London's story

So I told a few people that I would share the story of London's arrival so here it is: My pregnancy went fine, other than the fact that I was sick the ENTIRE time. Right up until the day I delivered. It was horrible, I was weak a lot and there were many times that I'd be just sitting on the couch and everything would just go black. Other than being sick, physically I felt pretty good. My back never hurt (the only time in my life I can remember it NOT hurting), and I could move around pretty good right up to the end.

I was scheduled to work my last day about 2 1/2 weeks before my due date. a few days before my last day at work, I had a doctor appointment and she told me that my amniotic fluid was pretty low and to really pay attention to how much London moved in the next week or so. She wasn't really TOO concerned with it so neither was I and besides, London moved NON STOP!! I swear she never slept and never just relaxed! But I loved feeling her move! My little angel! Anyway, I went to my last day of work (I was working a closing shift, setting an ad) and I was feeling pretty good. I think I probably puked only a few times that day. :) Work went fine and when I got home around 10pm I decided to put my feet up and relax...which is when London would really bounce around in my tummy! Only this time she didn't... come to think of it, she hadn't really moved around all day. Of course when I came to this realization, I panicked because of what the doctor had said.

So I called my mom. Funny that I didn't call my doctor first, but for some reason it made sense to me to get my mom's opinion first. Of course she told me to call my doctor! :) When I talked to my doctor she was pretty calm but she did tell me to get to the hospital immediately. And to take my bag... She told me that more than likely everything was fine but that they'd hook me up to the monitors just to be sure. I called my mom back, asked her to meet me there, and drove to the hospital (Thomas was working and I called him on my way and said that if I was still there when he got off work to come to the hospital).

Once I got there and explained my situation and what my doctor had said, they took me back to a small room, had me get into a hospital gown and hooked me up to the monitors to check my heart rate, the baby's heart rate and my blood oxygen level. My mom showed up shortly after I was all hooked up and after that we just sat and waited a while. It was almost 11:30pm by now. My heart rate was great and so was my blood oxygen. But London's heart rate was kind of slow and she wasn't moving at all. The nurse called my doctor and they decided to induce labor. I called Thomas and he came up to the hospital to be with me. My mom stayed, too.

They gave me the first round of Pitocin at about midnight and told me to try and get some rest, that it would still be quite a while because when I went in I was only dilated to about a 1. So me, my husband, and my mom slept a little between the nurses coming in to check me and anticipation.

Let me just say at this time that for my whole pregnancy I had joked saying, "I just want to schedule a C-section. That will be easier." Everyone laughed it off and of course I never asked my doctor to schedule a C-section that wasn't necessary. So sitting there in the hospital bed, being given more Pitocin every once in a while I kept thinking, 'This is going to end in a C-section'. I kept my mouth shut for the most part.

I started to feel my contractions very early the morning after going into the hospital so they gave me more Pitocin to speed things up. That's when things sort of started to go wrong. London's heart beat was a little erratic but with the Pitocin, it went completely nuts. One second it would be at only 76BPM then it would immediately shoot up to over 200BPM. The nurse called my doctor who came in to check on me before she went up to the clinic for her regular appointments. Everyone was very calm but I just knew how it would end-with me on an operating table being cut open. And I was ok with that; I felt mentally prepared.

My husbands parents decided to come up to the hospital and wait for their 2nd grandchild, their first granddaughter, to be born. That's when I decided to get my epidural. My contractions were nowhere near unbearable but I didn't want my in-laws to be in the room while my nurse coached me through any kind of painful contraction. The epidural kicked right in and I couldn't feel a thing! :) I loved it.

Even though everyone was still relatively calm, my nurse gave all her other patients to other nurses and kept a very close eye on London's heart rate. My doctor came by again on her lunch, at about 11:30am, and told me she'd come by again that afternoon but that she'd be ready in case things sped up quickly and I was ready to deliver. I felt like I was in good hands with my nurse and my doctor so I wasn't worried. Just after being checked by my doctor, my nurse came in and checked me and looked a little worried. We all kind of were because we could see London's heart rate doing all this weird stuff. My nurse left and for about 45 seconds after that everything seemed pretty routine: we'd keep waiting. My father-in-law and husband went down the hall to find a soda machine. I felt fine.

That's when the door burst back open and all of the sudden I had 3 different nurses unhooking my machine, taking my rings and earrings off of me, forcing me to drink something truly awful tasting, and telling me that we had to get the baby out "NOW". Oddly enough, I was still very calm. My mom and dad (who had come to the hospital not long before) looked a little panicked as the left the room and my mother-in-law jumped up to go find my husband to tell him to get his butt down there.

When my husband and his dad saw my mother in law in the hall, looking panicked, they ran to my room to find out what was going on. While my mother-in-law explained to my father-in-law, a nurse threw a pair of scrubs at my husband and told him to hurry up. This all happened in about 90 seconds and then I was being rushed down the hall to the OR. And I was still pretty calm. Like I said, I felt pretty prepared for this outcome.

Luckily I had already got my epidural so they didn't waste any time getting London out safely. We got to the OR, they moved me onto the operating table from my hospital bed, hung the sheet up and cut! My doctor must have not even left the hospital for lunch because by the time they got me from my room to the OR, she was there, scrubbed in, ready to go. It was very reassuring to see her face! I remember a nurse counting tools..."1 2 3 4 5 6..." all the way up to, if I remember correctly, "20". She just kept counting and I finally asked, are you counting them to be sure there's nothing left in my stomach. Yes, they were. (Good thing she was still able to count 20 tools after I was all stapled up!)

Soon enough we heard "it's a girl"! Well, I heard that- Thomas was able to stand up and watch the whole procedure so he got to see London right when the doctor did. I was given more drugs, told I'd soon not even be able to feel my eyelids, stapled up, moved back onto my hospital bed and taken back to my room.

I was pretty out-of-it so I didn't really make a big deal out of the whole situation, even when Thomas came in the room and handed London to me. (I have no idea why they let him walk down the hall to the room HOLDING her, their policy is that whenever the baby leaves the room, she must be in the bassinet). But, who cares? I had my little girl! It was still a miracle, even though I had to have a C-section!

My doctor came in later that evening to check on me and told me that I'd heal faster if I got up and walked around as soon as I could. So I did!! As soon as I could feel my legs and they took my catheter out, I walked the halls with my husband and our brand new little bundle!

My recovery with London took a good 2 months because it was an emergency C-section and my body was shocked more than it would have been with a scheduled C-section. But I didn't push myself and I listened to my body- I never tried to do anything if my body was telling me it was too much. But overall, it wasn't bad and I chose to do it again when I had our second baby, Kannon, two years later. I'll share his story a different time...

So there it is. London's story.

Wow! It's been a long time since I last posted! I'm sort of a Blog Slacker... London is doing ok, she has her bad times and her good. This past week and a half or so has been pretty rough on her due to increased seizures. Thomas has been trying to get her off of coconut milk (she was drinking that from when she was on the Ketogenic diet) and used to regular milk but I'm not so sure it's the best thing right now. For about a week she was getting quite a bit of it, and keeping it down but she was having super yucky seizures everyday. When she threw up all over my living room I decided to stop giving her milk and go back to her coconut milk and see what happened. That night she didn't have a seizure.... although this morning she did again. I'm hoping that once all her teeth come through the gums (she's still got 9 to go, and they all seem to be trying to come in at the same time) she'll have decreased seizures and maybe even smile again!

She's getting big so fast! We recently had her measured for a wheelchair and I think that will be so great for her! Hopefully her core muscles will get strong enough that she'll be able to sit up by herself soon.

Kannon is also getting big-he's two months old now and we just had him blessed on Jan. 10th. He looked so handsome in his little white suit! He's starting to try to use his hands and he's smiling quite a bit. He coos at me a lot and I just love knowing that pretty soon I will be able to hear one of my kids say 'mama'! I think he will be so good for London, too. I can tell that when she is upset, he gets upset. He doesn't like his big sister to be sad!

I've been trying to get my desktop computer set up so that I can update my blog on a more regular basis and post more pictures! Til then, thanks everyone for all the support you've given us through the good times and the bad!