Lydia Sheri Kruse
April 1, 2013
7:03 pm
8lbs, 15 oz
20 in
Lydia Photo Bomb
unedited photos
OUR BABY STORY
Last Thursday March 28, 2013 at our 39 week doctor's appointment we discussed with our doctor about making an appointment for Monday April 1st to strip my membranes. Just to help things progress, he really didn't want me to go over my due date because my uterus wasn't consistently measuring where it needed to be. It was supposed to grow a centimeter a week and mine just wasn't. We went in for our appointment Monday morning, and all seemed to go as usually. Weight, blood pressure, measure the belly, and listening to the babies heart rate. Then he stripped my membranes which is so not as bad as everyone was telling me it could be. Not comfortable at all but not horrible either. Anyways because once again my uterus didn't grow and when he felt my abdomen he could tell she may be big, he decided to go ahead and do an ultrasound to measure my amniotic fluid and measure how big she was getting. Well turns out my amniotic fluid was borderline low and he measured her to be 9lbs 7 oz! Holy cow lol That's when he brought up induction. He said that he would highly recommend that we induce her because of the low fluid and she was already big. But not only that he was concerned because her abdomen was measuring bigger than her head which can cause problems during delivery with her shoulders possibly getting stuck which in turn could mean more interventions needed.So he sent us home to gather our stuff and told us to head up to the family birthing center (FBC) where they would be waiting for us. On the drive home it hadn't quite hit me what was happening, but we got there, got our stuff together, a friend came over and helped Trevor with a blessing and then we were on our way. We got the the FBC at about 11 am. They checked us into our room and had us sign a stack of papers and then we waited for the doctor's orders. They decided to start with Cervidil. It's a string with a bunch of hormones to soften and possibly dilate your cervix. They said most likely not much would change and I would be started on pitocin in the morning. Little did they know my body was more ready for labor than they thought. Between the membrane strip and the cervidil I ended up in labor within hours. Started out as just stronger braxton hicks but then they because regular and much closer together. By 3pm I was having consistent hard contractions. Because of the cervidil I was stuck in bed on the fetal monitors. Being in bed has to be the worst place to have contractions, you can't move much and its impossible to get comfortable. To make it worse I was stuck in one position because they were having a heck of a time keeping her heart on the monitor. She was moving around too much and making it very difficult to keep track of her. That went on for a couple hours with the nurse constantly in there adjusting the monitor. I eventually asked for the epidural because the contractions were every minute and super painful. My nurse said it would be awhile and made it sound like I was being a wimp. I wanted to hit her and make her try not moving at all through a contraction so that I could be the one pushing a monitor into her abdomen. Anyways my doctor came in not too long after and checked me and the decision was made to pop my water and place an internal monitor into Lydia's scalp so she could be better monitored. I'm convinced that that one decision is what saved her life. And my doctor also confirmed that I was dilating quickly and that if I wanted an epidural it was more than reasonable for me to have one right then. After the call was placed to the anesthesiologist I was told it would be at least a 45 min wait because he had just started another procedure, at that point I once again could have hit my nurse because if she had listened to me he could have made it to my room first. It all ended up working out because the on call anesthesiologist was available and was there in 15 min. The epidural was not even partially as scary in real life as it was in my head. I was more than ready for it and could care less about the gigantic needle as long as it took the pain away. Truthfully, the worst part of the whole epidural experience was sitting in the position that made it possible for him to stick the epidural in. Hunching over was the most painful part, I only felt a little pressure with the numbing solution being injected and I don't remember feeling anything else at all as far as needles and my back goes. This was all done sometime close to 6:00. After the epidural was in they laid me back and had me lay on one side. Everything was going just fine. Then they positioned me to the other side and Lydia's heart rate dropped from the 150s down to below 60 getting as low as 40. If we hadn't placed the internal monitor who knows if the drop in her heart rate would have even been noticed right away.. Suddenly there was a swarm of nurses and doctors in the room flipping me into all sorts of positions trying to raise her heart rate, hanging bags of fluids, throwing oxygen on me and the next thing I know I am on my hands and knees with my chest as low as I could get it hoping to get as much oxygen to Lydia as possible. Then I was being rushed out of the room into the OR where they were prepping for an emergency C-section. I was scared and just praying over and over again that Lydia was ok. I wasn't being told much, I remember going through the doors of the OR and hearing Trevor had to wait outside the door. I started panicking at that point, I never even considered the option that Trevor wouldn't be with me every second. Luckily there was a really amazing resident in the room that comforted me, told me everything was okay and that Lydia's heart rate was stabilizing. Once Lydia was stable and Trevor was back in the room with me I felt a ton better but at this point it was kind of a waiting game. My doctor showed up with in 10 min of Lydia's heart rate dropping and knowing he was there made me feel even better too. Because her heart rate stabilized it was no longer and emergency c sections although they weren't comfortable enough to let me back into my room yet. At this point the doctor gave me the option to continue to labor and see how things went, or go ahead with the c section right then. Everything was set up for the c section anyways. We were told they didn't know the exact cause for her heart rate dropping so it could possibly happen again, plus my doctor felt with the position she was in and with her size we would most likely end up back in the OR anyways. I asked for his gut feeling and he said it was ultimately up to me, but I told him I wanted his expert opinion. He said he would go with the c section if it was up to him. As soon as we agreed to the c section I felt instantly calm and knew that it was the right decision. Right away they got things in motion for the c section. It was crazy how fast things happened, I kept asking Trevor what was happening because I obviously couldn't see through the curtain to watch. We joked that it smelled like corn nuts when they were cutting me open, which it really did smell like that. I felt next to nothing through the whole thing, just some tugging way up high which wasn't painful at all. I do remember shaking and not being able to control it, which was weird. The moment I heard her cry for the first time I couldn't believe she was here and healthy and alive, it was overwhelming and relieving at the same time. From then on she was my only focus in the room and she was beautiful! They held her up and the first thing I said was that she was so cute and I was so glad she was cute :) Which she is so cute and beautiful! She was across the room getting checked out and Trevor was asked if he wanted to help cut the cord and meet her. So he got to see her and be close to her. The nurse brought her over for me to see and I was aching to hold her, the nurse was all ready to leave the room with her though, thankfully I had an amazing anesthesiologist who made her wait and let me hold her! I couldn't stop crying she was so beautiful and she was mine! She had her eyes open and looking at me and just looked me in the eyes and I could barely stand to let her go. Trevor went with her back to our room and was in there holding her when I finally made it in there and got to hold her again. When I got to hold her again she had her thumb in her mouth totally content and sucking away. She is the most beautiful princess I have ever met. Anyways back in the OR my Doctors were finishing me up, listening to the radio and just joking away. I had warm air being pumped in under my blanket which felt really nice. But all I could think about was my babe in the other room. When they finished they tipped me to my side to put the panel under me to move me back to my bed, that was so freaky! It felt like I was falling or going to fall to the ground, it freaked me out but my doctor reassured me that he had a hold of me and I wouldn't fall. They removed the epidural and I was on my way back to my room where my baby and handsome husband were waiting. It was crazy how fast things happened! But we were very blessed with a healthy baby and speedy recovery and all of us were able to leave the hospital 48 hours later. She is so sweet and the perfect baby. I love her so much and it is amazing to see daddy and daughter together, she has Trevor wrapped around her little finger already.
