Introducing Phoebe Ann Berry

Phoebe Ann Berry

Thursday, March 15, 2012 at 3:38 AM

8 pounds 9 ounces

21.5 inches long

And Phoebe's birth story - she's already a drama queen.

On Wednesday, the doctor called and told me to check in to the hospital around 8:30 that evening to be induced, since she would be there by then and wanted to be the one to deliver Phoebe, if possible.

After checking in and being admitted, I was hooked up to the Pitocin by 10PM.  However, before the Pitocin was administered, I could already see that I was contracting fairly regularly.  A cervical exam confirmed that I was about 4 centimeters dilated and about 50 percent effaced.  They started me on a very low dosage of Pitocin, and it immediately started contractions anywhere between 2 and 5 minutes apart.  Because I was already dilated to 4, I could basically get my epidural anytime I wanted. The contractions weren't very painful, but they were starting to cause some back pain and pressure.  So around 1AM I got the epidural.

Once the epidural was working, the nurse inserted the catheter and decided to check my progress.  She  said that I was 5 centimeters, but that Phoebe's head was not engaged and kind of floating around.  My doctor came back in at that moment and also checked me.  She decided to break my water to get Phoebe's head pushed down.  This is when things first got a little crazy.  There was meconium in the fluids, which meant that Phoebe had had a bowel movement.  And then the rupture of the amniotic fluids combined with an upped dosage of Pitocin caused the contractions to come right on top of each other.  Phoebe was not tolerating these contractions at all and her heart rate was dropping precipitously low with each contraction.  The nurse stopped the Pitocin to get the contractions to calm down, and the doctor ordered fluids to be re-administered to the uterus to kind of flush it out.  The doctor warned me that if the heart rate continued to plummet with each contraction, that I would need to have a c-section.  However, the flush of fluids seemed to work because her heart rate stabilized around 2AM. 

Chris and I both slept until the nurse and doctor came back around 3:15 to check the cervix.  If I had dilated further, they would just let the contractions continue as is; if I hadn't, they would administer a small dosage of Pitocin to get them going again.  The doctor checked me and started frowning.  She said that the baby was not tolerating the check, and some nurses started entering the room.  She said that she thought she could feel some cord, which meant that the umbilical cord had fallen into the vagina. I knew this was serious because I had read that it could pinch off all oxygen to the baby.  More staff entered the room, including another obstetrician.  They made the call to have the c-section and told Chris that someone would be back to get him once I was situated.  (I didn't know until later that Phoebe's heart rate had plummeted down into the 50s - I probably would have been much more panicked had I known).

It was amazing how fast they got everything detached and how soon they were pushing me down the hallway to the surgical suite.  My nurse was steering my bed and lost her shoe. I remember her saying, "I lost my shoe, don't slip on it."  Then we were in the room.  The nurse anesthetist who had administered my epidural was there, along with an anesthesiologist.  They upped the epidural and made sure that I couldn't feel anything.  Phoebe's heart rate had stabilized, so a different obstetrician checked me to see if the cord was still there, and he said that he could feel nothing but cord.  In about a minute, they had sliced me open and Phoebe was born, crying.  Unfortunately, there was not time for Chris to get there, so he missed the birth completely.  I was completely calm until Chris got there at which point I started crying, because I was really sad that he missed it.  He was pretty shaken up as well, but I didn't know how much until later because the poor guy had to be left behind.

Everyone was really great, and the doctors even remarked that the incision was so clean that I could easily attempt a VBAC (Vaginal Birth after Cesarean) if I have another child.  In about 40 minutes I was stitched back up and sent to the surgical recovery area, where Chris and Phoebe were waiting.  Phoebe was in good shape the entire time, and they had her crying up a storm in order to get any meconium out that she may have breathed in during delivery.

Like I said, I was very calm during the entire emergency, mainly because I knew that I was in good hands and it all happened too fast to really panic. And it took something like 15 minutes from the time they discovered the cord prolapse until she was out and cleaned up.  However, now when I think about it, I can't stop tearing up because so much could have gone wrong. 

I'm recovering well, although it hurts like Hell overtime I stand up. I'm off the catheter, and I've even walked around the wing of the hospital once.  If everything continues to progress, I should be discharged sometime tomorrow.  My mom and Charlotte visited briefly yesterday, and Charlotte was so excited to meet her baby sister.  She really wanted to hold her (Chris helped hold her) and kept wanting to pat her head. Chris took some video of her meeting Phoebe for the first time, which we'll post at some point.

As for Phoebe, she's such a good baby.  She is super alert and easily startles at noises that I'm not sure Charlotte has ever noticed.  She is already breastfeeding like a champ, and when she stops cluster feeding (where she nurses over and over again for about two hours), she sleeps really well.  Thank goodness for my mom and Chris - my mom for staying with Charlotte, so that Chris can be here to do all of the things that I can't yet do (change diapers, swaddle her, help me get out of bed). I can't wait for us all to go home!