P.S. I apologize in advance if this post is too long however I strongly feel that it is still short to describe the surge of emotions that rushed through those two days !!!
Many of you have heard this whole story of Neev’s borth already, but for those of you who who haven’t without further ado lets get started…
Just one thing before we get started I’m trying to give you all this in chronological order, but please understand if its get too fuzzy specially near the delivery as you would I was a little preoccupied with the momemts than !!
Vi was complaining on this severe pain on upper part of the abdomen since Thursday and the pain was getting bad minute by minute. We all in the light of all the books we read suggested that this is some sort of Brrexton Hicks and a way of mother nature to prepare the mom for the big day. The pain was bad..really bad…somehow she survived Thursday and Friday. Friday night she couldn’t sleep until 4 in the morning and woke up at 9 AM. Right after a cup of tea, she again complained of the pain and we decided to call the doctor. Dr. Ree was on line and she asked what was the intervel between contraction. Vin replied that she had no idea what the contractions feel like but this is something else and she can’t take it any more. Doctor asked us to come to the hospital. We packed few last minute things (forgot my books to read though !!!) and drove to the hospital which is on a 10 minute drive. We reached hospital at around 1:40 PM on Saturday and gto check in. I left the begs in the car thinking this might not be the real deal and they will let us go home. Once checked they escorted us to triage for basic checks. It was a small room (241F) with few medical instruments and a TV. First thing they did was the blood pressure and it came out astonishingly high (159/94)..for medically naives ..the normal range should be 120/80. Looking at her blood pressure and the swelling the nurse suggested that she might have a condition called Preeclampsia. According to doctor preeclampsia is a serious complication of pregnancy associated with the development of high blood pressure and protein in the urine. Women who gets diagnosed with preeclampsia complain of blurred vision, headaches, extreme swelling, and experience greater than normal weight gain. In this conditions the kidneys are unable to efficiently filter the blood (as they normally do) which causes an increase in protein that is present in the urine. So the doctors did a quick blood and urin work and quickly realized that she was suffering from this condition, preeclampsia. We waited anxiously in the room until the blood and urine work results stated to come back. The staff of doctors and nurses were amazing. In particular Amy was so nice, she not only did her professional duties as best as she could but also became a good friends and stress reliever. She was like an angel in the time of distress. While we were getting bombarded with a whole new set of medical terminology, she took time to explain this to plain English and just made us felt like home. I am writing this about Amy but any of the staff in the hospital I can write equally well ..perhaps I will !!! The first reultts came back at 4:30 PM confirming preeclampsia and they decide to admit us to deliver the baby since
this condition can result in lowering the blood flow to the placenta resulting in baby not getting proper nutrients. At 5:18 PM we were transferred to the maternity room 223. Amy was transferred with us to take care of Vi which was really great.
At 5:35 PM they started the magnesium drip to lower the blood pressure. Magnesium relxes all the body muscles and keeps them from cramping up. Now that I think about it ..calcium and magnesium both does a pretty similar job remember when our respective moms used to ask us to drink a glass of milk before going to sleep so the calcium in the milk help to sleep better. Anyway, once given magnesium she saterd to relax a little bit and dosed off once in a while. At 7:3 PM they gave her cervedral to thin out the cervix before inducing the labor. The plan at this time was to induce the labor next day morning at 8AM. In the mean time doctrs and nurses came and checkd her every 10-12 minutes or so …I guess they were keeping an eye. The room was great, it was much bigger than triage, had two big nice windows. It had a comfortable counhe which could be changed into a bed. The best thing however was the TV and Steelers were playing !! However, Vi had the remote control !!! Once Vi seemed to relax a bit, I decided to make a quick trip to home and pick up few snacks and a book for me to read. While on my way back to hospital I picked a subway sandwhich for me. When I got back to hospital at 8:45 PM Vi was steel feeling fairly OK. I got back and changed into something more comfertable and decided to find out what Vi wanted to eat. However to my surprize she was not supposed to eat/drink anything due to Mernesiium. Appraenrly there is a chance that with your mussles so relazed the water might get into her lungs. However, the doctor allowed her to have coulpe of crackers and a cup of water. After which she was only allowed to have one cup of water every two hours. As bed as I felt however I was very hungry and attacked my sandwhich which was awesome !! Vi passed out in a little while and I finished watching Colts vs Steelers (Colts won !!!) and read few pages in the book. Vi woke up at 11:15 and started complaing of this sever pain similar to what she had in the morning, Infact now it must have been worst than the morning as she was also having problem in breathign. Doctor orders another blood work at 12:10AM. However, the nurse had tough time finding a nerve to take blood and eventually an anestheologist was called at 12:20. whoand they gave vi some local anstheia so the can better maneuver the nerves. At 12:55 few results came but nohintg was out of ordinary but still they were wating for results on lever enzymes. In the mean time they measured her cervix which was still 1-2mm and contracations were about 8 minutes apart. At 1:30 AM all the results were out and everything was normal, lever enzyme are actually better than afternoon. For the pain they decided to give her medication at 1:45 AM after which she dosed off right away!! By Gosh…I have never felt so helpless…we still have a long long way to go ..I hope I will last..
I woke up next morning at 5:45, Vi was still sleeping or perhaps under the effect of medicine. I ordered breakfast at 7:10 AM. She was planning to have tea but had to womit before that. Once finished with tea she was give Petocin at a level of 6 mg/hr. Petocin is a mammalian hormone that acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain and causes labor. The doctor told that they will increase the level by 6 mg/hr every half an hour and she should not feel anything at least for next two hours. Petocin was increased to 18 and 24 at 10:10 AM and 10:47AM respectively. Vi started to feel the contractions at around 10:30 AM. Her water
broke at 12:10PM, great ..one more step closer. However, with water all gone baby felt a little distressed and his/her heartbeat went down. So nurses maneuver Vi a little bit and until baby’s heartbeat came back to normal. They gave a oxygen mask to Vi to make sure that baby keep getting enough supply of oxygen. By the way they did blood oxygen measurement several times throughout the day and at most times at came out to be around 97-99, which is normal. At 12:25PM they inserted a sensor which touches baby’s head for accurate measurement of baby’s condition. Subsequently, the Petocin was increased to 36. I sat beside her holding her hand while she fights with the ever increasing labor pain.
Every time a contraction would come I could she her focusing on breathing. After all the money spent in child birth classes was worthwhile. I remember she telling me initially that she has no idea of how a contraction pain feels like. However, now she could exactly tell me when the contraction starts goes to a peek and goes away and I would confirm this with the monitor…amazing!! At 1:15 PM the pain started to increase significantly and she was utterly uncomfortable. She requested for an Epidural to be given. At this time she was dilated by 3 cm, and the doctor accepted the request. I remember from the child birth classes that you should at least be 3 cm dilated before taking epidural. Epidural anesthesia is a regional anesthesia which provides analgesia, or pain relief, rather than complete anesthesia, which is total lack of feeling. Epidurals block the nerve impulses from the lower spinal segments resulting in decreased sensation in the lower half of the body. A small area on the back is injected with a local anesthetic to numb it and a needle will be inserted into the numbed area that surrounds the spinal cord in the lower back. A small tube or catheter is threaded through the needle into the epidural space. The needle is carefully removed leaving the catheter in place so medication can be given through periodic injections or by continuous infusion. The catheter is then taped to the back to prevent it from slipping out. Once the anestheologist was inside the room they asked me to leave for the fear of infections. So I headed out for walk to get myself a coffee…I needed it!!! I got the coffee and set down in the visitors lounge, where I heard that how somebody went from 3 to 8 cm with in 30 minutes and delivered in next 15 minutes…wow !! I felt very happy with such a positive news, hoping we might go through a similar thing. I went back to the room at 2:15 PM and Vi was already started to feel in her senses, relatively speaking. I say “relatively” as the magnesium was still on causing all sort of drowsiness for Vi. At 2:35PM the petocin was increased to 48. The contractions are still 180 seconds apart. She is now dilated to 4cm and baby is at -2 position in birth canal. Blood pressure seems to in control now..125/70. At 3:10 PM the petocin was increased to 54 which was then at 4:15 PM was increased to 60. I am trying to engage her in constant conversation and she seems to be responding just fine for somebody in her condition. At 4:25PM she is dilated to 6 cm, baby is -1 cm, contractions are 160 secs apart and blood pressure is 139/83. So far things seems to going smooth even though awfully slow, but they are going and we wait !!! We dimmed the lights and asked Vi to take a try to go to sleep as she might be needing a lot of energy, she asked for a popsicle and seems to savor it. For
next 1.5 hr she went to sleep and I tried to take a nap too but couldn’t so I read few more pages of Mr. Welch’s (former GE CEO) commentary. She woke up at 6:15 PM and had another popsicle. Petocin was increased to 66 (highest) and we could clearly see a really nice contraction pattern. At 8:10 PM something happened which scared the Sh*t of me !! We realized that they lost baby’s heartbeat again and in next 1 minute there were around 10 nurses and doctors were in the room trying to maneuver Vi so they can get baby’s heartbeat back. Keep in mind with epidural, she was pretty much immobile herself. I saw these people trying to do their best to get things moving again not having any idea what I should do. I felt like crying ..Doctor Johnson probably realized my nervousness and came to me and explained what they were trying to do and How great job I and Vi both were doing. I felt relieved, It was like words from Heaven!! Its amazing how things go quickly from bad to worse: After 10 minutes of severe activity in the room they were able to get baby’s heart beat back. They again put her on oxygen and ask her to take a nap again and get her energy together as time to push might be just around the corner. I felt happy because end was in sight however I was nervous as I knew the next 2 hours are going to be the longest in my life. we’re still having trouble trying to find Baby’s heartbeat, and Nurse Wratchett says “You need to listen to me and do what I say, and do it quickly.”
At 10:30 the doctor did another measurements and concluded the we were all clear to go, she was completely dilated and ready to push. The nurses and doctors got ready, I was sheer amazed by the amount of tools they arranged. However, the nurse was quick to explain me that this all will never be needed. Once everything was in place, the doctors gave green signal to Vineeta to Push as soon as the next contraction came. To my surprise and to doctor’s surprise mom did a great job and we could see the head. The only one issue in this was that the contraction were still 90 sec apart and those 90 seconds felt like forever. After 5 pushes the doctor thought they she might use a little vacuum to turn the head a little bit. By god ..she was right ..as soon as she did that ..the next pushes in the contraction and the baby was out !!!..GUYS THE LITTLE NEEV WAS OUT !!!…and one more thing …ITS A BOY !!!! Few days after Vi told me that she wanted baby ti be born on 9th which means he just made that 11 minutes before the deadline ..at 11:49PM. A flood of emotions were quick to rise from the heart as well as from the eyes !! Mom was eager to hold the baby and which she did. We took a quick family photograph and sent little Neev for cleaning. I followed little guy to his little bed where they took various measurement and blood tests…I recorded the whole process so mom can see later on. However…I was so dazzled by the little man that I forgot about Vi completely for next 20 minutes. Once I came back to my senses I went back to Vineeta who was under their way to recovery. I spent next hour calling everybody (that’s another story that I couldn’t find any of the Grand parents so the first one to get the news was Sandy) and taking more photos. After everything was taken care of and tying arm badges for all three us for reorganization purposes they transferred us to Mother/Baby. Later on the baby went to nursery and I head to home so mom can relax a little. We are so excited to have our little boy with us and we cannot imagine life without him…I know it will be challenge bringing up a little man to face the real world but for night we are on Cloud Nine!!!
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