Tale of Two (I mean THREE) Mommies cont.

I left you Friday night at at 10:30. Mommy B was resting and my assistants and I were looking forward to a few (hopefully several) hours of sleep. I went home, let the dogs out of their confinement and settled into bed around midnight. Sleep, sweet sleep!
NOT!! It was 1:35am when my phone rang. "Well, let's get baby B here!" I thought. I answered the phone expecting to hear the calm voice of Daddy B, but instead I heard the panicked voice of Daddy C!
Oh My! I could hear the distressed sounds of Mommy C in the background. I instructed them to go to the Birth Inn, called girls Tuesday and Thursday, put on my scrubs and headed out the door.

Let me give you a little background on Mommy C. Mommy C is a young newly wed and this is her first baby. She has been so careful to follow any and all instruction that I have given her. She has changed her eating habits, started exercising and has made water her best friend. Three weeks ago Mommy C came to the Birth Inn having long and frequent contractions. Because she was GBS positive, she decided to start taking antibiotics. After laboring for more than 12 hours, and dilating to 6cm, her contractions stopped. She spent the night at the birth Inn but by morning there was no sign of contractions. I sent her home expecting to see her in a day or two.

Now here it is, three weeks later, 4 days past her due date, and Mommy C is ready to give birth! I checked her as soon as she arrived and she was an easy 8-9 cm. Suddenly her water broke and out gushed green liquid. Baby C had passed meconium and now it was urgent to get her out! We set up the birthing chair and moved mom into position. Although she had been faced with the impending labor for 3 weeks, the pain was still shocking to her. She was a trooper and pushed with vigor. Baby was born at 3:04am.....just 45 minutes after arriving at the Birth Inn!! WOW!!

Baby girl. 8lbs 6 oz. 21" long Babies are a gift from God!

Meanwhile as Mommy C is birthing, Mommy B has started having contractions...the kind she can't talk through.
After Mommy A and Mommy C have delivered and gone home, the big inviting jacuzzi tub is open for Mommy B. See how God works?? In his perfect time! Lights are dimmed,music soft, Mommy B allowing the gentle jets to massage her tired body. Eventually she gets out of the tub, but now she is feeling the ominous pain in her back....has this baby turned posterior?? Mommy B must move to the dreaded position...in bed, on her left side, right knee hiked to her chest. C'mon, many of you know that position!!
Hopefully Mommy B will rest. She is tired and has had little sleep. Sleep does not come and as the minutes and hours tick by, Mommy B becomes more exhausted. She experienced a large gush of fluid while in the bed, but the pain remained in her back.
Girl Tuesday and Girl Thursday spent a few hours with mom helping her try different positions. The best positions seemed to be dad sitting and mom leaning over him gently rocking and swaying. The baby was moving down. Around 10:00am blood started to drip as she contracted. Not like a hemorrhage, but still enough for me to take notice. We decided to give Mommy B's very tired legs a rest and set up the birthing chair for her. I helped the cervix with each contraction and was surprised to feel a bulging bag. Remember, she thought her water broke the morning before, and she had a large gush of fluid earlier today. A pocket must have formed in the membrane because when it broke, the fluid was green. Yep, second meconium birth of the day!
The blood increased and clots were being expelled. Mom was losing the drive to continue. We put the breast pump on her hoping to increase the intensity of the contractions, but although that worked, she was just too tired.

We discussed options. Was baby too big to come down? Was baby in a poor position? Was the bleeding becoming a problem? How long was the meconium present? The meonium was not a great surprise since she was 2 weeks past her due date but , having clear water earlier it did bring some ?'s as to what was going on. Did mom have the strength to get baby out on her own?

Finally dad made the decision........Transport her to the hospital.

We explained that it would take at least an hour before she would get an epidural, and there was a chance that this decision would result in a c-section. Mom agreed, she was out of energy.
We loaded up and went in. Once in the hospital she was taken to the maternity floor. They put in an IV, wrapped the fetal monitor around her, put a finger oxygen monitor on her and started with the barrage of questions. Once the epidural was administered, mom finally was able to relax. Her body began doing what it was designed to do....push baby out.
The attending doctor was amazing. He patiently waited as baby B started to appear. Finally he spoke the words everyone wanted to her. "Deep breath and blow out, now deep breath and hold. Push."
The team was ready; complete with NICU nurses just incase. A few minutes later Baby B was born. He was face down, restituted to the left, then did an unexpected twist to the right, his little hand under his chin and the umbilical cord wrapped around his arm. Dr rushed him to the the NICU nurses to be suctioned (remember the meconium?) He was checked over then wrapped up and brought over to meet his mommy. Sigh of relief..... everybody is fine. Mommy didn't even need a stitch!

Baby B.....8lbs 15oz Boy Dark hair and looks just like his daddy!

While many in America were enjoying March Madness, we had 30 hours of our own March Madness! After much needed sleep, we are more than ready for our next mommy to call!

Our scripture for these 30 hours......Isaiah 66:9 Shall I bring to the birth, and not cause to bring forth? saith the Lord


Two days in the life of Kathy
written by Girl Thursday