Our Little Ohlson Family: Kenadie's Birth Story

Our little girl finally made it! We are so excited. It was a very long and tiring induction process to get her here, so here goes the story. In my last post I wrote about how I was waiting for the results of my 24 hour urine test and knew if it was over 300, they would call me. Well I got an email from Kaiser saying I had new lab results so I looked them up and it was 647. So I was thinking Oh crap they are going to call me and want me to come in. We started backing the hospital bag and sure enough, 15 minutes later the nurse called and said they wanted us to come in within the next 1-2 hours. We stopped by Tony's parents for a quick dinner on our way then we were off to the hospital. When we got there the doctor on call said it was time to start the induction process because of the protein in my pee and my blood pressure was through the roof when we arrived. I kept trying to tell them it was partly because I was so nervous about getting induced. I was really trying to avoid the magnesium drip they give you in labor to prevent preeclamptic patients from having seizures from high BP. I had heard the most awful stuff about the magnesium, how terrible it makes you feel while on it. But my BPs were still sky high so they forced me to have it. The nurses had to tell me several times to be the patient and let them be the nurses. Anyways, the magnesium drip has to be on the whole time you are in labor plus 24 hours after birth. The worst part is the first half hour where they do a huge bolus to get the drug in your system. The dose was 4 grams for the first 30 minutes then 1 gram/hour after. Here was my take on it: it made me feel super hot like my blood was boiling and really achy like you have the flu. Not the best thing but it really wasnt too terrible. I felt so much better after they decreased the dose. Then checked my cervix and it was still high, thick, and closed. So they started the Cytotec at 1:05am to help my cervix soften and maybe progress a little. After that I felt a little crampy and regular contractions were showing up on the monitor. Soon the crampiness went away and I wasnt feeling the contractions hardly at all. Another dose of Cytotec and a few hours later, they checked my cervix and I was a fingertip dilated and a tiny bit more thinned out, but still really high. They started the pitocin which was awful because you can't eat anything except a clear liquid diet while on it. I was on the pit for 6 hours and having regular strong (on the monitor, I still wasnt feeling much) contractions. They checked my cervix and I was still the same. They let me turn it off and have a break from the pitocin so I could eat and get some rest. At midnight the next night (so almost 24 hours after starting the induction) a doctor came in and was really pushing us to get a c-section. He said he could schedule it for 7am that morning and this was so tempting because I was already exhausted and tired of not being able to eat off and on, but we said no because we really wanted to give my body a chance to progress and have a vaginal birth. So we started the cytotec and pitocin process again. A few hours into it, they inserted a foley bulb into my cervix to try to get it to dilate. As soon as she put in the foley bulb, I was 2cm dilated. About 2 hours later, she came to check on it and see if it was ready to come out and I was 4cm. We were all SO happy and relieved and thought this was the beginning of some good progression. About 8 hours went by...still 4cm and head was really high. I was going through periods of contractions that were pretty painful then the next hour, they weren't painful at all. It was so weird. Not like I had ever pictured it. They gave me an epidural to try to get some rest and let me say the epidural was wonderful! Why not everyone gets it is beyond me. It took about 5-10 minutes start to finish, did not hurt, and the best part...they put in a catheter after it was in and that was the end of needing to get up to pee every 15 minutes! Anyways, I got some rest that night which was great. At one point the nurse came to wake me up to put an oxygen mask on because the baby was looking "sleepy" on the monitor. 20 minutes later she was looking great again so I got to take it off and go back to sleep. In the morning, my cervix was checked again. Guess what. Still 4cm and head high. All that time and no progression. A c-section was highly recommended by the doctors AND nurses. If L&D nurses are telling you to go for the c-section thats probably a smart choice. They do everything they can to try to have their patients do a vaginal birth so we really trusted them. So 58 hours after the induction process started, we agreed to a c-section. They said "ok, you are next in line so after this patient is done with her section, its your turn." Holy moly! I was so stinkin nervous but I was able to close my eyes for a little while. I was so uncomfortable because I was absolutely starving and thirsty. I wasn't allowed to have anything. That was the worst part of the entire thing. Anyways, about 2 hours later (not sure why it took so long) we were heading down to surgery. I was NOT feeling well at this point. Whatever drug the anesthesiologist gave me was not agreeing with me. I was feeling so lightheaded and nauseous, just not right. I was so out of it and felt like something was wrong because I have seen so many c-sections on TV and they are always aware and with it. So they take me into the O.R. and tell Tony to wait outside and it would be 15-20 minutes later and they would call him in when they were ready to start. I just remember it was such a bright room and there were so many people walking in and out. They kept doing tests on my belly to see if I was numb but I was not getting numb on the left side. They had to keep pushing drug after drug and lowering the head of the operating table down. So my head was practically touching the floor and the rest of my body was at an upward incline. They finally got me numb and had Tony come in and said they were ready to start. Oh and I was able to lay flat again, thank goodness. About 5 minutes into it, they said here comes her head. Then they said she was out and I heard her beautiful little cry! Tony got teary and said She's here! They told me to turn to my left and I saw her all scrunched up and screaming. She was brought to the table where Tony followed her and cut the cord and was able to bring her over to me. I was still so out of it. He followed her out to the nursery while they stitched me up for another 20 minutes or so. Then I was wheeled into recovery and Tony eventually brought her in. I was still out of it and really nauseous so I couldn't even hold her for a little while. When I did it just felt so natural to be next to her.

This little girl is truly the sweetest most wonderful baby! She just sleeps and sleeps until we wake her up. They said this is normal for preemies. She gets hiccups a lot like she did in my belly. When she's awake she just looks around the room with her big eyes and makes the funniest facial expressions. I will go into more details about our sweet little girl on my next post, but writing that birth story was tiring! For now here are some pictures of the hospital stay... Sorry they are a little out of order. Also warning: I added photos of the actual c-section !