Finally Arrived

Zadok Brian Andrew finally arrived at 11:00 AM on November 13th, 2008. I suppose I shouldn't say finally, we really weren't done waiting for him to come. I suppose the reality is though, that Stacia was done waiting by the end of the hours of labor. Well, I suppose the best thing to do is just tell the story.

Tuesday, November 11th
We had an appointment with Barb, our nurse midwife, at the off hospital site where we had originally planned on delivering. When we got there we got checked in and did our normal routine. Part of the routine is a urine check. Stacia brought me her result stick and showed me that the color indicated the highest level of protein that could be shown. At the time, I did not know what that meant, only a matter of time though and we BOTH became more educated.

When Barb came into the room to talk to us, she was a little concerned about Stacia's protein, but wanted to start with listening to the baby. He was super active, and more than a little ornary. Each time that Barb tried to feel the top of the uterus, Zadok would push back at her hand. Barb said, "Well, do you want to measure 36 weeks, or 37 weeks?" We all chuckled and Barb moved on to the other issues.

Stacia's blood pressure had been creeping up the last few weeks, but we were trying to do natural things to get it back down. However, because the blood pressure was so high, and Stacia's legs, ankles and feet were so swollen, Barb called the OBGYN at the hospital that supports the Birth Center and came back with some not so wonderful news.

Barb came in and told us that though she had wanted to send Stacia home and put her on bedrest and monitor things, the OBGYN said that the risk was too high and that she wanted us to report to the hospital that night to be monitored there for 24 hours. There was only one problem with that. We had our baby shower in about an hour from the time that we were sitting with Barb. We told her about it, and she said that it would be ok for us to go to the shower and then report the hospital. The shower was nice and we got some really nice things, that we didn't think we would need for another month. God had a different plan for us.

When we got to the hospital it was about 9 pm. We were shown to our room and Stacia was asked to change into one of those wonderful hospital gowns. I must say, however that it was quite flattering....mostly because whenever she walked away from me, I got a free show! Anyway, we met our OBGYN for the first time, and were both thoroughly unimpressed! She came in and immediately was the bearer of bad news. As a matter of fact, at some point in time during the night I told her she was a funsucker. In all honesty though, she was most definitely ONLY doing what was ABSOLUTELY the best for Stacia and our little Zadok.

Since I was not writing this play by play as things were happening all the details are a little hazy now, however I do know that Stacia was quite the trooper. Stacia was started on a labor inducing drug at about midnight on Tuesday. The drugs started working pretty quickly, and Stacia went into a zone. She didn't really come out of it until after Zadok was born, and was not fully herself again until we were walking out of the hospital a week later. Back to the labor. Stacia labored very well! It was hard, there is no denying that, but she took it like a man...hmm, that saying really does not work in this situation. She took it better than any man EVER could! That is better. During her laboring, her contractions would be pretty consistent for about an hour, give or take, then the medicine would just kind of stop working. The doctor would order a higher dosage, her uterus would respond for about an hour...and then back to slow and unresponsive. Finally the doctor came in (because of Stacia's blood pressure being too high, and due to the lack of progress) and said that it would be best to break Stacia's water. Even though Zadok was not showing signs of distress, the situation could have turned for the worse very quickly.

What we were dealing with was Stacia being ecclamptic. The worse case scenario would have been that her kidneys would have failed and she would have gone into seizures. This, obviously, is bad. Weighing all factors, the doctor decided that breaking the water would be best because getting the baby out should help with the blood pressure and help get Stacia back to normal. Should is the operative word there.

Fast forward...Finally around 9:00 am on Thursday morning, after some long, hard laboring Stacia and I agreed to her having an epidural. The biggest reason we did this is because she was still not progressing past 5-6 cm, and she was VERY tired. The situation was interesting because they had checked her last about and hour and a half before they actually came in to start the epidural. She was 5-6 cm. When they came in, I almost asked them to check her one more time, but I decided that I should just let them move ahead, because we had already talked about it, and I didn't want Stacia to get any more discouraged by not moving any further forward. I should have asked. As soon as they completed the tap for the epidural, but before they started pushing the meds, they checked her, and she was complete! We both were a little downhearted, but still decided that this was for the best. Stacia could now rest for a while and get ready to push this baby out!

I went to the cafeteria to get some breakfast. I was gone for about an hour, and Stacia was sleeping the whole time. When I finished I headed back upstairs and shortly after that, we were ready to have a baby! It was approximately 10:30 when Stacia started pushing, and by 11:00 we had met the new member of our family! Zadok Brian Andrew came into our lives. I would like to say that all the pain and labor was worth it, but I can't...becuase it was Stacia that went through it all. I was just there to hold her hand, to pray with her, to help her breathe through the contractions, and, oh yeah, to catch the baby! When Zadok came out, it was into my hands he slipped and I announced to world for the first time, Zadok Brian Andrew was glad to meet everyone.

When he came out, he immediately started crying, but as soon as he made it to mom's chest, his eyes were open and he was just looking around. No crying. We had requested that he stay attached to mom as long as possible, via the umbilical cord. But again, the neonatal people "thought he looked too blue." I know that if they had left him there for even another 45 seconds he would have pinked up quite nicely, but again in the end it was all about what was going to bring about the healthiest momma and baby.

So this is where our story ends, right? No, actually it kind of begins here. We stayed in the labor and delivery for a couple nights, because the doctors were still monitoring Stacia's blood pressure. Finally, they decided to move us over to post-partum. There was something about that, however, that Stacia's body did not like. After being there about 12 hours or so, Stacia's blood pressure got worse. So back to labor and delivery we went. Apparently, they can monitor patients better in the latter ward. Stacia and I really didn't mind all that much, we felt like we received more immediate and personalized care in the l&d ward anyway. When we were just getting ready to move back, we found that we would be cared for by one of my buddies from college, sister. We were thrilled. It made home feel a little closer. By now we were asking every other person that came in the room when we would get to go home. Typically the answer was, "it depends on what the doctor thinks about Stacia's blood pressure."

Well, the time came for us to move BACK to the post-partum ward. This time the light was at the end of the tunnel. We were in this ward for another couple of days and then finally the doctor came in and said, "well, when someone has hypertension, we treat it as outpatient, so there is really no reason for us to keep you here any longer. I am going to put Stacia on some blood pressure medicine, though." By that time, we would not have cared if she said she was going make us dress drag and do the hula, we were just ready to GO HOME!

After a few more hours, and a wonderful visit from our friend, the nurse who had helped us a few nights before, we were released to take our new baby home. There are a few more stories tucked in here about the wonderful lactation consultants, and other really kindly nurses that took care of us during this extraveganza, but Stacia can tell those stories at her leisure. After all, all she does now is sit at home and nurse our son...just kidding! She is keeping busy, though, and everyone we see looks at her and says, "you look really good for having had a baby only a month ago!" And the truth is, SHE DOES LOOK GOOD! I might be a little partial though.

Thus ends the tale of how our little Zadok came to be with us. We are working on the happily ever after. The end.