The Grant's Life Story: October 2013

Having a conversation with his newest daughter while chilling in the hospital.

All packed and ready to go home!

Guess who was the first to want to hold her as soon as we got home!?!?! She told Nana, "This isn't your baby, she's my baby!" The girls have wanted to hold her constantly since we've arrived home.

Morganne took a picture of Ryleigh too school today to show off to her class her new baby sister. Apparently she got to stick it to the white board for the day and loved all of the attention.

The girls also got a kick out of the flowers that were delievered from my work. So cute.

Unfortunately, I have felt progressively worse since leaving the hospital, instead of better. So, it's been slow going and touch and go. Our first night was rough, I'm expecting tonight to be even rougher. I developed a low grade fever yesterday. My doctor wanted to watch and wait because everything else looks ok. So, until something else develops we are waiting it out. It comes and goes. I'm very sore along my incision but also by entire lower back. I'm fearful of infection but also of kidney stones returning. We shall see. I'm hoping I wake tomorrow feeling much better. Due to my pain level today I didn't take any new pics today unfortunately. Hopefully tomorrow I will be better about that.

Pitocin is on board, now the waiting begins....

Holding her for the first time, after waking from anesthesia.

My incredible nurse, Karrin, and the Purdue nursing student, Jessica. I am very thankful for both of them!

Kaelynn was SOOOO excited to see her little sister. Each time she came to visit she immediately climbed up on the bed and insisted on holding her, giving lots of kisses! So cute!

Skyping with grandma and grandpa!

The following is Ryleigh's birth story. I wanted to document all of the happenings while it was fresh in my mind, more for me than anything else. Warning, it's long.

Ryleigh’s birth story

Throughout the entire pregnancy I had no issues, in fact it’s been one of my smoothest as far as the baby’s health is concerned. I had more morning sickness and passed two kidney stones, but all in all it was very uneventful. Towards the end of the pregnancy she continued to measure big and I knew she would be bigger than her sisters. I kept going back and forth as to if I wanted to be induced (due to her size) or if I wanted to try and go into labor naturally, knowing full well that I would most likely go past 41 weeks and she would then just get bigger. Since my last two deliveries were difficult due to size I decided to play the middle and be induced at 41 weeks, giving her a chance to come out on her own (and the full moon hit on the 41^st week), but not allowing her to get much bigger and risk her not coming out on her own at all. So, we set the induction for 10/18. My doctor would not be there because she was on vacation, but instead I would be having Dr. Denman.

We checked in at a very early 5:30am. My vitals were good and we got the orders and started the Pitocin dripping at 6:30am. I really had not had any regular contractions all week and started the morning at 2cm dilated and only 70% effaced. Dr. Denman came in and introduced herself and broke my water about 7:30am. My L/D nurse was named Karrin and she was fabulous from the beginning. I really felt comfortable with her. We also had a Purdue nursing student named Jessica for the day. We forewarned her that my past labors were quite long, so it may be a boring day. Contractions steadily got harder from there. This is the first time Pitocin had worked so well and I really felt the contractions start to hurt a lot sooner than in the past. I elected to have my epideral around 10:30. The anesthesiologist came in and in teaching the nursing student I got to hear step by step the procedure. It became apparent very quickly that things weren’t going as planned. The first stick had barely started when I heard her say, “oh, now we need to stop and I need to try again.” She had gotten blood back in the syringe which indicates that she hit a blood vessel, not at all what you want to see when trying to place an epideral. So, she had to numb and place a second a little lower. The numbing lidocaine hurts like a strong bee sting, so this was not pleasant either. The second hit blood too and also sent a burning pain up the left side of my spinal canal. Again, she had to start over, this time going higher. At this point, she placed it and I could not help the reaction of crying out. The pain and pressure to the left of the canal was intense, paired also with a contraction at that moment. She didn’t feel the indicated “pop” that tells her that she is into the canal space and was not comfortable with my reaction and the placement. I was thankful for her caution but becoming very anxious about another try. She then went lower again, on my back and I felt the pain to the right side. I was about done, had all I could take, but she assured me that this time it went in and to relax, it would work. Justin said that he heard me cry out and was very anxious about what was going on in the room. I’m glad I made him leave. It was not a pleasant experience at all. My back is very bruised and sore. The anesthesiologist explained to me that I have what is called an Epideral Plexis. Basically, the body engorges blood vessels during pregnancy to tolerate the increased blood flow. My body decided to engorge the blood vessels in my lower back to make up for the reduced flow from the vena cava and aorta that the baby can lay against. It happens but it is not common. Once again, my body does not “go by the book”. Due to epiderals in the past dropping my blood pressure, we introduced the epideral medicine very slowly. I never got totally numb, and in fact, Karrin agreed that it most likely would have not covered my delivery later in the day anyhow, just like my last two labors and failed epiderals. Once the epideral medicine was finally in place, around 11:20, Karrin decided to check me to see how dilated I was. Last check, 3 hours earlier, I was at a 3-4cm. At 11:30am, Karrin went to check me and quickly exclaimed “Oh Shit!” which totally caught Justin and I off guard. We were in fact just telling her, very light heartedly, how we never have text book labors or effects afterwards, such as with my kidney stones. Her exclamation quickly got our attention and she pushed the call button on my bed, never pulling her hand out from checking my dilation, and told the nursing staff that I had what is called a Cord Prolapse. She then explained that we were headed to an emergency c-section. From that point on it was a whirlwind. Nurses came running, Karrin jumped on my bed and they quickly began rolling me out of the room and into the OR down the hall. I had a surgeon that was gowning by the time we got there, two anesthesiologists talking the me at the same time. They got my earrings out and through my tears of fear, they assured me that my baby’s heart beat was still going strong and I would be ok. Dr. Brown was the surgeon and quickly introduced herself, saying that Dr. Denman had been paged but that we weren’t waiting on her to get there and she would be delivering my baby. I didn’t care, I just wanted Ryleigh to be ok. Due to the fact that my epideral had just been placed and had not taken full effect yet, or to the fact that it may never have taken full effect, we couldn’t wait long enough to find out and they decided to induce general anesthesia on me instead. General anesthesia meant that Justin could not be present and he had to wait out in the hallway while all of this was going on. Ryleigh was born at 11:45am. So, from the point that Karrin discovered the problem, to Ryleigh coming out, is was 15 minutes. After it was all done, Karrin explained that the cord had become trapped under Ryleigh’s head and was trying to come out first. With every contraction, it was squeezing the cord and cutting off blood supply and O2 to Ryleigh. We had noticed her heart rate dropping with every contraction, but thankfully not into dangerous levels- yet. Karrin did not remove her hand because she was literally holding the cord between her fingers and pushing up on Ryleigh’s head to hopefully keep the pressure off the cord. She held that position until Ryleigh was out. In her 23 years of L/D experience I was only her 5^th cord prolapse. We found out the next day that the whole floor had been talking about it.

The next thing that I remember is waking up back in my L/D room with Justin holding Ryleigh and my parents were there. Justin had been given Ryleigh and had waited for me to be brought back into the room. I tool about an hour for me to wake up. My parent’s arrived around 12:30 and I was in the room shortly there after. Looking back that was one of the weirdest experiences, coming into the room and my baby already being there. Justin and I both missed seeing her arrival. But, we were very glad that she was safe and everything worked out as best as it could have. We are so thankful for a quick acting L/D team and an awesome nurse. As stressful and emotional as it was, it ended in a beautiful, healthy daughter. Justin said that he literally sat on a bench and stared at a door that lead down the hall to the OR. He had several nurses and doctors come out and give him positive updates but he didn’t understand much of them, as they were in medical terms, and he was pretty emotional at the time. I didn’t even get to say goodbye to him as they wheeled me off. The nursing student’s instructor saw the confusion and stress on his face and sat down with him to explain what just happened. This truly helped him a lot. We are constantly impressed with this hospital’s staff.

Karrin informed us that there were around 14 people in the OR for Ryleigh’s delivery, including NICU personel that gave her a thorough check over before releasing her to Justin. I feel like I’ve been hit by a Mack truck, but overall, with the help of pain meds, I’m doing pretty well. As soon as I was awake enough to hold her, Ryleigh was more than ready to eat and she has eaten very well ever since. She came out weighing 8lbs. 13oz and 21.5 inches long. Due to her size, it’s possible we may have ended in a c-section later anyhow, just not as rushed I’m sure! She is beautiful and healthy, and everything we could ask for. We are so thankful for the incredible care and for God protecting us during this crazy experience. God is good.