Bridget's Birth Story

When I went for my doctor's appointment on Friday, October 3, 1997, I was already planning to beg him to induce my labor. I was 3 days overdue, and this kid was just not getting any smaller! I agreed to induce the following Monday if "nothing happened" before then. Then he saw that my blood pressure was a little high, and my urine was showing 1+ protein. He sent me downstairs for a non-stress test and ultrasound. They both turned out ok, and my bp had dropped slightly when I went back to talk to him again, but a second urinalysis showed 1+ protein again. So he had the nurse catheterize me for a better sample. Ow! Anyway, no change, so he decided to send me to L&D to be observed. If I did have toxemia (which I had in my first pregnancy), I would be induced in the morning. If not, I would come back to be observed again.

Well, we went to L&D, with a quick stop at my mom's to let her and Mikey know where we were going. We got there around 6:30 Friday evening.

They immediately put me on the fetal monitor, with an automatic blood pressure cuff checking my bp every 15 minutes. It was still slightly high, and my urine was still showing protein, so it was decided to admit me to be induced Saturday morning.

At 10:00 am Saturday, the only doctor in the practice that I hadn't met yet came in and introduced herself, saying, "I'll be delivering your baby today." Somehow I knew I'd end up with the one doctor I didn't know but fortunately, I really liked her. I was given pitocin at 10:20. Shortly afterwards, I started getting cramps that didn't register on the monitor, so I assumed they were gas. Wrong! They got progressively stronger and closer together. At 11:20, the doctor broke my water just enough to use the internal fetal monitor. That's when the contractions REALLY got going! By noon, I couldn't breathe through the contractions anymore, and was begging for an epidural. The anesthesiologist was in surgery, so they called someone else from home. By the time he got there and was ready to give me the epidural, I was 5 cm (I was 3 cm when I was admitted).

I had several contractions while leaning over the edge of the bed waiting for the epidural to go in, but the nurse was really great, helping me breathe through them. DH was useless at that point, and I kept telling him to stop showing me how to breathe and get his hands off me. Finally, the epi kicked in. I calmed right down (no more pain!) and told dh he could watch tv now if he wanted, because I planned on taking a nap. :) I dozed off between contractions, until they got uncomfortable again, around 2:00 or so. The doctor came back in to check me, and I was up to 8 cm. By 2:55, I was at 10 cm, and more than ready to push. At 3:16 pm on October 4, 1997, Bridget finally popped out, all 9 lbs. 3 oz. and 22" of her.

She did give us a little scare. Apparently, her heart rate dropped drastically right before she came out, and she passed some meconium. They don't think she swallowed any, though, and seems fine. She also had low blood sugar, and I had to feed her right away. She wouldn't latch on, and it was important she be fed immediately, so they took her to the nursery and fed her some formula. Her blood sugar came back up then, and were no problems with nipple confusion.

The following day, the nurse came to get Bridget for her PKU test around 3:00 pm. Shortly afterward, she came back to tell me that Bridget had had a screaming fit, and briefly turned blue. They immediately did chest x-rays and consulted a neonatololgist. Fortunately, it turned out that she was just fine, and she had probably swallowed some mucus when she had her very first temper tantrum, at all of 24 hours old!