Aili's Birth Story

We left our house at about 10 am on Monday morning (Nov. 24th) , so we could get to UW by noon. We stopped and got some burgers and then went on in. They checked us in at 12 and brought us back to our room. They must have had a lot of patients because things moved very slow!! I don't think I even got an IV until 2 or 3. So they got us in there and got my IV in and checked me to see what I was. I was only about a fingertip dilated and still pretty high. So they decided to give me misoprostol to ripen my cervix. They gave me my first dose at around 4, then checked me at 8-ish, almost 9 I think, and gave me a second dose. They couldn't give me a third dose because I was having too many contractions. That was at around 1 am, so I just tried to sleep. Some of the contractions were a little painful, but mostly like period cramping. In the morning Clay (my husband) left to go back home to get my Mom. They checked me in the morning at maybe 10-ish and I was at 4 cms with about a cm of cervix left (I'm guessing that is the thickness). I asked them around then if there was a wait for the anesthesiologist, because there was with Taryn and I wanted to make sure and get one...lol. With Taryn I got my epidural at about 6 cms and then they broke my water. So my nurse went to check. My contractions were becoming more painful, but I didn't think they were too bad. I mean I was breathing and focusing through them, but they weren't to the point of when I got my epi last time. The anesthesiologist came in and talked to me (he must have been a student, because he had to have another lady in the room for when they would actually do it). So they start getting things set up. By now my contractions are REALLY painful!!!! I was squirming and breathing really hard, etc. They get the lady in there so she can supervise him. He gives me some numbing medication where he will stick me and then begins to try and get the needle in the right spot. I'm telling them where I feel pain from the needle and they are adjusting it. Then the lady gets a call and just walks out...so he has to stop. None of us knew why she just walked out. By now Clay & my Mom have showed up. The nurse tried to go get her, but wasn't sure where she had gone. I was really having a hard time and even crying...although the crying was both from physical and mental pain. I was upset that Clay & my Mom had taken sooo long, plus I was starting to worry about Aili (nothing was wrong, just for the future). I think the anesthesiologist thought I was being a baby about it. He was still really nice, but last they had heard I was at 4 cms, and here I am moaning and crying through contractions. Clay told me to breath through them and I snapped at him like "I AM!!" My mom said right then she knew I had to be between 8-10 cms, because that's when women start yelling, etc. During a contraction I felt a little gush, but wasn't sure if it may have just been discharge. I told my nurse but she said it wasn't that wet down there. (I was sitting this whole time waiting for that lady to come back). A contraction or two later I felt some more. Finally the anesthesiologist went to look for her. When he left Clay asked if I wanted him to go yell at someone. I told him no and the nurse said she already did! LOL...she said it was inappropriate for that lady to just walk out. I had another contraction with LOTS more water and I felt like I needed to have a BM SOOOO bad!!! I told them that I either needed that or the baby was coming. Then all of a sudden I just started yelling, "She's coming!! I can't NOT push!!!!" SO they laid me down and called/pushed every emergency button they could. One because there was only my Mom, Clay, my nurse and now the two anesthesiologist in the room, so no doctors for me, but also none of the doctors for Aili!!! I think I freaked EVERYONE out! They rushed everyone in right away and I pushed Aili out in two contractions...with out any pain meds. I was of course screaming and yelling and crying and telling everyone I CAN'T do this. But turns out you have no choice!! LOL. Clay barely got to cut the cord...they were in such a rush I was saying let him cut it let him cut it...and he jumped in real fast to cut it. Aili cried when she came out, but was a little purple and didn't breath as much as she should have (no oxygen needed though), so her APGARS were 7 & 9. They cleaned her up and checked her out, then let me have a minute with her, then she was brought to the NICU.

She weighed 5 lbs 14 ozs and was 18.5 inches long.

She was later transported to Seattle Childrens and I was released 6 hours after delivery. I guess if you have no pain meds and because of our situation, they find it better for the whole family to be together ASAP.

Aili is doing pretty good. She was doing REALLY good at first with her O2 stats...like high 80's even in the low 90's at times. When a baby has a heart defect like this they look for it to be between 75 & 85%. She had one episode where it got lower on the transport over though. One of the medicines she is taking is called Prostaglandin, which keeps her PDA open in her heart to allow more mixture of the red and blue blood. There are some side effects though, like low O2 stats and crankiness. The nurse and doctors had said it feels like having the flu. So her O2 stats have been falling quite a bit. She had a nose canula yesterday, with room air. Her stats keep going down pretty often, so they lowered that medicine and it helped for a while. Then since she started doing it again...like shallow breathing and apnea...they have put her on a CPAP machine. The doctors did another Eco on her heart to check something (I'm not sure what it's called though). But if it is too narrow then they will go in through a vein in her leg and use like a balloon to make it bigger. So we are waiting on that to know what their plan is. Her first real surgery should be next week.

Sorry this is SO long and probably doesn't make much sense. SO i went from like 4 cms to 10 cms in an hour or two and we are both doing pretty good : )!