Kahlani Rose's arrival and first week and a half.
A brief outline of the story:
awake from 12.30-3am Thurs 19. Bubs had hiccups at 1.30
Cleaned most of the day, cousin visited to keep me company. Finished packing bags and headed for OBs appt at 5pm.
Mentioned I didn't recall much/any movement throughout the day but had been busy. BP was 150/80 (high for me) so was sent across road to hospital for CTG monitoring. Went on monitors at 5.45. Bubs heart rate 90-110 should be min 110. 15 mins monitoring (left by oursleves) and a couple of flatlines later we werer freaking out. Continued monitoring with midwife now sitting with us. Had pains (prob Braxton Hicks?) which saw bubs heartrate flatline. M idiwfe picked up phone said "Call Jacques, we have foetal distress" We just looked at each other in horror.
Asked if I had any questions about a ceaser. Quick rundown with anaethetist on spinals, changed into gown and wheeled down to theatre by sometime around 7.
OBs walked in, listened to doppler and said "General NOW". Looked at clock thinking "Don't look into the lights!" Saw 7.15.
Woke up in recovery at 8.05.
Kahlani Rose born at 7.21pm (yes 6 minutes later!)
19/01/06
Apgars of 7 (needed suctioning) and 9
HC 31cm
Length 44.5cm
4lb 2oz (1.88kg)
38.1 weeks.
At the moment we know that parts of the placenta had died and were clotted. Don't know why this happened and may never know.
Kahlani was admitted to the SCN and was officially diagnosed as IUGR (Intra-Uterine Growth Retarded). I was returned to the ward around 9.00 after having been told in recovery that I had a little girl that came out screaming and kicking (a big relief). DH then showed me the 2 polaroid photos that had been taken of him holding Kahlani with me in the background out of it. Unfortunately he missed the whole thing as he was waiting in the corridor for someone to take him into the theatre but as things needed to happen so quickly they had forgotten. It wasn't until someone said to him "You do realise there is a baby in there" that he was able to go in. He then stayed with her until I was back in my room.
We rang our parents and my nan at 9.30 to tell them the good news which was not a surprise for my mum. She had tried to call my house after my appt tp see how we had gone and when she then tried my mobile and it was off she had declared to dad that we were in hospital! She also guessed the middle name.
At around 10 I got to see my beautiful daughter for the first time. It really was an indescribably amazing feeling. I feed her a little which I really can't remember how it went but have noted in my notebook that she was trying to suck but she wasn't attaching. DH headed home to sleep sometime after that. Kahlani was in an isolette to maintain her temperature and hooked up to an oxymeter to monitor her pulse and oxygen saturation levels. That monitor ended up driving us nuts. It went off quite frequently with no obvious explanation.
I spent most of Friday sitting in the nursery next to her crib and learning how to hand express. Both lots of parents visited in the afternoon. We also moved from the single room to the double room. I surprised everyone with how good I was feeling and able to move around quite well. My Ob visited and apologised for putting me under but said that he doubted that we had the 30 mins that were needed for the spinal to work, we really came that close to losing her. I am so OK with this after wanting a natural, drug-free delivery from day 1.
Friday night was absolutely horrible, easily the worst night of our lives so far. When I was woken up to express at 2.30amwe were told that as the monitoring hadn't been good Kahlani was on oxygen and the paed had come in to assess her. He tried to out a drip in for some antibiotics but it didn't work so she ended up with 2 injections. She then had blood taken to be sent off to check for infections. Mummy was a mess by this time. We finally got back to bed at 4.45. Saturday morning was also horrible as when DH went to get some things organised I was told that there was no way Kahlani would be going home when I was discharged on Tuesday and a chest x-ray had been ordered (still don't know why but it came back all clear) so we attempted to cancel all visitors, we just didn't want to see anyone. Unfortunately some friends didn't get the message and turned up at lunchtime but we had got ourselves a bit together so it wasn't too bad.
On Sunday I started breastfeeding her. Kahlani was finally allowed to be dressed on Monday and the temperature was slowly reduced to see how she went. By Tuesday Kahlani was out of the isolette and in a standard hospital cot.
From that rock-bottom the only way has been up. A 48 hour loss of 70g was quickly turned around with a gain of 50g in 36 hours followed by 20g in another 48hours to be back at birth weight. The blood tests came back all clear so the 12hourly antibiotics over 48hrs were stopped.
I was discharged Tues last week which was hard but we also didn't know any different. On Thursday the oxymeter was turned off as at this point the only episodes were happening afterfeeding and not during sleeping so someone was with her when they were happening and the clever girl was able to bring herself out of them. We think she was so busy feeding that she would forget to breathe properly setting the alarms off.
We roomed-in at the hospital on Sunday night and yesterday morning we were able to finally walk out the door with our delightful little daughter with a discharge weight of 2.06kg.
Our first night at home also went well. Feeding was 3-4 hourly, right side attachment is fantastic but we need a nipple shield to help on the left. The MCHN nurse visited this afternoon and Kahlani has put on another 20g. I can hear her stirring now so best be off to feed.
