The Pifer Family: April 2012

Isla Lauren Pifer

Born March 17, 2012 @ 6:27 p.m.

Pregnancy was a journey...delivery was too...now parenthood...woo-hoo!

This is my delivery story, it is long but I needed to document it for myself. I have put off writing it in words and starting my blog because it was an emotional time for me and my family.

On Friday, March 16, 2012 I visited Dr. Ellis for my 38 week check up. She had been monitoring my blood pressure for about the last 4 weeks and it was slowly becoming more elevated. She decided that it would be safest for me to head to Akron General from her office to have my blood pressure monitored and have some blood tests completed. She told me that chances were I'd be induced sometime over the weekend and by Monday at the latest. Although I knew my blood pressure had been an issue, I was not expecting her to make this decision at this appointment.

I had mixed emotions about the news. On one side I was ecstatic because I knew I would be meeting my precious baby within days but I was feeling a little sad because I had hoped to experience going into labor on my own. Ultimately I knew the doctor was making this decision for the safety of me and my baby.

I immediately called Joey to tell him the news and he was also surprised by the doctor's decision but very excited as well. I made the necessary phone calls to the rest of the family and headed to Arabica to pick myself up lunch because I knew it might be my last meal for a while!

     Britt drove me to the hospital around 1:00 p.m. where they started monitoring my blood pressure and running some blood tests. Joey drove over straight from work that afternoon. My blood pressure kept climbing while I was in OB Triage and they decided I needed to be admitted.
     Once admitted, they quickly started me on an IV of Magnesium Sulfate to help lower my blood pressure and informed me that Dr. Ellis wanted to begin my induction that night! The IV medicine limited my water intake to just 50 cc an hour which is equivalent to about 5 small ice cubes, this was the worst part of the medicine besides the fact they won't let you out of bed by yourself and simply feeling flu-like and unable to focus your eyes to read or watch television.
     The first step in the induction process was using a softening agent called Cytotec which they gave me a dose of every 4 hours from 6 p.m. Friday night to 9 a.m. Saturday morning. The Cytotec had not helped in the process because I barely went from 1 cm dilated to 2 cm. Dr. Ellis decided to begin pitocin at this point to help progress the labor a little more quickly. Things were going well and I felt good despite the Magnesium and I was starting to feel contractions which excited me because I knew I must be progressing.

It was disappointing when the doctor checked me a couple hours later and there was no change. They decided to start cutting back on the pitocin at this time because the contraction monitor was picking up that my uterus was not relaxing as it should in between contractions and the baby's heart rate slowed down slightly a couple of times.

      A little later they decided to place an internal monitor on the baby's head and start increasing the pitocin again.  This time I was starting to feel more intense contractions and after about an hour or so I asked for an epidural. I was still feeling a constant tightness on my right side and they gave me a little more medicine. I suddenly felt nauseous and begin getting sick. At this time there were about 3 nurses and 4 doctors in my room staring at the monitors. They said the baby's heart rate is dropping quickly, at one point during labor I saw the heart rate was 160 and when they said this it was 60.
     They tried a few things including giving me an injection that was supposed to instantly counter act the pitocin and they also tried some techniques to stimulate the baby. Nothing worked because once again my uterus was not relaxing in between contractions. About a minute later they said I needed to have a c-section and the baby had to be delivered now.
     Within seconds I was pushed across the hall to the operating room and a couple minutes later the baby was delivered. I was in shock with what was happening and asked about 100 times if my baby was going to be okay while at the same time reciting The Lord's Prayer over and over. Finally someone said your baby is fine, you had a girl!
     Poor little Isla was born in some distress and it took her a few minutes to wake up in this world. It felt like forever until I heard her finally start to cry and it was the best little sound ever. Her apgar score went from a 1 when she was 1 minute old to a 9 when she was 5 minutes old. I'll never forget when Joey carried her over for me to see for the first time and I touched her soft little chubby cheek with my finger.
     While in the recovery room the nurse brought the baby in for me to hold and try breast feeding. I was still very numb and my upper body was shaking uncontrollably from the medicine and my nerves. With barely being able to hold Isla, she latched on with no problem for what seemed like 20 minutes when the nurse had to remove her and take her for some tests and her first bath.

We were then transported to the post partum unit where we spent the next 3 nights. The nurses there were incredibly caring, helpful and nurturing. I don't remember sleeping those 3 nights in the hospital because all I wanted to do was hold, kiss and stare at my beautiful baby girl. We were finally released on the evening of Tuesday, March 20th. It was a sunny 80 degree day, perfect for Isla to be introduced to the outside world for the first time. We are blessed.