy's pillow!
Sleeping on Mommy's pillow!
Max and Mommy!
Max is so good at supporting his own head already!
Daddy's All-Star!
The reason Mommy had such a horrible shower the first day on her own...
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed this very long post! We are all doing well right now and will continue to post updates here on the blog when we do fun things or have fun stories to share, or when we have doctor appointments... New pictures... HaHa. We'll keep up on it, so check back often!
Hope everyone is doing well!
-Aubrey
