He has Arrived

At 40 weeks and 5 days and a lot of aggravation. 

Delcan Oliver Cade Nottingham.   

 

Saturday afternoon we went to the hospital because Deb's contractions were getting worse and she was having sharp pains in between the contractions (as it turns out that wasn't much to worry about.)  But while at the hospital Declan's movements were slow for him.  So they ordered an ultrasound, which was a fairly long wait.  We finally got into the ultrasound at 7pm, but didn't get the results until after 9, which by this point doctors had changed and this one felt it was worth doing induction.  So we were put on the list for Non Emergency Induction.  Which means there has to be no one else remotely dilated more than you to get a room.  We kept getting hope "You're next" but then someone else would come in.  Buggar. 

 

After being in triage for almost 24 hour Deb had a bit of a breakdown and then agreed to have drugs for the pain to help her sleep. 

 

About an hour into Deb's sleep they woke us up and moved us to a labour room and broke her water.  Then started her on Oxitocin to help labour along.  After a few more hours of coping with the contractions she finally broke down and got an epidural.  That helped a lot.  But meant she couldn't walk around.  They kept upping her Oxitocin, but that only did so much.  After 24 hours of her water being broken and many exams later she wasn't dilated enough, she was at about 7.5 cm.  During this whole thing Declan was pretty happy and doing well, which was good.  Because she wasn't going into "Active" labour soon enough they decided to do a C section.  So shortly after the decision was made we were in the operating room.  This was Deb's worst case, being in labour for 2 days (plus contractions varying in degree for a week prior) then having a c section, kind of worst of both worlds. 

In prep for surgery Deb's epidural fell out and all of a sudden she could feel everything.  So they did a spinal block.  She doesn't do anything easily does she?   Surgery went relatively well, she lost about a liter of blood.  Declan was born at 4:05 on April 20th, 8 lb 11 oz and 20 3/4" long. 

 

Recovering from the spinal block went relatively quickly, which was good.  In the evening however they were taking Deb for her first walk after regaining movement in her legs and unfortunately the incision partially burst.  They eventually got her patched up again at 3 am. She wasn't emergency enough to warrant the resident coming quickly.  (Facepalm.) 

 

Deb still hasn't had much sleep but is trying to get some as she can.  She should be out of the hospital today, provided she can get her blood pressure up, as it has suck fairly low yesterday. 

 

So far Declan seems to be a well tempered little boy.  Spencer is going to need to adjust to baby crying though.  He was visiting yesterday and Declan crying sent Spencer into a crying fit himself.  It will be  a work in progress.  I hope to take Thursday off to ease the transition to Deb and Declan being home. 

 

More photos soon.