Hadley Jean

So, to start we'll need to backup to week 37. If you didn't notice, we went from week 36 to week 38.  Leading up to this week Emily was having a higher blood pressure than normal, as well as an increased creatinine level, which has the midwife concerned.  So when we went in for our weekly checkup the midwife said she reviewed Emily's file with one of the OBGYN's and the recommendation was to induce Emily during week 37.  Our reaction: "But, this is week 37."  We weren't prepared to hear that since we thought we still had a few more weeks to prepare.

Depending on her results, and since her numbers were trending in the right direction, we decided to do additional testing and re-evaluate what we wanted to do. The next day Emily went in for more blood work and her numbers were still improving. She also didn't have a high blood pressure anymore.  To monitor it all, we started going in twice a week instead of just one.  Everything kept improving.

At our regular appointment at week 38 the midwife wanted to schedule Emily for an induction at week 39.  At this point we were all for it because the pregnancy was becoming more and more difficult for Emily.  Needless to say she was done being pregnant.

Two days later as we were going to bed Emily said she felt what she thought might be her water breaking, but was unsure because it wasn't very much.  So we decided to just kind of wait and see.  I left for work the next morning and after being there for about an hour, Emily called to say there was more liquid, and it was definitely not urine.  She called triage and they told her to lay down for about 20 minutes and if she stands up and more liquid comes out, then there is a good chance her water did break and she would need to go in.

So, I left work to come home and gather all our stuff and head down.  We were obviously nervous, but definitely more excited, because this meant it was really happening.  When we got to the hospital they had us go to triage so they could take a sample of the liquid and send it to the lab to make sure it was indeed her water.  It was.  So that meant we there until the baby was born.

We settled into our room and the nurses put Emily on Pitocin to help the contractions because at this point she wasn't having any, when she should've been.  Starting at 2, they ticked it up every so often and for most of the day Emily was saying that it wasn't doing anything.

By this point my mom and dad had made it to town, and Emily's mom was not far behind.  They all came and went, and it was shortly thereafter when the nurses increased the Pitocin dosage to 20.  That is when it seemed to hit Emily and she started to have more frequent contractions and was also starting to feel them more and more.

Through the night they got more intense, and it got to the point where here body was shaking uncontrollably because of it.  Apparently during the night Emily's temperature got up to 103 degrees, but was lower after an hour or so.  At this point we had been at the hospital for a good 20 hours and Emily was only dilated about 4cm.  In the early morning she opted to get the epidural, which turned out to be a good thing because it really allowed her to relax her body and calm her down.

After about an hour, and a short nap, the midwife came in and told us she wanted to put a couple sensors up to more directly monitor the strength of the contractions and baby.  First, she wanted to check Emily's cervix.  She then says we won't have to do anything else because Emily was at 10cm already.  They left the room to go grab the stuff for the finale, and told Emily to rest a little, and hooked her back up to Pitocin to get her contractions closer together.

About an hour and a half later they came back in with some people from the NICU on standby in case the baby had an infection because it had been about 36 hours since the water broke. Now that the contractions were closer together, it was time to get pushing.  With each contraction Emily gave it her all.  She did so good.  The nurses and midwife were impressed with her pushes, and how effective they were.  Emily said later that she couldn't feel where she was pushing exactly, but since they said she was doing good she tried to replicate each push and direct them at the same place.

Less than an hour and a half later, without breaking a sweat, Emily gave birth to our little Hadley.  When they put her on Emily's chest I was confused because the baby looked like those fetal pigs used for dissection, but covered in cream cheese.  Hadley then started crying and the nurses wiped her down and she started to look more like a human baby.

Hadley Jean
6lbs 7oz
18.5" long

Everything checked out.  Then they did a screening for jaundice, and it came back with higher numbers of bilirubin than they wanted.  They brought in this biliblanket to wrap her in that would break down the bilirubin.

The next day (Sunday) they did another test, and her numbers hadn't come down enough, so they kept her wrapped up.  Later in the day they tested her again.  The midwife came in with a phone and handed it to me and it was a doctor from a different hospital.  Her numbers were still a little too high and he explained our options.  We decided to have to transferred to the other hospital where they would put her under a more intense light therapy table.

 One more night at the hospital, and the next day her numbers were well below the threshold.

Finally, we could take our little girl home.  It was a long weekend, with sleepless nights and more stress than we anticipated. But at the end of it, we took home a healthy Hadley.