7 days after my due date on Dec. 27th, 2009 Patrick and I decided to pass the time (as we not so patiently waited for the baby to make an appearance) by organizing all our pictures. Just as we were making real progress, I stood up from my sitting position on the ground and oops, my water broke. Holy cannolli! We both showered and I called the Dr. She suggested I come in because if my water had, in fact broken, we were on a time crunch to prevent any infection. So we packed a few final items and headed to the hospital. Once we got there, I was put on a fetal monitor and asked to walk around to get my water to fully break...and it did! But I was only 1-ish cm dilated. So they had to start the labor process for me with 2 drugs...miso-something and Pitocin. The Pitocin forced my body to have contractions every 2-3 minutes.
After 12 hours of this with no epideral, I was still only 1-2 cm dilated. "Are you kidding me!?" I caved and took an epideral. 12 more hours and I was finally 5 cm dilated. 4 more hours and I was 8 cm. Finally, at around 4:30 a.m. on Dec. 29th I was ready to push, despite the fact that I couldn't feel a thing from my chest down. After a few pushes, drama struck...we lost the heart beat and the nurse hurridley called in support. Once they found the heart rate again it had drastically dropped and the team rushed me into a surgical suite to perform a crash c-section. Once in the surgical suite, the baby's heart rate stabilized and Patrick was brought into the room. The Dr. explained that they didn't know why the heart rate had dropped so we could try to keep pushing and it might happen again or he could perform a c-section. We chose the c-section. At 6:34 a.m. the team pulled a 9lb 1.5 oz baby girl from my belly. We were so shocked she was a she that we forgot the girl names we had considered. We decided on Harper because it was just unique enough and went well with Grace. The team worked to get Harper breathing. She was breathing but not well so they brought her to the NICU and Patrick followed while they stitched me up. Patrick soon returned and said they had stabilized her and I could go see her just as soon as they were ready to move me to our post partum room.
When we went to visit Harper in the NICU, we were told that she had a small hole in her lung and she needed to be placed in an oxygen hood to help correct it. She was in the hood most of the day but was breathing on her own by that evening.
When we went to visit Harper in the NICU, we were told that she had a small hole in her lung and she needed to be placed in an oxygen hood to help correct it. She was in the hood most of the day but was breathing on her own by that evening.
Because Harper's arrival into the world was a bit traumatic, she had a hard time maintaining her temperature and glucose levels after her lung had recovered. So she remained in the NICU for 3 more days while I recovered in post-partum, and then 2 days in the infant care unit sleep-in room (I got to sleep in the room with her). Patrick was an unbelievable support person for...bringing me my favorite foods from home and calming when I felt frustrated or nervous. I couldn't have asked for a more perfect partner. Harper made wonderful progress and we had wonderful friends visit us the whole time. Thanks, Uncle Tom and Shannon & Dan.
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