Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Lydia's Newborn
When Lydia was 4 days old we did a newborn session with Amberly Ossmen and I was so so happy with how they turned out. Amberly is amazing and such a good sport even after Lydia peed and pooped on her blankets!
Lydia Jane Vance
Now that Lydia is over 3 months old it's only appropriate that I finally get around to blogging about her birth. Having an almost two-year-old and new baby makes it hard to find time to blog. But here's the story (as much as I can remember)...
It all started when I was about 36 weeks pregnant. My Dr. had been asking if I wanted to be induced early and I kept saying probably not. I just really wanted to know how each of my babies came... if they would all come early like Samantha or if they would be different. But on my 36 week appointment my Dr. finally explained to me why she kept asking if I wanted to be induced. She told me that Samantha's delivery was considered extremely difficult. Which I guess I had not caught on to, for all I knew my delivery was fairly normal. Dr. Daly explained that Samantha had shoulder dystocia. I vaguely remember her talking about Samantha's shoulder last time, but honestly never asked what it had meant because everything seemed fine. Shoulder dystocia is when the baby's shoulder gets suck. My Dr. explained that it's the "code red" in the baby unit and every OB's worst nightmare. Because once the head is delivered the cervix acts as a tourniquet until the rest of the body is delivered, which means they only have minutes to get the baby unstuck. I won't go into the different methods they use to get the baby unstuck, but trust me they can be scary. With the shoulder dystocia and hemorrhaging badly my Dr. said we want to try and avoid all that. So while she let me decide whether or not to be induced, she recommended it. Statistically babies usually get bigger with each pregnancy and my first was 9 lbs 2 oz, so her goal was to try and keep this baby 8 lbs or under.
After that appt I came home and explained to Ryan that we had no idea but I had scary deliveries and we decided that the best thing would be to induce at 39 weeks like my Dr. suggested. But in my head I was thinking that I'd come before my schedule inducement because Samantha had come 6 days early and she was my first. I also was really hoping I would come on my own early. That kind of thinking wasn't the best thing though because the last 10 days were the absolute worst. Every day seemed like a week and I was so ready to not be pregnant anymore. I had also started working from home, so getting out of the house was even more difficult.
My Dr. explained that I was the last on the list to be called into the hospital on August 19th so don't expect to get a call until that evening or possibly even the next night. I wish I had just listened to her advice because two days before the hospital called to verify my inducement and info and told me to call in at 6am that morning and they would tell me when to come in and it could possibly even be immediately. That meant I needed to be ready to go by 6am. I had my parents on call and the bags packed on the 13th just in case. And then... I couldn't sleep. I just tossed and turned so uncomfortably all night with the anticipation of possibly having a baby in the morning. I think the memory of the pain was finally coming back and I was having a lot of anxiety about having to to it again. At 5:30 I finally woke up Ryan and explained that I now was completely exhausted going without sleep but that soon I would need to call the hospital. When I called at 6am they told me that it would probably be 3-4 hours and if I didn't hear from them by 10am to call back. So I tried to get some more sleep and barely slept for an hour before getting up and showering. No call.. so at 10am I called them. They told me they had a few more women come in so it's going to be a few hours but if I don't hear from them by 2pm to call in. So more waiting.... and waiting... and no call. At 2pm I called in and was told it was crazy so probably not until 5-6pm but that I should definitely get called in today.
We decided to head to the park to play one last time as a family of three. And then headed home for dinner. Once it got to 7pm we didn't know what to do. We had planned on taking Samantha to my parents house on the way to the hospital but now it was her bedtime. I tried calling the hospital one more time but was told the charge nurse would have to call me back. So we just went ahead and put Samantha to bed. I really can't explain how long this day felt to me. It was miserable. But finally around 9pm I called back in and they told me to come in! We called my parents and my dad rushed over to stay with Samantha while we headed to the hospital. I enjoyed being able to walk in without water gushing like last time. It took about an hour to get me checked in but before I new it I was in the hospital bed. They started me on potocin around 10pm and about the same time I got my epidural. Out of all the things you go through during delivery the part I'm most scared of is getting the epidural. It's mental, you know needles and things. But once that part was over I was a happy camper. I did shake fairly violently for a bit but didn't feel any real pain.
It was rather entertaining every time a new nurse or resident would come by they would ask my a series of questions, "Is this my first baby?" and "How did my last delivery go?" And every time I explained I had shoulder dystocia and hemorrhaged with my first baby they would all make a comment like, "Ok, this is going to be fun." However, I never was too worried. In my mind I was going to have a 7 lb baby and it was going to be so easy.
For the next few hours I slowly progressed. And by 2:45am I was dilated to a 10. That's when they started calling my Dr. to come in... without any luck. They called and called and sent text messages but they got no response. So after a little while they decided to get the on-call Dr. to come in. That was the worst part. For the next 20 min I had to hold Lydia in even though I felt like I needed to push so badly. Luckily Dr. Mehl was quick. When he got in he said him and Dr. Daly went way back and were residents together and that he wouldn't let her hear the end of it for not waking up.
Although Dr. Mehl was the presiding Dr. the resident who had been with us most of the time a Dr. Winterton was the one to actually deliver me. There were 2 residents, Dr. Mehl, and two nurses all in the room when I was ready to start pushing. The first push I didn't get a good breathe so it was not strong at all, but it still was good enough to deliver her head. Unfortunately though, Lydia had shoulder dystocia as well. Ryan said at this point he was pretty nervous that Dr. Daly wasn't there. But luckily I never felt panicked. I did one more push and they were able to get Lydia free as easily as Samantha did. Seeing Lydia for the first time was so much fun. My first thought was, "I delivered the same baby." She looked JUST like Samantha. But much smaller... or though I thought. Both Ryan and I were thinking when they handed her to me that she was going to be a smaller baby. Until the nurses took her to clean her up and started commenting that she was a big baby. We were shocked. Lydia was 8 lb 14 oz (only 4 oz smaller than Samantha). She came at 3:26am and was 21 inches long.
Things were definitely much much easier with Lydia. It was only a 5 hour labor as opposed to over 10 with Samantha. I only pushed twice rather than almost 2 hours the first time. And I didn't hemorrhage at all which I think made the biggest difference. After I had Lydia I felt great. I was up and walking around very quickly and felt back to my normal self in hours. We only stayed one night in the hospital because I felt dumb for being there, every time the nurse would come check on me and ask me what my pain level was it was always at a 0. Instead of having to be on serious pain meds for 10 days, I took Ibuprofen for about a day and then didn't even need that. It was awesome! Lydia off the bat was such a mommas girl. If someone would take her out of my arms to check her vitals while she was awake she would scream until the moment she was back in my arms.
Later that morning Dr. Daly came to our room with her head down. She told us she had no words for how sorry she was and thought maybe her phone wasn't working because she can't imagine both her and her husband sleeping through 13 missed calls. She said in all the babies she's delivered she only missed one other one because it came in the car and she was so upset that her record was now ruined. I really love our Dr. and even though she wasn't there for Lydia's birth I still want her for all my babies if possible.
It all started when I was about 36 weeks pregnant. My Dr. had been asking if I wanted to be induced early and I kept saying probably not. I just really wanted to know how each of my babies came... if they would all come early like Samantha or if they would be different. But on my 36 week appointment my Dr. finally explained to me why she kept asking if I wanted to be induced. She told me that Samantha's delivery was considered extremely difficult. Which I guess I had not caught on to, for all I knew my delivery was fairly normal. Dr. Daly explained that Samantha had shoulder dystocia. I vaguely remember her talking about Samantha's shoulder last time, but honestly never asked what it had meant because everything seemed fine. Shoulder dystocia is when the baby's shoulder gets suck. My Dr. explained that it's the "code red" in the baby unit and every OB's worst nightmare. Because once the head is delivered the cervix acts as a tourniquet until the rest of the body is delivered, which means they only have minutes to get the baby unstuck. I won't go into the different methods they use to get the baby unstuck, but trust me they can be scary. With the shoulder dystocia and hemorrhaging badly my Dr. said we want to try and avoid all that. So while she let me decide whether or not to be induced, she recommended it. Statistically babies usually get bigger with each pregnancy and my first was 9 lbs 2 oz, so her goal was to try and keep this baby 8 lbs or under.
After that appt I came home and explained to Ryan that we had no idea but I had scary deliveries and we decided that the best thing would be to induce at 39 weeks like my Dr. suggested. But in my head I was thinking that I'd come before my schedule inducement because Samantha had come 6 days early and she was my first. I also was really hoping I would come on my own early. That kind of thinking wasn't the best thing though because the last 10 days were the absolute worst. Every day seemed like a week and I was so ready to not be pregnant anymore. I had also started working from home, so getting out of the house was even more difficult.
My Dr. explained that I was the last on the list to be called into the hospital on August 19th so don't expect to get a call until that evening or possibly even the next night. I wish I had just listened to her advice because two days before the hospital called to verify my inducement and info and told me to call in at 6am that morning and they would tell me when to come in and it could possibly even be immediately. That meant I needed to be ready to go by 6am. I had my parents on call and the bags packed on the 13th just in case. And then... I couldn't sleep. I just tossed and turned so uncomfortably all night with the anticipation of possibly having a baby in the morning. I think the memory of the pain was finally coming back and I was having a lot of anxiety about having to to it again. At 5:30 I finally woke up Ryan and explained that I now was completely exhausted going without sleep but that soon I would need to call the hospital. When I called at 6am they told me that it would probably be 3-4 hours and if I didn't hear from them by 10am to call back. So I tried to get some more sleep and barely slept for an hour before getting up and showering. No call.. so at 10am I called them. They told me they had a few more women come in so it's going to be a few hours but if I don't hear from them by 2pm to call in. So more waiting.... and waiting... and no call. At 2pm I called in and was told it was crazy so probably not until 5-6pm but that I should definitely get called in today.
We decided to head to the park to play one last time as a family of three. And then headed home for dinner. Once it got to 7pm we didn't know what to do. We had planned on taking Samantha to my parents house on the way to the hospital but now it was her bedtime. I tried calling the hospital one more time but was told the charge nurse would have to call me back. So we just went ahead and put Samantha to bed. I really can't explain how long this day felt to me. It was miserable. But finally around 9pm I called back in and they told me to come in! We called my parents and my dad rushed over to stay with Samantha while we headed to the hospital. I enjoyed being able to walk in without water gushing like last time. It took about an hour to get me checked in but before I new it I was in the hospital bed. They started me on potocin around 10pm and about the same time I got my epidural. Out of all the things you go through during delivery the part I'm most scared of is getting the epidural. It's mental, you know needles and things. But once that part was over I was a happy camper. I did shake fairly violently for a bit but didn't feel any real pain.
It was rather entertaining every time a new nurse or resident would come by they would ask my a series of questions, "Is this my first baby?" and "How did my last delivery go?" And every time I explained I had shoulder dystocia and hemorrhaged with my first baby they would all make a comment like, "Ok, this is going to be fun." However, I never was too worried. In my mind I was going to have a 7 lb baby and it was going to be so easy.
For the next few hours I slowly progressed. And by 2:45am I was dilated to a 10. That's when they started calling my Dr. to come in... without any luck. They called and called and sent text messages but they got no response. So after a little while they decided to get the on-call Dr. to come in. That was the worst part. For the next 20 min I had to hold Lydia in even though I felt like I needed to push so badly. Luckily Dr. Mehl was quick. When he got in he said him and Dr. Daly went way back and were residents together and that he wouldn't let her hear the end of it for not waking up.
Although Dr. Mehl was the presiding Dr. the resident who had been with us most of the time a Dr. Winterton was the one to actually deliver me. There were 2 residents, Dr. Mehl, and two nurses all in the room when I was ready to start pushing. The first push I didn't get a good breathe so it was not strong at all, but it still was good enough to deliver her head. Unfortunately though, Lydia had shoulder dystocia as well. Ryan said at this point he was pretty nervous that Dr. Daly wasn't there. But luckily I never felt panicked. I did one more push and they were able to get Lydia free as easily as Samantha did. Seeing Lydia for the first time was so much fun. My first thought was, "I delivered the same baby." She looked JUST like Samantha. But much smaller... or though I thought. Both Ryan and I were thinking when they handed her to me that she was going to be a smaller baby. Until the nurses took her to clean her up and started commenting that she was a big baby. We were shocked. Lydia was 8 lb 14 oz (only 4 oz smaller than Samantha). She came at 3:26am and was 21 inches long.
Things were definitely much much easier with Lydia. It was only a 5 hour labor as opposed to over 10 with Samantha. I only pushed twice rather than almost 2 hours the first time. And I didn't hemorrhage at all which I think made the biggest difference. After I had Lydia I felt great. I was up and walking around very quickly and felt back to my normal self in hours. We only stayed one night in the hospital because I felt dumb for being there, every time the nurse would come check on me and ask me what my pain level was it was always at a 0. Instead of having to be on serious pain meds for 10 days, I took Ibuprofen for about a day and then didn't even need that. It was awesome! Lydia off the bat was such a mommas girl. If someone would take her out of my arms to check her vitals while she was awake she would scream until the moment she was back in my arms.
Later that morning Dr. Daly came to our room with her head down. She told us she had no words for how sorry she was and thought maybe her phone wasn't working because she can't imagine both her and her husband sleeping through 13 missed calls. She said in all the babies she's delivered she only missed one other one because it came in the car and she was so upset that her record was now ruined. I really love our Dr. and even though she wasn't there for Lydia's birth I still want her for all my babies if possible.
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