A LONG Post to Catch Up...

I had great intentions of posting several blogs during the final days before Madelyn arrived, but I was so tired that I just never got around to it.
We spent the days before she was born dreaming about what she would look like. How her hair and eyes would be, dreaming about all what she would be like and how excited we were to meet her.
We had a C-Section scheduled for Thursday January 26th, but as most of you know that she was born the day before on Wednesday January 25th.

Here's her birth story...
I had had contractions on and off (but mostly on) for the entire weekend before she was born. At my appointment that Monday, my doctor told me that it was normal and to just ignore them as long as I could and that if I couldn't, then I would need to call the hospital. Well things calmed down and I worked Monday and Tuesday as planned. I took Wednesday off to get a few last minute things done and to rest. Wellllll, I started having contractions about 4 a.m. that didn't stop. I didn't wake Tyler up because I didn't think it was anything too serious. When he got up to get ready for work I told him that I thought things were starting to change and it might really be "real" contractions. He asked if he should stay home from work, but I told him to go because we had the C-section scheduled for the next day and I was determined that everything was going to go as we had planned. (Comical, now, I know). He got ready for work and headed out with his cell phone close in case I needed him. I tried laying back down in bed, but I was just too uncomfortable. I decided to call my sister to see if she would be around to drive me to my appointment at 1 that day. I was scheduled to go in for pre-admission testing and get blood work done before surgery the next day. With all the pain I was having, I decided it would be nice to have someone drive me there. So I called her and she said she would come. She also highly encouraged me to call the hospital, but I just thought it was silly. So instead I downloaded an app to track my contractions for an hour. After several texts from her and my mom, I decided to call Labor & Delivery and get their opinion. The nurse told me I needed to come in right away, to which I said "Well my husband is at work, so I could be there in a couple of hours." I knew I wanted to shower and finish packing our bag in case this was the real deal, so I was buying myself time -- I could have been there in about 5 minutes, but I wanted to be sure I had the house in order before I left. I sent out texts to the family to tell them not to worry, but I was going in and I would keep them posted. My sister showed up and I was still getting ready. Don't you know everyone takes a shower and does hair and makeup before they have a baby?!? She was running around the house getting my stuff packed and urging me to get out of the house. We finally got on our way and when I walked in, the nurses were waiting for me and had a room ready to go. They hooked me up to several machines and confirmed that I was in labor and was dilated to a 1. The nurse told me that she would be back in an hour to check me again and if I had made any more progress that I would be having a baby that day. I called Tyler (who works directly across the street from the hospital) to tell him he should head over because I was pretty sure that it was time. My sister took care of calling everyone else to tell them that they should start making plans to head to the hospital. The nurse came back in around 30 minutes later to check again. I had progressed enough and the doctor said to get the OR ready and we would be having the baby in about an hour. Five minutes later, the nurse came back in and said that they had a surgery team ready and they had to hurry because it was time to have a baby. About that time, Tyler walked through the door and the nurse threw scrubs to him and told him to get ready. All of the sudden a swarm of nurses and doctors were in the room hooking me up to all kinds of things and before I knew it, I was rolling off to surgery - less than an hour after I walked in to the hospital.
They had to poke me about 5 times for the Spinal Block - after my back surgeries, they kept hitting bone and couldn't get the right placement for it to work. They finally had me lay on my side to try one more time and it worked!! Because of the placement, I was numb from my collar bone on down, but I was ok with it because I meant that I would get to be awake for the birth! A few minutes later, they let Tyler come in to the room and surgery began. It took just a few minutes, enough time for me to tell Tyler about the epidural fiasco, before the nurses told him that he better get the camera out because we were about to have a baby! He stood up to look over the curtain and she was here! Madelyn Elise Sidwell was born at 1:01 pm on January 25th. She weighed 7 lbs 6.3 ozs and was 20 inches long. I remember them saying how much hair she had and listening to her cry. After a few minutes, Tyler brought her over to me. I couldn't move my arms, but the nurse picked up my hand to touch Madelyn's face. Since I couldn't feel her, Tyler put her cheek to cheek with me and he just held her there for a few minutes.

Tyler went with her to the nursery because the operating room was too cold. He stayed with her until I was out of surgery and they could come back to be with me. I listened as the doctor finished sewing me up and stapled my incision closed. Then I was off to recovery and the rest of the day was spent with our family meeting Madelyn and spending time together.

A day or two after she was born, we noticed that Madelyn was looking a little orange. The pediatician confirmed that she was jaundice and wanted to take some blood for testing. Long story short, she had bilirubin levels that were in the high risk range and the doctor had called for her to be moved to the NICU for light therapy. Before we knew it, the nurse came to take our baby away and those couple of days were terrible for us. There wasn't anything wrong with her, but if we didn't take the time to put her under the UV Lights, her levels could continue to spike and we would have to look at other interventions like blood transfusions and other scary things. Tyler and I spent 2 days alone in the hospital room without our baby - the reason we were there. It was hard on us, but we looked forward to every 3 hours when we would get to go into the nursery and be with her for 30 mintues while I nursed her. We looked forward to every 12 hours when they would test her levels and we could get an update on her progress.

Luckily for us, she progressed each time they tested and we got to go home from the hopsital with her on Sunday. We feared that we might have to go home without our baby and thankfully, she was able to come home with us and didn't need any further treatment.
We went home Sunday afternoon and things have been great since. She is really a great baby and we have loved every minute of having her at home with us.
I promise I will do better at keeping this blog updated. There's just this little person in my life now that is so much cuter than the computer and I spend most of my time with her :)

A Little Irony

Today was another weekly appointment. Everything checked out great for the most part. We got to ask a few more questions about the C-section and in general, we're feeling good about the whole thing.
Last week Dr. Driskell told us that she thought Madelyn was in a breech position, but that she would check again this week and we may have to have a sonogram to tell later on. At this point, with a C-section scheduled, it really isn't too big of a deal to have her breech, but the doctor likes to know what position she is in so that she will know how to bring her out. Well today, she felt around again and she's very confident that Madelyn is still breech. By this point in pregnancy, they want babies to be head down and the chances of her moving into that position starts to get much less as we get further along. The doctor scheduled an ultrasound for next week's appointment so that she can confirm the baby's position before the surgery.
Here's the irony: a baby can't be born naturally if they are breech, so we would have had to have a C-section anyway. While we know that things can still change, it's almost comical to think of all of the appointments and stress we have gone through to make the decision to have a C-section because of my past medical history and we, very possibly, could have still faced a C-section because of Madelyn's position. This is the point that we would have started to talk about the possibilty of a surgery and we would be starting the whole process from the beginning.
It is great to know that either way, on January 26th, we have a plan and we're prepared for it and all of the options that we might have to choose on that day. Although it is a little funny to watch how everything is coming together :)

18 Days Left

Now that we know the exact day that Madelyn will arrive, the count down has officially been on. We've been taking extra measures to take advantage of as much as we can before our baby arrives... dinners out with just the two of us, sleeping in on the weekends and just making sure we are enjoying all of the little moments of just being a family of two that we have left.
Usually on the weekends we go non-stop. Between working extra and going to St. Joe to visit family, we're usually always running somewhere. With this weekend being the first of our final three weekends before our world changes, we decided to take it easy and make no plans. Yesterday, I ran a few errands and Tyler had to work, but in general we kept the weekend laid-back. I've done my best to stay in bed or on the couch with my feet up to help rest my body and keep the swelling of my feet to a minimum.
Today, we spent the day in sweats and enjoyed a lazy day of watching football and television. We did venture out to pick up dinner, which was nice because we got to leave the house. It's always been hard for me to just relax and literally do nothing. I just feel so lazy and worthless that I would generally rather have something to do, but this weekend I made myself relax and enjoy the time of rest. Hopefully our next two weekends will be just about the same and we can make the most of our time before we meet Madelyn!

A Crazy Day

Last night we were watching TV and just relaxing as usual when I started seeing white blobs/spots from my left eye. It got distracting enough that I couldn't continue watching tv. We decided to run to the closest pharmacy that was open to use the blood pressure machine and just make sure that everything was ok. We went and tested it three times over a few minutes and each time it checked out ok. We decided to come back home and try resting again. As I sat on the couch with my feet propped up, my left leg started to go numb. The heavy, tingly, like it's asleep kind of numb. It freaked me out, so I had Tyler stand with me and I started walking around just to make sure that I could and to get some blood flowing. A few mintues later, my left arm did the same thing. We weren't sure if the baby was on a nerve or what was happening, so Tyler tried looking it up online to get more information. Of course, our internet was down, so that left us our cell phones, which was a lot less convenient. Meanwhile, my leg was back to normal and the left side of my mouth had gone numb. At this point, I was wondering if I was having a stroke or a reaction to a new medicine or if it really was the baby. I decided to lay down on my left side, like the doctor always recommends, and just rest to see what happened. Within a few minutes, the feeling was all back to normal and all I had was an ugly headache. After dicussing back and forth of whether we should call the doctor or go to the hospital, I decided to just head to bed and Tyler said he would be checking on me to make sure everything was ok.
I fell asleep with a heated corn bag over my eyes to help with the discomfort of the headache. That didn't last long because I was up most of the night in pain. After a long night, my alarm went off and it was time to get up and head to work. I wasn't sure at first if I should even go, but I'm working so hard to save all of my time off work for when Madelyn is here, that I decided to push through and get ready for work.
When I got to work, my coworkers asked what was wrong and I told them that my head was hurting and gave them the story of the night before. A quick google search revealed that it was a migraine and all of the symptoms of the night before were what they call an aura.
I used to have migraines in elementary and middle school, but it's been a long time since I've had one. This was the first time ever that I had had any of those crazy symptoms, but being pregnant all I can do is take Tylenol. I took some when I got to work and after talking to my mom decided that I should call the doctor's office just to check to see if I needed to be seen.
The nurse called me back very fast and said that the symptoms I was having were not normal and that Dr. Driskell wanted me to come into Labor & Delivery to be seen immediately. I grabbed my stuff and headed for the hospital. I called Tyler and my mom on the way to let them know and Tyler met me there. They were aware that I was coming, so they had all of my files out and ready to go. They gave us a room in the Triage area and hooked me up to all of the machines for monitoring. The nurse took some blood and left to run some labs. She told me that I would be monitored for at least an hour, so she turned off the lights to just let me rest.
We knew immediately that Madelyn was ok because the monitor with her heartbeat was turned up so we got to listen to her the whole time. I honestly wasn't that worried because other than the migraine, I felt pretty good. There was plenty of thoughts in my head swiriling around though... "What if they found something and we had to have surgery immediately? What if I had to be put on bed rest for the next 3 weeks? What if we have to stay at the hospital for longer than just that day?" Truthfully none of that would have been too terrible, but it's just nerve-wracking to think about.
After about an hour and a half, the nurse came back in to tell us that all of my tests were normal and they were not concerned with pre-eclampsia. The migraine is not related to the pregnancy and the baby is just fine. She gave me some warnings to watch for and sent me home to rest. I was able to work from home for a few hours and get things done for work, which was nice.
It's the weekend now and we have nothing to do, so I'm going to be in sweats and either in bed or on the couch relaxing the entire time. No more to do lists or things to stress over, just plenty of time and relaxing!

It's Official

We have a C-section scheduled for January 26th at 7:30 a.m. That means, no matter what Madelyn will be here in 20 days! We're very excited!!

The Past 3 Weeks…

The past few weeks have been appointment-filled, information-gathering, worrying and wondering, trying to make a plan kind of weeks.

Where to begin? Well probably most of you who read this blog know that I (Bre) had major back surgery in 2007 and 2008. The result of those surgeries was a spinal fusion at L4-L5 with screws and rods. I have what is called Cauda Equina syndrome – it’s a very rare thing and most people have never heard of it. Well to keep an extremely long story short, let’s just say that I made a trip back to St. Joe a few weeks ago to meet with Dr. Idiculla (the head doctor of my medical rehab team) just to go over my concerns with labor and see what she had to say. Both Tyler and I had questions about what labor could do to strain my spine and how that could affect the hardware, etc. We were surprised that Dr. Idiculla had no worries about my back. She said my spine would be fine, but she had serious concerns about how prolonged labor and the baby’s size might affect my bowel and bladder. (Side note, in 2007 when I was paralyzed, I had neurogenic bowel & bladder – meaning that I had to self cath for almost a year. After seeing a doctor and using a few medicines, we got everything back on track.) Since we have worked so hard over the past 4 years to make sure that my body is healed and continues to be stronger, Dr. Idiculla recommended that we have Madelyn via a C-section. She was pretty protective of me and I really believe it is because she has seen what I have gone through and she cares about me enough to make sure that the choices I make are ones that will prevent any further injury. I also asked many questions about what my options are for an epidural and pain management since my fusion is right at the level where an epidural is given. Dr. Idiculla told us that I have a few options and gave us good information to ask the Anesthesiologists at St. Lukes about when we met with them during the next week. I left that appointment and went home to talk it over with Tyler and think about what our decision would be.

A few days later, we went to one of our regularly scheduled OB appointments with Dr. Driskell, our obstetrician. Everything went well at that appointment as far as measurements and checks go. We had many questions and information to report to her from our appointment with Dr. Idiculla. I think it’s safe to say that Dr. Driskell didn’t expect us to throw that much information at her because early on in the pregnancy, we talked about health history and we had made her aware of my back surgeries. We had been told by Dr. Idiculla about a year and a half ago that I should be ok to carry and birth a baby, but that I might have more back pain than your average person, which is the information we gave Dr. Driskell when we first started seeing her. The only reason we decided to make the extra appointment to see Dr. Idiculla is because I had more concerns and questions as the pregnancy progressed and she asked me to come in for a visit. Anyway, back to meeting with Dr. Driskell… what she told us was that there was no way to confirm the baby’s head and body size because an ultrasound can be off by 20%. Also that she can’t predict how long labor will last and how many stitches it will take to fix my body, should I have any level of tearing. She wanted to see the consultation notes from Dr. Idiculla and talk about options at our next appointment.

Oh! Did I mention that we still had an upcoming appointment with anesthesia to talk about pain management and epidural options? We were to meet with them the next week, but I was curious and got online (BAD IDEA) to read about people who have had spinal fusions and if and how they had an epidural and how that all went. I swear that the most negative things that could have possibly been on the internet all popped up under the search results. Things about how an epidural didn’t work or it wasn’t offered and General Anesthesia (being put completely out) was the only option. This did nothing but worry and scare me and Tyler threatened to have Google blocked on all of our computers.

So, we left our appointment with Dr. Driskell and both had to go back to work immediately. I left feeling worried and scared and Tyler left feeling pretty good about things and felt that a C-section was the answer. That afternoon was long and awful. I called my mom on the way home from work to fill her in and I just started crying. First off, I’m pregnant and hormones are crazy. Second, I’m stressed. And Third, I was calling my mom. Put all of those together and it was a disaster. I was sharing all of the information the doctor had given us and all of the crap I had read online. Then I told her why I was worried and how I felt like we didn’t have any good options. I was mad because I wouldn’t get the experience of natural birth and I felt like I had earned it. I was even more mad that if I had to have general anesthesia that Tyler couldn’t be in the room and our daughter would be born with no one to witness except the hospital staff and we wouldn’t have pictures or that moment of “it’s a girl! Here’s your baby!” I was scared because I’ve had too many surgeries already and I just didn’t want to put my body through it again. When the doctor talked about a C-section, all I heard were risks. Bless my mom because she just listened and tried to talk me through it all. She was crying, too, because there was nothing she could do and she knew how scared and sad and overwhelmed I was. Tyler got home about an hour later and we talked about it all over again. He explained to me what he was thinking and feeling and I cried my way through words to do the same for him. I was just in a “I need to feel sorry for myself and this situation” kind of mood and didn’t do anything but lay in bed and cry until it was time to go to sleep that night.

The next couple of days were better as I realized that a C-section really was the best option for me and that the surgery and recovery were going to be what I had to do in order to keep Madelyn and me the healthiest so that we could go home and be a family as soon as possible.

Christmas came and went and it was finally time for our consultation with Anesthesia. We went with all of our notes and questions for what we thought would be a challenging appointment. We were met with a wonderful doctor who wasn’t scared at all to try a spinal block and listened to all of our concerns. We went through the entire history and what the other doctors were all saying and how we had concerns of what our options would be. The doctor told us that she, personally, would give it a try at the L3-L4 level and see if we could get it to work. She stressed that there are several doctors in the practice and she couldn’t speak for all of them, but that it’s something that could be done. This meant that we have hope to try a spinal epidural and there is a chance that I will get to be awake during the birth and Tyler could be in the room for Madelyn’s arrival – something we weren’t sure of until that day. Now we also know that depending on the doctor and how the epidural goes, that general anesthesia might be the only option, but we are aware of that and have prepared that that is the way it might have to be. That doctor was going to take time to note everything that we had talked about, so that whatever doctor is working the day that I go into labor or we have a scheduled c-section will know what we had discussed.

About an hour after that appointment, we had another regularly scheduled OB appointment. Again, all was fine. Our doctor was out of the office that day, so I saw the nurse practitioner and we went on our way.

FINALLY, a week later (yesterday) we had our most recent OB appointment. We’re going weekly at this point, so there are a lot of doctor’s visits. AND Dr. Driskell was back in the office, yay! So, as usual, everything measures out right and all is well. Then it’s time to talk about all of the appointments that we had been running around to and what all of it meant. She read me Dr. Idiculla’s notes (which were about 6 pages long!) and we talked about what it all meant. After reviewing the other doctor’s notes, Dr. Driskell told me that she recommends a C-section birth. I looked at her and said “Ok, then can we do that?” And just like that, a decision was made. It was a very long process, but I think doctors on all accounts, as well as Tyler and I needed time to think about it and make a decision.

So, there you have it. We’re having a scheduled C-section some time soon. I’ve been waiting for the nurse to call me all day with a date, but I haven’t heard anything yet. My guess is that it will be on January 26 or 27^th. Tyler is guessing the 25^th or 30^th, so we’ll see. Either way, Madelyn will be here very soon!!

Lots of Doctor's Appointments

In the past week, we have had lots of appointments to ask questions and do our best to make a decision about how Madelyn will be born.
Because of my medical history with my back and the surgeries I have had in the past 4-5 years, we felt like it would be a good idea to go see Dr. Idiculla. She was the head doctor in charge of my rehabilitation and I go to see her on a yearly basis. Tyler and I both had many questions about how labor and delivery would affect my back and the rods and screws that are in place. We also have many concerns about how an epidural would work too because my spine is fused in the place that most epidurals are done.
Of course, I got online to start finding information and I found only scary things that had no good news. Tyler threatened to block Google if I didn't stop reading online until we knew more from talking to my doctors.
On Monday, I went to see Dr. Idiculla at Heartland in St. Joe. Tyler wasn't able to go with me, but my mom went along to ask questions and to help me remember everything that was said. Surprisingly, the doctor wasn't concerned at all with my back. She was more concerned with the nerve damage that had occured before and how a large baby or prolonged labor could damage all of the progress I had made. A very long story short, she recommended that I have the baby via C-section and more likely than not with general anesthesia, rather than an epidural.
We had a regular scheduled OB appointment on Thursday. Tyler and I were both there and went over all of our concerns about my history and shared the information that Dr. Idiculla gave to us. Dr. Driskell, our OB doctor, gave us her opinion and told us the risks of both options. I left that appointment feeling very overwhelmed and stressed because there is so much unknown and we have lots of decisions to make. I was at a place that I didn't feel we even had a good option to choose. Tyler, on the other hand, left the appointment feeling very good and he had a strong feeling that a C-section will be the best option for both Me and Madelyn.
We still have a consultation appointment with the Anestheisa department at St. Lukes on the 28th. At that appointment, we will be able to go over my medical history and learn what our options are for pain management. There are a couple of possibilites for using an epidural or spinal block. I'm just not sure where the doctors stand on their willingness to even try it or how the scar tissue that I have in my back will affect the effectiveness of the procedure. If an epidural isn't an option or does not take, and I have an C-section, the only option is General Anesthesia - where I will be put completely out and Tyler won't be allowed in the room. It's not ideal and hopefully it isn't the option that we will have to take, but we have to make sure we make the best decision for both mom and baby.
We won't have to make a decision until the first week of January, so we're doing our best to get all of the information in the mean time and we will talk with the doctors again to make a decision. Either way, we don't have much time until Madelyn is here and we won't have to worry about all of this anymore.