Babywatch: Liveblog Part Something

8:59 AM. Doing our best to rest

Oh, man, where to begin.

So we got the orders to start pushing and Jessie gave it her all, and I mean her *all*. We were getting three or four pushes per contraction every time, Jess was getting red in the face and the contraction monitor was going crazy. At one point the nurse commented that the pushes looked like ‘metal hands’ ( \m/ for those of you who know what that looks like). And Tyler was starting to come right down the birth canal. You could even just make out the top of his head on each push. So Jessie kept going and going and Tyler got incrementally closer each time. Everyone was excited, the nurse even tried to stay for a few hours just so she could witness the birth, which would surely be any moment now...

But the pushing continued, Tyler would come a little farther each time and then just slip back. The nurses gave some exams and it looked like he should have been able to come out, he had space, but he just wasn’t making the journey. Jess kept pushing and pushing and pushing, doing as much as she could over and over. The doctor came by and recommended cranking up the drugs to give a stronger contraction and giving Jess a chance to rest. So we did that. For a while it was just me and her in the room and despite the presence of massive painkillers in her *spinal cord*, she was starting to feel the contractions again. I would talk her through them the best I could (I helped!) but Jess was not enjoying herself.

So after the rest, we resumed pushing, but I could tell Jess just didn’t have the energy for it anymore. She was doing her best, doing AMAZING, but clearly all the effort had taken a toll on her, and Tyler was *marginally* closer, but still wasn’t coming out.

Thats when things started to get a little scary.

Jess started shivering. Not a little, like full-on, Hypothermia-in-the-movies shivering. The nurses didn’t seem to be worried, so I took it in stride, but Jess hated it. HATED IT. She was trying to get warm, but didn’t have any real luck, even when they brought in some fresh-from-the heater blankets, which is a real luxury, as I’m sure you can imagine. Still shivering. Another hour or so of pushing, but still no baby to show for it.

Then Jess started throwing up.

I can tell you with certainty, watching my wife go through contractions, uncontrolled shivering, and vomiting at the same time is the second scariest thing I’ve ever gone through in my life, and it lasted way longer than that stupid white water rafting trip. And she had nothing to come up, just water and bile. And then after the throwing up, the contractions started to really hurt her, to the point where it was interfering with her ability to push well. We had given the epidural as many pushes as it would allow, but still no pain relief. Jess didn’t look good at all, she was just saying ‘it hurts, it hurts’, over and over, a horrible thing to hear. No yelling, though, but I think she just didn’t have the energy. Eventually we called for the anesthesiologist, who was going to be able to give jess a stronger dose of medicine. Of course, he took his sweet time getting there, and Jess was suffering all the time. It was really bad.

Finally, thankfully, the calvary arrived: the anesthesiologist and our doctor. The pain Doc gave jess a shot of some more painkillers and within just a few minutes she was looking loads better: a huge weight off my chest, let me assure you.

Oh, and I missed a step. Somewhere during that last orgy of pushing, pain, and shivering, one of the nurses took Jessie’s temp and showed it discretely to the rest of us, but not to jessie. 102.7. No wonder she was shivering, she was running one heck of a fever. They had her catheter-ized, too, and the sample wasn’t looking to clean. Not enough to start panicking, but enough to prick up some ears.

So, post pain-relief, the doctor came and talked with us about our options: either using a vacuum to help the baby come out or a c-section. We asked her what she recommended, and she said she would feel like trying the vacuum but, “I don’t have a crystal ball or anything.” To which I responded. “Well we have even less crystal than you.” I thought that was pretty clever. After a little more thought, though, after which we remembered that I was a C-baby because my head was so big, Jessie had to have her clavicle broken to fit out of her mom, and Tyler was already a week-and-a-bit overdue, it was starting to seem a little more risky. So we decided, instead, to go for the C-section. After that decision was made, everyone seemed to feel a lot better. Jess wasn’t going to have to hurt anymore, we were going to be sure to get the baby out...the best decision, all around.

So this was at around 10:00 last night, I think. I’d have to double-check the numbers. Jess got all prepped up, and I got my outer-wear on and had my camera in hand. They took her off to get her started, first, and I waited around in the room with mom Swanson until they were ready for me. Then I came in and saw jess on her side of the sheet. I didn’t look on the other side. Jess was still shivering, but at least she was totally numb from the boobs down. She was still shivering and completely hating it, but I did my best to give her some eye contact and help her relax. She liked looking in my eyes. After just a few minutes, Jess started making faces and the nurses and doctors on the other side kept saying things like ‘you’ll feel some pressure’. No pain, just pressure, but rather a lot of very strange pressure, by the sounds of it.

They told me the head was out, and I peeked over, being a little afraid of fainting, I was okay, though, and I saw his head peaking out of a bunch of stuff. I tried not to think about the stuff, too much. Then a little bit more and there he was. I stood up and saw Baby Tyler, all born and everything. And really purple.

I sat back down with Jess for a while, and we heard a little cry or two. Within just a few moments he was breathing great and getting some really good color. They put him under the heat lamp and let me come over to see him. He’s so cute, and he has a pretty good head of hair! His head was pretty conical from all the pushing, but nothing dramatic. And the numbers:

22 inches long (pretty normal)
7 lbs, 15 Oz (they originally thought 7, 2, but it turned out to be a misscalibrated scale. Also normal)
13 inch head (also normal)
Apgar 1: 7
Apgar 5: 9

Turns out he was kinda sideways, so he wasn’t coming out well. So we *may* have been able to deliver him normally, but on balance, I still think the less risky path was the right one to take. Pretty obnoxious of him to be so darn *normal* sized and still so hard to deliver, though.

And boy howdy was he ready to go when he got out, too. He was attempting to pee on the nurses within 30 seconds of being out of jessie, and the other waste disposal unit started working right away, too. I watched them take measurements and foot stamps and everything, and then they swaddled him up and let me cary him around the operating room. I kept at a distance, I really didn’t want to be in the way for the last bit of the procedure. I watched a little bit more of the end of the surgery (again, not much, don’t want to faint with my son in my arms) where they had jess open with a little plastic funnel and were getting all of her bits back inside. Gross. Eventually they finished all that up and gave her a nice, neat bandage. Then they slipped an inflatable mattress underneath and lifted her into her recovery bed. She was still shivering at this point, but it was getting better. We went back to our room and I got to hand Tyler off to Grandma Swanson, who called her side of the family to deliver the good news. We talked with the nurses about a few things we were going to do, and then we fed Tyler. Jess was fully out of it, but all we had to do was turn her on her side and put Tyler next to her and he just fed and fed for a good half hour on one side and another 10 minutes on the other. Hungry kid. He seemed to feed quite well.

Then they took him off to get some blood from him for tests, and give him his first set of shots. He cried, of course, but settled down pretty well after that. A good swaddling seemed to calm him down a lot. We got back to the room and got a few more baby basic lessons (how to burp a newborn!) and then the hospital pediatrician came in. (Note: Tyler is fine, so no worries about any of the rest of this. It all ends well.)

They called our selected pediatrician office, and essentially decided that since Jess had a fever and a bit of oddly colored urine that there was some risk that the amniotic fluid had gotten infected. In that case, the usual plan is that our pediatrician transfers responsibility to the hospital pediatrician, who then puts the baby on antibiotics, mostly ‘just in case’. So we had some time with Tyler and then I walked him upstairs to the nursery where they checked him in. He’s been in there ever since, having forumla and getting IV stuff every once in a while and mostly just sleeping, as newborns are wont to do. I can go in and visit him anytime we want, and we’ll get him back in our room probably tomorrow morning.

Which meant we got some time to rest, such as it was. They moved us upstairs to the post-delivery rooms, mom swanson went home to sleep, and I opened up the couch and tried to get some ZZZs. Jess kept getting woken up, first by a blood oxygen monitor that kept beeping when she didn’t take slow, even breaths, so...essentially every time she fell asleep, it would wake her up. They turned that of for her, eventually. Then every couple of hours someone would come in to give her more antibiotics, or painkillers, or take blood, or whatever they felt that they had to do. I managed to sleep through much of it and get a few solid hours of sleep, a blessing.

So to the morning. Mom Swanson brought me breakfast and some donuts for the nurses, who have been doing such a good job for us. I deconstructed and have been munching on the fruit for breakfast (thanks, Aunt Shannon!) and we’ve already checked in on Tyler a few times. Jess is up and walking, though unsteadily, and is drinking simple juices and everything. We’ve got pictures (I’ll send them out in just a second) and everyone is recovering well.

And so now I’m a dad.

-N