"Easy Pregnancy, Difficult Delivery"

Kylie is finally here!! YAY! She arrived on April 13th 2010 at 8:27 pm (Western Australia Time). It was a bit sooner than we expected, but I can't say that I was disappointed about it. I'm glad to have her home and happy not to have to wait around and see when it's going to happen.

Monday the 12th I went in for my 38 week check-up. When I got there I had to tell my doctor that I had a headache that would not go away and had been there since the day before. I had protein in my urine and my blood pressure was up (again, this time 130/100), not too mention that my ankles looked like they were one with my calves! It was horrible! They decided to do blood work and observe me for an hour to see if my pressure went down. After an hour my pressure had not gotten any lower and my labs were not back yet. The doctor (my regular doctor was on holiday so her partner was filling in) gave me a choice. I could go ahead and be induced ( I would need to start the Prostin gel that night as my cervix was not quite ready) or I could simply be admitted for a day or two and see if my pressure returned to normal. After Jamie and I talked about it we decided that if I were going to be in the hospital, I might as well be induced while I was there. So, they admitted me on the spot.

I got the gel around 4:30 pm and by 5:30 pm I started having contractions. They didn't feel like much to start with, but the midwives (that's what they use as maternity nurses here) thought I was contracting enough that I didn't need the second dose. They were also concerned because they couldn't find a proper baseline for Kylie's heartbeat (she was very active, but I thought is was clearly around 150). Even with my assessment, they were concerned because her baseline earlier during observation, which was around lunch time, was about 120. Because of this, I was kept on the monitor until 1:30 am!! Every time I got comfortable the midwife would come in and tell me that it wasn't tracing and I needed to roll over. I was exhausted and couldn't get comfortable. Finally, one of the midwives from the birthing suites came to check on me and agreed that I didn't need to be on the monitor anymore. Thank God!  I knew it was going to be a long day and I really just wanted to get some sleep.

From there I only got about an hour of sleep before the uncomfortable contractions began. I was offered Panadol (which is like Tylenol) but it didn't do any good. I got 0 amount of sleep from that point on and at 7:00 am I was taken to the birthing suites to start my induction. So, by 7:30 am my water was broke and I was on Pitocin. What a great way to start the day!

Oh, I forgot to mention that during my exam the day before I was given a "heads up" that even though Kylie was not expected to be a big baby there were some concerns that she would not fit. The doctor thought that this may give us some "problems" about half way through and that I should just keep it in mind. (Many of you know that about a month ago I shared the news that I "had a gut feeling I would end up with a c-section" - here we go!)

I made it until 2:00 pm before getting my epidural. It worked great at first, but then I began to have problems. Here they do not use a continuous pump. It’s either patient controlled or given in bolus form every hour. I opted for the patient controlled form, thinking that it would be better because I wouldn't have to wait if the midwife was doing something else or out of the room. In the end, it didn't work like I had hoped! The epidural worked for me only about half the time. The rest of the time I was playing catch-up, which was not fun. During all this my blood pressure was all over the place (anywhere from 120/80's - 180/130 (as I was later told by Jamie). My pulse was also 120 while sleeping, but if I would move it would jump up to 150-180. I don't remember a whole lot toward the end of the afternoon, because I was so exhausted I was in and out so Jamie filled me in on the details later that night. I do remember him being by the bed most of the time, which really helped ! He was great and I couldn't have asked for a better labor partner!

The doctor came in and checked me sometime later that evening and I was 8. She said she thought I would make it to complete, but Kylie's head already had a lot of molding (she was getting a cone head) and she didn't think there was any way I would get her out on my own because of the space. So, we agreed to try with a vacuum first and if that didn't work after a few pushes we would go into a c-section.

Luckily, my first set of pushes brought her down pretty well and after 2-3 more sets using the vacuum our little girl arrived!! Not sure if I will ever do it again, but I must say I have no regrets about this one! She is absolutely perfect! She looks a lot like me and has Jamie’s olive skin tone and dark hair.

Here are some photos from our first week with Kylie!

I looked happy in the begining and the end, you just read all about the rest!

                       She's here!!                       

12 hours old and first bath

Cuddle time with daddy after bath and haning out on day 2

And day 3

Heading home!

Home life, it's as fun as we expected!  Check out the exhaustion on my face!!