My 3 week stay at Baylors Antepartum unit & Hunter's Birth Story

So I have a little time to finally blog about my hospital stay at Baylor's Antepartum unit that lead up to Hunter's birth and his birth. What a whirl wind it was. I posted a lot of updates on Facebook and in my BWF group so going to go off that as I can't remember everything that happened now 5 weeks later. **added photos from the different days as well**


June 13th I went into my regular 33 week prenatal appointment fully expecting to go home - boy was I wrong! My dr was out of town so I saw the midwife Kim and they checked my BP and it was 180/98 which is BAD so they had me lay on my side for 15 minutes and while they checked my urine for proteins, sure enough I was spilling proteins and my BP did not go down much after a recheck so she wanted me to head over to L&D for a 24 hour observation. I had my boys with me so I told her I had to take them to my mom's first and then I could head over there. So I stopped off at home got the boys and myself an over night bag, headed to moms dropped them off and then back to the hospital I went. At the hospital they ordered a 24 hr urine test, a non stress test on the baby and blood work as well as be on the BP cuff the whole time. My blood work came back showing that I had elevated liver enzymes so they needed to keep me longer then the original 24hrs until my numbers went down, they said between my BP being so high, high liver numbers, swelling, dizziness and my history of pre ecclampsia they may have to induce me within a week once I hit 34 weeks. They started steroid shots at 7pm and did more blood work as well as schedule a growth ultrasound to see how big Hunter is and then we will go from there.

June 14th - Wednesday night around 11 pm I started having contractions and went from completely closed to low, soft & 2cm in just 2 hours so they hooked me up to an IV and a contraction monitor.They gave me two shots of something to stop the contractions and they didn't work so they gave me something called procardia that did finally work.  So today I have had no contraction thankfully but did have a growth scan done, the scan shows him to be measuring 2 weeks and 2 days ahead so 35 weeks & 3 days instead of 33 weeks & 1 day. They also gave me a second steroid shot and I am still hooked up to IV fluids. They are doing a wait and see right now and won't check me again unless the contractions start really hurting. They moved me into one of the postpartum rooms for the time being. 

June 16th -  Yesterday was a whirlwind both emotionally & physically. around noon yesterday I started having contractions again so they hooked me up to the monitor and told me to let them know when they started hurting, I didn't say anything until about an hour later and the nurse came in and said ya they should be hurting they are off the charts! So she called the OB in and they checked me and said I was 4cm dilated and needed to be moved to L&D again. Most the rooms were full so they ended up putting me in the same room I had delivered Waller in 6 years earlier and my stress level went through the roof! Most people don't know but I suffered postpartum depression for about 8 months after he was born, mainly due to the trauma of his birth, and what happened at the hospital (won't go into that now, better left for another day) so being back in the same room was not fun. After being in the room for a few hours around 4pm the OB comes in and says she talked with the NICU dr and he told her he didn't feel comfortable taking care of a 33 weeker so she had contacted a specialist in Dallas at Baylor Medical since they have a level 3 NICU and between her, the specialist and my regular OB they decided I needed to be transferred. They tell me I have to be hooked up to magnesium to stop labor so that I don't go into labor during the hour long ambulance ride which of course means I have to have a catheter which sends me into an almost full blown panic attack, I had been on mag before and know how horrible it is AND last time I had a catheter (put in at this hospital when I had Walker) it messed me up for months.  Darin had to calm me down as best he could and he called our friend Cody to come give me a blessing which helped ease my fears a bit. Once they got everything hooked up we had about two hour wait till the ambulance got there. Darin followed behind the ambulance all the way to Dallas and after about an hour ride we arrived around 9pm. They sent me to L&D to be hooked up and for monitoring and to see if they could get my contractions to stop or if we were gonna have him that day. The maternal/fetal specialist came in around midnight and did a check on me and found I was only 2cm!! The OB had measured me wrong (he said there is an inside and outside measurement and the one that counts was only 2cm, so they felt confidant they could get my contractions stopped and keep Hunter in longer. He did an ultrasound on him and said he is measuring still 2 weeks & 2 days ahead (we know my due date is right as we know exactly when he was conceived and he measured exactly on track until I hit about 24 weeks when he started measuring big even though I did not have GD) he said he is about 6 pounds 13 ounces already and very long! They kept me in L&D until around 5pm when they moved me upstairs to an Antepartum room for observation. They were able to get my contractions stopped and stabilize my BP but protein levels went up, they were 302 after my 24 hr test at the first hospital and 495 after just 12 hrs at this hospital!

33 weeks 2 days

June 17th - I lost my mucus plus or part of it sometimes last night, I have been spotting and cramping all morning, they said there are no contractions showing up but that it doesn't mean my cervix isn't doing it's own thing. I will see the MF specialist tomorrow morning around 8am for another ultrasound to check on Hunter and make sure he is doing ok. I will have ultrasounds done Monday & Wednesday's until I deliver. The MF said that even though the scans are not 100% he is confident that Hunter is large for his age and with having two steroid shots he has a really good chance of little to no help should we have to induce due to my proteins and liver numbers going up. For now it is more wait and see.

1 day shy of 34 weeks

sono taken June 18th

sono taken June 20th

June 23rd - Things have been pretty uneventful the last 10 days, I am still in the same room waiting. I get monitored twice a day (hooked up to BP cuff & contraction/heart rate monitor for Hunter) as well as get meds 4-6 times a day including medication to stop contractions. I get short ultrasounds twice a week and blood work twice a week as well as do a 24 hr urine collection once a week. My protein level doubled to almost 800 then a few days later went back down to 325. My liver numbers are still high at 86 when normal is 40 so I am not being released until Hunter is born. They expect him to come during my 36th week as my other two did but have an induction scheduled for July 18th when I am 38 weeks. We asked why we can not be sent home or sent back to the first hospital and the way it was explained was if they send me home and I stroke out then they are responsible, and they can not send me back to the hospital I was in because they can not "down grade" hospitals as it is not as advanced as where I am now. While it really sucks being away from my boys and Darin and only seeing them twice a week I am relived not to have to deliver in the other hospital again. 

June 25th -  I had another ultrasound this morning and Hunter is doing amazingly well, said he added on another 1/2 a pound this week and is about the size of your average 37 weeker. They said his lungs look great and if I got into labor on my own in my 36th week (July 4th) then they won't stop it. The nurses here are pretty amazing and are really trying to make this stay as easy on me as possible, which is really nice. Twice a week on Monday & Wednesday the moms that are allowed out of bed get to go to the family room for group therapy where we get to do crafts and such for the baby and our other kids for those that have them. Last week we made origami cranes then strung them up with beads and  crystals to make light catchers, my boys thought they were so neat. It's nice to go as we get to interact with the other moms for about two hours and get out of our rooms.

These photos were taken on the 30th

July 3rd -  Around midnight  I started having contractions every 5 minutes lasting 1-2 minutes each time.   I had been cramping off and on all day but nothing to bad. My night nurse Michelle decided to hook me up to the monitor to check on Hunter and see if the contractions I was feeling would show up. Sure enough they were showing up every 3-5 minutes for 1 minute each. They wanted to see if I was in labor or not so they gave me a pain pill and a round of IV fluids to see if that would stop the contractions. It did not  after a few hours they called the ob resident to my room to check me and found I had dilated to 4 cm from the 2cm I was when I first came to the unit and I was 20% effaced and baby was at -3 station. So at 3:30 they decided to send me downstairs to Labor & Delivery saying we would have the baby today. Darin and I were very excited even though we knew that Hunter would be early, he had had steroids at 33.2 and was consistently measuring 2.2 weeks ahead. We get down to L&D at 3am and get hooked up to an IV and antibiotics since I had not had my GBS test yet and get mentally ready to have our 3rd little boy. After 2 hours of strong contractions at 5:30 am the nice ob on call checked me and I had progressed to 5cm, 50 % effaced and -2 station. The really nice OB on call told me I could get up and walk, move positions and things like that to keep my contractions going good and that we should have a baby by noon or so if things keep going they way they are. She was not worried at all that I was only 35 weeks 6 days since both my other babies came during my 36th week. Then shift swap happened and things started going down hill.  I get a paranoid OB who right away had an attitude, who tells me I have to stay in bed flat on my back, can't get up except to pee, stay hooked up to the monitor the whole nine yards and I started getting stressed out and my contractions slowed down over the next few hours and completely stopped at 8:30am, I was stuck at 5cm, 50% effaced and baby at -3 station. So after an hour and a lot of crying I was sent back to my room on the antepartum unit. The OB said they would give me nothing to augment the labor. After arriving back in my room I was greeted by my amazing day nurse Danielle and told the ob that sent me back wanted to give me meds to stop contractions but she had stepped in and said look she is 5cm, she goes into labor early anyways and she is 1 day away from 36 weeks and convinced the ob I didn't need to be on the pill. By the time I went to sleep it was about 10pm after being up since midnight. I was pretty depressed and had no cramps, contractions or anything all night. The nurses think I just completely stressed myself into stopping labor. 

sono taken July 2nd

July 4th - Today I have had not one single contraction but Darin & the boys came out and spent all day with me, had lunch and even took a nap with monkey, it was a nice day to help take my mind off of everything that happened yesterday. The nurses wheeled us all to one side of the floor so we could watch the fireworks being shot off at fair park. I have now been in the hospital for 3 full weeks. 

my last "meal" before delivery - cheese enchiladas yumo

36 weeks - last belly shot

July 5th - I guess yesterday really seemed to relax me and I just let go and without realizing what was going on I guess my body said ok it's baby time because at 12:05 am I woke up contracting, they were strong enough to wake me up so I called my nurse Joanne (who had been a L&D nurse for 25 yrs) and told her what was going on and she hooked me up to the monitor, they monitored me for an hour and sure enough my contractions were coming about ever 5 minutes lasting for a minute each so she called my OB Dr Youst (she is a Mother/Fetal dr that specializes in high risk births) and told her what was going on, they decided to see if this was real or not and hooked me up to an IV and gave me a pain pill and said if I was still have contractions after an hour they would call the OB resident to come in a check me. So at 2am things were still moving along so in comes the ob resident, she checked me and I was 6cm dilated, 50% effaced and baby was in -3 station. She wanted to transfer me to L&D then but my amazing nurse offered to stay with me and monitor me for the next hour & a half  in my room since she knew the stress and drama I went through on Monday and she knew I couldn't take being moved to L&D only to be sent back to my room again. While being monitored I started getting discouraged because even though I felt the contractions getting stronger they were being so weird going from 4 or 5 in a row that were 2-3 minutes apart to 4 or 5 in a row that were 5-7 minutes apart. The nurse said as long as they were opening my cervix it didn't matter that they were not in a typical pattern.  After an hour and a half they called the ob resident back in and sure enough I had progressed, at 4:30 am I was 7cm, 70% effaced and baby was now at -2 station so I was officially in labor and they were sending me back down to L&D after for the last time. I called my husband and told him to head on up to the hospital, the plan was to get me down to L&D, hook me up to some IV fluids, a dose of antibiotics for the unknown GBS test results wait 4 hrs so the antibiotics could take affect and then talk about breaking my waters. They started the IV's at 5 am and the antibiotics at 5:30, I only had to be on the baby/contraction monitor for a few minutes each hour which was nice, and my plan was to go unmedicated like my last birth, the L&D nurse even said there was no need for pitocin since I was moving along and it would only be used as a last resort, I could walk, do whatever position felt comfortable, get in the shower, whatever I needed to do. I was extremely lucky to have such a natural minded nurse and got the luck of the draw in the on call OB & OB resident who were both my FAVORITES, very natural birth friendly, the whole nine yards. I labored by walking and moving until 9 am when my 4 hrs was up on the antibiotics and they asked if I wanted my waters broken to see if that would help me along as after 4 hrs I was still only 7cm I agreed and they broke them, water was clear and the dr was able to feel hunter move down into place and get to 0 station right away and I dilated to 8cm within 30 minutes. I was still handling the contractions pretty well, didn't hurt to bad and was manageable by walking and breathing.  So we told my parents to go ahead and bring the boys up that we were all sure that now that my water was broken I'd finish dilating and be ready to push by 1 at the latest. Boy were we wrong. Around noon while the boys & my parents where in the room visiting with us I started to really feel the contractions but I could still talk and pay attention to what was going on. Then within about 30 minutes they started coming faster and stronger and I would need to stop and lean against something to concentrate and breathe through them, I could no longer pay attention to anyone in the room so mom & dad took the boys out to the waiting area. Then around 1pm or so the shit hit the fan so to speak, things started getting bad, I wasn't handling contractions well at all, they were coming right on top of each other, were taking my breath away, I was using Darin as my support while walking, I'd just lean into him and he would help hold me up while I tried my hardest to not just scream. A few years ago I had had to deal with kidney stones and at the time I wish I would have had them instead of the contractions I was getting. It really shocked me as my last labor I went pain med free but had pitocin so I thought for sure the contractions I'd feel without pitocin would be easier to manage then the ones with, YA RIGHT. I was crying, holding my breath even when I tried not to and totally not relaxing at all, I decided to get in the shower and had Darin turn nothing but hot water on and point the shower head so it would hit my lower back, I would alternate between leaning forward being supported by the bar in the shower and squatting in the shower, I was in there for a whole hour trying to get some relief from the pain, it worked great at the beginning and then it seemed nothing worked so i gave up and got out. By now it was a little after 3 pm. I was feeling really really pushy so she called in the ob resident and got things set up thinking I'd be pushing soon (she knows that some women who go naturally can go from 8-pushing in a matter of minutes and listens when the mom says she has to push) The OB asked if she could check me and see if I had progressed any I was almost 9cm with a lip and found out the reason I was having so much back labor was because he was facing that way, she didn't want me to push because of the lip so she wanted me to labor a little longer to see if it would go away. I almost freaked out, I was so done, I was exhausted, felt stuck and didn't know what to do. The nurse said she knew I didn't want an epidural or any pain meds but the dr was talking about giving me pit and the nurse knew that would just make things worse. She said she really felt that I couldn't relax enough to let my body do what it needed to do and if I wanted she could order a low dose epi that they would turn off as soon as the baby was born, that maybe it would relax me enough to give me the strength to get to 10 and push. At 4pm after a few more toe curling contractions I agreed and got it, the dose was so low I was still able to move and lift my legs even though they felt heavy and tingly. Within 20 minutes of getting it I had completely relaxed, Hunter had flipped around to where he needed to be, I dilated to a full 10 and even felt the urge to push, the drs got back in the room, got everything set up and about 4:45 I was ready to push, I pushed 3 times and Hunter was born at 4:53 pm. He was 7 pounds 8 ounces and 21 inches long. After he was born they turned off the epi (so it was only on for about one hour) he was imediatly placed on my chest and stayed there for about 30 minutes as we did delayed cord clamping (first time I have ever done that) and I was able to rub in most of his vernix as he was a SUPER cheesy baby. Then since he was early they took him over to the warmer so the NICU nurses could give him a once over while I delivered the placenta (no tears at all not even a skid mark!). He was having a little bit of a hard time breathing correctly, kinda sluggish but instead of wisking him away like they did Walker they just laid him on my skin to skin so that he could regulate his breathing while listening to mine. After he was born Darin went out to get everyone, mom & dad, Walker & Jordan, and even my uncle Clinton & aunt Delores to come meet him. They couldn't really hold him as we were doing skin to skin for his breathing. After about 30 minutes they took him over to the warmer to check his blood sugars and do another monitoring to make sure he wouldn't need the NICU and that's when the boys really got to get a good look at him. He did have slight low blood sugar levels so they suggested giving him just a tiny bit of formula until we could get to the postpartum room and tackle nursing so I agreed and let my mom give it to him.  After about 2 hours everyone said goodbye and Hunter & I were wheeled up to the postpartum suite. He nursed right away once we got in our room but had a bad latch due to being a little early (Walker did to) so the lactation consultant came to see us and she said he may have a small tongue tie but showed me a few things that may help. Once the latch was figured out he nursed like a champ. After he was nursed and went back to sleep they took him to the nursery for his maditory 2 hour monitoring to make sure he wouldn't need the NICU and he passed with flying colors.

July 6th - Our first night was great. We both slept really well and Hunter slept skin to skin on me all night. And after nursing like crazy his blood sugar levels have gone down and he is in the clear! He also passed all his newborn screening tests except for his hearing test which we will go back and redo when he is 2 weeks old and passed his carseat test. They need to keep him/us for 48 hours to wait on his CBC test results so we are just hanging out here till then.