An Eventful Delivery of a Precious Package

My last post was a little over a month ago, but I promise I have a very good reason this time...our sweet little girl is almost four weeks old!  Everything I last wrote about seems like it happened in a different lifetime, because there is now a very clear distinction between our lives before and after baby...and I honestly can't believe how quickly time is flying by now that she's here!  Speaking of which, I'll fill you in on the crazy journey that was her arrival...

As most of you know, we were scheduled for a c-section on January 25th.  The day before, we were supposed to go for my last ultrasound and OB visit to confirm that our little one was still breech and to go over any last-minute details and questions.  However, we never made it that far...it turns out that my mom's "feeling" that she would come before then was right!  Around 2:30AM on the 24th, my water broke.  After waking up my husband (whose first question was, "Are you sure?"...Yes, honey, I am positive that the huge gush I just experienced wasn't courtesy of my bladder!) and calling to talk to the doctor on call, we finished up packing the last few things so we could begin the hour-and-a-half drive to the hospital.  The OB I talked to told me there was no reason to rush; that once we got there, they'd just plan to call our doctor and we'd do the c-section around 7:00 that morning as long as everything looked good.

While we got our things together, however, I started having contractions...contractions that were three minutes apart.  I still didn't think much of it; after all, contractions were supposed to be irregular at the start of labor, right?  We got everything (and ourselves) loaded up in the car and took off.  Since we didn't think we were in much of a hurry, my hubby drove 75 the whole way, just five miles over the speed limit.  Meanwhile, I was trying to hold it together and deal with the pain by breathing deeply.  That worked for a while, but my contractions just got stronger and stronger and were definitely closer together...they were two minutes apart and a minute long the entire way.  By the time we were 30 miles away, I was having a hard time dealing with the pain; when we got into town, I was thinking that I would definitely need an epidural if I was going to go through that for a few more hours!

When we arrived at the hospital, we parked in front of the ER entrance and grabbed my file folder of paperwork out of the car.  Apparently, the triage nurse could clearly tell I was in active labor, because we were admitted instantly and taken up to the labor and delivery floor (fastest ER visit I've ever had!).  Once we got to a L&D room, the nurses started prepping me for surgery and asking me a million questions.  I was in A LOT of pain, and the nurse starting my IV had to keep reminding me to breathe deeply.  They were debating on whether or not to check me to see how much I was dilated, but decided since I'd be having a c-section there wasn't any need.  Right after that conclusion, however, I started to feel some pressure.  Once I told them that, one of the nurses did a cervical exam and announced that I was complete...as in, completely dilated, all 10cm!  (Oh, and she was still breech...which turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because if she'd been head down, she probably would have been born on the road somewhere between home and the hospital!)  At that point, things started moving a lot quicker (and they told me not to push), but I still had to sign more paperwork before they took us back to the operating room...I'm pretty sure my signature was unrecognizable as my own, but I was in so much shock at how quickly everything had progressed that I honestly didn't care!  I just couldn't believe that I'd progressed from 0-60 (relatively speaking, not literally of course!) in just a couple of hours, especially since first labors are supposed to be much longer, on average...Then again, nothing about me ever seems to fall on the "normal" side of things =)  Either way, it explained why I was in so much pain...which, I'll admit, did give me a certain sense of accomplishment since I wasn't sure if I'd be able to handle labor without medication!

Once we got back to the OR, they transferred me to the operating table and quickly shaved me and got everything prepped for the c-section.  Luckily, the anesthesiologist was waiting, so between (super painful) contractions, he did his thing.  (The spinal, by the way, was a breeze...I've had insulin pump sites that were more painful, although I'm sure it seemed a lot less so in comparison to my contractions!)  I was then able to lay down, and felt one more contraction before everything from the waist down went gloriously numb.  Meanwhile, my hubby was scrubbing in for the delivery.  He had planned to watch the c-section, but after everything had gone so quickly, he just wanted to be by my side through it all.  The nurses in the delivery room were joking that they'd have to teach him to deliver babies for our next children, since they always say subsequent labors go faster than the first--yikes!

Up to that point, I'd been wearing my pump and CGM and had been checking my blood sugar every so often so I'd know where I was.  Since I had been consistently around 110 throughout labor, I wasn't worried at all about my blood sugar during surgery; however, things in that respect unfortunately didn't exactly go as planned.  My doctor had given me the go-ahead to keep my pump on throughout the whole process and my CDE was going to be on site in case the anesthesiologist had any questions or problems with it, but since neither of them were there at 5:00 in the morning, I was left to hash out the details with them myself.  The anesthesiologist, though very, very nice and wonderful at his job, didn't like the idea of keeping my pump hooked up, so I had to take it off.  By the time I was in recovery, I think my blood sugar was around 140 (if I remember correctly).  Due to that fact, our sweet little girl's blood sugar was low upon her arrival into the world, something I never thought we'd have to deal with since my control had been so good through the entire pregnancy.

Other than that, however, we were incredibly blessed to have a perfectly healthy baby girl!  My husband got to watch them examine her while they stitched me up, and even got to have her little feet stamped on his disposable scrub shirt...he is so proud of that keepsake!  After they cleaned her up, I got to see and kiss her before they took her to the nursery and wheeled me to the recovery room.  They eventually brought her to me in there to breastfeed in an attempt to raise her blood sugar, but ended up having to give her some formula to do the trick.  For the first 24 hours, they checked her blood sugar each time I fed her and had orders to give her an ounce of formula if it was low again; luckily, however, we never had to do that.

The first two nights, my blood sugar was running so low that I set a zero basal rate and stayed around 100.  It's amazing how much easier my blood sugar has been to manage since delivery, other than the fact that I've had plenty of lows.  I've just tried to stay on top of changing my rates accordingly, and everything has gone relatively smoothly d-wise!

I have plenty more to tell about our new life, but I'll save that for later.  Right now, I'm going to enjoy holding our precious baby girl!