Labor of Love - Welcome Griffin

My labor and delivery experience was definitely a labor of love, but not a labor I loved...not even close.

Here's how it all went down

THE SHORT STORY (labor and delivery in a nutshell. See pics in LONG STORY)

Things that didn't go according to plan
Surprise! Signs of toxemia lead to getting induced 2 days (Thur Sept 29) before due date
Pitocin
Epidural that wore off 4 times
hours of nausea
19 hours of labor
hour and a half of pushing
Baby's head stuck at the tailbone
choice: forceps or c-section? we went with forceps. It worked
45 minutes to stitch me up
lots of blood lost
two units of blood needed for blood transfusion
blood clot in leg developing (but caught and treated)
Baby's jaundice lasting over a week

Things that went according to plan or better
My mom showed up a day early arriving 15 minutes before I got news I had to be induced
Brandon, Mom, and Kathy (mother in law) were all able to be with me for the entire time
I had great doctors and nurses
Mmm, pellet ice chips, not hard cubes 
Brandon was a great support through contractions and exhausting final stages
Baby's heart rate stayed strong through it all. No fetal distress
Baby born healthy at 2:40 Friday Sept 30 - 8.1 lbs, 20 inches.
Baby born on my dad's birthday
Baby named Griffin Brent Andrus
We got the medical attention needed and avoided future problems.
Great service in both hospital units we stayed in
Family, friend and ward support
Recovery going well


THE LONG STORY(for those who have more time and want more detail)

Wednesday September 28th
Go to the doctors office for a regular weekly check up. I had high blood pressure so they sent me in for an ultrasound, fetal monitoring, and a blood draw. Routine 10 minutes turned into a 3 hour ordeal. The ultrasound and fetal monitoring looked great so I wasn't worried. They'd call if the blood work showed anything sketchy. No call came.

Thursday September 29th
The doctor's office called me in the morning. I missed the call and forgot to listen to the voicemail
Mom was on her way into town so I cleaned the house and got ready for her. She wasn't originally planning on coming until Friday, but just decided she'd come Thursday for fun.

The doctor's office called again. I didn't hear my phone ring so I missed it. Mom showed up around 3:30pm. At 3:45 the doctor's office called again. I didn't answer because I was giving Mom the house tour (I didn't know it was the doctor's office because I didn't recognize the number). Mom said I should answer it. It was too late, I'd missed the call. I looked at my phone and realized that number had called me three times and left a message. So I listened to the message. Oops, my labs had come back with some concerning results and I was wanted in the doctor's office ASAP so they could check some things. I called back immediately and scheduled to be in at 4:00pm. My appointment didn't get communicated to whomever was trying to find me so the office called Brandon, my mother-in-law, and my mother-in-law's secretary trying to track me down. That worried everyone so Brandon left work and met me at the doctor's office. I thought it was unnecessary, but it turned out to be a great move.

Long story short, after discussing the lab results and the beginning signs of toxemia emerging,  I was given some options. The safest option was to get induced before anything had a chance to escalate and before my doctor left town for the weekend. So, I thought I was just going in to get my blood pressure checked, but I ended up being admitted and never made it home that night.

5:05 pm: I was in the hospital bed, gowned, and strapped to fetal monitors. This was not how I had expected to enter the hospital. I wasn't contracting or anything. I was in a great mood, but it was all kind of surreal and unexpected. This was it. In a matter of hours we'd have a baby boy in our arms. It was pretty exciting...and crazy. Plus, my mom made it just in time.

Before all the tubes and fun began.

7:30 pm: So I hadn't answered my phone that day to get me into the hospital and then I left the orders the office gave me to give the the labor and delivery unit in the car. The nurses couldn't act without the orders and they were having trouble reaching my doctor. Oops, I'd had them all along. Delay and craze about orders was my fault. But once we had the papers I was hooked up to a nasty, painful IV and the pitocin drip began. Immediately I felt nauseous.

Nausea pretty much stayed with me the rest of the labor. I had a few goals going into labor and the first one was to avoid nauseousness - it makes me panic. There isn't much I can do to control this so it's not a great goal, but it let the nursing staff know that I have a fear of nausea and puking so they were good to attend to it. It was a long night of almost puking, zophran, and benedryl. And cold washcloths for my head and neck. I hate being nauseous.

Some time later:
I'm not sure when the anesthesiologist came in to give me the epidural, but it was right before the doctor came in to break my water. Good timing. The epidural was supposed to be the end of all things painful and the beginning of watching movies and playing cards.

Wrong

I felt nauseous again once the epidural was put in (btw, with some strong breathing, the placement of the epidural wasn't bad. Great doctor). The contractions I was feeling did go away, but the numbness in my legs was awful. I hated it. I could still move them but it was so awkward. I was glad I couldn't feel the water breaking, though.

Then, not long later I felt contractions strong and intense. The epidural wore off. Oh, ouch! Brandon was awesome. He held my hand and talked me through the contractions when I couldn't talk through them. The doctor returned and adjusted the epidural concoction. Relief, until a little bit later when it wore off again. Doctor came back. This repeated a total of 4 times. Apparently I have a huge epidural space around my spinal cord. So I got a good taste of contractions, but I was lucky to be numb when some exams took place and in the end when the gruesome went down.


19 hours of labor:
The night dragged on. I had times of numbness and times of pain. Brandon, my mom, and Kathy (my mother-in-law) all stayed with me. Dwight, my father-in-law, made a brave appearance. He hates, hates hospitals, but he stayed for almost an hour! The nurses brought in mattresses so Brandon and the moms crashed on the floor around midnight. I was so jealous they could sleep. I never slept. Between the nausea, contractions, and blood pressure cuff expanding every 30 min I was unable to fall asleep.

Brandon and Kathy

Mom - with some crazy eyes from the flash

Friday September 30th (my Dad's birthday):
Labor continued through the night. Around 6:30am phone calls and texts started coming in asking if we had the baby. It had been almost 12 hours so the assumption was that we were done. Not so lucky. I figured we'd have a baby by lunch, but nope. Contractions started to slow and so did I. I hadn't slept all night. Around noon I was at a 10 so we started to push..and push...and push. Nothing was happening and I was already exhausted. We took a break to see if baby would change his position. An hour later baby had shifted so we pushed again. And again. And again. For over an hour we did this and baby was stuck at my tailbone. Contractions were close so I had little rest time in between efforts. I've done a lot of workouts in my time and this was by far one of the toughest. In fact, an Ironman doesn't take me near this long to complete and I never felt as completely exhausted at any one time during a race as I did several times during this process.

Gripping the sides of the bed, as if that helped

2:40 pm
After over an hour of pushing with no more progress, the doctor gives me a choice - forceps or c-section. Well, the whole team was already in the room and forceps could make it over with in a matter of minutes instead of surgery prep and execution so we went with forceps, as awful as it sounded. 2 minutes and a few last pushes later I had a purple and white screaming little boy on my chest with a really large cone head. It was over. He made it, healthy and strong.

I was really sick right after delivery so the doctor had Brandon hold the baby on his bare chest to get some skin-to-skin time before I was composed enough to hold him. But when I did get him, it was such a strange feeling. He was ours. He was what was in me for all those months. That moment we had been waiting for was happening. Happy.

Baby's first picture and three generations in one shot (that's my mom in the back)

After that I don't remember much. They stitched me up and moved me to another floor for recovery. My legs were still completely numb. I felt like I'd been hit by a truck.

Meeting Baby
Once in the new room Brandon was next to me and a baby bassinet with our baby in it was next to the bed. The nurse asked us if we needed anything and started walking out. I actually stopped her and asked her what we were supposed to do now. She told us to rest and enjoy. So Brandon and I were left alone in the room looking at each other and looking at this brand new little baby with no idea what to do with him or what to name him. We took turns holding him and just sitting quietly in awe. That and I was too exhausted to speak.

First visitors
Brandon's sister Jaime came by Saturday morning with her son, who brought his water gun to show his new cousin

More complications
Baby was born on Friday. We planned to leave the hospital Saturday afternoon. Hospital staff told us we could stay until Sunday if we wanted. We didn't want to, but as the day went on I felt worse and worse. I wasn't sure going home without a staff of extra hands to help while I got energy back was a good idea. We had family so we thought we'd try to go home until the color left my lips and I turned pale all over. An observant nurse questioned the change and ordered blood work. My hematocrit count was 18, about half of what they considered usual for postpartum moms. That explained how I felt. I lost too much blood during deliver and my body couldn't produce enough red blood cells to replace the lost ones fast enough. So I earned two units of someone else's blood. Never thought I'd have a blood transfusion, but it wasn't so bad. Halfway through the first unit I started feeling better. By the end of the second unit I was almost peppy. Thanks so much to the person who donated that blood.

My legs and feet also continued to swell. I got a nasty pain in my right calf that was a red flag for possible blood clots. The ultrasound showed beginning stages of a clot. Luckily we caught it at an early enough stage to treat it with just moist heat and movement. Eventually, and thankfully, the pain and swelling disappeared.

Those are my feet. So awesome

Once home our little guy turned more yellow and ended up with increasing biliruben counts leading to Jaundice. He had to go get his little foot pricked at the lab for 7 days in a row and sleep on a light bed to help clear the blood. It took about a week for numbers to start going down. He's great now.

Naming baby

Griffin Brent Andrus. Griffin came from a list on an iPhone app. We liked it and it made the final cut after he was born. It just seemed to fit. Brent is my dad's name. It worked out well considering it Griff was born on my dad's birthday.


I'm in Love all over again
I had no idea this small little guy could capture such a huge part of my heart. He is SO sweet and cuddly. Sure he cries a lot and keeps me up at night, but I just adore him. He has Brandon wrapped around his finger, too. And I'm even more in love with Brandon than before. I've always said Brandon is an amazing husband, but he outdid himself in the delivery room. I couldn't have asked for a more supportive, understanding, involved, loving and humorous person to be by my side helping me through the delivery battle (actually I could say that about pregnancy too). I'm in awe of his giving and his relentless love. I feel adored. And he's continued to adore me through recovery and adjustment to motherhood too. He's a great dad and takes seriously his responsibility as a partner in parenthood. He makes my job so much easier. I am so lucky.  I love him and I love him even more today than yesterday. Thanks for being there for me B.

Mine comes with a manual

I've heard people say through the years that they wish babies came with manuals. Any electronic device these days comes with more than enough information, why can't babies come with something more than a pamphlet from the hospital. Thanks to my friend Kristen, I have a baby manual.  It's highly entertaining (babies are described as if they are electronic devices of varying models and specifications) and actually pretty helpful for someone like me who has spent very little time around babies. It even has clear diagrams and step-by-step 'how to's.' So good. I highly recommend it for a baby shower gift.

The Baby Owners Manual: operating instructions, trouble shooting tips, and advice on first year maintenance
- Louis Borgenicht, M.D., and Joe Borgenicht, D.A.D.

Yep, I bookmarked it. There's some great reference material in there, especially related to medical conditions, etc.

Oh Cankles

My first 18 weeks of pregnancy were miserable, but since then, I'd say I've been pretty lucky. No complications, no trips to the hospital or unexpected doctor visits. I've been able to get out and travel and exercise and play without too much difficulty. But now, in my last month, all things have changed. Wow, is being pregnant uncomfortable! Heartburn is back, I can't move smoothly (in fact, I bump into things), I'm super slow at everything, my clothes don't fit and I don't want to buy more with so little time left, and the biggest change, my feet are swelling. Really swelling.

I don't recognize my lower legs, ankles, and feet. They aren't mine. I've burst into uncontrollable, delirious laughter looking at them. I feel detached from the foreign objects and yet I can feel every inch of the painful skin stretching and tissue ballooning. Today my flip-flop got stuck on my foot. I finally tugged it off to get some relief and then struggled to get it back on. I have trouble walking sometimes, just because my feet feel like they will explode.

Not to worry, I don't have toxemia or some other complication. I have no other red flag symptoms - just major water retention in that area and the possibility that baby's head is now blocking vessels that have aided in the swelling. I've been lucky that pregnancy hasn't taken me off my feet so far so if I only have to deal with it in the last two weeks, I'm ok with that.

Usually I slip into a double knotted shoe, no problem. Now I have to untie, loosen a lot, and watch my ankles spread out over the side of my shoe. This walk didn't last very long.

Nesting

NESTING: According to PregnancyWeekly

"Around the fifth month of pregnancy, the "nesting" instinct can set in. This is an uncontrollable urge to clean one's house brought on by a desire to prepare a nest for the new baby, to tie up loose ends of old projects and to organize your world.

Females of the animal kingdom are all equipped with this same need. It is a primal instinct. Just as you see birds making their nests, mothers-to-be do exactly the same thing. The act of nesting puts you in control and gives a sense of accomplishment toward birth.

(MY FAVORITE PART)

Nesting brings about some unique and seemingly irrational behaviors in pregnant women and all of them experience it differently."


It didn't come until the 7th or 8th month, but I have definitely been experiencing "nesting." I'm already pretty particular about cleaning the house (B might call it "anal"), but my efforts have become more frequent and a little more detailed in case I go into labor. Baby doesn't really care if the bathrooms or kitchen sink are clean when he gets here, but I seem to care for him. I don't want him to have to come home to dirty rooms and unvacuumed floors. And I think I don't want to have to clean it when I get home either.  So I just keep cleaning. I've also organized the panty, the laundry room, built up more food storage, and decluttered my office area. Slightly obsessive, I guess.

The cleaning hasn't really been the irrational part, though. My new interest in the kitchen and all it's potential has gotten a little out of control. I'm baking and cooking all sorts of things I've never attempted before and they are all from scratch. My in-laws love me because we dump a lot of the surplus on them to keep me and Brandon from gaining too much weight. I'm loving cooking/baking, but maybe making donut holes and bran muffins back-to-back in the same day is a little excessive.

I haven't taken pictures of everything, but here are a few examples

Black bean and chicken soup

Shrimp and broccoli stir fry

Chicken, broccoli, pesto calzones

Fruit stand in Santa Clara to get fresh fruit...thanks Michelle for the tip

Peach pie

Love my Blendtec!

Morning smoothies, complete with greens

Whoopie pies

Bran muffins

Pumpkin spice donut holes

September visit to SLC

Over Labor Day weekend we got to go to Salt Lake for lots of reasons. It didn't get above 85 degrees!! It was so gorgeous.

While there my family threw me a baby shower. Can't thank my aunt and cousins enough for putting it together. It was so good to see family and some people who have been like family and celebrate the new little guy (arriving soon) together. My mom and sister drove over from Colorado and surprised me. I had no idea they were coming until the walked in the door. Awesome surprise.Why I don't have pictures of the cousins and aunt who threw the party....I don't know. Mom, if you have some send them to me so I can add them.

with Mom and Baylee

Susi and Maria -the mother-daughter triathlete duo that wowed me from day one as my clients

Mom and cousin Eloise

Aunt Jill and family friend Deb

Cousins Jenny (new mom) and Sarah (Due Oct 18)

Vicki (one of my Utah moms) and her grand daughter

my cousin's daughter and Baylee

The blanket my mom made for us. It's so soft

The next big event of the weekend was my previous roommate's wedding. Kristy looked gorgeous! Congrats beautiful

And we had some time to hang out with some of our favorite people (not all pictured here). We had a BBQ and made some homemade salsa and a peach pie with farmer's market peaches.

Jenny, Tara, Michelle

Jenny, Britt, Brandon, Michelle, Lynn, Cory, Jenny Weenig, Tara

Weight a minute.....

I've officially hit my all time high body weight. I got on the scale the other day after gaining 3 lbs in one week and thought, "wow!" Not a big deal...I'm 8 months pregnant. But wait, I know I've seen that number on the scale once before. It's a familiar feeling, but distant. So when was I ever this close to this weight not pregnant??...my mission in in Taiwan. I'd been in the country about a year when my weight peaked. Cracks me up that it's taken the growth of another human being inside me to reach that same weight. Sure my cheeks and arms are a litte chubby and my ankles turn into cankles at night, but at least this time my face is still recognizable as me. Check out the pictures. Unfortunately I don't have a really clear picture of just me right now, but you get the idea.

Guan Dong, Taiwan - Fall of 2000

Fall of 2011 - 8 months pregnant

Me and my sis

Just the fact you can see bone articulation in my wrist is a good sign. Don't think I had that in Taiwan. And how do you like that belly button?! Turkey is done folks!