Baby Adelaide Esther DeWitt was born on Wednesday, January 5, 2011 at 5:54pm. She weighed in at 6 pounds 15 ounces and was 20 inches long. So, according to the predictions in the previous post- I believe it was a tie between Anne and I. Although I said boy- and Anne said girl.
So, I did end up having preeclampsia after all. They caught my urine samples all day Tuesday and tested it Wednesday morning. They also did a blood draw. My urine protein went from 300+ to 2700+. Not good. My blood work showed the platelets went down, which is also not good. Dr. Zimmerman came in to tell me they would be inducing me that day, because delivery was the only cure for preeclampsia. My contractions were few and far between by that time. So they started me on pitocin to get my contractions coming more regularly. Once they were they had to hook me up to Magnesium Sulfate. This was some awful stuff! But it was necessary to keep me from having seizures, which can happen with preeclampsia. They had to empty a whole bag of the stuff into my system and then keep a drip of it going. It was the weirdest sensation. It was very HOT going in. Made my mouth and whole body feel VERY hot. They brought in a fan and that helped. My eyes also felt weird. I couldn't focus very well and felt very drugged. The side effects from the Magnesium were nausea and headaches, which I was already experiencing. :(
They also had to give me two whole doses of anti-biotics because the results from strep B test (which had been on Monday) hadn't come in yet. They wanted to be on the side of caution. My blood pressure was not very high, but high for me. It had actually been really low the whole pregnancy.
Dr.Zimmerman came in around 11:30am to break my water. This was a failed attempt and VERY, VERY painful. The baby hadn't dropped down enough to reach it, even with that little hook thing. He said he would come back after his surgery at 12:00 to try again. I was determined to have an epidural by then so that it wouldn't be so painful. I was able to do that because I had progressed enough. He came back around 3:30pm and was successful at breaking my water (without any pain :)). I was at 8cm.
We all relaxed and played the waiting game for a little while. Then I felt a change and became a little anxious and a little more nauseous. I asked Anne to get our nurse or the doctor. They came in a little after 5:30pm and Dr. Zimmerman checked me. He said I was a 10 and the baby's head was right there. They hurriedly set everything up and got their delivery garb on. We waited for a contraction and I pushed. Dr. Z. told me to stop. I didn't understand why until I realized the head was already out. He gave me the go ahead and I pushed her out very quickly. Dr. Z. asked "What do we see?" and we all had to take a few seconds to look. Dave said, "Nothing?". It was an awesome moment when we all realized they had gotten the girl they really wanted. (at least Anne really wanted a girl).
The stay in the hospital was longer than we all wanted but overall good. I only had to have the Magnesium for 12 hours after the birth instead of 24 hours. I cried with relief. We had some great nurses and some not so great. We had bad news concerning the legal side of things for Dave and Anne. Their pre-birth order was denied once again by a local judge. This meant Scott and I had to be on the birth certificate instead of Dave and Anne. This has caused a trickle down of problems and confusion with everything from social security numbers to insurance. What a mess that dumb judge has caused! But Dave and Anne didn't want to focus too much on it and take joy from this experience. They have already started the steps it takes to "adopt" their biological baby. Ridiculous!!!
Some other events that went on were finding out Addie had a broken clavicle, which was not a huge deal and had already started to heal. She had a heart murmur that had to be checked out and was found to be no big deal also. Anne has struggled with breastfeeding. Addie is such a sleepy baby because of being early and being a little jaundiced, that she hasn't latched on very good. They have to undress her just to get her to wake up enough to eat. Addie was able to get my colustrum, some of Anne's milk, and is now mostly formula fed. She gained a little weight at her last appointment and continues to increase her food intake. Dave went back to work on the 13th of January, which was very hard for him. And probably hard for Anne and Addie too.
I'm feeling much better. Headaches are almost gone. I go in to see Dr.Z. for a blood pressure check on Tues. January 18. My milk is starting to dry up and I'm starting to feel relief in that area.
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