Debbie's birth

Well, I'm way behind on blogging but I decided that since all three kids were born before blogging and because they keep asking for the stories of their births I am going to write down their birth stories now so we've got them. So here's Debbie's birth, to the best of my memory anyway...

Debbie was due on May 2, 2005 but came on April 28. It was a reading day for Chad, which was nice, we were worried he was going to be in a final when I went into labor and that would complicate things but Debbie is ever so accommodating and just proved that with the way she came to us. I had gone into the doctor the day before and he had told me before that if I was dilated to a 2 at that appointment then he would go ahead and induce me but when he checked I was only at a 1 so I was a no-go. I came home pretty upset, I was ready to be done and I remember I cried and threw a huge fit and went shopping and cried some more. Then the next morning I started waking up at about 2 am because I kept having to go to the bathroom and I finally woke Chad up at 4 and asked him - now I have no idea why I asked him for this, looking back it was a really dumb thing to ask him for but hey, this was my first kid and I was still pretty much a kid myself so I'm going to cut myself some slack - but I asked him to go to the store and buy me an enema because I was constipated and it hurt really bad. What?? Thankfully Chad was a little more aware of what might be going on because he asked me how often it was hurting and that's when I finally realized I was in labor. So we waited a little while and then got showered and headed over to the hospital at about 6 or 6:30. But the hospital where we delivered had one really stupid policy so when we first got to labor and delivery they put me on an exam table and then hooked me to monitors and just let me sit there in pain. For THREE hours. Because I wasn't dilated enough when we got there so I wasn't technically in labor I guess?? Anyway, I was miserable and Chad was miserable and finally my blood pressure hit high enough (like 193/110) for long enough that they admitted me and gave me a bed and an epidural and can I just say that my epidural was amazing? It took them FOUR tries to get the epidural in right and I was ready to tell them to forget it but I'm glad they got it in finally because as soon as it kicked in I fell fast asleep. It was amazing. Then 4 hours later I was at a 10 and started pushing and after an hour of pushing Debbie was born at 2:24 pm on April 28 at 8 pounds 1 ounce and 19 1/2 inches long. Let me back up a bit though, once I hit 10 the doctor came in and my water hadn't broken yet so he broke my water but when he broke it it didn't come out clear, it was all brown and was really thick and mucky so he decided to call the resuscitation team in to be there just in case Debbie had aspirated the meconium. He later told me that he'd never really worried about it before because he'd never had to use them but decided to call the team just in case and he was glad he did and now he would have them there any time he saw meconium in the amniotic fluid. Anyway, when Debbie was born she had the cord wrapped around her neck and wasn't breathing. I remember the doctor telling Chad to hurry and cut the cord and then I remember hearing the nurses talking to Debbie and urgently saying, "come on, breath baby, breath!" Chad said it was weird to see her all white with her dark eyes wide open but to not see her breathing. Well after a minute of them not being able to get her to breath one of the nurses wrapped her up in a blanket and they ran out of the room with her. That was kind of hard for me, it just wasn't what I expected. It turned out she had aspirated the meconium pretty good (bad?) and they had to go into her lungs and scrape/suction it out and then she was put on the CPAP for about 12 hours. This is the part that I'm not sure I remember quite right but they put her on antibiotics because I think they said she had tested positive for strep b and they also gave her an anti-seizure because they weren't sure, but it looked like she might have had a seizure as well. So that was fun. But she only had to stay in the NICU for a week and it worked out nicely because Chad was able to get all his finals done and then I picked him up from school right after her took his last final and we went straight to the hospital and checked Debbie out and brought her home that day. But now she is healthy and happy and has brought lots of joy and love into our life and we are so grateful for her!