There were some unexpected complications that took place during Bobbi's delivery. So instead of going in to the hospital on Monday and returning home on Tuesday, Bobbi, Kara, and I ended up spending six days in the hospital.
The first glitch was when we learned that our local hospital, Fairview Ridges (Burnsville), was "full" and wouldn't take us. You can imagine how pleased Bobbi was to discover this in the middle of her contractions. We were redirected to Methodist Hospital over in St. Louis Park.
Well, after over 24 hours of contractions, Bobbi's dilating seemed to stop at around 5 cm. Because of the intense pain, she eventually succumbed to an epidural. This required the end of her mobility and a horizontal bed rest. This didn't help the dilations any. She topped out at around 6 cm.
Problems arose when it appeared the baby was no longer responding to the contractions very well (heart rate began to decrease following an increasing number of contractions). Following the staff's advice, they broke her water to help move the baby closer to the cervix. Upon doing this, we learned that there was marconium in the amniotic fluid (essentially the baby's first stool), which could be dangerous for baby as it can get into her stomach and lungs. Further, the water break still didn't have much effect on contractions. Again upon staff recommendations, Bobbi began to take pitocin (which already exists in the body, but not in large quantity). This was to help regulate the contractions and make them more frequent. This it did, but it also increased the number of the baby's decelerated heart beats following the contractions. So they terminated the pitocin to enable the baby's heart rate to recover.
We were basically left with few options. Wait and see, return to the pitocin to determine if baby could now tolerate it, or go with a C-section. After over 25 hours, and in the interest of the baby, Bobbi opted for the C-section. This all materialized quickly.
After the baby came into the world within the hour, her vital signs were initially not strong, but fortunately, after the removal of some marconium from her stomach and lungs, she bounced back after several minutes. I stayed at Kara's side most of Tuesday. Within three hours, all but one of her vital signs were normal. She had an overly rapid breathing pattern which made the staff opt to keep her in intermediate care for the next 24 hours. Since Bobbi and I were exhausted, this probably wasn't a bad thing. This way they could determine if her breathing was approaching a normal 40-60 breaths per minute, which fortunately they did by night fall.
Bobbi's parents have already arrived and are lending a BIG hand around the house. With a bit of luck, Bobbi may be able to catch up on more of her sleep. Until Kara grows more accustomed to her (and muscles in the rear of her palate grow stronger) Bobbi is pumping, to accumulate enough milk for Kara to benefit from. She does this nearly ever three hours, so you can imagine how taxing this is on her at night. I help out with the feeding once this milk becomes available. (yaaawn)
Our Doula, Emme's Birthing Account to follow ...