Jon & Kathy

Nov 4 9:20
No visitors still per the doc. Kathy’s BP is still too high and we may get to go home tomorrow, but Kathy will be on bedrest for quite a while (6 weeks).

On a lighter note, we did name the baby! The name is… wait, we haven’t even told our parents yet, you’ll have to wait. Until then, here is a video to hold you over.

3:00pm or so…

Its a baby girl! 6lb and 1oz, 18.5in. That’s 47cm and 2.75k for you metric folk like my wife. Baby is doing well, and is 1 day premature. The medicine that Kathy was taking got to the baby, so she’s a little groggy, but has managed to cry some.

And some pics!

1:22pm
I’m slow. Kathy was 8cm about 45 min ago. She’s pushing at 3pm. She’s still feeling good, but isn’t super aware. Hopefully she’ll wake up a little. More to come.

11:34am
Zofran: the miracle drug. Kathy’s nausea is under control now, and her O2 is where it needs to be. She’s feeling much better now, but the magnesium still has her zonked. She is talking a little now, and said that last night and this morning was the most sick that she had ever felt, and she’s had some rotten stuff in the past. Fortunately she wasn’t having any contractions to contend with too. She is having some now though. She is finally feeling tired, and not worn out, so I think she may be able to get some rest. I’m guessing it will be before 4pm today for the baby to pop out. We’ll see.

10:54am
5cm and 100% effaced. It should just be another 4 hours or so. Kathy still is not feeling well. She has flu-like symptoms with the meds, so she isn’t talking, mostly laying with her eyes closed. She squeezes my hand for yes/no questions. It has not been an experience that I want to remember and I don’t think she will either, so no pics until the baby is here.

Nov 3 7:43am
Mrs. Doc OB just stopped by and told Kathy that she couldn’t leave her for a minute to let Mr. Doc OB watch after her. Kathy got sick about every 45 min or so last night, and of course can’t get comfortable. The nurse is getting ready to break Kathy’s water in a few, so they’re just checking her over right now (in between Kathy getting sick).

Because of the way things have turned out, Kathy is going to get an epidural. She can’t get out of bed to relax, already has 3 different bags of fluid going into her, has to stay on Phenegran to stay semi-good feeling, and all around feels like crap. With the epidural she won’t have to worry about contraction/vomit. Kathy is disappointed, but fortunatly she’s kind of a zombie, so she doesn’t feel that bad about it.

Just found out that magnesium sulfate is a smooth muscle relaxer too, so baby may be “lazy” for about 12 or so hours after birth. Nothing permanent though. I’m going to sneak off for 5 and let mom watch Kathy so I can scarf down a biscuit and not make Kathy nauseous. Dad doesn’t have the stomach for it if Kathy gets sick .

Nov 2 9:49 PM
First things first… only Kathy can sleep through some pretty intense contractions. Ok. The way this is going to work is I will timestamp what I’m writing as it happens. I will try to get some info in there as I can, but don’t expect a play by play. Pics will be posted here as well.

Let me get you caught up. We went in for a checkup this morning. Kathy had a good deal of protein in her urine on Friday and Dr. Husband (our doc’s husband is also an OB) saw us. Protein was high so he ordered a 24 hour collection. Started that Sunday at 7am and collected until 7am this morning. Went to the doc, and Kathy’s protein had risen from +3 (300mg per some unit of measurement) to +5 or more. On top of that 2 nurses had to confirm that Kathy’s blood pressure was so high (about 170/110), which is silly for normal people, let alone a pregnant lady. Doc sent us next door to run more tests at the hospital and said that if it was as high as they had tested, they would start tomorrow…. I asked to be sure about what he meant by “start”. I felt like I’d just seen a horrific car wreck or someone get shot (like me). My face flushed, and I got dizzy and couldn’t focus my eyes for over an hour. Yeah, I’m “prepared”, but not really.

Turns out protein wasn’t at 500mg, but at 7000mg. Yes, seven thousand. Doc said he hasn’t seen one that high in a long time. Kathy was admitted this morning with the plan to let her relax to lower bp and to induce tomorrow morning. BP didn’t go down that fast, so they use magnesium sulfate to lower it. The good thing is that it went from what it was to a current 135/70, which is great. The bad thing is that the Mg makes you feel like you have the flu. Kathy has been vomiting for a while, but after about 13ml of the good stuff (Phenergan), she has finally fallen asleep after being sick all afternoon. She’s got a cath now too, so at least she doesn’t have to wake up every hour when the baby pushes on her bladder.

The bottom line, pre-eclampsia sucks. Kathy will be induced at 7am per doc’s orders to prevent any issues.

Last thing. While we appreciate the thought, we’re not allowing visitors except for immediate family until she starts feeling better. I’ll do my best to put up some pics as I snap them.