The delivery of Bo

Boaz Roger made his grand entry almost two weeks ago.  After weeks of contracting, false labor, and just plain exhaustion; I was thrilled when the Dr. suggested an induction.  But I woke up Sunday morning to major painful contractions and some other not so pleasant symptoms of labor.  Since my hubby is a Pastor Sunday morning is not exactly the most convenient time, but we had no doubt today was the day so after a quick stop at an elder's house to drop off the things they would need for church we headed 45 minutes north to the hospital!

My husband has wonderful elders and I was so thankful that we could both feel at peace leaving the service in their hands. All the way to the hospital I was praying for things to slow down so that I could get an epidural.  Things did just that and the rest of the morning was very slow labor but I came in already 5 cm dilated so we knew things could pick up in intensity at any time.  Some friends from church who live near the hospital brought Ben some lunch.  I was starving so he ate outside.  I was thankful he got some good food and was able to keep up his own energy!

About noon my contractions really picked up in intensity.  I put off the epidural not wanting to slow things down.  There were a lot of different things going thru my head because this was my first labor ever that was not pitocin induced. I knew that i was getting into the worst part of labor when i started having random crying episodes before contractions and my body started to shake.  I requested that they get me the epidural...little did i know that two other women in the wing were also requesting it.  I was at almost a nine by the time they got it in.  I was thankful nonetheless!  My Dr. Came and broke my water and let me know that the midwife (a family acquaintance) would be in to help with delivery.  I adore her, so I was thrilled!

Shortly after getting my epidural my blood pressure dropped to 70/40.  That was scary.  I have never felt like I was going to pass out before and I just kept looking at Ben feeling scared.  They upped my iv fluids and my pressure got back up to normal.  All my vitals were good but I continued to feel dizzy off and on...my guess is that my blood sugar was low because I hadn't eaten much. 

 

Pushing took longer then it has with any of my kids but was sped up with me being sick to my stomach...

Boaz came out healthy and beautiful and the crazyness of labor was settled.

Mom and the kids came up to meet Bo and the same friends came back with food for me.  I was never so happy to have a turkey sandwich!  This was by far my most violent and rough labor...just goes to show how each one can be so different!

Adventures with Jaundice and White Blood Cell Counts

Once we got thru labor the first 24 hours of life were very calm for Bo.  Visits from friends and family, lots of pain meds for me, and lots of rest.

But that all changed on Monday night.  They took Bo to do a couple of blood tests and about an hour later came back and said they needed to put him in their equivalent of a nicu under the billi lights.  His jaundice levels were far too high for only being 24 hours old. It was a complete bummer because I love the bonding time the hospital allows...I hated to lose that but knew it was necessary.  As I tried to settle in and get some sleep the on call pediatrician came in to talk to us.  Having a newborn and having a pediatrician wake you up at 11:30 pm is terrifying.  She told us in addition to the billi lights she was going to put an iv with antibiotics on him.  His white blood cell count had come back on the high side of normal indicating a possible infection.  All she could tell us was that it could be nothing or it could be serious. At that point you may as well throw out any rational thoughts that I was having...the hormones and exhaustion were in full force.  Thank God Ben is a very calm man...he talked me down.  I spent the night either in the nicu or trying to block out his crying (which you could hear in our room).  He did not like not being held and it was a rough night.  He got better about that with each hour.

In the morning they moved him into the isolette for more intense billi lights as his newest test showed a rise in levels.  We knew at this time we were looking at him needing at least an additional 24 hours of care and were assured that we would be able to stay somewhere in the hospital, if not on the maternity wing.  That night exhaution had set in big time and I was a crying, hormonal mess...it was not pretty.  We were moved up to a different room, far away from Bo.  I was grateful for the room but worried about being so far away.  That was a long night of trips across the hospital and phone calls to our room paging me down.  At one point I fell asleep in the rocker in the nicu.  I talked to the nicu nurse and mad clear our desire to go home if his tests came back good...i did not want to do another night like that if we didn't have to.

The morning did bring good news!  His results were all so good that they took him out of the lights and off antibiotics.  But we still needed to wait on another round of rebound bloodwork.  The nicu nurse worked hard all morning finishing off everything that he needed to be discharged.  I really appreciated all the work the nurses put in!  Finally about mid afternoon we got the all clear and we started getting ready to go.