Tuesday, June 5, 2018

Savannah's Birth Story - January 25, 2018

The Best Day of My Life began to unfold on Wednesday, January 24, 2018.

I wanted to look cute for work that day, because the tax department was throwing me and Dave a baby shower. I got dressed, took my blood pressure medicine, and pretty much immediately threw up. I remember crying out for Dave and then asking him if he could see the blood pressure medicine floating in the toilet (totally gross, but this ended up playing a big part in Savannah's birth story). I thought about doubling up on the medicine, but decided against it, in case it did somehow get into my system.

I had Shakeology for breakfast, and I remember not being able to drink most of it. The shower was at 10:30 in the morning, and it was lovely. Karon did such a great job with decorations, and almost everyone came by to wish Dave and me the best of luck. We were going to grab lunch together after the shower, but we decided to pass since I wasn't feeling all that great and we had our appointments coming up later that afternoon.


We had two appointments that afternoon, which had become our new norm for the last couple of weeks. First we were going to see Dr. Jones (Maternal Fetal Medicine, also known as high risk dr) at 3pm and Dr. Martin (my regular OBGYN) at 3:35pm. Seeing both of them was not a big deal, because they are both on the 6th floor in the Kelly building beside Saint Francis.

When we arrived at Dr. Jones, the medical assistant walked us back, took my weight (which I tried not to look) and took my blood pressure. I was running about 10 minutes late to this appointment because I was trying to finish up one little thing at the office (story of my life).


It wasn't great the first time she took it, but she waited and took it again and it got a little better. Dave and I didn't think much of it, because my blood pressure had been high for a couple of months. We were waiting for one of the fetal monitor rooms to open up, so we could listen to Savannah's heart and there was a knock on the door. Kristen, my nurse from Dr. Martin's popped in and said we could see Dr. Martin now or come back tomorrow, because she needed to go to the hospital and deliver a baby. Dave and I quickly discussed and decided to go now, so that I wouldn't have to interrupt my work day on Thursday to come back for another appointment (hah!).

We ran over to Dr. Martin's, Kristen took my blood pressure, said it was ridiculous and that she wasn't even going to bother writing it down and we would take it again after the ultrasound. The ultrasound went great. For the first time ever, there was a student shadowing Dr. Martin for the ultrasound. Based on Dr. Martin's measurements, she estimated Savannah at 6lbs 5oz. Dr. Martin took my blood pressure herself after the ultrasound. She didn't take it manually, which I was hoping for, cause it was always better when taken manually. She took it with the stupid machine Kristen always uses. All I remember is she huffed, grabbed a yellow sticky note, wrote on it furiously, and slapped it in my hand, and said "when you go back over to Dr. Jones, ask him to give you steroid shots for the baby's lungs, cause you're not making it past 38 weeks." I stood up calmly and said "Dr. Martin, can we talk about this?" Kristen started giggling along with a couple of other nurses. She came over and gave me a hug and said "sweetheart, there is no discussing something like this." The bottom number on the blood pressure reading was 100.


I still wasn't convinced Savannah needed to come early and at this point was slightly irritated with Dr. Martin and her comments. We walked back to Dr. Jones, got hooked up to the fetal monitor and heard Savannah's beautiful heart thumping away. Dave and I were chill and found something good to watch on TV. A red-headed female doctor walked in that we had never seen before. She started asking me all sorts of questions, how was I feeling today, did I have a headache, blahdy-blah-blah. I told her that I had thrown up my blood pressure medicine that morning, but that I was feeling fine. While she was still in the room, Dr. Jones came in. He asked the red-headed doctor how the non-stress test was going for Savannah, and she said Savannah had done great and shown everything she needed to within just 5 minutes of being hooked up (they were looking for 3 spikes in heart rate during a 10-15 minute period). He looked at me and said "Belinda, your blood pressure was horrible today." I handed him the yellow sticky from Dr. Martin. He looked at it, left the room and called back over his shoulder that he was going to go chat with Dr. Martin. The longer he was gone, the more it sunk in that whatever these two doctors were talking about was not good. Dave seemed absolutely clueless. I told him we needed to pray for our girl, and he was like "What? Why?"

Dr. Jones came back in and said "Have you made your one phone call?" I stared at him blankly. He said "Even prisoners get one phone call. Doesn't your mom live out of town? You need to tell her to come. You're having a baby tonight or tomorrow." ??? Mind blown. I thought at worst, we would be sent to labor and delivery for monitoring, maybe even bed rest. Maybe I would be told no more work till she comes. He had threatened several weeks in a row for me to reduce my hours at work. When I started to ask questions, Dr. Jones said "Stop. We've gone round and round on some things during your pregnancy (exercise) and we are not going round and round on this. We want this baby to be born alive." Well stick it to me straight Dr. Jones. Please don't bother beating around the bush. He was concerned about placental abruption with my blood pressure that high, which means the placenta could dis-attach from the uterine wall, and baby would no longer be getting nutrition.

He said "Dave, walk her over to L&D and then go home and pack your hospital bags." Woah, Dr. Jones, hold up. "Oh, and nurse, take her to the next room and give her a steroid shot for the baby's lungs."

I didn't start crying till we were in the next room with my favorite nurse from that office. She told me to pull down my pants for the steroid shot and that everything would be ok. Savannah was big enough and would be just fine. Tons of thoughts were running through my mind...would Savannah's lungs be ok, would she be whisked away to NICU, she was only 36 weeks + 3 days, would my milk come in? I was really wanting to breastfeed. Would her mouth be big enough to latch on to feed even if my milk did come in? As we waited a few minutes, I texted my mom and said "Baby is coming. Come back to Tulsa ASAP." She responded "Are you serious?" And I said "yes, can't talk right now."

Dave and I left Dr. Jones office and decided to leave my car in the Kelly building lot. Dave drove us over to L&D and as we were approaching a guy in a construction outfit was waving us away. Dave rolled down his window and the guy said "Ya'll can't come over here. There is an active shooter." I told Dave, turn around and let's go home and pack our bags. I took the active shooter situation as a sign from God that we had a little more time on our hands. Luckily, no one was hurt, and the guy didn't shoot anyone. I called Dr. Jones who then relayed the information to Dr. Martin. Around 7pm, Dr. Martin called and said to come back. Dave and I loved this unexpected surprise within a surprise. We had a chance to come home one more time, pack our bags together, and we prayed before we left the house that God would watch over us and protect the delivery of our little miracle. We knew this would be the last time we would leave this house as a family of 2.

We left our house at 6:45 and stopped at Pei Wei on our way to Saint Francis and picked up dinner. We had a few minutes to scarf it down before we were admitted into L&D #8 at 8pm, the room we would deliver our child.


Our first nurse (we ended up having 3) was really sweet. She was very young and had only graduated the year before. She blew one of the veins in my hand trying to get my IV started, so the charge nurse had to come do it. She visited us several times on her shift and we really liked her too. Our first nurse worked 7pm-7am. She said she worked the next 3 nights so would see us the next day too :)

Dave got comfortable on the couch, and we had our TV on. I think we were able to find Seinfeld pretty quickly.


We were surprised to learn that I was already having contractions when I got all hooked up to the monitors. The nurse was monitoring me to see when she could start the cervical softener through the IV. She had to wait till 11pm or so for my contractions to slow down. We had had an exciting day, with the shower, the appointments, being told we were about to have a baby at 36.5 weeks and then the active shooter. So I wasn't surprised that it had kicked things into gear for Savannah.

That night was not very eventful, except I had to get up and pee 1 million times. And each time I had to unplug 3 things, 2 from a computer and one from the wall, in order to take the IV bag and monitors with me to the bathroom. Pain in the BOOT-AY!

The next morning around 8am, Dr. Martin came in and checked me. I think her 2 checks before the epidural were the most painful parts throughout my whole time in the hospital. Dear Lord, it felt like her arm had entered my body and she was swirling it around up there.

When Dr. Martin came back around lunch time and checked me again, I remember her being very annoyed with my nurse, Jessica that she had not started the pitocin. But by that morning I was again having major contractions on my own. That morning I was up and down out of the bed, bouncing on the ball, sitting on the ball. Doing child's pose in the bed. Draping myself over the ball in bed. And Dave was on duty rubbing my lower back through the contractions.


I believe Jessica started the pitocin around 1:00, and by 2:30 I was ready for an epidural. That really wasn't a very big deal at all, and I was happy to have the relief. I would have loved to go as long as I could without an epidural. But around week 24 in my pregnancy, Dr. Jones told me that due to my blood pressure I would have no choice but to have an epidural, because it would help control my blood pressure during delivery and they just couldn't risk it.

My nurse had to leave at 5pm, and I remember being so sad, because I really liked her and wanted her there for pushing.


Dr. Martin came back around 5:30 and said "hmmm, this baby is coming quicker than I thought." After the noon check, she had told my mom she thought Savannah would arrive between 8-11pm. I called my mom frantically, who had gone back to the hotel for a nap, and I asked her to come back immediately. For some reason, I really wanted a hug and to see her face before I started pushing.

At 6:15 Dr. Martin said "Let's do a couple of practice pushes." At that time, the only people in the room were my nurse Jocelyn (a mighty German woman who knew exactly what she was doing), Dave and Dr. Martin. Someone was starting to get the cart set up for Savannah's arrival, but they had walked out at the time. I asked Dr. Martin what I was supposed to do, how was I to push? She said "Pretend like you're swimming and taking a deep breath before going under water, once you come up hold your breath and push for 5 counts. And we'll do that 3 times." After the first practice push, which I had not done perfectly, accidentally blowing out at some point, Dr. Martin said she saw hair. All of a sudden, Jocelyn reached across me and pushed the nurse call button and said "We need so and so in here now, baby is coming." NICU was supposed to be in the room since Savannah was technically a preemie coming before 37 weeks, but they didn't make it. One other nurse came right before Savannah arrived, because I remember her inputting stuff into the computer. We made it through 1.5 more contractions, a total of 8 pushes, and Savannah was there at 6:24pm!

I had heard someone enter the room but stay behind the curtain during my last push. I just knew it was my mom. As Dr. Martin handed Savannah to me, I called out "Momma, she's here!" Mom came in and started taking pictures for us right away. We were all surprised how fast Savannah came. Dr. Martin didn't have a chance to put on her coat, drop the bottom of the bed or pull out the stirrups. She said it felt close to a midwife or home birth, because she was literally just sitting on the bed with me helping guide Savannah out. Jocelyn was holding one leg and Dave the other. I can remember hearing Dave cheer me on..."Babe, you're doing it! We can see hair! Keep it up! You're doing so good." I kept my eyes closed that 9 minutes, and I just couldn't believe it was so easy. I feel very very lucky for my easy delivery. I had a couple of friends who did not have such an easy go right around my delivery, and it made me extra grateful for mine since I knew what could have gone wrong.



Dr. Martin sewed me up after I delivered the placenta (which I have no recollection of, I don't think they told me to push or anything). The nurses eventually came in and checked Savannah's sugar levels. They were low, so they gave her a sugary goo, and we continued our one hour of skin to skin time. They wheeled me into our recovery room, 2225, and then the fun began. We had a little baby! She mostly stayed in our room. We had requested the bath not be until 24 hours after birth so the vernix could soak into her skin. I had read it is really good for moisturizing and protecting a newborn's skin.

Auntie Catherine brought JJ's! Thank you!!!


We soaked you up!!! Dave had to wear a mask for the first 2 weeks of Savannah's life because he had picked up a cough at work.

3 hours after birth

The nurses continued to give Savannah formula to keep her blood sugar up. It was fine with me. It took the pressure off of her being exclusively breastfed. I latched her on when I could, and she did well. I asked for the lactation consultants to come as often as they could, and I think 3 came during my time there. Saturday morning, they wheeled in the Medela symphony and taught me how to pump.


Savannah and Mommy's first selfie - 8 hours old

We loved the first nurses that took care of us. Saint Francis was in the middle of switching from a system where one nurse cares for mom and another cares for baby, to one nurse who cares for both. After this first set of nurses went home, we were unimpressed with most of the other nurses. There was one nurse named GiGi that we loved. She was there for the last tumultuous day when Dave got kicked out of the hospital by the charge nurse because he was coughing and wearing a mask. It was a tad of a fiasco, but my mom came and stayed with me and Savannah in the hospital while Dave went home, rested and then went to urgent care for a flu test, which was negative. They decided Savannah and I could not leave the hospital until he was tested.

Friday time with Dad

Friday Visitors

Saturday Pics (Hospital Day 3 with baby and Day 4 for mommy)

Breaking Out and Heading Home!

Timeline by Text:
1/24
6:46pm - Left our house as a family of 2
8:03 - checked into L&D #8
1/25
5:14am - overnight had IV of liquids, penicillin (since S was a preemie), and a bulb of water to slow down contractions. I wasn't sure why they wanted to slow down the party. They gave me my blood pressure medicine orally, the lovely labetalol
8:21 - Dr. Martin broke my water, Dilated to a 3, 50% effaced (Hurt like hell!)
10:00 - Mom and Ron got to the hospital. Contractions every 2 min. I was SO happy to see my mom.
10:55 - Got checked by Jessica, the nurse. Dilated to a 3 STILL - after 3 hours of intense contractions.
12:42 - Dilated to a 4, 70% effaced, dr estimates 8-11pm delivery
1:33 - Got epidural, starting pitocin
TOOK A NAP
4:52 - Dilated to a 7, 90% effaced. Pitocin at a 3, taking it super slow to watch Savannah's oxygen levels. (Jessica, the nurse, was not a fan of pitocin). This check is when Dr. Martin told me that the baby would probably come before 8pm. I texted mom for them to come back and be there around 6pm. Dr. Martin told me she could feel that Savannah had a little cone head with a knot on one side. I told Catherine, Jess and my mom that I felt really peaceful and relaxed.
Tried for a mini nap from 5:10-5:40pm***my last nap pre-baby
5:48 - Dr. Martin checked again. Dilated to an 8, a 9 during contractions.
6:15 - Started pushing
6:24pm - Baby Savannah arrived. 6lbs 6.5 oz
6:46pm- I was asking for Catherine to bring me a sandwich from Jimmy John's :)




Funny/Irritating Story - Grandma and Grandpa Jordan brought Dave Chick-Fil-A, my absolute favorite fast food, to the delivery room around 5:30-5:45pm. I wanted to die. I was SO hungry, since I hadn't eaten since Pei Wei the night before (which I couldn't even finish) and smelling all of my favorite food was torture. Looking back and a tip for anyone reading - do NOT take the mom's favorite food into her delivery room EVER...especially not after she has been admitted for 22 hours and has had nothing but ice. Bad idea. I wouldn't have wanted Dave to go into the lobby at that point though, because the baby was coming soon. Dr. Martin was the one to kick the in-laws out so she could check me around 5:45.

1 comment:

  1. I’ve been waiting for this! Loved reading Savannah’s birth story. Super sweet and funny (parts).

    ReplyDelete