Growing King Family!: Introducing Grayson Paul King!

So in the last few weeks I have been back and forth to L&D with contractions etc. I decided to go in on Friday morning (8/6/10) because I had some bleeding and the contractions were painful. I guess Baker knew I was serious about needing to go to the hospital because he came home very early from the hospital to take me in. Went to L&D and I was having strong regular contractions but still not dilating. They wanted to keep me for observation due to my bleeding, though. The plan was to watch me overnight and send me home.

So I woke up at 6am on Saturday morning(8/7/10) to the lights on in my room (until then, nurses and docs had checked on me every 30 mins but had been very quiet for the most part, I slept through it) and every doc on the floor (which is about 10 residents and 2 attendings in a teaching hospital) ALL in my room looking at me. They're unlocking the wheels on my bed and getting ready to move me for a crash c-section. They're starting ANOTHER IV in my other arm, lifting up my gown to make sure I am relatively shaved down there (!!!) and trying to get a good heartbeat on the baby manually. After asking them to slow down and tell me what was going on, I looked at the monitors and saw some very obvious decelerations in baby's heart rate - as my contractions went up, Grayson's heart rate was clearly going down almost perfectly mirroring my contraction. He did it 2 or 3 times and then I watched it happen, too. They made sure it wasn't my heartbeat by checking the pulse oximiter and he was dropping into the 40s. So they were going to wheel me back for a crash c-section but the chief resident said that he wanted to watch me and wait because baby had been fine ALL NIGHT and was just now acting up. He improved and everyone left the room saying they'd discuss my case. The chief was really nice and he came back in to tell me that while they're holding off on the c-section, they were going to induce me because what had happened was just too dangerous particularly with the bleeding, there was a high chance that I had an abruption, just like last time. So 6am on Saturday morning I called Baker to come be with me and told him what had happened. I sent him home the night before to get some rest!!!

So the first order of business was to start an epidural because in case of a crash c-section, they'd have access and could do a quick spinal instead of giving me general anesthesia. Epidural placement was not without drama, either. Just like last time, I dropped my pressure really low when it was placed and didn't feel well. I seemed to recover and anesthesia left the room. I started putting on a little bit of powder (I was determined to look decent after a night in the hospital!) and suddenly I decided to put the makeup down and take a rest - well, my blood pressure bottomed out and I passed out. Another rush of docs and nurses, doses of epinephrine, oxygen, etc. and I came back to life but boy was that scary. Poor Baker said I was ghostly white.

So then they placed the catheter, scalp electrode on the baby, and broke my water. Labor was pretty uneventful - I had a really good epidural and I snoozed most of the day. Checked me at 1230pm and I was like 4cm. They said they wouldn't check me unless I felt pressure so I wasn't checked all day. They adjusted the pitocin in accordance with my contractions and stuff but didn't check my cervix. Suddenly at about 5pm or so I felt overwhelming pressure. They dosed up my epidural and said that I was complete and it was time to push! Unfortunately, my doc was far away and wouldn't make it. Totally fine with me, I liked the residents that were there and the attending was in the room as well. Very nice people. They got me all prepped and I pushed something like 5 times and Grayson Paul entered this world at 546pm!!! The best part of the whole thing (besides baby!) was Baker- he was so awesome. He held my left leg and was just so enthusiastic and encouraging. He was telling me how great I was doing the whole entire time and bragged to anyone that would listen afterwards about how awesome I was and how good I did. These are the things I'll never forget :) Also, I made a NICU nurse cry because I totally basically flipped out with happiness haha.

So the NICU team was there for little Grayson. His apgars were 9 and 9 but after just a few minutes with me he went straight to the NICU. He spent 5 days there just learning to eat and hold his temperature. So although I was very very disappointed that this baby went to the NICU, his stay was very short .

After examination of my placenta, it was clear that I did have another abruption. History repeats itself, doesn't it?

Thank you all of you for listening and I hope you enjoyed my story - apparently, nothing I do is without drama!!!! :) And my blood pressure is high so they're watching me for that now, ugh...

PICTURES!