Friday, April 20, 2018

Andy's Birth Story: Part One

Monday, August 18th, 2014
5:30 p.m.

I plopped down on our now-long gone artichoke couch and buckled Kate into her car seat. She made a series of her usual squawking noises and grinned at me. I couldn't help but smile at her silliness, despite my frustration. I was exactly 37 weeks pregnant with Andy, and if my body didn't go into spontaneous labor by 7:30 the next morning, I was going under the knife. Again.

A caesarean section was scheduled for the next day, due to me already progressing into preeclampsia. I was on two different blood pressure medications to try and control my readings, and was spilling a lot of protein. My OB wanted to deliver at 37 weeks for the safety of both Andy and me. Because I had a previous cesarean in my medical history, and because that procedure occurred not much more than a year prior to Andy's due date, an induction for a VBAC was too risky. If spontaneous labor didn't start soon, my hopes for a VBAC were gone.

Justin came through the front door, fresh off a long shift at the ice cream plant. He kissed my forehead before we loaded the van with our hospital bag and snapped Kate's car seat into the base.

We drove halfway across our small town, to my Dad's law office, to leave Kate with my parents while we spent four days in the hospital welcoming our newest family member. When we arrived, Justin brought Kate and her belongings inside while I sat down with my Mom to go over instructions for mixing thickener into formula to help with Kate's dysphagia.

6:00 p.m

Once my parents were fully briefed on all the intricacies of caring for a former micropreemie, and Kate was settled in, it was time to leave. I must have given Kate a hundred hugs and kisses. I had never been away from her for more than 36 hours. Finally, I reluctantly handed her off to my parents.

Justin backed our van out of the parking lot. My parents were standing on the back doorstep, holding Kate, waving goodbye. I felt a lump in my throat as my brain tried to sort through a million emotions at once.

We were headed to Sioux Falls early. We had to arrive two hours early for my 7:30 section to do labs, monitoring, antibiotics, and paperwork. We would have had to leave Le Mars at 3:30, but our generous friends (and two of Andy's godparents), Tim and Dani, were kind enough to let us crash at their house the night before.

Justin and I spent the drive trying to imagine how much our lives would change with another child in the mix, second guessing our name choices, and talking about all the (failed) tricks I had tried to induce labor. I munched on fresh pineapple slices hoping I'd get really lucky and the fruit would jump start contractions. HA. Castor oil, long walks, stairs, wings drenched in the "Blazing" sauce at Buffalo Wild Wings...nothing had worked, but man, was I determined to get things started with my big bowl of pineapple.

7:30 p.m.

We arrived at our friends' place and got everything organized for the next morning, before getting back into the van for a quick bite to eat. After dinner, we were planning on seeing the screen adaptation of my favorite book, The Giver. Despite having been on modified bed rest for two months, I insisted on parking as far away as possible from both the restaurant and the movie theatre, in a final, desperate attempt to feel some contractions. Instead, I got to feel a very full stomach after Justin and I devoured an extra-large bucket of popcorn.

9:30 p.m.

The movie was wonderful, and we left the theatre after the credits with smiles on our faces. We drove back to our friends' condo, and started to get ready for bed. Both the night before the caesarean, and the morning of, I had to shower with a "gentle" surgical soap my OB had given me at my last appointment. I've had several surgeries where I've been required to use said soap and had no issues, so I'm not sure if it was a weird fluke, or a strange new brand, but holy banana pancakes. That stuff BURNED.

After rinsing away the fiery surgical soap of doom, I put my hair in a couple of French braids and went over our hospital checklist for the millionth time with Justin.

11:30 p.m.

It was getting really late, and I wasn't even a little bit tired, but I knew I should at least attempt to get some sleep. I took my final dose of anti-emetics and tried to settle in for some sleep.



Justin, of course, was out in minutes. I tossed and turned almost the entire night. I think I finally fell into a very light sleep around 3:00, which wasn't much help, as my alarm was due to go off only an hour later.

Tuesday, August 19th
4:00 a.m.

My phone started blaring, waking me from my restless sleep. I groggily got out of bed and waddled to the bathroom for my second shower with the atomic surgical soap. I tried to shower as fast as I could. The shower and smell of the soap was making me nauseated. My body needed my anti-emetics, but I couldn't take anything via mouth after 11:30 the previous night in case of an emergency requiring general anesthesia.

After my shower, Justin and I brushed our teeth and repacked our hospital bag with everything we'd gotten out the night before.

5:10 a.m.

Everything was organized. We were ready to go. Justin snapped one last picture of my baby bump before we left.



We quietly made our way down Tim and Dani's stairs, and out to our van. Justin opened the door for me and asked "Are you ready?"

"NOPE," I replied, laughing.

We got into the van and buckled our seat belts. Justin took my hand and held it in his as we drove to Avera McKennan Hospital, silently, in the early morning darkness.

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