On Monday, March 21, 2011, at 6:15 pm, Sarah Jane Archer entered our lives. I know I'm slightly biased, but she may well be the most beautiful thing I've ever seen! All of the silly bed rest and diabetes, all of the back aches and heart burn, all of the trips to the bathroom - everything was worth it!!!
This is the story of her grand entrance...
On Sunday, March 20, Tom and I checked into Shawnee Mission Hospital's maternity center. We were given a huge room in labor and delivery, complete with a mini-fridge and a whirlpool tub! Alas, I was never to use that glorious tub because I was being induced. That's right - Miss Sarah had an issue with arriving in a timely fashion! (I'm sure this is just a temporary thing.)
My doctor had been talking with me for about a month about the possibility of inducing, so I wasn't surprised when we went that route. I really like and trust my doctor, and she had talked me through all the reasons why we needed to do this to help ensure that my baby would arrive happy and healthy. She waited as long as she thought we should to limit the weight of the baby while still ensuring adequate time to grow and develop, and so the labor process began with a dose of Cervadil on Sunday night.
As we waited to see if the drug would help me further efface and dilate, Tom and I tried to take it easy. We watched some basketball, we had some snacks, and we tried to get some rest. That's far easier said than done when you're waiting to meet your baby soon!
So we waited...all through Sunday night. And when Monday morning arrived, we discovered that I was still not quite dilated to 1 cm and only about 50% effaced. That's when we started the pitocin to kick start my labor! By 7:00 am, I was on a slowly increasing dose of pitocin. My doctor arrived at 8:45 to let me know that I still wasn't progressing, and then she broke my water in the hopes that we would speed things up that way. But it wasn't to be!
By 2:30, I was maxed out on pitocin and having strong, regular contractions 2-3 minutes apart...and I was still only dilated to 2 cm. Needless to say, I went ahead with the epidural at that point! We continued to let the pitocin work its magic, but when my doctor came back at 5:00 and I still hadn't made any progress, we moved to Plan B - a C-section!
From that point on, everything seemed to be in fast forward. At 5:45, a team of nurses swarmed into the room to prep me while Tom tried his best to make phone calls to let people know what was happening. Within 15 minutes, I was being wheeled down the hall to the operating room and Tom was being taken to get his scrubs. I was moved to the operating table (which is no small feat when you're numb from the waist down!) and the Big Blue Curtain was hung up in front of my face. I got another hefty dose of meds in the epidural, and then my doctor was asking me if I was ready to go!!! I had a moment of panic as they began without Tom in the room, but he walked in and sat down next to me to hold my hand as they began cutting.
Tom and I tried to make small talk to avoid really thinking about what was going on on the other side of the curtain, and we both made our predictions about the baby. We both guessed girl, but Tom was off on the weight by almost a pound! I guessed 9 lb 2 oz, which ended up being low, too...
We followed Sarah's arrival through my doctor's comments: "Wow! There's a lot of hair. That's a big head!" followed by "That's a big baby!" We actually had to ask what KIND of baby it was, and then she made me think about it by saying "It starts with a G and ends with an L!" (Tom later admitted that it took him a while to figure this one out as well!) It seems cruel to present someone whose insides are out with a riddle like this, but once we pieced it all together and they lifted little Sarah's head over the curtain for me to see, the joy and wonder of it all overwhelmed me!
Tom knew that his job was to "follow the baby," but before he left my side he set his iPod next to my head and played our song - "In My Life" by Allison Crowe. I was able to lay there, listening to the song that made me most happy, and watch my husband meet our daughter for the first time. It was a moment I will love him forever for giving me! From there, the nurses cleaned up Sarah, weighed her, let Tom bring her to me for one quick look, and then they were off to the nursery while I was wheeled into recovery.
Once I was in recovery, Tom was able to bring Sarah to me. The two of us admired her tiny perfection and reflected on how lucky we are, and then we brought in Grandma Marti, Grandpa Jeff, and Uncle Adam for their first introduction to Sarah!
After a short visit from the family, Tom, Sarah and I were taken to the recovery section of the maternity ward. We met our nurses and tried to settle into the room. Shortly after midnight, Sarah's blood sugar levels dropped to 29. They aren't supposed to be any lower than 50 in a healthy baby, so just after midnight Sarah was admitted to the NICU. While I had chosen to deliver at Shawnee Mission partly because of their excellent NICU, I hadn't really planned on ever needing to utilize this service!
Needless to say, I quickly learned that hysterical crying 1) doesn't work well with multiple layers of stitches in your abdomen and 2) doesn't get your daughter back in your arms. Instead, I put my own plan in place - if Sarah couldn't be with me, I would just have to go to her! Unfortunately, I still had my epidural in place and no one wanted to take it out any earlier than 24 hours after the C-section had occurred. And so I waited for a shift change and hoped for the best with the next nurse! Luckily, I had the best nurse in the world by my side, and she totally helped spring me from bed early. By 10:00 Tuesday morning, the epidural was out and I was in a wheelchair breastfeeding my daughter in the NICU! (Katie, I will always hold you in my heart for that!!!)
Tuesday ended up being kind of a long day. We were stuck in our room with no baby and limited access to the NICU. While the nurses were all fantastic and it was wonderful to see the people who came to visit us, I was really just focused on getting Sarah back into our room with us. Luckily, her blood sugar stabilized quickly and she was back in our room by 10:00 am on Wednesday! Needless to say, she didn't spend much time out of our arms that day...but here's a great picture of her all swaddled up in her crib at the hospital!
From that point on, it was our goal to get home. We were officially released from the hospital on Thursday, March 24 around 12:30. We bundled Sarah into her car seat for her first trip in the car (she slept through the whole thing), and then headed home as a FAMILY!!!
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