Welcome to the World, Carder Matthias

Derek and I welcomed Carder Matthias SXXXXXX into the world on Thursday, June 9, 2011.  He weighed in at a healthy 5 pounds and 12 ounces and was 18 inches long.  He has 10 beautiful long fingers, 10 tiny little toes (on some incredibly long feet) and he is absolutely the most precious little thing I have ever seen.  And he has fat rolls (not to shabby for a preemie!).  And most importantly, he is very healthy.  He is residing in the NICU and probably will be for a couple of weeks.  He is breathing room air, completely unassisted.  He is tolerating milk/formula and is digesting everything.  They feel it is best to ease him into attempting to bottle feed or breastfeed him, so he is still eating through a tube that goes down his nose into his stomach.  But overall, he is doing very well and is a healthy boy.

As you can see, we finally picked a middle name.  Matthias (pronounced Ma-thee-us) means "Gift From God".   We both felt like picking a name that meant gift would be very appropriate and meaningful.

I will post a picture when I can, but the Internet connection here at the hospital is slow and I don't have the time or patience to wait on Blogger.

Now that you know the basics and the most important stuff, here is the more detailed story of his birth.

As my last post indicated, Cervidill was given to me on Wednesday at 5 pm to help to soften my cervix.  This is done by placing a suppository with a cord on in next to the cervix and is quite painful as they have to dig around to place it.  At the time of the medication, my cervix was slightly soft and dialated by a fingertip.  (I accidentally pulled the dose out when going to the restroom at about 9 pm so they had to insert another dose.)  Contractions started on their own during the night and were getting fairly intense.  And the contractions were accompanied by a lot of back pain.  Apparently I lost the Cervidill again sometime during the night because they could not locate it to remove it at 5am.  Still dialated by a fingertip.  I don't know if it was the excitement of knowing that I would be meeting Carder soon, the pain, or the fact that the nurse had to monitor me closely all night long with the Cervidill, but I hardly slept at all on Wednesday night.  (Probably all 3)

I had a snack of Peanut Butter Toast (since I couldn't eat after they started the induction) and took a shower.  The shower helped with the back pain and made the contractions more bearable.  My doctor, Dr. Marvelous (or Dr. M for short), happened to be the Doctor on call on Thursday - a fact that I was very thankful for.

Dr. M inserted an internal contraction monitor and the Pitocin was started at 6 am and the dose was increased by 2 units every 30 minutes.  My body started reacting shortly after the Pitocin was started.  Within a couple of hours, I was having strong contractions that were about 2 minutes apart.  However, Carder's heart rate indicated that he wasn't handling the contractions the best - it would drop after the peak of every contraction.  It wasn't dropping to a dangerous level, but it concerned the nurse.  She stopped the Pitocin, told me no more water or ice chips and called Dr. M.  (At this point, I figured we would be having a C-Section and I cried.)  Dr. M showed up within 30 minutes and looked at everything and said that it wasn't dropping enough to stop the process, so the Pitocin was started again.  This time, the Pitocin was increased by 1 unit each time.  I started having strong contractions shortly afterwards, but this time the contractions were more irregular - short/long, 2 minutes to 5 minutes apart, etc.  However, Carder's heart was responding much better to the gradual increase.  The back pain returned with a vengeance.  Sitting on the birthing ball was my salvation. 

At 7 pm and 13 hours into the Pitocin, I was exhausted.  I was wondering how I was going to get through several more hours of this and still have the ability to push.  THIS was why I had feared induction so much.
Dr. M came in to check on me.  As he was checking, he told the nurse "Stop the Pit."  She looked at me and shrugged.  Dr. M left to get my chart and was gone for a while.  When he returned, he let me know that after 13 hours of contractions, I had not dialated AT ALL.  Our 3 options were to:

• Try more Cervidill overnight and start again the next morning
• Wait to see if natural labor would kick in
• Have a C-Section

After some deliberation, we determined that the best option for Carder was to proceed with the C-Section.  Derek actually said "A Baby in the Hand is worth 2 in the Bush".   Preparations began.  I signed papers about the risks.  The Anesthesiologist came to talk to me about the Spinal Block.  And before I knew it, I was being wheeled into the operating room.  The place was freezing cold and I was terrified so my body was shivering uncontrollably - so much so that I began to worry that the Spinal Block would paralyze me and that, of course, made me worry more and shake more.  I shouldn't have been worried because I had an amazing team of Doctors and Nurses.

Once the incision was made and someone said that his head was out, it felt like an absolute eternity until I heard him cry.  But once he did cry, he wailed.  And he didn't stop.  Neither did the flow of my tears.  He had arrived and he was breathing.  Everyone exclaimed what a big boy he was.  Derek cut the cord and they brought him over so that I could catch a glimpse of him before they whisked him away to the NICU. 

During my recovery, Dr. M came to talk to us about how everything went.  It turns out that his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck - which isn't all that uncommon - but could have been dangerous during a vaginal birth.  More startling was that he had what is called a "true knot" in his cord.  This knot was probably formed during the first trimester when he had more room to swim around.  It did not hinder his development through the 34 weeks and 5 days in utero.  However, some time on Google let us know that true knots only happen in 1% of pregnancies.  True knots have been reported to lead to a 4-fold increase in fetal loss, presumably because of compression of the cord vessels when the knot tightens.  And they are riskiest in babies who are measuring large for their gestational age.  (Carder's size at 34 weeks and 2 days was over 35 weeks).

This may sound a bit melodramatic, but my water breaking early and my body's resistance to going into labor could have saved our little boy's life.

In addition, Dr. M found a fibroid cyst on the back of my uterus when he was finishing up the C-Section.  He removed the cyst and it has been sent off for biopsy.  These are typically non-cancerous but can be a cause of infertility.  They can cause heavy bleeding and painful periods.  They can also cause complications during pregnancy and labor - labor not progressing, placental abruption, preterm labor...

After my recovery, they wheeled my gurney down to the NICU so that I could get a good look at him and I got to touch him through the side windows of the isolette.  We got back to the room after midnight.  Even though I was absolutely exhausted, I started the process of pumping my breast milk.  I have a whole other post to write about breastfeeding...and more to write about these first hours as parents...and how it feels to have a baby in the NICU...but to be perfectly honest, I am exhausted and sore and I will have to leave all of that for another time.

Although I am tired and sore, I feel like the luckiest woman in the whole wide world and I am madly in love with my son.