Labor and Delivery Details

Yesterday was quite an adventure. What we thought would be a quick delivery turned into all day waiting game. We arrived at the hospital at 7:45 a.m. for our scheduled inducement. They got us set up in a room right away and went through all the preliminaries. They checked the cervix around 8:30 and it was 3 cm. The doctors were happy with this and they started the Pitocin (Pit) at 9:30 with one milliunit. They upped it to two milliunits at 10 a.m. and then went up by two milliunits every 30 minutes until she hit 8 milliunits. They held here because the baby's heart rate was dropping. At 12:15 p.m. they checked the cervix and it had progressed to 4-5 cm. Carey was adamant about them giving her the epidural before they broke her water so they got that set up about 12:45 p.m. At 1 p.m. They upped her Pit to 10 milliunits. Around 1:45 a new resident doctor came in to rupture the membranes and put in a monitoring device on the baby's head. That process did not go as planned and Caden's heart rate dropped so they stopped the Pit and gave Carey a shot of Trebutaline (Treb) to stop contractions. This all happened very fast and this was rather unnerving. Carey had Treb once when she was pregnant with Kyler and she did not react well to it. However, this was not something we got to make a choice about it just happened as a knee jerk reaction from the resident. This was a step backwards as it slowed the labor down. We got the Pit started back up around 2:30 p.m. and that was like starting over again because they started at one milliunit and then increased it to two after 15 minutes. After that they upped to by two milliunits every half hour until she hit 8 milliunits which they had established as Caden's threshold for the Pit. At 4:45 p.m. the chief resident came into check the cervix again and at that point she had dilated to 6 cm. The good thing about this was it was the same doctor that checked when we first came in so we had a good baseline. The Pit definitely started working again. At 5 p.m. Carey was feeling like the contractions were coming on stronger now and they were actually doing something. At 5:15 labor was in full force and Carey was in a great deal of pain. After two contractions, things did get a little stressful as Carey was pushing because as he was coming out the umbilical cord, which was wrapped around his neck twice, was cutting off the air supply. The doctor did tell Carey that she was going to give her one more push to get Caden out. At that point she did do an episiotomy and that along with Carey's valiant effort got Caden out in the nick of time. The episiotomy was necessary because Carey was not stretching like she should have been due to scar tissue that was left over from Kyler's birth. The doctor was so calm and collected through this trial that it made us feel like we had just the right person. Caden arrived screaming and this made us happy since it indicated a good set of lungs.

The Peds team took control at that point and got Caden all cleaned up. Caden seemed to be stable after they went through their routine so they brought him to mom and let her hold him for a couple minutes. Then I got to carry him to NICU where I stayed with him until nursing change of shift at 7 p.m. They kick all the families out at that point so the nurses can transition. I went back up at 7:30 and was with Caden at for the x-ray. The x-ray confirmed the diaphragm problems and indicated some abnormalities in the spine and ribs. Those abnormalities are nothing for us to worry about right now, but will be monitored going forward.

At this point Caden's status is good. He has been breathing on his own since he came out and his vital signs all look good. They have him hooked up to an IV for fluids and they have a tube down to his stomach that is sucking out what little mucus there is down there. They need to use this tube until he has surgery for the diaphragmatic hernia so they can keep the bowels clear. This helps to alleviate any addition pressure on the internal organs that could affect how the lungs function. We are able to hold him and touch him, which is a significant blessing we were not expecting.

We want to thank you all for your prayers. They played a significant role in how the delivery went. As I mentioned before we expected this to be a quick delivery and thought we would have a new son before noon. The delay in this case was providential. At 12:30 p.m. there was a change in the attending doctor. This was not a normal doctor rotation and the doctor who came on was not a regular here at Stanford. However, we believe this was the doctor we needed for the delivery. She has a history for being very calm and patient when it comes to stressful deliveries. We are almost certain that if she had not been there Carey would have been shipped to the OR for a c-section after her membrane was ruptured and Caden's heart rate dropped. That being said they did have us sign the consent for c-section. In addition, the doctor's were scheduled to change shift again at 5:30 which means that Carey went into labor at just the right time so that we could have the baby before that change of shift. Further when all this came together, the chief resident came into the room expecting to do the delivery not realizing the attending physician was in the room. After a brief exchange between the chief resident and the attending doctor it was determined that the attending would handle this and the chief resident left. We believe had this happened any other way it would have involved a c-section. This was confirmed by our nurse who after everything was said and done mentioned that the first attending physician that was on in the morning would most likely done a c-section in that situation.

We are blessed to have so many of you lifting us up in prayer. Though things do not always turn out like we expect we recognize that God is taking care of us at every step along the way.

The Stats

Baby Caden arrived at 5:37 p.m. He was 6 lbs. 7 oz. and 19 inches long. Baby is doing well and breathing on his own. There is still more story to follow, but one thing at a time.

Slow Progress

Labor has progressed slower than we had expected. The medical team is concerned about the Caden's heart rate dropping with contractions. I think we are victims of too much technology. Caden continues to recover naturally and sometimes it seems that the monitor is not picking things up as opposed to Caden not doing well. This process is not over yet so keep praying.

Scheduled to be Induced

Well, I am officially scheduled to be induced Friday morning, January 9. The doctor's office called yesterday afternoon to confirm the date/time. I am definitely ready. I am so uncomfortable and I honestly don't think there is enough room inside for Caden to grow anymore. He is digging into my ribs and taking up all the possible space available. So, I'm looking forward to Friday!

We had our last NST and doctor's appointments this morning. Everything looked good on the non-stress test. And, when we saw the doctor, she was able to answer some questions for us in regards to what to expect on Friday. I am hoping they will give me an epidural before they start the pitocin. I tried to explain that I think once the contractions really get going, it is going to go pretty fast and I don't want to miss getting an epidural. She said she was willing to talk to the anesthesiologist about it and try to get that for me, especially since I have already been having contractions and am dilated some also. That made me feel better. But we will see what happens on Friday.

We are supposed to call labor and delivery around 6:30 am to see if they will be ready for me to come in at 7:45 am. Hopefully they will be able to take me then and we can get going fairly quickly. Although I am not looking forward to the actual delivery process, I am anxious to meet Caden. We don't know what is going to happen with him once he is born, but we are assuming they will get him to NICU fairly quickly. Of course we will try to keep everyone updated as we are able. And, we will post pictures as soon as we can also.

Thank you so much for your prayers. The pregnancy is almost over, but our journey is not. We don't know what the next few days or weeks hold, but we know God will be with us and sustain us through whatever we face.

No News Yet

Well, just thought I'd post a quick entry to let you all know, there has been no change yet. I'm 38 weeks today and Caden is still comfortably (for him anyway, not for me) holding residence inside me for now. We haven't officially been scheduled to be induced on the 9th yet. But I'm waiting for a call back from the doctor's office about it. If I don't hear back before Wednesday, we see the doctor that morning. So hopefully we can get it all sorted out at that point. We'll keep you posted as we know more and as things change. Thanks for your prayers.