Introducing Coltrin James Briscoe
So this is the long TMI birth story...just a warning for those who want to skip it.
This whole pregnancy has been super crazy with the blood pressure. It has been all over the place, and I have been in and out of the hospital more times than I care to think about. The insurance lady knows me...it was that bad. My pressures were never high enough to do anything about, but they were high enough to cause concern.
My doctor had me coming in every few days for check ups to monitor me, and he was just trying to get me far enough along to deliver. Thus comes the 37th week. Last Friday, my pressures were still sitting around the 140s/90s, so my doctor decided to deliver me on Tuesday (week 38 for me). I was to come in Monday for one last check up at which point he would send me to the hospital for high blood pressure to get me admitted (there were no openings for scheduled inductions on Tuesday). Then the plan was to get started with some Cervidil (a cream to ripen the cervix for delivery) since I hadn't really dilated at all. Then Tuesday morning, they would hook me up to the Pitocin to induce me.
That was fine and dandy, except Monday my blood pressure was down to 130/ 92, so he tried to push it back. He has gone back and forth a number of times as to when he would deliver me, but on Friday I told him I needed to be sure that this was going to happen. He said it would. Needless to say, I was a wee bit upset because my parents were in town, Dustin had taken time off, and everything was in place for this. So, my doctor told me to go home and get my pressure up and go in myself to the hospital. I took my pressure when I got home and it was 151/110. I think he did a pretty good job of getting my pressure up all on his own. By the time I got to the hospital it was 172/107. So, I was admitted, and they started me on the Cervidil at 9:30 that night. I told the sweet triage nurse that I had heard that this stuff could send you into labor on its own, and she just waved it off and said it very rarely happens.
That is when it all happened. I started having cramping within the first 30 minutes. I was sitting there watching the Mitt Romney documentary with Dustin thinking, "Dr. Stinson said most women couldn't even feel anything from this...men! What do they know about any of this!?" Anyway, they became increasingly more uncomfortable until about 11:30 when I felt this weird pop feeling and a little gush. I looked over at Dustin, and I told him I think my water just broke. Right after that the nurse walks in, so I tell her the same thing. She looked skeptical but said she'd check it out. Sure enough my water had broken, and I went from a 1 cm to a 3.5 cm dilation. It started getting pretty painful after that. She gave some trippy drug that made me super loopy and dizzy for the cramping pain, but I was way past it at that point. It did, well, nothing. It was only a few minutes later I was asking for an epidural because they had said it would be about an hour after I asked that I would get one. As soon as my water broke I was having contractions every minute and a half that lasted about 30 seconds each. I think it was around 12:30 I got my epidural and I was at 6 cm. After that I went from 8 cm around 1:30 or so to 10 cm in just a few minutes. Dr. Stinson got there just in time to get dressed and set everything up for delivery. I started pushing at 2:00 am, and Coltrin was out by 2:17 am. I pushed through maybe 4 or 5 contractions. As soon as he was out the doctor plopped him on a sheet on my belly to cut the cord and let the nurses clean out his nose. It was cool being able to see it this time.
The triage nurse came in a few minutes later because she had heard what happened, and she joked about how she had JUST told me this never happens. They let us keep him for about a half an hour before taking him to the nursery for measurements and stuff. We were exhausted!
He came so fast that he still had some gunk in his lungs, so he was a little low on the oxygen readings. He was also a little low on the blood sugar readings, but he has since popped back up. It was really nice not having to do the NICU thing again.
He is the sweetest little boy. He hasn't cried nearly as much as Emma, and he just seems super content to be here with us. When he does cry, it is the cutest little high pitched squeal I have ever heard.
Emma just loves him so far. She's super excited to be around him. It'll be interesting to see how things go when we bring him home. I am so glad to be past the pregnancy stage and on to the "how to deal with life with two kids" stage. We'll see how it goes!
This whole pregnancy has been super crazy with the blood pressure. It has been all over the place, and I have been in and out of the hospital more times than I care to think about. The insurance lady knows me...it was that bad. My pressures were never high enough to do anything about, but they were high enough to cause concern.
My doctor had me coming in every few days for check ups to monitor me, and he was just trying to get me far enough along to deliver. Thus comes the 37th week. Last Friday, my pressures were still sitting around the 140s/90s, so my doctor decided to deliver me on Tuesday (week 38 for me). I was to come in Monday for one last check up at which point he would send me to the hospital for high blood pressure to get me admitted (there were no openings for scheduled inductions on Tuesday). Then the plan was to get started with some Cervidil (a cream to ripen the cervix for delivery) since I hadn't really dilated at all. Then Tuesday morning, they would hook me up to the Pitocin to induce me.
That was fine and dandy, except Monday my blood pressure was down to 130/ 92, so he tried to push it back. He has gone back and forth a number of times as to when he would deliver me, but on Friday I told him I needed to be sure that this was going to happen. He said it would. Needless to say, I was a wee bit upset because my parents were in town, Dustin had taken time off, and everything was in place for this. So, my doctor told me to go home and get my pressure up and go in myself to the hospital. I took my pressure when I got home and it was 151/110. I think he did a pretty good job of getting my pressure up all on his own. By the time I got to the hospital it was 172/107. So, I was admitted, and they started me on the Cervidil at 9:30 that night. I told the sweet triage nurse that I had heard that this stuff could send you into labor on its own, and she just waved it off and said it very rarely happens.
That is when it all happened. I started having cramping within the first 30 minutes. I was sitting there watching the Mitt Romney documentary with Dustin thinking, "Dr. Stinson said most women couldn't even feel anything from this...men! What do they know about any of this!?" Anyway, they became increasingly more uncomfortable until about 11:30 when I felt this weird pop feeling and a little gush. I looked over at Dustin, and I told him I think my water just broke. Right after that the nurse walks in, so I tell her the same thing. She looked skeptical but said she'd check it out. Sure enough my water had broken, and I went from a 1 cm to a 3.5 cm dilation. It started getting pretty painful after that. She gave some trippy drug that made me super loopy and dizzy for the cramping pain, but I was way past it at that point. It did, well, nothing. It was only a few minutes later I was asking for an epidural because they had said it would be about an hour after I asked that I would get one. As soon as my water broke I was having contractions every minute and a half that lasted about 30 seconds each. I think it was around 12:30 I got my epidural and I was at 6 cm. After that I went from 8 cm around 1:30 or so to 10 cm in just a few minutes. Dr. Stinson got there just in time to get dressed and set everything up for delivery. I started pushing at 2:00 am, and Coltrin was out by 2:17 am. I pushed through maybe 4 or 5 contractions. As soon as he was out the doctor plopped him on a sheet on my belly to cut the cord and let the nurses clean out his nose. It was cool being able to see it this time.
The triage nurse came in a few minutes later because she had heard what happened, and she joked about how she had JUST told me this never happens. They let us keep him for about a half an hour before taking him to the nursery for measurements and stuff. We were exhausted!
He came so fast that he still had some gunk in his lungs, so he was a little low on the oxygen readings. He was also a little low on the blood sugar readings, but he has since popped back up. It was really nice not having to do the NICU thing again.
He is the sweetest little boy. He hasn't cried nearly as much as Emma, and he just seems super content to be here with us. When he does cry, it is the cutest little high pitched squeal I have ever heard.
Emma just loves him so far. She's super excited to be around him. It'll be interesting to see how things go when we bring him home. I am so glad to be past the pregnancy stage and on to the "how to deal with life with two kids" stage. We'll see how it goes!
He is so cute!!!! I'm glad it was safe, fast delivery! Good luck! I feel like I'm still adjusting!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations!! He is perfect! I'm so glad you're not pregnant anymore, haha. And I weirdly love reading super long birth stories :)
ReplyDeleteHe's so handsome! Congratulations :)
ReplyDeleteSo handsome! I am glad everything went well.
ReplyDelete