Sabra and Jake

Hello hello! I hope this email finds you well!  It has taken me forever to finish writing this, but we had our baby! Things went fantastic! Here’s the story below! Feel free to post it on your blog if you’d like (and use any of the pics if you’d like). 🙂

Because of being diagnosed with intrahepatic cholestasis of pregnancy and the risks involved, I was scheduled for an induction on December 13th, three weeks before the original due date of our baby.  It had been a crazy week getting prepped for this… involving a change of care providers–I did end up changing to Dr. Stephen Berry. He was great to take me even though I only had a week to go! Reminding myself to take some deep breaths and be confident 🙂 it had all resulted in a feeling of calmness and preparedness for whatever this day might entail.  So, at 7:30 that Tuesday morning, Jake and I headed off to Utah Valley Regional Medical.

After checking in and getting settled with an IV, fetal heart monitor and the surge detector (whatever it’s called) the nurse inserted a dose of cytotec in my cervix to soften it–the goal was to get dilated to a 3 and then break my water. I was told this process could take all day, but I felt emotionally ready, though. My nurse was awesome–she was very supportive and open if I needed to move around every now & then.

I was already having small surges that were really nothing more than a feeling of tightness around my belly.  Well anyway, I should have asked more questions and done my research about cytotec. My body didn’t like it (nor did my nurse, actually) and the surges kicked into high gear. They became too frequent putting baby in distress. Her heart rate dropped and in rushed the nurses to shoot me with something to counteract the cytotec and put me on oxygen.  Her heart rate went right back up (whew!), the stuff wore off and we went to plan B: inserting a folley catheter. We felt much more comfortable with this plan.  So, that went in and from there it only took about an hour until it fell out on it’s own when I went to the bathroom around 11:45!  Sure enough I was dilated to a 3! Yay!

After the on-call resident broke my water, my body kept going on its own and there was no need for induction after all!  Things really progressed, each surge getting stronger… and I’ll be honest, I had to really work at pushing out thoughts if I could do this or not! The support system of family members and Jake around me was wonderful. My sister, acting as my doula, had a few lovely oils and massage creams that were great, encompassed with deep breathing and the CD in the background all helped me get into deeper relaxation. It was a bit of a challenge to find a comfortable position, but I ended up standing against Jake and hanging from his neck when a surge came, knees bent and swaying back & forth. It didn’t feel like that long until I felt the urge to push.  My sister called in the nurses and they had me lay down (aahhh awful) to check me. I had progressed to an 8… I knew it wasn’t much longer.

My arms and legs felt pretty weak from hanging on Jake and I couldn’t get the strength to stand up again.  With half of the bed lowered, Jake supporting me from behind, my sisters massaging my hands (for some reason I requested this!), I resumed a squatting position. And things started really happening.  I did really want to push. I didn’t figure out how not to… so pushing is what we did. Plus the resident & nurse were telling me to, guiding the pushing–having me hold my breath and push while they counted to ten. There were a few moments where I felt kind of overwhelmed and needed some extra support to visualize and breath through the surges, but five of those pushes and baby Hannah came at 5:59pm!!!  Dr. Berry walked in the door just as she was coming out. (At the time, I didn’t mind at all who was even in the room, who was delivering, etc.. but I’m a little sad Dr. Berry wasn’t there earlier after all the hassle of changing doctors! oh well!)

Hannah was immediately placed on my chest and I was so so grateful to love and cuddle right away! What an incredible feeling. Jake kept saying “she’s perfect!” They did take her to get weighed & measured, etc. fairly soon after delivery but she was doing great and they brought her right back… she weighed 4 lbs 8 oz and 18 inches long.  We had a few minor scares at the hospital with her billirubin levels and weight loss, but she’s our miracle girl and pulled through without a trip to the NICU. We brought her home on Friday the 16th.  She is now almost 8 weeks old, weighing 8 and a half lbs! We are adjusting and loving her every minute!  I know prayers were answered with this labor and delivery; not having to be induced after all, and having it as natural as we’d hoped.. I really couldn’t have asked for it to be more perfect and to welcome our perfect baby into our family!

Thanks Launi, for being another support and for teaching a wonderful class! I’m so grateful for the tools I learned and used from it! Take care!

Sabra