Embrace the Chaos

The last few weeks have been a little crazy. My daughter, the pregnant one, has had a horrible time. She has been scheduled for several ultrasounds since June and none of them ever happened. She got results form a pap with abnormal cells. Just before that she went into premature labor and spent most of a day in the ER. They discharged her, but they failed to do the ultrasound that was ordered before sending her home. I guess a couple weeks have passed since then.

She had a complete baby physical on Thursday. They told her to stay on house rest until her lab work was back. When they called her with the results on Friday they told her to go to the hospital so the baby could be monitored. By 6PM they admitted her. Said they would induce labor sometime Friday evening. Finally they got to the ultrasound. 34 weeks along, 5lb, boy was in the oven. Name, Logan John Donelson-Walters. Started to induce at 7PM. Good contractions started about 2AM. Mom's BP was high, her kidneys not working well. They gave magnesium sulfate, she got a bolus and then they hung a continuous infusion. This was to keep her from having seizures (hopefully). Severe headache was being controlled with stadol through the IV. They inserted some device to get some labor going, maybe. If nothing by 7AM they would hang pitosone.

Water broke a 1230AM but real contractions didn't start until 2 (like I said). Still the pains were never less then 5 minutes apart. This continues and finally my daughter says, "Mom I feel like I have to push." I told the nurse and she was wandering around saying things like: 'I'll call for the epideral and see if we should start the pit. I'll be right back.' Well 20 minutes later my daughter says, "MOM I REALLY WANT TO PUSH!!!" Me: 'Nurse come check my daughter. She IS going to PUSH if something isn't done soon." Nurse: "Well, OK." With her hand shoved up my daughter she says. "OH, WELL I guess we need to get the epi started now. Hey, ONE OF YOU at the desk, call the doctor!" Me and my daughter and the father: 'Well?' Nurse: 'OH, she's at 9.5 and it's time for her to push. We'll get the bed broke down and get started.' One thing lead to another and we are working real hard on having a baby. (9.5 means they assumed too much and my daughter was really at 10cms and ready to have a baby. Never 'assume'. Each individual in different and some of us more so than others.)

Nurse works with daughter and baby Logan just isn't making his way into the world easily. Finally after 2 hours of pushing it's time to call in the doc. Now in this birthing room are: daughter, father, me, grand daughter, three nurses and the doctor. Doc's in the catching position and my daughter is doing a great job. Problem is the contractions are getting further and further apart. Now they're anywhere from 5 minutes to 20 minutes. The pit is started. Still they stay too many minutes apart. I'm a nurse, this isn't good.

OK, Logan wasn't suppose to come out and play until early to mid October. After early labor the doctor said it would really be good if baby stayed in the oven until at least September 28th, but the date was August 30th no where near October or September 28th. My daughter's BP was very high, her kidneys aren't working. I'm doing my best to stay calm. I'm a nurse. I'm concerned because I know that if the contractions aren't close enough together and hard enough we'll have a sluggish uterus and tons of bleeding. Still I am remaining calm.

Finally and I do mean finally Logan decides to join us. He is tiny, but breathing and crying and moving around. When he stops crying he also stops breathing. Nurse and I are taking turns pissing Logan off so he'll keep breathing. Mom is delivering the placenta and getting her parts put back together and the rest of the family is looking at the new arrival. We took some pictures and I heard my daughter say, "You guys should go tell everybody that Logan is here and doing good." We head for the door, I glance back and I see my daughter. She's slumped sideways, she's white as a sheet and I hear the Doctor say, "Lower her head, IV's wide open, get some epi and message her, NOW!" I notice blood is gushing out of my child. I keep walking, I go out to the nursery window where everyone has gathered. I give a report on the baby without skipping a beat. The father was out of the delivery room before the bleeding started and I didn't want to burst his bubble until I was sure we needed to. I looked at my older daughter and husband and say, "I've gotta go back in, she didn't look good." My daughter goes with me. I walk into the delivery room and my baby girl is still slumped and the hospital staff say, "Not now. Go to the waiting room." I stepped into the hall and stopped. I took a place near the door. I could hear all the orders and vital signs and so on.

My world was spinning, heart was pounding and it was all I could do to keep from screaming, running or falling down. My support system (that was aware of a problem), my older baby, was doing her best to try and distract me. I tried to let her but I couldn't. Several minutes passed, it seemed like hours and the crisis was over. She was stable and I needed to go home. I don't remember when I said anything to my husband about the mess. He hasn't fussed at me about not telling him but I probably should have. It's strange, I don't remember much after I went back to the delivery room, I don't remember the drive home, there's about 45 minutes I can't pull up. (I did the driving)
Today is Monday. I'm exhausted and still concerned. Baby Logan was fine yesterday. He hasn't needed any serious interventions. His magnesium levels were up which made him a little lethargic but he came around. Now today I'm waiting at home for the decision, are they being discharged today or not. My daughter's BP has been unstable. Going too high, not too low. Only thing I can think that would keep Logan in the hospital, is his weight. He came out 4lbs 15oz. That's one pound more than his sister was. I want to go to the hospital but I want my daughter to rest, her BP is probably through the roof because she's afraid that she'll be discharge and Logan won't. So here I sit.

I'll finish this story when I have an ending.