It's official: Sophie Lynn Fox made her entrance to the world on Tuesday, January 13, 2009 at 4:19 am. This post is a bit long in part to make up for all of those emails I have been neglecting for the past month (sorry to everyone...it probably isn't going to get much better but at least now I have an excuse!)
Pre-Game Action
So, I get up at precisely 5 pm on Monday to start dinner (spaghetti for all of you wondering minds) and what happens when I get to the sink? My water breaks. So after a few minutes of "Is this really happening?" and 3 trips to the bathroom (which pretty much confirmed that, yes, this is really happening) I call the doctor on the after-hours line. Of course, that means that they have to page him. I use this time to go ahead and pack my bag for the hospital (really, I was going to get to that this week!) but I still haven't called Tom because I didn't want to tie up the phone since I'm still waiting for the doctor to call back. After about 25 minutes, I call and page the doctor again. Tom shows up at 5:35 to a car seat and bags by the front door; the look on his face was priceless. All I could say was "Are you ready?" - which is a statement full of meaning. Finally the doctor called back, we finished throwing stuff in the suitcase, and we were on the road around 5:45.
Game Time
When we showed up at the hospital we went straight to the 4th floor (good thing we did the "dry run" a couple of weeks ago) to check in. Unfortunately for us, it was about 6:50...10 minutes before shift change. No one wants to take on a new patient before shift change, too much paperwork apparently. So after trying to check in at the 1st desk, they sent us back to another desk where there are 6 or so nurses just sitting around waiting to go home. I tell them my water broke and their response is "Are you sure?" This was the beginning of their doubt that lasted about 20 minutes before they finally got me in a bed and checked things. Turns out that yes, I'm not crazy, that crazy leaking indeed means that my water broke. Unfortunately for me, I was not dilated and my contractions were weak and sporadic. The solution? Pitocin. Ugghhh. So, they let me take a shower and then they started the drip and the results were pretty immediate. The nurse came in pretty frequently and upped the levels from 2 to 4 to 6. By the time she got to 6, I was having pretty much a non-stop contraction so she mercifully turned it down (and eventually off since my body took the cue and was handling the whole contraction thing on its own). They did give me some drugs through the IV at this time, but it didn't seem to do much (and I was only at 1-2 cm). I asked for an epidural, but they wanted to wait a couple of hours to see where I was at dilation-wise. When they did come back to check, I was at 3-4 and absolutely hating contractions (I must have spent about another 30 minutes in the shower just trying to find something else that would make things better). They agreed it was a good time for the epidural but it took another 45 minutes or so for the lady to get there with the giant catheter to insert into my back. Ah, but relief was not to be mine. The drug only worked on the right side and then not much at all. They called the anesthesiologist back after 30 minutes or so and they tried to move the epidural back a bit, but that didn't make a difference. By this point, my uterus was trying to push without me so they checked again and I was unexpectedly at full dilation so they called in the doctors and we got ready to end the whole experience. Pushing only last about 15-20 minutes (I was very motivated to end the pain) and we had our baby girl. Tom was absolutely fabulous during the whole process (and everything that we've been dealing with since) - I really don't know how I would have got through everything without him.
Post Game Reaction
When Sophie came out she did good on her Apgar score (9) but she was grunting as she breathed. Because she was technically early (1 day short of the magical 37 weeks (which is 3 weeks short of the even more magical 40 weeks)) they didn't want to risk that she had an infection (because of my water breaking she could have been exposed to something and when I showed up I had a temperature) that could be causing the problem so they told us they were going to take her to the NICU for 24-48 hours to monitor her. I got to hold her for a couple of minutes, and then they took her upstairs. After a couple of hours, they moved me to a recovery room where I'd stay for the next 48 hours.
The Ordeal Continues...
We were in for quite a shock when we went to see her in the NICU - she was in an incubator with a large tube in her nose (not those little oxygen things you get after surgery, this thing had to be strapped to a hat on her head). She also had a tube down her throat because the air they were forcing in can make them bubbly so the tube relieves that pressure. And it doesn't end there: There were leads attached to monitors, a temperature sticker, and a blood oxygen level thing attached to her foot and worst of all was the IV that was in her arm and the board that held it all straight and together. She looked rough, especially since we were just expecting her to be observed for a little while, we didn't fathom all of the stuff that they had going on. The days blend together, but basically the theme is the same: she was doing fine, but there was just one more thing she had to do before she could go home. She had to pass her blood culture to prove she didn't have an infection before she could come off of the antibiotics. Glucose levels had to be stable and she had to be eating regularly before they could stop the IV. She had to prove she was eating x amount before the IV could come out. We finally got her to the crib and out of the isolette and felt like we would be home in a day or two when we showed up for the 9 am feeding and she was back in the isolette with a bili light above her. Her jaundice levels had spiked to 16.9 (12 is their threshold before they do something) so she had to go under the light. It was pretty demoralizing because things that most people deal with at home had to be solved before we could get her out of the hospital (a fact that the doctor admitted). Two more tests had her levels drop to 14.9 and then to 11.4 after 8 hours so she made progress there. They finally decided on Saturday (1/17) that we could go home if we got a bili blanket to use until at least Monday when we'll get her levels checked again. We ran like the wind before they could change her mind!
Home Sweet Home
We are finally home and enjoying our little Sophie. She's a cutie (hey, aren't all parents biased!?) and is settling in nicely. So far she's not a fusser, preferring to sleep long and often. I think she looks like Tom, her head seems to be the same shape. Her cutest trait is the smile she gets sometimes when she's farting - it cracks me up. She sometimes gives a full smile, but usually she just grins on the right side...which shows an adorable little dimple. She's got some long fingers too...all the better to palm a ball with! We're enjoying getting into our own routine - my Mom has been over with dinner and help the last couple of days so that's made it nice. Ingrid picked up a couple of sleep gowns (we were planning on a bigger baby!). Sandy came over to rub the fluid out of my feet (they are swollen to an absolutely ginormous size). Mike has been keeping our driveway plowed (especially nice since we came home in a snowstorm). We've had good help and well-wishes and now we get to take the time to enjoy our little kiddo. Thanks to everyone who's called, emailed, texted...sorry I haven't gotten back to you. In the meantime, enjoy the pics!
