Thursday, May 5, 2011
Tuesday, May 3, 2011
May 3rd, 2011 - Daphne is almost 5 months old
Well it has been a few months since my last post. They have been amazingly wonderful, challenging and difficult months. Since Daphne’s birth we have had a crash course in baby 101, moved to Milwaukee from Atlanta, and, just recently, Andy was laid off from the job we moved to Milwaukee for. While in the process of all this change and stress, all I have had to do is look at my gorgeous Daphne and realize that nothing else is more important than the happiness and well being of my little girl.
I want to finish out my blog with the story of her birth. As is turns out, we were called by the hospital with the amnio results. They said her lungs were developed and we could head to the hospital to have a baby. We literally jumped off the couch, loaded the car, made a few phone calls and hit the rode. I think it was about 9pm when we finally got out the door.
Once at the hospital, it took a while for us to be admitted and check into our room. Being as I was not yet in labor, I was having a great time talking with everyone from the front desk lady on the maternity ward, to the hospital staff. They finally brought us to our room and we waited for a nurse to come in. It was getting late at this point and we were ready to go to sleep. I was told the process would be simple. They would insert the cervidil that night and then, if the cervidil didn't send me into labor, I would be given pitocin in the morning. If I wanted, I could take an ambian to sleep, which made me very happy. They also told me I would get an iv and they would have to wake me up during the night to test my blood glucose.
The first thing they did was insert the cervidil. It was easy and painless. The insertion of the iv, however, was a whole other story. The nurse came in and told me that they would be inserting an iv into my arm that would have multiple ports attached. This way, they could give me multiple medicines at a time without having to stick me with a bunch of needles. This sounded great! I began chatting with the nurse as she prepared to put in the iv and I was surprised when she reached for my hand. I quickly realized she was sticking the needle in a vain on my wrist not in the usual spot mid arm. I have to be honest, this proceeded to be the most painful thing I have ever experienced. I let out a scream so loud that is scared Andy quite a bit. I yelled at the nurse and suggested that she warn someone before she inflicts that much pain. Her response did not make me happy. She said, “Well, some women react just fine and others respond like you.” I don’t want to dwell on it but it really, really hurt. Anyway, next they gave me my ambian and I settled in for what I thought would be a good night sleep.
The ambian turned out to be a total waste. They nurses came in every two hours to check my blood sugar. Each time they came in, they would flip on a light and wake us both up. I didn’t get much sleep at all.
Once morning rolled around, I was ready to get the show on the road. Around 7am they started me on the pitocin. They simple hooked the medicine up to the existing iv and told me to wait for my body to respond. At this point I was not feeling anything. I felt like my normal self. My mom arrived from Dallas a little after they started the pitocin and we waited.
Around 10am, Mom and Andy decided they wanted some breakfast. They left for the hospital cafeteria and I sat in the provided rocking chair and watched some tv. I felt very strongly that I did not was to spend my entire labor laying flat in a bed. I felt that gravity was going to be my best tool and had learned that a rocking chair could help the baby to drop down. I was very excited to find the rocking chair in my room and spent a majority of the time rocking and waiting.
They had only been gone about 10min when one of the midwives came in to check my cervix. She said I was dilated to almost one centimeter and she broke my water. I had heard that once your water is broken, the contractions get more intense and labor progresses quickly. I was nervous to see how my body responded.
Another interesting aspect of labor was the control of my diabetes. I had gotten written orders from my Endroconologist about how to control my diabetes during labor. He had written in his orders that if my blood sugar did not stay below a certain number, I should turn off my pump and be hooked up to an insulin drip inter-venously. The hospital was watching my blood sugar very very closely and when my blood sugar was higher than desired, they said they wanted to hook up an insulin drip. "No problem" I said. "Your just going to hook the insulin up to the existing iv in my wrist, right?" I asked. The nurse responded by telling me that they would have to insert a second iv because the insulin would have to be alone. This, as you can imagine, sent me over the edge. They had another thing coming if they thought I was going to let them put me through that pain again. I told them that I wanted another attempt to get my sugar down with my pump and they said no. They were not interested in ignoring the written orders from my Dr. and letting me control my diabetes without supervision. After much discussion, I convinced them to let me try and in the interim they were going to test my blood sugar every 2 hours.
Well during these two hours I was pumping myself full of insulin because I didn’t want that insulin drip. I know this was not the smartest decision but I was not interested in another iv. As you can imagine, I proceeded to have low blood sugar and the nurse I got into a big fight. I asked for juice and she never brought it so I came unglued and bit her head off. In the end, my doctor called and told them that I could control my diabetes and there was no need for a drip. I apologized to the nurse and everything was fine in the end.
Needless to say, nothing happened quickly. We spent all day in the hospital waiting for me to go into active labor. We played cards, we played Yatzee, we watched tv, friends stopped by and we watched the clock. I was still completely comfortable. No real pain to speak of and no real change in my body.
About 6pm the my OB and midwife, who was actually a lady I had never met because she didn’t see patients at the office I went to for all my prenatal checkups, came in to discuss our plan. They said that because my body was not really responding to the induction, we were left with two options. This was shocking to me. With all the planning and talking about being induced, no one ever mentioned an induction could fail. I was shocked. They Dr. explained that they were asking my body to do something it wasn’t ready to do so it wasn’t ready to respond to the medicines. They said they could stop the pitocin so I could eat something and then restart it in the morning or we could wait a little longer and if nothing happened we could go for a C-section. I didn’t realize it at the time but Andy later told me that everyone in the room, except for me, thought I was heading to the operating room.
Here were my thoughts. If we were asking my body to do something it wasn’t ready to do then why was everyone in such a rush. The baby was happy and not in any distress at all and I certainly had no where else to be so I decided to wait and see what happens. Once the Dr. and Midwife left the room, Mom and Andy said they wanted to go get some dinner and at a local restaurant outside the hospital. I said “Good, I’m glad your leaving because the last time you left they broke my water. Hopefully you leaving will send me into labor.” I had no idea I had just predicted the future.
I went back to rocking in my trusty rocking chair and they left for dinner. They weren’t gone 10 minutes when the contractions started to get really intense. They were coming on strong and they were coming quicker then they had before. Every time a contraction would hit I would simply rock back and forth and breathe deeply. I’m sure the look on my face said it all when they returned from dinner. With each passing minute I was feeling them stronger and stronger.
The midwife came in to check on me and helped me through the pain. At this point it was about 7:30pm. She said some women find it helpful to imagine, with each contraction, that the baby is dropping. This really helped. I would take deep breaths and with each exhale I would imagine the baby dropping lower and lower.
I don’t know why I didn’t think of this but Andy asked the midwife if I was experiencing active labor. She said yes and it was the best news I had heard all day. I knew we were getting somewhere. The contractions really weren’t painful. They only lasted a minute or two and then there was a break in between. For me, the hard part was the mental stress of not knowing how many centimeters I had dilated or how much longer I was going to have to endure this. I was exhausted and I was worried that I would not have the energy to mentally deal with the pain.
I asked the midwife if she would check my progress. Unfortunately, she said because my water was broken, she didn’t want to check me and risk introducing an infection. We agreed we would wait an hour and a half and she would check me at 10pm. I worked through the contractions and watched the clock. I was ready for 10pm.
Another interesting aspect of my labor was that I had no back labor. Andy and I had taken a birthing class to learn what would happen during the birth. We spent the afternoon learning different positions, stretches and massages we could do to help alleviate the pains of back labor. Fortunately, we used none of them! The only pain I was feeling were the contractions.
When 10pm finally rolled around I asked the midwife if she would check me. This was when Andy asked “How many centimeters do you think she has dilated to? “ I was shocked when the midwife responded by saying “I would be very surprised if you are dilated to 3!” THREE!! THREE!! Was she kidding? I was beginning to feel very mentally tired and, while I was not all that uncomfortable, I was exhausted from not sleeping the night before and breathing through each contraction.
When the midwife checked me she said with excitement “You’re at 5! Let’s get you an epidural!” Within a half an hour I was medicated and ready to get some sleep. Andy curled up on the hospital cot for dads and my mom was asleep in one of the chairs. We all closed our eyes and slept.
I was only asleep about a half an hour when I started to feel the muscles between my shoulders tighten. It was the same sensation as a Charlie horse but it was in my back. I was sleeping on my side and because my legs we numb from the epidural, I could not easily roll over to the other side. I called for the nurse and explained what I was feeling. She had a puzzled look on her face. She helped me move into a few positions to get more comfortable. We tried moving the pillows, we tried my lying on my other side, we tried raising and lowering the bed but nothing worked. Finally, she looked at me and said “I have been a labor and delivery nurse for 15 years and I have never had this happen to one of my patients. I don’t know what it causing this.” We decided to ask the midwife. Unfortunately, she had no idea what was happening either called the anesthesiologist.
The anesthesiologist explained that that I was having a reaction to the pain medicine they use before they insert the epidural. She said it only happens once and a while but there wasn’t anything she could do. Once she left, the midwife decided to check me and learned I was complete. We were ready to push. I sat up and got ready to go. Next the midwife explained how to push. She told me to wrap my body around the baby and push her out. Unfortunately, this involved putting my chin to my chest. Because of the pain in my back, I was not able to move my chin down without experiencing incredible pain. None the less, I did what I could and tried to push.
Needless to say, my attempts at pushing were very ineffective. I could not put my chin down and because the epidural was so strong, I could not feel any contractions. This posed a problem because I could not tell when to push and when to rest. On top of all of that, I was so incredibly tired that I had very little energy to push.
The midwife decided that we were going to lower the epidural. She hoped this would help bring back some of the feeling so I would know when to push. We did this because I was so numb that I was not feeling any of my contractions. Once she lowered the medicine, she was standing next to the bed talking with Andy and I about our plan of attach. I have no idea what was said. I later learned that while we were in the middle of talking, I fell asleep. For some reason when they lowered the pain medicine, my body completely relaxed, the pain in my back lightened up and I passed out. When I woke up about 2 hours later, everyone was asleep.
I quickly realized that the two hour nap was just what I had needed and I was now had the energy to push. I asked the nurse to call the midwife and asked that we get the show on the road. At this point it was about 5:30am. Everyone got the coffee they needed and came to the party.
The pushing was difficult. I had not had more than a few hours of sleep in two nights and I now had to give birth. I was so tired. The pushing wasn’t painful; it was just a lot of work. On top of all that was going on, I began to vomit. Evidentaly, this is very common during child birth. I vommited off and on through out the entire delivery.
About an hour into pushing the midwife asked Andy if he wanted to deliver his daughter. We both had no idea what she was talking about. She explained that if he wanted to, he could pull his daughter into the world. Andy was over the moon excited.
I knew we were getting close because other people started to enter the room. At about 7:45am a lady walked in all dressed in scrubs. I learned she was nurse assigned to look after the baby once she was born. Another lady walked in with a tray of very scary looking tools. It had knives and scissors and clamps. The midwife must have seen the look or terror on my face because she smiled at me and said “none of those are for you. They are simply to cut the umbilical cord.” I was incredibly relieved and went back to pushing. This was when I realized that Andy was washing his hands. I looked back at the midwife and asked “Why is he washing his hands?” She responded by saying “I could not take his pacing back and forth so I made him go wash his hands.” Andy was an incredible cheerleader during the entire delivery and he was very excited to meet his daughter.
The next thing I remember is the midwife handing Andy a pair of gloves and saying “Ok, Dad you’re up!” All I remember after that was them laying baby Daphne on my chest. She was pink and adorable and I was in love.
They took her from me rather quickly as they wanted to check her blood sugar. It was perfect. Next they weighed her. 7 pounds 18 ounces. Finally, the baby nurse looked up and said “What is her name?” That’s when I announced that her name is Daphne June Massingill. Everyone loved it. That is the story of how Miss Daphne June Massingill came into the world on December 5th, 2010 at 8:20am.
I want to finish out my blog with the story of her birth. As is turns out, we were called by the hospital with the amnio results. They said her lungs were developed and we could head to the hospital to have a baby. We literally jumped off the couch, loaded the car, made a few phone calls and hit the rode. I think it was about 9pm when we finally got out the door.
Once at the hospital, it took a while for us to be admitted and check into our room. Being as I was not yet in labor, I was having a great time talking with everyone from the front desk lady on the maternity ward, to the hospital staff. They finally brought us to our room and we waited for a nurse to come in. It was getting late at this point and we were ready to go to sleep. I was told the process would be simple. They would insert the cervidil that night and then, if the cervidil didn't send me into labor, I would be given pitocin in the morning. If I wanted, I could take an ambian to sleep, which made me very happy. They also told me I would get an iv and they would have to wake me up during the night to test my blood glucose.
The first thing they did was insert the cervidil. It was easy and painless. The insertion of the iv, however, was a whole other story. The nurse came in and told me that they would be inserting an iv into my arm that would have multiple ports attached. This way, they could give me multiple medicines at a time without having to stick me with a bunch of needles. This sounded great! I began chatting with the nurse as she prepared to put in the iv and I was surprised when she reached for my hand. I quickly realized she was sticking the needle in a vain on my wrist not in the usual spot mid arm. I have to be honest, this proceeded to be the most painful thing I have ever experienced. I let out a scream so loud that is scared Andy quite a bit. I yelled at the nurse and suggested that she warn someone before she inflicts that much pain. Her response did not make me happy. She said, “Well, some women react just fine and others respond like you.” I don’t want to dwell on it but it really, really hurt. Anyway, next they gave me my ambian and I settled in for what I thought would be a good night sleep.
The ambian turned out to be a total waste. They nurses came in every two hours to check my blood sugar. Each time they came in, they would flip on a light and wake us both up. I didn’t get much sleep at all.
Once morning rolled around, I was ready to get the show on the road. Around 7am they started me on the pitocin. They simple hooked the medicine up to the existing iv and told me to wait for my body to respond. At this point I was not feeling anything. I felt like my normal self. My mom arrived from Dallas a little after they started the pitocin and we waited.
Around 10am, Mom and Andy decided they wanted some breakfast. They left for the hospital cafeteria and I sat in the provided rocking chair and watched some tv. I felt very strongly that I did not was to spend my entire labor laying flat in a bed. I felt that gravity was going to be my best tool and had learned that a rocking chair could help the baby to drop down. I was very excited to find the rocking chair in my room and spent a majority of the time rocking and waiting.
They had only been gone about 10min when one of the midwives came in to check my cervix. She said I was dilated to almost one centimeter and she broke my water. I had heard that once your water is broken, the contractions get more intense and labor progresses quickly. I was nervous to see how my body responded.
Another interesting aspect of labor was the control of my diabetes. I had gotten written orders from my Endroconologist about how to control my diabetes during labor. He had written in his orders that if my blood sugar did not stay below a certain number, I should turn off my pump and be hooked up to an insulin drip inter-venously. The hospital was watching my blood sugar very very closely and when my blood sugar was higher than desired, they said they wanted to hook up an insulin drip. "No problem" I said. "Your just going to hook the insulin up to the existing iv in my wrist, right?" I asked. The nurse responded by telling me that they would have to insert a second iv because the insulin would have to be alone. This, as you can imagine, sent me over the edge. They had another thing coming if they thought I was going to let them put me through that pain again. I told them that I wanted another attempt to get my sugar down with my pump and they said no. They were not interested in ignoring the written orders from my Dr. and letting me control my diabetes without supervision. After much discussion, I convinced them to let me try and in the interim they were going to test my blood sugar every 2 hours.
Well during these two hours I was pumping myself full of insulin because I didn’t want that insulin drip. I know this was not the smartest decision but I was not interested in another iv. As you can imagine, I proceeded to have low blood sugar and the nurse I got into a big fight. I asked for juice and she never brought it so I came unglued and bit her head off. In the end, my doctor called and told them that I could control my diabetes and there was no need for a drip. I apologized to the nurse and everything was fine in the end.
Needless to say, nothing happened quickly. We spent all day in the hospital waiting for me to go into active labor. We played cards, we played Yatzee, we watched tv, friends stopped by and we watched the clock. I was still completely comfortable. No real pain to speak of and no real change in my body.
About 6pm the my OB and midwife, who was actually a lady I had never met because she didn’t see patients at the office I went to for all my prenatal checkups, came in to discuss our plan. They said that because my body was not really responding to the induction, we were left with two options. This was shocking to me. With all the planning and talking about being induced, no one ever mentioned an induction could fail. I was shocked. They Dr. explained that they were asking my body to do something it wasn’t ready to do so it wasn’t ready to respond to the medicines. They said they could stop the pitocin so I could eat something and then restart it in the morning or we could wait a little longer and if nothing happened we could go for a C-section. I didn’t realize it at the time but Andy later told me that everyone in the room, except for me, thought I was heading to the operating room.
Here were my thoughts. If we were asking my body to do something it wasn’t ready to do then why was everyone in such a rush. The baby was happy and not in any distress at all and I certainly had no where else to be so I decided to wait and see what happens. Once the Dr. and Midwife left the room, Mom and Andy said they wanted to go get some dinner and at a local restaurant outside the hospital. I said “Good, I’m glad your leaving because the last time you left they broke my water. Hopefully you leaving will send me into labor.” I had no idea I had just predicted the future.
I went back to rocking in my trusty rocking chair and they left for dinner. They weren’t gone 10 minutes when the contractions started to get really intense. They were coming on strong and they were coming quicker then they had before. Every time a contraction would hit I would simply rock back and forth and breathe deeply. I’m sure the look on my face said it all when they returned from dinner. With each passing minute I was feeling them stronger and stronger.
The midwife came in to check on me and helped me through the pain. At this point it was about 7:30pm. She said some women find it helpful to imagine, with each contraction, that the baby is dropping. This really helped. I would take deep breaths and with each exhale I would imagine the baby dropping lower and lower.
I don’t know why I didn’t think of this but Andy asked the midwife if I was experiencing active labor. She said yes and it was the best news I had heard all day. I knew we were getting somewhere. The contractions really weren’t painful. They only lasted a minute or two and then there was a break in between. For me, the hard part was the mental stress of not knowing how many centimeters I had dilated or how much longer I was going to have to endure this. I was exhausted and I was worried that I would not have the energy to mentally deal with the pain.
I asked the midwife if she would check my progress. Unfortunately, she said because my water was broken, she didn’t want to check me and risk introducing an infection. We agreed we would wait an hour and a half and she would check me at 10pm. I worked through the contractions and watched the clock. I was ready for 10pm.
Another interesting aspect of my labor was that I had no back labor. Andy and I had taken a birthing class to learn what would happen during the birth. We spent the afternoon learning different positions, stretches and massages we could do to help alleviate the pains of back labor. Fortunately, we used none of them! The only pain I was feeling were the contractions.
When 10pm finally rolled around I asked the midwife if she would check me. This was when Andy asked “How many centimeters do you think she has dilated to? “ I was shocked when the midwife responded by saying “I would be very surprised if you are dilated to 3!” THREE!! THREE!! Was she kidding? I was beginning to feel very mentally tired and, while I was not all that uncomfortable, I was exhausted from not sleeping the night before and breathing through each contraction.
When the midwife checked me she said with excitement “You’re at 5! Let’s get you an epidural!” Within a half an hour I was medicated and ready to get some sleep. Andy curled up on the hospital cot for dads and my mom was asleep in one of the chairs. We all closed our eyes and slept.
I was only asleep about a half an hour when I started to feel the muscles between my shoulders tighten. It was the same sensation as a Charlie horse but it was in my back. I was sleeping on my side and because my legs we numb from the epidural, I could not easily roll over to the other side. I called for the nurse and explained what I was feeling. She had a puzzled look on her face. She helped me move into a few positions to get more comfortable. We tried moving the pillows, we tried my lying on my other side, we tried raising and lowering the bed but nothing worked. Finally, she looked at me and said “I have been a labor and delivery nurse for 15 years and I have never had this happen to one of my patients. I don’t know what it causing this.” We decided to ask the midwife. Unfortunately, she had no idea what was happening either called the anesthesiologist.
The anesthesiologist explained that that I was having a reaction to the pain medicine they use before they insert the epidural. She said it only happens once and a while but there wasn’t anything she could do. Once she left, the midwife decided to check me and learned I was complete. We were ready to push. I sat up and got ready to go. Next the midwife explained how to push. She told me to wrap my body around the baby and push her out. Unfortunately, this involved putting my chin to my chest. Because of the pain in my back, I was not able to move my chin down without experiencing incredible pain. None the less, I did what I could and tried to push.
Needless to say, my attempts at pushing were very ineffective. I could not put my chin down and because the epidural was so strong, I could not feel any contractions. This posed a problem because I could not tell when to push and when to rest. On top of all of that, I was so incredibly tired that I had very little energy to push.
The midwife decided that we were going to lower the epidural. She hoped this would help bring back some of the feeling so I would know when to push. We did this because I was so numb that I was not feeling any of my contractions. Once she lowered the medicine, she was standing next to the bed talking with Andy and I about our plan of attach. I have no idea what was said. I later learned that while we were in the middle of talking, I fell asleep. For some reason when they lowered the pain medicine, my body completely relaxed, the pain in my back lightened up and I passed out. When I woke up about 2 hours later, everyone was asleep.
I quickly realized that the two hour nap was just what I had needed and I was now had the energy to push. I asked the nurse to call the midwife and asked that we get the show on the road. At this point it was about 5:30am. Everyone got the coffee they needed and came to the party.
The pushing was difficult. I had not had more than a few hours of sleep in two nights and I now had to give birth. I was so tired. The pushing wasn’t painful; it was just a lot of work. On top of all that was going on, I began to vomit. Evidentaly, this is very common during child birth. I vommited off and on through out the entire delivery.
About an hour into pushing the midwife asked Andy if he wanted to deliver his daughter. We both had no idea what she was talking about. She explained that if he wanted to, he could pull his daughter into the world. Andy was over the moon excited.
I knew we were getting close because other people started to enter the room. At about 7:45am a lady walked in all dressed in scrubs. I learned she was nurse assigned to look after the baby once she was born. Another lady walked in with a tray of very scary looking tools. It had knives and scissors and clamps. The midwife must have seen the look or terror on my face because she smiled at me and said “none of those are for you. They are simply to cut the umbilical cord.” I was incredibly relieved and went back to pushing. This was when I realized that Andy was washing his hands. I looked back at the midwife and asked “Why is he washing his hands?” She responded by saying “I could not take his pacing back and forth so I made him go wash his hands.” Andy was an incredible cheerleader during the entire delivery and he was very excited to meet his daughter.
The next thing I remember is the midwife handing Andy a pair of gloves and saying “Ok, Dad you’re up!” All I remember after that was them laying baby Daphne on my chest. She was pink and adorable and I was in love.
They took her from me rather quickly as they wanted to check her blood sugar. It was perfect. Next they weighed her. 7 pounds 18 ounces. Finally, the baby nurse looked up and said “What is her name?” That’s when I announced that her name is Daphne June Massingill. Everyone loved it. That is the story of how Miss Daphne June Massingill came into the world on December 5th, 2010 at 8:20am.
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