Welcome to the world Baby Girl!
Wednesday, October 8th, 2008Lily Lin Vaughn has arrived. I will tell a little about her story.
My birthday was Monday, October 6. My mom left for a business trip on Monday (to return Thursday, October 9). Of course, Lily was due October 16, so it was not likely that my mother would miss her birth. WRONG!
Monday night, at midnight, my water broke. I had been sleeping only 30 minutes and awakened to a surprise! Needless to say, I was nervous, excited, anxious, etc… Andy managed to fall back asleep and I stayed up the entire night, mostly talking to my sister, who is in Taiwan until Thanksgiving. Thank god for the time change! She kept me great company.
Andy woke up at 7am Tuesday morning and called out of work for the week. We went to breakfast and then wasted some time. I had been having irregular contractions ever since my water broke. My doctor told me to come in at 9:40 (to my regular appointment that was pre-scheduled anyway).
When I went into see my doctor, she told me they wanted to induce me. We had everything packed in the car, drove over to the hospital and checked in to begin the process.
The inducing started around 10:30am. I had decided, with Andy’s help, that I would get an epidural. Having been awake all night (with no sign of sleep in sight), we decided that this would be best to offer me some relief.
I was started on a small dosage of Pitocin which was slowly increased. The nurse checked me at 2:30pm and I was only 2 centimeters dilated. OK news – not good, not bad.
Around 3:00, I went and sat in the bath tub for 30 minutes. This offered good relief, but it was still hard to get comfortable in a hard tub.
By 5:30pm, I was ready to get my epidural. The anesthesiologist came in to get the epidural placed in my back. This was no good. I am not very stable around needles in the first place, let alone having one stuck in my back. Well, it took him about 15 minutes to place the epidural and then bam, he hit a brick wall. He could not get the piece in the last 1 mm that he needed to in order to place it. Try again. He found a second spot to attempt. 15 minutes later, same problem. Third time’s a charm? Nope! The fourth time worked. The epidural was in place after 45 minutes of poking and prying (all the while I am having hard contractions and being asked to sit still). This was a very stressful process for me. With the epidural in place, my blood pressure dropped to 80/39… I told the nurse that I was about to pass out. The quickly gave me a shot of ephedrine which perked me back up! The epidural was in place and took about 20 minutes to kick in.
Great! Once the drugs kicked in, life was great. I was very numb and finding a comfortable sitting position was hard, but the contractions were mild and came and went with no pain.
The debate started at 6pm, but we had a few guest who came and went, so we did not really get much of a chance to watch. I was not too bummed. From what I saw, it did not look that exciting anyway!
I was checked again around 7pm and was 5 cm dilated. This was slow progress. The OBGYN said that I would hopefully be dilating at a rate of 1 cm per hour or hour and a half. This meant, getting to 10 cm would happen around 1:00am Wednesday morning!
Come midnight, the medication from the epidural had worn off. The pain set in very quickly! We called the anesthesiologist back in to administer more drugs! First he gave me some numbing agent. After 20 minutes, it wasn’t good enough. He then gave me narcotics with numbing agent. Great! I was numb and relatively pain-free once again.
Wednesday Morning, 2am: The medication had worn off again! The anesthesiologist came back in, gave more drugs, but was concerned that my body would not react as it did before (since the last dosage wore off so quickly). He tried anyway. No luck! With virtually no pain meds left in me, the pushing began at 3am. Push, push, push! I cannot even describe this process or feeling, so I will not attempt. Lily was having some troubles coming out, so they had to use a vacuum to help pull her through.
At 4:32am, Wednesday, October 8th, Lily was born. 9 pounds, 5 ounces. It turned out that her cord was wrapped over her shoulder, which explained why she was not coming out more freely.
Once out, she was immediately placed on my chest. Her little conehead (from the vacuum suction) was very swollen – but would soon go down. And, her little nose was smashed! Not just squished, but smashed! She was having troubles breathing and immediately went to see a respiratory specialist (Andy followed along). I had to continue to deliver the placenta and get stitched up (the doctor had to cut me to help me deliver a 9 pound baby)!
It turns out that Lily’s face was probably smashed up against my uterus wall for some time while she was in the womb. Her nose was smashed and swollen, giving her breathing problems.
Andy spent nearly 3 hours watching her in the nursery, where she was monitored and looked at by doctors. Exhausted, I took a nap – not really by choice, but because I could not stay awake. By the time Lily came out, I had been awake for nearly 45 hours straight and hadn’t eaten in 18 hours (well, I did have two jellos and a popsicle, but that doesn’t count for much)!
I did not get to see and hold my baby again until almost 10am on Wednesday morning.
Ever since delivery, Lily has had to remain in the nursery under constant watch. She is being monitored for breathing mainly, and, she is doing very well! However, due to problems breathing, that mainly occur when she is crying or stressed, she also cannot eat properly. She is hooked up to an IV which provide her with proper nutrients. I will be able to begin breast feeding soon – once her breathing is stable. Her smashed nose also looks much better. The swelling is going down and things are progressing. She will be just fine and will regain her “normal nose” in no time. What a darling baby!
Although Andy and I would prefer to have her in our room and to be with her every minute of the day, we have accepted the situation for what it is and have taken advantage of the extra time to sleep, eat, etc… Andy and I can go to the nursery to see Lily at any time of the day and can stay as long as we want. The nurses there have been wonderful and we really trust that Lily is in good hands.
Dad ordered Woodstocks Pizza. On half of one of the pizzas he told them to “surprise him.” The surprise pizza was the first one gone! Delicious! Red peppers, spinach, and LOTS of meat types…. maybe even more toppings. Great surprise Woodstocks!