February 4, 2009

So here is a bit of Ezra's birthday story.

On Tues. Feb.3rd, I had a fourth ultrasound (which I unfortunately have yet to scan into the computer), to determine whether or not the baby was continuing to grow. The results showed that he went from a mere 5lbs, 9oz to a whopping 5lbs, 15oz in two weeks. That's about half a pound, when he should have grown half a pound to a pound a week. It also showed that my amniotic fluid level was "borderline", as was the blood flow through the umbilical cord. I had a doctor appointment right afterward and she told me to go to the hospital to be induced. She said that because the baby was full term, it was better just to get him out of there.
So my mom took me to the hospital, I was induced, we waited for contractions to start and then they sent me home and told me to come back at noon on Wed. unless my contractions were too close together or I started bleeding. I had to call to check in with them at 8PM and my contractions were so bad by then, my mom had to call for me. We went back to the hospital and nothing was progressing, just pain, so they sent me home again.
Around 2:30AM my contractions got way worse then I could imagine and so I thought I'd have a bath, I got in the tub and a few minutes later thought my water was breaking so I stood up in the tub and realized I was gushing blood. I called for help, threw on a nightgown and a towel and my dear sister Allison blazed us to the hospital.
I was still bleeding in huge gushes and they were trying to put IV's in me and I was gushing blood from my arms too. The doctors wanted to know if I had a bleeding disorder because they couldn't stop the blood. I don't, I was just bleeding. I have nasty bruises on my arms where they tried putting in the IV's. At one point they ran out of tourniquets and my mom was squeezing and elevating my gushing arm. There were about 5 doctors and 4 nurses in the room. One of the nurses left crying. At the time I couldn't figure out why. When I started bleeding at home, all I could think of was that the baby was dead, and when I found out he was okay, the only thing I did was pay attention to my breathing so he would stay that way. I actually don't remember much of what happened.
After a while, somebody said something about C-section, I signed something, and away we went. The next thing I remember is the spinal kicking in and not having any more contractions. It was sweet relief. Then somebody said "Okay, some pressure Kim" and then I heard him cry. After the NICU team decided he was fine, Rob brought him over to me and I said "Good morning sunshine, I'm your mama." And he was beautiful. He was 6lbs, 1/2oz, 18 inches long and born at 5:16AM.
Later I found out that the doctors were seriously worried about me and 4L of blood for a transfusion were ordered for me. I think I lost between 1.5 and 2L in a little more than 1 hour.
Now, he is six days old and we're both doing great. He's eating well and gaining weight and learning about his environment more and more all the time. He is my tiny little burrito baby.