Ceirnan's Birth: Faster Delivery, Longer Recovery

So she is nearing three weeks old and I am just sitting to write out her birth story. It's been an adjustment, but I will get to all of that later. For now, I'll start at the beginning.

I would say Ceirnan's birth story started way before her actual birth date. On Thanksgiving (4 days before she was born), I woke up feeling really sick. I spent the day in a chair in our living room with a wash cloth over my eyes because my head hurt so badly. It seemed I had developed a sinus infection or something. I went through 2 full boxes of tissue that day and even had to give myself a breathing treatment. I kept trying to decide if I should go to the hospital because I had just finished taking antibiotics and my doctor had warned me if they didn't work, I could have something serious. I decide not to go though and just drank a lot of hot tea and wrapped up in a blanket. I was truly miserable.

The next day I woke up feeling a bit better. We were planning on putting up our Christmas tree and I didn't want to miss seeing CJ's face. Around 9 am, I started having contractions. At first, I thought they were braxton hicks, but they quickly developed into a pattern. I waited about 3 hours until the contractions were around 7-8 minutes apart for awhile. I decided to take a shower in case it was for real. After the shower, I laid back down for a bit and the contractions tampered off.

The rest of the weekend was rather uneventful. I had some more contractions, but nothing quite as rhythmic as Friday morning. We spent Sunday giving CJ all of our time. We went for a long drive with my Dad who had come into town on Tuesday to be with us. We had a great lunch at a cute pub by the bay, took CJ to the park, and got ice cream. That night I packed my bag for the hospital since I had a doctor's appointment in the morning. I did not want to change Organ's when we moved from Philadelphia to Newark so I wanted to take my bag with me just in case. Newark to Philly is around an hour away.

Monday morning came and I woke up feeling like this was they day. I had no idea though how things would go. I first had to go to the ultrasound office for a biophysical ultrasound and non-stress test. The tech couldn't do a great non-stress test, but took my blood pressure and was concerned because it was pretty high- 180/100. I went to the ultrasound room for the biophysical scan. The baby looked good. Good breathing. Amniotic fluid levels were good. Heart rate was good. The tech went to get the ultrasound specialist to clear me so I could head to Dr. Shawl's for my regular appointment. In the meantime, another nurse came in and took my blood pressure again. It was down a bit, but not great. The specialist decided to call Dr. Shawl to see what he recommended. Next thing I knew it, I was checking in on the maternity ward. Dr. Shawl had decided I should go ahead and deliver just in case.

CJ was an induction so I knew a little of what to expect. I got changed, got my IV in, tried to get comfortable in the bed, and waited. Dr. Shawl came over and checked me. Sure enough I had already been contracting and was dilated to between 3-4, 100% effaced. He broke my water and the contractions began coming fast and hard. I was almost immediately in a rhythm at about every 5 minutes. Dr. Shawl put an internal monitor in, which attaches to the baby's head. We were off. After about an hour, the nurse came in and started some petocin to speed up the contractions. They were about every 3 minutes at this point and the petocin really stepped up the level of pressure. I had been doing okay until then. I was still coughing quite a bit and had a lot of congestion. I was trying to rest because I was afraid I wouldn't have enough strength to push. As the pain level rose, so did my blood pressure at some points reaching over 200. The nurses explained that pain will increase the pressure and asked me if I wanted an epidural. I had one with CJ, but I had hoped to avoid it or at least wait a bit longer. I had done almost all of CJ's without one and really felt like I could have avoided it if I had known how close I was to the end when I finally gave in. This time I was getting concerned over my pressure though and honestly was feeling exhausted already even a bit defeated. I decided to go for it.

After the epidural was in, I simply rolled over and closed my eyes. This time around was so different from CJs. During his delivery, it was like a party. My dad and best friend John were there along with Casey and we watched movies, joked around, listened to music. This time, I just slept while Casey did homework. Around 4pm I sat straight up realizing that I had to throw up. Poor Casey couldn't find anything other than a bed pan for me to use. Luckily it was clean. Around 5:30 pm Dr. Shawl came in and said I was 7 cm dilated. I thought "we are in for a long night". The epidural was wearing off and I began to feel more contractions. About an hour later, the nurse came in and said Dr. Shawl said it was about time to push. I was surprised to say the least given I had only been about 7 cm.

Dr. Shawl came in almost right behind her and started setting up. Suddenly I started feeling the urge to push. It was like seeing the equipment set my body in motion. Dr. Shawl laughed and told me to hold on a minute so he could go pee. He is such a crazy doc. By the time be got back in there, I thought I was going to split in two. He came over and told me to push. I took the position (chin down, legs up), and started pushing. I was amazed at how normal it felt. With CJ, I remember not even knowing how to push correctly. I pushed down with all my might until around the count of 7. Then Dr. Shawl said to stop. I was confused a second since it was my first push, but I heard him with the suction. I sat forward and said is she out? Dr. Shawl said she will be with one more push. I pushed again and out she came. Two pushes! I was in shock. I pushed with CJ for 90 minutes or so. Just I was trying to comprehend she was really out, I heard him say...it's a girl!

I sat straight up. What? Then Casey saying...What? Are you kidding? The noises slowly faded to the background. We thought it was a going to be a boy. We weren't sure and had her name picked out in case, but we were still in shock. Suddenly I looked at Casey and he looked as white as a ghost. He started to pass out. This was something we knew might happened as he hates all medical things and the sight of blood. The medical staff began working on him as he sank into a chair. My nurse however laid Ceirnan on my stomach and I got lost in her eyes. I hugged her and kissed her. I had not been aware that Casey got faint because he had seen her arm. At that moment, I heard Dr. Shawl say to call the neonatologist that something was wrong.

Ceirnan's right arm had a strange wound pattern and the forearm was smaller than her left forearm. The doctors came in and frankly had no idea what was wrong with her. They said she had to go to the NICU for the night at least and that they would start her on antibiotics. They continued to check her out while Dr. Shawl sewed me up and helped me deliver the placenta. It's always strange to me how the birth seems natural but the rest of it seems so medical. I suddenly became acutely aware of the massive number of people in the room as Dr. Shawl continued to joke and chat with me. My nurse was so wonderful. She insisted that I get to spend some time with the baby and stated she would bring Ceirnan down in a few minutes. I put Cerinan to the breast and cuddled her for about 20-30 minutes. By this time Casey was okay, but we were both in such shock. It came time for her to go much too soon and I said good-bye as they wheeled her away.

I got up and headed to the bathroom. I walked around for about 10 minutes and was feeling pretty good. Then suddenly it was my turn to go faint. I quickly sat and couldn't get up. They brought down my bed for transport, but I couldn't walk to it. After about 5 minutes, I forced myself to get up knowing that the sooner I could lay down the better I would feel. They wheeled my upstairs where I went into my room. The nice part of PA hospital and my insurance is that I had a private room with a pull out bed for Casey. He headed down to the NICU to be with Ceirnan as I settled in for an IV bad of fluids. The nurse kept coming in to check my pressure as it remained high. I was told that as soon as the fluids were in my system I could go see Ceirnan. What I wasn't told is that the bag wouldn't be done until around 4 am.

That night was really hard as I was still feeling the staring of high blood pressure and was so concerned about her. Case stayed down there most of the night until he was having a hard time staying awake while holding her. The next morning I went down and greeted by a whole team of doctors who basically said no one knows what happened, but we think she is going to be just fine. The next three days Ceirnan stayed in the NICU. The NICU was strange. The nurses were incredible and I felt blessed knowing the Ceirnan was not as sick as many of the other babies there. However, it was still terrifying. It was hard to hold her because of all of the wires. Her leads kept falling off, which would set off an alarm. The room was filled with the sounds of beeping and loud noises. It always seemed really dark too. She was so tiny to me, but bigger than most of the babies there. Her discharge weight was 6lbs 6oz compared to CJ's 7lbs 9oz. Since I am breastfeeding, I trekked from the 5th to the 2nd floor every couple of hours. I would have stayed down there all day, but I need to get regular blood pressure checks. My blood pressure was slowly gong down, but was still not good.

I don't think it helped that no one really could say what happened to our girl. She was blessed to be seen by some of the top docs in the country. She had a team including a pediatrician, dermatologists, interns, neonatologists, and plastic surgeons looking her over. The specialists were all from CHOP and were extremely interested in her case. Originally they thought the umbilical cord might have been wrapped around her arm, then they considered an amniotic band which is tissue that cuts off circulation, or aplaysia which causes skin not to grow in certain areas. None of them to fit exactly though. The reality is we will likely never know what happened. They all decided to finally let us go though with several appointments set up for follow-up. Dr. Shawl kept me an extra day. Ceirnan was kept an extra day too. We were finally discharged on December 3 in the afternoon.

Since we've been home there have been lots of doctors appointments both with her pediatrician and with the specialist at CHOP. Despite being scary, Ceirnan did wonderful and we are just so happy that she is here and is doing well. Her arm is healing nicely. She will likely require physical therapy for her hand and her arm will likely stay thinner than her other arm. Still, she is happy and healthy. I plan on writing more about this whole process later.