The story of Eva's birth

WARNING: extremely non-flattering pictures of me and even of Eva are ahead. In fact, some of the ones of Eva being born are not for the faint of heart. You have been warned.

We were scheduled to be at Riverside at 7:00am on 11/12. I hardly slept at all that night, so it was no problem to be up that early and at the hospital. We got there right on time and were taken to our room.

By 8:00am they started the pitocin. They checked me out and I was 2 cm dilated. I had been 1 cm dilated on 11/10 and for the last 2 weeks, so we were glad about being at 2 and optimistic that things would continue to progress.

By noon they had broken my water and connected internal monitors. The pitocin seemed to be working – I was up to 3 cm – but I wasn’t really having much in the way of contractions.

Around 3:00pm I was at 4 cm. The few contractions I was having were becoming painful, so the anesthesiologist was called in to start the epidural. While I am glad to have had the epidural, I have to say it was the most painful experience of my life. And they had to do it twice because the first one only worked for the left side of my body! It was definitely worth it - - I guess a quick painful poke or two beats hours and hours of pain.

The hours went by and I was still only at 4cm. My contractions still weren’t being productive. The nurses would contort my body into positions that were supposed to speed up the labor process, but our baby didn’t like that. Her heart rate would slow way down, the nurse would come running in, turn me back on my back, give me oxygen and stop the pitocin. Unfortunately, the oxygen mask would give me a panic attack (I never knew that having a mask forced onto my face would make me feel like that) which would increase my heart rate and blood pressure. Once the baby’s heart rate would return to normal, they would start the pitocin back up again - - gradually. Because of this, I was never really getting back up to a pitocin level that would keep things moving. We repeated this about 4 times until the doctor and nurses finally decided it wasn’t a good idea. Duh!

Around 8:00 or 9:00pm, my epidural wore off and I started to feel the painful contractions. Instead of setting the machine to beep when the epidural was getting low on medicine, it was set to beep when it completely ran out. That sucked. So, I had to wait about an hour for an anesthesiologist to come in and give me a new dose.

By 10:00pm, I was still at 4cm and the baby hadn’t moved. The doctor and I decided that a c-section would be the way to go. Boy do I wish that this had been determined 12 hours before!
My doctor had to do another c-section but would be back in about an hour to start mine. Dan and I started mentally preparing ourselves for the surgery. I was relieved and excited and ready to go.

Meanwhile, an hour went by, and another hour… We found out that something didn’t go right with the c-section before mine and it was taking my doctor longer than she had anticipated.

By 1:00am, on 11/13/08, I was finally being wheeled into the operating room and prepped for surgery. At 1:22am, Eva Rose was born. She weighed 6lbs, 10 oz and was 19 inches long. So much for the estimate that she would be an 8lb baby!!!

I was stitched up and Eva, Dan and I were in the recovery room by 2:00am.

While Dan and my parents passed around our beautiful little girl and took hundreds of pictures, I sat in my bed and shook and shook and shook - - a side effect of the epidural - - and looked on as if I were having an out of body experience. Too weird.

By 3:30am, we were in our room and attempting to get some sleep…

Christmas Eva

6 weeks old

5 weeks old

4 weeks old

3 Weeks Old

Thanksgiving

Our Little Turkey

Eva's first place setting at Thanksgiving dinner.

2 weeks old

1 week old

La Petite LaPointe has arrived!

Eva Rose LaPointe arrived at 1:22 am on November 13th, 2008. She weighs 6 lbs 10 oz and is 19 inches long.

Some updates

We're scheduled for the induction at 7:00am on 11/12. Geez, that's early. My doctor said it could take from 12-24 hours... That's a long time!
Meanwhile, I have decided to try to get every pregnancy related ailment I can while I still have the chance. I have had swollen feet and cankles for the last two weeks (no pitting edema, much to Dan's chagrin) and for the last week I have had PUPPPs - - a itchy rash on my belly, feet and ankles. Google it for some awesome pictures. (Don't worry, my outbreaks aren't as bad as most of those!!) But it is very, very uncomfortable and it takes a ton of will power to keep from scratching. I'm not doing so well with the will power thing.
Oh well... Only two more days to go!
We can't wait to meet her!

A date has been set

I will be induced on Wednesday, November 12th.

Drama at the doctor's office

Yesterday, at my regular Thursday NST (nonstress test) - - the baby decided to cause a little drama. Typically, the baby's heart rate is right around 150 with a couple of peaks in the 165-170 area (which is perfect). Well, this time, the baby's heart rate was holding steady in the high 170's and was not coming down. This went on for about an hour.

So, my doctor sent me straight to the Maternal Fetal Medicine doctors @ Riverside for them to take a look to see what might be causing this. Of course, I was freaking out, but held myself together the best that I could. My doctor tried to put me at ease, and said it was probably nothing and that by the time I got to the hospital, the heart rate would probably be back to normal. But worse case scenario, they would decide that the baby needed to be born that day.

I called Dan and told him to meet me at the hospital and I calmly made my way there. I beat him there by a couple of minutes and checked in at the reception desk. The receptionist pulls out my paperwork and I see the words "fetal tachycardia." Now, I've watched enough medical dramas on TV to recognize the word tachycardia - - so, once again, I tried my best to hold myself together. (And I think I did a pretty good job, if I do say so myself.)

Dan got there shortly thereafter and after about 10 minutes, they called me back to the office. First, I was given an ultrasound by the ultrasound tech. We got some more pictures (sorry I haven't scanned them yet) and they really focused on the heart and heart rate. Just as my doctor predicted, everything was back to normal. Baby's heart rate was back around 150.

Then the doctor came in, took a look at the ultrasound video then took a look around himself, and agreed that everything was fine. They have no idea what caused it.

Since this was the doctor we were scheduled to meet with the following Monday to discuss induction plans, we went ahead and had that appointment.

Based on the size of the baby (6 lbs. 8 oz.) at that time, the doctor decided we were OK to wait to induce until week 38 or 39. Good news: not a lot of fear at 38 or 39 weeks that the baby's lungs aren't developed. Bad news: I need to wait a couple more weeks!

The MFM doctor relayed this information onto my regular OB and she said we would discuss dates at my next appointment...

The MFM doctor also said that after the baby is born, they won't do any further monitoring of my blood sugar levels there. My doctor will do my normal follow-up at 6 weeks and she'll do a 2-hour glucose test then to see if I am indeed diabetic. (Which, as they've said before, they are fairly certain I am.) So, that's kind of good news. I'll get a 6 week vacation from diabetes! ;)

Baby Shower #2

I was so fortunate to have a second baby shower on October 9th, thrown by my coworkers. They held it in a private room at the Liberty Tavern, in our office building. It was very nice and everyone was so generous.

Here are a couple of pictures:

Baby Shower #1

On September 28th, my sister-in-law Carrie and my aunt Ruth threw a fabulous baby shower for me at my mom's house. Everyone I love was there (well, all the women, anyway) and it was truly everything I dreamed it would be. They did such a great job. The food, the decorations, the punch and the cake were all just the best.

Here are some pictures:

32 Week Ultrasound/Check-up

We had a really great doctor's appointment yesterday. I left there feeling very good about things. It seems that other than the diabetes, the baby and I are very healthy.
The doctor did a growth ultrasound and all of the baby's measurements are right where they should be. She weighs approximately 4 lbs. now, and should gain about a half pound a week from here on out. Meanwhile, I have only gained 1 lb. in the last two weeks - which brings my total to 23 lbs overall. I think that's really good and the doctor agrees.
My fundal height is measuring at the correct week as well (fundal height: the distance from your pubic bone to the top of your uterus.) During the ultrasound, the doctor also checked my amniotic fluid levels and mine were perfect.
My blood sugar levels are so much better and we haven't changed my insulin dosages (with the exception of a newly added lunch-time dose that we're still working out) in several weeks. The doctor is very pleased with that as well! :)
My blood pressure has been perfect all along and I have had very little swelling in my ankles and feet (or anywhere else).
I asked the doctor about checking on the sex of the baby one more time for my peace of mind, and she gave it a try, but the baby is so big and squished up at this stage of the game that we couldn't see anything. (Which is also the reason why I have no ultrasound pictures to post this time.)

We go to the high-risk doctors at Riverside at the end of October for one last growth ultrasound. They'll make a determination then on when they'll induce me. My doctor said for sure that they wouldn't let me go past 39 weeks. It seems that this baby will be born sometime between 11/2 - 11/16. (sorry - it's too late to change your bets)
My doctor also said that the baby's growth so far makes it look like a vaginal delivery will be possible. So - - more good news!

All of that being said, Dan and I really need to get to work on the nursery. The baby will be here before we know it.

I think I forgot to mention...

...that when we had an ultrasound done while I was in the hospital, we found out with 99.999999% certainty that this little one is a girl!

If you look at the last ultrasound picture from 8/4, you'll see the word "girl" and an arrow pointing to the area that confirms it. Now, I don't think you can see much of anything in that picture, but we did see some different angles during the ultrasound that leave little doubt. Still, I think I'll have the doctor check again next week - just to be safe!

Only 60 days to go?!?!?

How did that happen? Where has the time gone?? We're down to 2 months left, possibly even less, until we need to be ready for the baby. Wow!

Sorry I haven't blogged in such a long time. I have to admit, that dealing with being diabetic hasn't been easy. In fact, it has been downright tough. I'm finally getting a handle on what I can and can't eat - - unfortunately it's different for each woman with gestational diabetes. The way hormones are, you just can't control or predict how your body will react. Between my diet and insulin shots, I'm finally to a point where my blood sugar levels are where they should be - - it's been a lot of trial and error with me and my doctor. So I'm doing well now, but from what I have read, I should be prepared for some more fluctuations in the next few weeks caused by hormone shifts. Oh well, I'll just try to do my best, I guess.

My doctor thinks the baby looks great. She does have me coming into her office 2x a week for nonstress tests (NSTs). Basically what happens is I sit in a big recliner with two monitors on my belly. One is monitoring the baby's heart rate and the other is measuring contractions (of which I've been having none, thank goodness!) I am given a button to push every time the baby moves. They are looking for the baby's heart rate to increase for a certain amount of time each time it moves. So I sit there for anytime between 20 minutes to over an hour until they get the reaction they want out of the baby, at least 2 times. Unfortunately, several of my appointments have been at times when the baby is either sleeping or really, really chilled out - - that's why it sometimes takes an hour!

I have an ultrasound scheduled for next Thursday. They'll check the baby's growth again and make sure she's not getting too big. And then 4 weeks after that, we'll have another ultrasound at Riverside's Maternal Fetal Medicine office. At that point we'll have a better idea of when this baby might be born. My doctor said there is a chance they'll induce at 38 weeks instead of allowing me to go the full 40 weeks and the baby being too large.

Meanwhile, Dan and I have a tour of the hospital scheduled for 9/30. We've already seen the labor and delivery triage area and the rooms, but we haven't seen the operating rooms (in case of c-section) and we haven't been given the run down on how things work there. We're looking forward to it.

We haven't scheduled any birthing classes yet, and we may have missed the boat on that. From what I have heard, people are about 50/50 on whether or not the child birth classes are helpful or not.

Dan has started working on finding a pediatrician. We have a class/open house scheduled at a local office for the first week or two in October. So, we're moving right along in that area.

One big item left on the to-do list is preparing the nursery. We have a crib and a changing table over at my mom's house (thanks Mom!) that we need to move over to our place, but I still need to clear some furniture out of our spare bedroom to make way. My plan is to work on it this weekend - - but we'll see how that goes...

So - - for those of you who have been harassing me for an updated blog (you know who you are) - - is this good enough for you? I hope so! :)

Ultrasound Picture 8/28/08

We just got one picture during this ultrasound, and it's just her cute little feet. Everything else looked fine and she is in the 75th percentile for size. So, not huge but not tiny either.
Next ultrasound will be at the end of September. Maybe we'll get some better pictures then.

Ultrasound Pictures from 8/4/08