Katherine Arrives Early!

August 14th, 2005 by Jennifer

Katherine's birthday started Monday, August 8, 2005, when, at 7 am, I woke up to a gushing feeling. At first I thought it was more mysterious maternal fluids, until about 3 minutes later, I got another one. That was enough to wake me up and send me to the bathroom. Much to my horror, there was blood everywhere, and it was flooding out of me. I screamed for Joel, and he came to assess the situation. I sent him off to call the doctor's office, but for some reason he couldn't get the phone to go through...maybe he had the wrong number in his palm or something. I finally put in a pad and found my phone, and dialed the doctor's office. I got their answering service, but was quickly patched through to a sleepy doctor on call. I told her my situation, that I was 36 weeks with placenta previa, and that I was bleeding heavily.

She advised me to get to the hospital immediately. I asked if I should take a taxi or an ambulance, and she asked me where I lived. I live in Brooklyn, my hospital is NYU across the river in Manhattan. She said if I took an ambulance they would take me to a local hospital because of the situation, and that if I wanted them to deliver I had to take a taxi. Then she told me to go straight there. Do not dilly dally, do not pack a bag, run out the door and get to the hospital as soon as possible. Boy, that makes you think your situation is critical!

So Joel called a car service, and we took off to the hospital. Luck was on our side that day, because we were getting across the Brooklyn Bridge right before rush hour, and while there was traffic, it was at least moving. We were able to get on the freeway in Manhattan and zoom to the hospital, and we actually got there by 7:30. Kate kept kicking me all the way, so at least that was reassuring, but I was panicking inside. I did all of the research, and I knew the most dangerous thing that could happen to someone with placenta previa was now happening to me, and that both of our lives were at risk.

We got to the hospital, and they hooked us up to heart monitors. They had trouble distinguishing between my heartbeat and Kate's, because mine was 149 bpm and hers was 156 bpm. My blood pressure was quite high, too. Basically, I was scared to death and my stats showed it. They monitored my bleeding while they took blood for testing and the doctor arrived about 5 minutes after I did. She evaluated the situation, and advised us to do a c-section as soon as the OR was setup. Then she gave me some scary news...that if it came to it she might have to do a hysterectomy if she couldn't control the bleeding in the OR, and not only did I have to sign a consent to do the c-section, but I had to sign a consent to do the hysterectomy as well. She promised she wouldn't take that decision lightly and she would do everything she could to keep that from happening.

The anesthesiologist came in next and discussed my medical history and how I would be medicated in the operating room. We decided on an epidural, with extra antibiotics for my heart condition and my group b strep culture.

By about 9 they were prepping me for surgery. They decided since her heartbeat was stable they didn't have to rush and took their time assembling a team to be there during the operation. Once they had a room ready, they took me in there and gave Joel a gown jumpsuit to put on. He waited in the hall while they gave me the epidural, and honestly, it wasn't that bad. My doctor held me and walked me through it step by step while the anesthesiologist did the epidural, and the head of anesthesiology happened to be around and was supervising it as well. I felt a pinch from the local and a little burn, but once the local area was numb, I could only feel the pressure of the catheter going into my spine. It took about 15 minutes to put in, but the pain was very minor and I started feeling numb almost immediately.

Next was the catheter. So keep in mind that I had been gushing blood for a couple of hours now, so I was definitely not in the condition I would want to be in for my legs to be spread open and have 5 doctors viewing the catheter insertion. A med student was learning to do his first catheter insertion (thank God I was numb by now), so these doctors were all teaching him step by step how to get it in right. Embarrassing, but what could I do at that point? Apparently he did it right, because I had no problems from it later on.

Once they got everything ready, Joel came in and sat behind the sheet next to me and held my hand. They started operating, and it was an oddly jovial setting reminiscent of the operating scenes on Nip Tuck with all the music and everyone joking around with us and the other doctors. We had quite a team: 5 doctors and 4 nurses, plus an assistant, and another surgeon waiting to scrub in outside in case of an emergency. It took 15 minutes to get the baby out, and when she came she was a screamer! Here I was worried about lung maturity and scheduled for an amnio to check it the next day, and she had the best set of lungs on her anyway! They took her to the warmer and scrubbed her up. She had quite a bit of white stuff, I guess because she was so early, but they cleaned her up nicely and did some tests on her. She did great, and got a 9 - 9 on her apgar, which is really unusual for a preemie like her. Afterwards, they wrapped her up and handed her to Joel and we admired her for the rest of the surgery.

They were able to stop the bleeding and I didn't need a transfusion at all! Phew! I didn't have a hysterectomy, and everything closed up nicely without incident. It took about 45 minutes to finish the surgery.

Afterwards, I went to recovery, and Joel went with Katherine to take a bath. In about 45 minutes, they were both back, and I got to try my hand at breastfeeding for the first time. It was a very hard thing to do when you are weary from surgery and holding your baby for the first time, so we weren't so good at it the first time. However, I got to check out her fingers and toes and she was just perfect and beautiful! She weighed 7 lbs 5 oz, and was 19.5 inches.

After recovery, they took me to my room and cleaned me up. I was so helpless, could barely move, but I had plenty of pain medication at that point. They left the epidural in for 2 days, standard procedure at my hospital, and they give you a pain button to squeeze whenever you want more. Apparently I hit it 108 times in the first day, so they decided to change my mix to something stronger because I wasn't getting good pain relief. That helped a lot, and after two days I was ready for some lighter medication when they took it out.

I was in the hospital for 4 days, and I was so glad I took advantage of being allowed to stay that long. So far recovery has been pretty hard with ups and downs, but Joel has been very supportive and my mother has helped out a great deal too.

Katherine and I are both doing well. She is breastfeeding round the clock, and she has become a pro at it already. Overall, even though it was a difficult delivery and a scary day, it was worth every minute of it. I can't believe how much I love this little girl!

She was 7 lbs 5 oz, 19.5 inches long, born at 10:27 am August 8, 2005.

baby, birth, c section, delivery, emergency, placenta previa, surgery

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Katherine Arrives Early!

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