Celeste: induction, 28hours later emerg C-section
Thursday 17th Jan we rocked up to the hospital as planned for 8.30pm gel induction. We had successfully evaded the hoards of ppl asking when the induction was going to be sceduled by refusing to go outside or answer the phone all that day. I was bursting with excitement, anticipation and nerves and DH was much the same. The dr(Tod) didnt turn up till 9.30pm which is normal for him, and after an internal declared that I was 1cm dilated already. I was quite excited by this, thinking that the induction would just hurry up what was naturally happening in my body anyhow. I had told DH for about 2 days that I felt different and was sure that things were going to happen soon. My blood pressure, although higher for the last week or so, was still within ok. So, he placed the gels inside the cervix and told me to get some rest and he would see me in the morning.... rest, yeah right. We spent some time on the monitor and the midwife told me I was contracting already but I couldnt feel anything.
By midnight I felt twinges and period pains set in and everytime I drifted off to sleep I would be woken by them. The midwifes(No 1 and No2) told me off at 1am for not being asleep yet and made me take some panadein so I would rest. I was quite tired by morning, having been to the loo a million and one times overnight, with no2s picking up pace. "Yay," I thought , "I remember this is prelabour stuff."
8.30 am and Tod did another internal telling me I was still only 1cm or maybe a bit more and put some more gels in after playing around for 5 minutes trying to break the membranes but not being able to reach properly. My blood pressure was found to be a bit high/borderline too high and a urine test indicated protein so Pre-eclampsia had indeed begun to set in. He said he would be back at lunch time to assess. At this point I asked how long we would be allowed to go on and if the baby would definately be born that day. He said yes, he wouldnt let us go as long as saturday as he had tennis that morning! (he was kind of joking) I had made a birth plan which indicated that I didnt want to be rushed and wanted time for my body to react to each induction procedure before starting on another. Off we went for more walks around the hospital premises. We would know the ins and outs of the property pretty well by the time the baby came!
The cramping and aching continued till Tod eventually turned up at 3pm. I had not really changed at all. He did another internal (not my most favourite thing) and stretched the cervix out to 3cm while managing to break the membranes (after poking around for 10mins) There was not the rush of fluid that he anticipated so he mucked around in there for another 5 minutes before he was satisfied and we saw that the baby had passed meconium into the waters. This added to my blood pressure and protein didnt look real good but more time on the monitor said the baby was still ok. More walking!!! Over the next few hours the cramping pains developed into proper contractions, not strong but definately mild contracions. I asked the midwife No4(Mynette) if this meant that labour had finally established and she said not quite. Dissapointing!
At 6pm Tod returned and another internal still showed the cervix at 3cm but the baby's head was now 2/5engaged. Some progress! He checked my pad for meconium and thought that it may have happened previously in the pregnancy, not necessarily that day so he wasnt too worried. He was going to a poker game near the hospital that evening and would pop in and check on me around 8pm. More walking!
At 8pm Tod returned on his way to his poker game which happened to be across the road from the hospital. Another internal which showed no change from 3cm really. My BP was up a bit and what they called borderline so I was only allowed to do short walks around the corridors from then on. I asked Mynette for the gymball out of the delivery room so I could rock my hips on it instead of walking so much as that was putting my BP up. Tod put a catheter in my hand ready to start the syntocinon drip if things hadn't picked up in the next hour or so but we were to just be monitored for a while yet before starting, to see if things were progressing as I had mentioned the contractions were starting to build a bit. We spent some more time on the monitor and everything seemed ok still and the midwife then timed and felt my belly for contracions which were by now 3 every 10mins but the intensity was still varying with 2 strong and one weak as a pattern. By 9.15pm I said to DH "I think there is only one way this kid is coming out" and he agreed. We had both come to this conclusion by ourselves and were surprisingly ok with it. Things just didnt seem to be progressing and we didn't think they would be in any reasonable timeframe. When Mynette came in to feel my contractions again I mentioned it to her and we talked about how we would feel about it. I think she had already come to the conclusion as well. More time on the gymball doing my breathing and looking for signs of progression.
About 9.30pm things picked up a bit and Mynette spent a while with us again. The contractions were now feeling "proper" making me bend over and stop talking or walking and I kept getting up and bending over the bed. Finally things seemed to be going in the right direction! We went onto the monitor so that we could have evidence for when Tod came back and as it turns out, I was tied there till the end! The contractions seemed to finally become consistant but the heartrate on the baby was a bit unpredictable. We had had a little trouble earlier with the sensors for bubs heartrate moving/or bubs moving so that we couldnt get a regular readout and this became more of a problem now. Then we started to get a few readings where the heartrate would drop a little towards the end of a contraction but would recover well afterwards. We watched this for a while and the midwife decided to tell Tod who had told us he would come back at 12am. He then said he would be back between 11 and 12. It was hard being tied to the monitor for the next hour or so as I really wanted to get up and move around with the contractions but I didnt dare move a muscle as we were having such a hard time getting a steady readout from the baby sensor. By 10.15 we were seeing more signs of baby's heartrate dropping and Mynette stayed with us. Luckily there were no others who needed her attention with the only other mothers in the hospital on their 4th and 6th babies and about to go home. After a while we noticed that the heartrate would drop more dramatically than before and it was taking longer for it to recover after the contraction was over. Then, horrifyingly, we started to see her heartbeat drop between contractions as well! The rate that it dropped to was getting lower too. Over the next 20mins we saw her heartbeat go from 135 to 140 as normal dropping down to 100 then 90 then 80. Mynette went to ring Tod and tell him to come back. While she was gone (she must have gotten called away momentarily also) we saw the baby's heartrate drop to 60 so I began pressing my buzzer and DH ran down to the nurses station where there happened to be the duty doctor (usually there are no doctors there unless called). DH told her to "get Tod now" and she responded straight away, ringing him and saying "Get here NOW". Luckily the time was right on shift change and there were twice the number of staff in the place. Soon we had the duty doctor in the room with us and Mynette and two nurses also. They were trying to get good readouts on the monitor to show Tod when he got there. Within 5 or 10 mins he sauntered into the room and said casually "what's going on here gang?" I replied STRONGLY "We are $h*++*ng ourselves Tod!" He took one look at Mynette and realised things were really a problem. I think until this point he had thought we were just paranoid first time Ivf parents. He and Mynette had a 30sec conversation and then he gave me another internal. This one wasnt so nice! I was contracting and he was in a hurry. I think he was feeling to see if he could get forceps in there but no... we were between 3 and 4cm only. So he announced "We are going to theatre folks, call in the team". In moments the room was filled with people while others raced in from home to help as the hospital is usually only staffed by 3 nurses overnight. There was someone giving me an antinausea drink, the duty doctor checking my arm catheter, Mynette mucking around with the sensors, Tod deciding if I would have a spinal block or a general anaesthetic, Mynette putting a urinary catheter in and nurses getting me undressed and into a theatre gown all without me being able to move a centimetre and contracting at the same time! Out of the blue, my good friend's mother, Jo, appeared and took my hand. She is a surgical nurse and was called in to assist. I just burst into tears at the sight of her and didnt want to let go. She assured me she would be in theatre for me and I was so relieved. Dh was beside himself, not knowing if he would be able to go in with us if I was having a general.
At around this time, DH was told later, the woman across the corridor got up and closed her door. We know her and she had heard the trouble brewing and didnt want to hear what would happen, can't blame her!
I was wheeled into theatre while removing my jewlery and DH was rushed in to change into surgical garb. Luckily I called out to him to bring the camera! My brain was still working! There were more people in theatre, there was an intern and another GP for the baby plus the new midwife (Deirdre) and new nurses who were there for the new shift plus the duty doctor was the anaethesist and Jo of course. They transferred me to the table and then I had to sit up because Tod had decided that it took just as much time to do a spinal block as a general and it would be better for me. As the anaethesist was preping my back she announced "nice tat!" which I didnt respond to... contracting and worried about my babies life!!! They were trying to get a reading on the baby but it was too difficult with me hunched over for the spinal block and when we did get one I exclaimed "oh $h8+ it's 58!!" but they reassured me it was cause the sensors werent on the right place. Then I got confused with a contraction coming on and thought the urinary catheter was coming out but they said it couldnt because of a balloon inside. I was laid down on my side again while everything was gotten ready and I was thinking inside "Just hurry up!!!" DH sat beside my head and Jo stroked my forehead and Tod began. He had been trying to get a reading and was worried so he said "Let's just get her open". By this time he was worried also. We could feel the tension in the room, all the nurses were worried too.
I looked at the clock as he began cutting and it was 11.52 and I wondered if she would be born on friday or saturday. I could feel him hacking away getting inside and heard the urgent instructions he was giving to the intern assisting; "Pull, this way, no, harder". My heart was in my throat and I was going to vommit but it passed, just tension.
Then I heard Jo say "The head is out and it is looking around!" I couldnt believe it!! I asked "Is it breathing?" "Not yet, it's not born yet." she told me. Suddenly Tod lifted her up and said "It's out, 12.01am". Her head was born on friday and her body on saturday! Tod said "you can lower the sheet now" and I couldnt wait. It seemed they were all looking at her and I couldn't see so I began to take the instruments off to lower the sheet myself! Jo intervened and I lifted my head up in time to see Celeste take her first breath and cry! I was soooo relieved and immediately burst into sobs of relief and joy.(I had been praying to God to save her and I immediately cried out "Thank God, thank God"). I had to take off my oxygen I was crying so much! It didn't even occur to me to look or ask if it was a boy or a girl but DH says he looked straight away. I was just so happy that my baby was breathing. Tod or Jo or someone announced "It's a girl" and I was happy all over again!
DH went over to the baby table and held her. The aneasthesist took photos and Celeste was checked over, cleaned (she was green all over from meconium) and wrapped up. Within minutes DH brought her to me and we had our first cuddle. It is a moment I will never forget and I have tears rolling down my cheeks just thinking of it. She was perfect! 2.82kg small, head circumference 33cm, 48cm long and perfect in everyway, after all that had happened to her.
Everyday when I look at her I have to pinch myself that she is real, she is ours and she is perfect. Celeste Martha took 5attempts at IVF, 10years, 10months and 10days (and 1minute!)induction, 6internals and a c-section to arrive in our arms and she is worth every second of that wait!!!!
