March 26 2008, Wed
4:30am: Susan thinks her water might be broken.
6:30am: Wakes me up, says her water is broken. No contractions yet. I help her a bit, and then say we can go back to bed since she's not contracting. She says we need to go to the hospital. We call up WHA, Dr. Stull is on call. Slight pains started by now, Stull asks her to go to the hospital. We quickly pack and head out.
7:30am: Arrive at the hospital. 2 contractions on the 10 min car ride over. Nurse Mary takes us to Triage room 382. Checks her out, says she's contracting about 4 mins apart, lasting a min each. Doesn't think water has broken yet. Inserts placeholders for IV in her veins. Nurse is very nice and motherly. Susan gets hooked up to some very cool equipment; one sensor measures the baby's heartbeat (140bps right now), and another measures the contractions. Graphs of both are drawn on the monitor screen as well as continuously plotted on paper
9:00am She checks with Dr. Karlsson, wants us to walk around the maternity ward for 90 mins, and then will re-check. Susan walks around, accompanied either by amma or myself. I also went down to the car to get our bags back to the room.
10:30am: Nurse checks her again. Water has definitely broken, but she's not dilated. Said we will be admitted and moved to a birthing suite.
11:15: Moved to birthing suite 330. Quite the large room. We get settled in, and after a while I go down to the 2nd floor cafeteria to pick up some lunch for amma and I. Susan can't eat anything, and can only have water/ice chips now that she is in labor. Dr. Karlsson comes in after a while, general check up. The contractions are very regular, and Susan is in pain but bearing up well. Not dilated much (~1cm), so can't do epidural yet. Either amma or I are her breathing coaches during the contractions, which are about 3 mins apart now. Baby's heartbeat is regular at 140bps. Susan alternates between walking around the room and lying down. It starts snowing - quite the treat for a late March day!
2:00pm: Dr. Carlsson checks again, dilated to 3cms. Says epidural can be given now. Susan is glad! She has to remain in bed once the epidural is given. The nurse starts her on a drip to make sure she is well hydrated before the epidural is given. Takes about 45 mins for 2 bottles of the drip to be given, during which time Susan is definitely hurting from the contractions.
3:00pm: Marc the nurse anesthetist comes in. Very nice guy, puts her at ease, keeps making small talk and cracking jokes while he preps her. Susan has to sit up in bed, and I am told to sit down next to her and not stand up so I don't faint when I see the needle! Marc does a very good job in getting the epidural in quickly; the test doses are good, and he gets the machine started with the continuous dosage.
3:50pm: Incident #1. Baby's heartbeat gets very erratic, and a nurse rushes into the room (they monitor the heartbeat from their station). She gets Susan on oxygen, and urgently turns her to one side and then the other to get the baby's heartbeat going again. That doesn't work, and she calls in for help and the doctor. Couple other nurses come in, and Susan is put on her hands and knees, with the O2 mask held to her face. Dr. Karlsson comes in as well, and after some prodding and activity, the baby's heartbeat comes back to a regular 140bps. We are all very shaken by this, especially Susan - she had no idea what was going on, and was just being moved around by the nurses and the doctor in all the commotion. The doctor said this could happen right after an epidural; once was ok, but if this happened another couple times, they'd really need to take some action. She tried to put a monitor directly on the baby's head, but couldn't get a good angle. Left things as is since the heartbeat was back on.
5:00pm: The nurse checks Susan, and she is dilated to about 7 cms. Good progress so far, and they estimate she can start pushing in an hour or two.
5:45pm: Incident #2. The second heartbeat episode happens. The nurses rush in and do the same procedures as before. Dr. Simpson is the new doctor on call, and she comes in and takes charge. Once again, they get the heartbeat going after some very tense moments, and then assess the situation. The doctor also said the baby is now face-up, and that’s not a good position for regular delivery. One reason for the heartbeats getting intermittent could be the cord getting wrapped around the baby's neck. She brings up the possibility of a C-sec, and also says we could wait a bit and see what happens. Susan immediately said she doesn't want to wait, and wants to do a C-sec now. The doctor agreed that was the best course of action for the baby.
6:15pm: Once the decision was made, things swung rapidly swung into motion. Marc (the anesthetist) appeared out of nowhere, and made sure she was stable enough for the local anesthetic through the epidural she already had. A couple other nurses appeared, and I was asked to change into scrubs/mask/the works.
6:30pm: Susan was wheeled into the OR, and I was told to wait outside while she was prepped. Sat there along with another waiting father-to-be, not sure what was happening but praying. Amma was not allowed into the OR, so she packed up our stuff from the room and went out to wait and pray in the waiting area.
6:45pm: I was called into the OR, and made to sit by Susan's head. There was a short curtain in front of us, and the doctors were on the other side getting ready to make the incision.
6:58pm: Yohan was born! The little fella was pulled out, and I looked over the curtain to see him covered in a grey-ish like substance. A couple seconds later he put his lungs to good use and started crying. He was whisked away to be cleaned up and tested (APGAR test).
7:05pm: Susan and I each got little bands with a code put on our wrists, and Yohan got the same band on his ankle. He was given to me to hold, and when Susan saw him, she started crying with joy. That was an emotional moment.
7:10pm: I was sent with the baby to the recovery room where he got weighed, measured, and bathed. His first two shots (Vit K and Hep B vaccine) were given. Susan was still in the OR getting stitched back up.
7:30pm: Susan is wheeled into recovery, where the nurses there take over and do a great job helping her feel comfortable. That’s the first time she gets to hold Yohan.
9:30pm: We get wheeled out of the recovery room to another room where we will stay till we get discharged. Amma and Bhasker mama are waiting to see the new baby!
March 27 2008, Thu
- No one gets much sleep through the night. Nurses come every now and then to check on mom and baby.
- The pediatrician and OBGYN visit early in the morning. Baby looks healthy, mom is recovering well.
- The morning / afternoon is spent getting used to feeding and changing the baby, learning how to swaddle him, etc.
- Folks start coming to visit during the evening. Baby's first visitor was Kartik, who came to pick up amma.
March 28 2008, Fri
- The nurse does a billirubin test early in the morning, which turns out to be High-intermediate (10). They are concerned about this, and the doctor asks for another test to be done at 5pm in the evening. This also turns out to be high, so we are asked to supplement with a bottle every other feed during the night
- Amma and I take turns helping Susan during the night. I went to the lobby and slept for 4 hours while Amma was on-call, and then in the early morning amma slept for a little bit
- Susan had a shower today and felt much better. She also started walking a little bit, venturing out into the hallway. She's on pain meds, and will be for awhile.
- Visitors arrive in the evening
- I sleep for quite a bit in the lounge outside in the night. Amma gets a little sleep again in the morning.
March 29 2008, Sat
- The nurse does the third blood test (on the baby's heel). The pediatrician visits in the morning, and tells us the billirubin level has dropped to 3.8, which is normal now! We don't need to supplement with formula any more.
- We requested another day at the hospital so Susan could get some more rest.
- Today being Saturday, we had visitors during the day as well
- A lactation consultant came in, and checked on Susan. We also received a short breast-pump 101 course.
March 30 2008, Sun
- Ajit called to tell us early in the morning that Gampa wasn't doing very well. He called 30 mins later to say Gampa has gone to be with Jesus (9.30pm IST). Gampa had gone to his final home, and we were bringing his great-grandson to his first home.
- Brought little Yohan home. Bundled him up since it was cold outside.
- Susan is based in our bedroom upstairs. The bassinet is there, and the changing table has been moved from the nursery. Also moved the rocking chair to that room.
- The little guy's schedule is still reversed… sleeping during the day, awake at night
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