Weighing 7.6 and measuring 20 inches long.
Dixie Marie Steele
Saturday, March 15, 2014
Thursday, March 6, 2014
Phew!
In keeping with the way things normally go in our lives, things got a little dramatic (for nothing...) there for a little while. As you head into this story, keep in mind that the end of it is that everything is fine, I'm still huge and waddling, and we're still waiting for Dixie!
So, Wednesday the 19th, in the wee hours of the morning (long before bright and early) I woke up to discover the bed soaked in water. Sparing you the icky details it was a textbook case of "rupture of the membranes" AKA, my water broke. I woke Tyler up, called my mother, and started rushing around like a madman to try to get everything ready for a baby to come in the next day or two. At this point I was only 36 weeks along, and hadn't quite gotten everything in order. I was close, but not quite, ready. For example, I had a package of diapers, but no wipes. (we plan on cloth diapering, but not for the first week, those of you who have heard of "meconium" should understand). So I spent the morning organizing, sending my mother to the store with a grocery list, cleaning etc. As nothing to serious contraction-wise had happened, Tyler went ahead and went to work, knowing he was on call to leave any second. My mother and sister showed up (wipes in hand) and helped me finish getting things in order. I was having some "squeezing/tightening" sensations, but nothing beyond uncomfortable, and certainly nothing painful or productive. It seemed like labor was slow to start, but still, my water had broken and something was bound to begin in the next 24 hours.
Now, the next catch in this story is that my midwife Dr. Joy was gone on vacation with her husband, and not just out of town either, but out of country. While we're here in this gloomy, grey, half winter half spring, Joy took off for...Costa Rica!
Not only was she unreachable, but even if I could have contacted her there was very little she could have done from her beautiful spot on the beach. (do you blame her?) Fortunately, she had left me with the contact information of the two other midwives she practices with. We called the foremost of them, Carol, and filled her in on what was going on. She said that it definitely sounded like my water broke and she'd come by to visit me that afternoon and check up on us. That afternoon, still no change in me, and Carol came to the house and did a quick check up. Dixie seemed to be doing great, she was definitely down even lower than she was before. (My good little girl had already "dropped" several months ago, but apparently had even farther to go.) Her head was "engaged" and all seemed ready for labor and delivery. Then an unexpected issue came up, technically I was still several days "early" according to the laws governing homebirths and midwives in the state of Colorado. I'll spare you my rant on that for now. Technically, I was still several days to early to deliver at home, and I needed to get over that magic dateline a few days later to be considered "safe" at 37 weeks.
I had tested positive for an harmless-to-me infection that only one out of every five thousand full term babies will pick up during birth, and out of those only 5% are actually effected, but for pre-term babies (which at that point Dixie would have been) one out of every five hundred catch it, and of those a much higher percentage are effected. Carol started highly recommending that we go to the hospital so that I could be administered IV antibiotics during the birth. (which would eliminate the risk of infection for Dixie). At this point, it was now Thursday the 20th, over twenty four hours since my water supposedly broke, and still no labor, plus I had started to show some potential signs of an uterine infection. All of these potential issues officially launched us into the "high risk" category, so after a flurry of packing (I was prepared for a home birth! I didn't even have a diaper bag packed let alone a hospital bag!) we went and checked into the hospital. There was also starting to be some doubt that my water had even broken. It wasn't showing up on their tests, and Dixie was not behaving like a baby not-in-fluid. However, as I kept repeating, it was either my water breaking or aliens had broken into our bedroom and dumped extra-terrestrial fluids into our bed. Seeing as I don't believe in aliens, I was pretty sure that it was my water breaking! If my water hadn't broken then NOTHING had changed, we were still happy, healthy, and on track for our due-date homebirth! As soon as we had checked in to the hospital they hooked me up to the fetal monitor where she proved herself to be perfect, and where I showed regular contractions. (which was a total surprise to me, as I could feel absolutely nothing when I was having them.) Then an ultrasound tech came in and did a quick check up ultrasound. She didn't print any pictures, nor could I get a good look, -we were after answers not pictures- but I could tell the difference between our 22 week ultrasound and this one! Dixie definitely doesn't look like a shriveled up old man anymore, she's got chunky cheeks that this mommy Can. Not. Wait. to smooch! It took the tech only a few seconds to give us the all clear, my water had NOT broken. In fact, I was full up!
So then, you may ask (as I was asking myself) what the heck happened at two in the morning!? What was all that stinky-icky fluid!? Well, apparently there is a rare-but-not-unheard-of "condition" where there is a space between my mucus plug and the cervix, and fluids collect in that space. (not sure what fluids...nurse didn't say) So the fluid just fills up this pocket and sits there inside me, festering. (eww...) It could have made me super sick! Fortunately however, sometime around 2 in the morning, Dixie decided to descend even further into the birth canal, and to do so with some force! As her head shoved down she knocked out the mucus plug and released that fluid!
So, the end result here is that other than she's lower down in the birth canal (which I didn't know was possible...) and she has saved me from a potentially nasty infection (good girl!) NOTHING HAS CHANGED! We were sent home from the hospital after just about two hours with a clean bill of health. So, lots of drama and some scares later, we're good.
So, Wednesday the 19th, in the wee hours of the morning (long before bright and early) I woke up to discover the bed soaked in water. Sparing you the icky details it was a textbook case of "rupture of the membranes" AKA, my water broke. I woke Tyler up, called my mother, and started rushing around like a madman to try to get everything ready for a baby to come in the next day or two. At this point I was only 36 weeks along, and hadn't quite gotten everything in order. I was close, but not quite, ready. For example, I had a package of diapers, but no wipes. (we plan on cloth diapering, but not for the first week, those of you who have heard of "meconium" should understand). So I spent the morning organizing, sending my mother to the store with a grocery list, cleaning etc. As nothing to serious contraction-wise had happened, Tyler went ahead and went to work, knowing he was on call to leave any second. My mother and sister showed up (wipes in hand) and helped me finish getting things in order. I was having some "squeezing/tightening" sensations, but nothing beyond uncomfortable, and certainly nothing painful or productive. It seemed like labor was slow to start, but still, my water had broken and something was bound to begin in the next 24 hours.
Now, the next catch in this story is that my midwife Dr. Joy was gone on vacation with her husband, and not just out of town either, but out of country. While we're here in this gloomy, grey, half winter half spring, Joy took off for...Costa Rica!
Not only was she unreachable, but even if I could have contacted her there was very little she could have done from her beautiful spot on the beach. (do you blame her?) Fortunately, she had left me with the contact information of the two other midwives she practices with. We called the foremost of them, Carol, and filled her in on what was going on. She said that it definitely sounded like my water broke and she'd come by to visit me that afternoon and check up on us. That afternoon, still no change in me, and Carol came to the house and did a quick check up. Dixie seemed to be doing great, she was definitely down even lower than she was before. (My good little girl had already "dropped" several months ago, but apparently had even farther to go.) Her head was "engaged" and all seemed ready for labor and delivery. Then an unexpected issue came up, technically I was still several days "early" according to the laws governing homebirths and midwives in the state of Colorado. I'll spare you my rant on that for now. Technically, I was still several days to early to deliver at home, and I needed to get over that magic dateline a few days later to be considered "safe" at 37 weeks.
I had tested positive for an harmless-to-me infection that only one out of every five thousand full term babies will pick up during birth, and out of those only 5% are actually effected, but for pre-term babies (which at that point Dixie would have been) one out of every five hundred catch it, and of those a much higher percentage are effected. Carol started highly recommending that we go to the hospital so that I could be administered IV antibiotics during the birth. (which would eliminate the risk of infection for Dixie). At this point, it was now Thursday the 20th, over twenty four hours since my water supposedly broke, and still no labor, plus I had started to show some potential signs of an uterine infection. All of these potential issues officially launched us into the "high risk" category, so after a flurry of packing (I was prepared for a home birth! I didn't even have a diaper bag packed let alone a hospital bag!) we went and checked into the hospital. There was also starting to be some doubt that my water had even broken. It wasn't showing up on their tests, and Dixie was not behaving like a baby not-in-fluid. However, as I kept repeating, it was either my water breaking or aliens had broken into our bedroom and dumped extra-terrestrial fluids into our bed. Seeing as I don't believe in aliens, I was pretty sure that it was my water breaking! If my water hadn't broken then NOTHING had changed, we were still happy, healthy, and on track for our due-date homebirth! As soon as we had checked in to the hospital they hooked me up to the fetal monitor where she proved herself to be perfect, and where I showed regular contractions. (which was a total surprise to me, as I could feel absolutely nothing when I was having them.) Then an ultrasound tech came in and did a quick check up ultrasound. She didn't print any pictures, nor could I get a good look, -we were after answers not pictures- but I could tell the difference between our 22 week ultrasound and this one! Dixie definitely doesn't look like a shriveled up old man anymore, she's got chunky cheeks that this mommy Can. Not. Wait. to smooch! It took the tech only a few seconds to give us the all clear, my water had NOT broken. In fact, I was full up!
So then, you may ask (as I was asking myself) what the heck happened at two in the morning!? What was all that stinky-icky fluid!? Well, apparently there is a rare-but-not-unheard-of "condition" where there is a space between my mucus plug and the cervix, and fluids collect in that space. (not sure what fluids...nurse didn't say) So the fluid just fills up this pocket and sits there inside me, festering. (eww...) It could have made me super sick! Fortunately however, sometime around 2 in the morning, Dixie decided to descend even further into the birth canal, and to do so with some force! As her head shoved down she knocked out the mucus plug and released that fluid!
So, the end result here is that other than she's lower down in the birth canal (which I didn't know was possible...) and she has saved me from a potentially nasty infection (good girl!) NOTHING HAS CHANGED! We were sent home from the hospital after just about two hours with a clean bill of health. So, lots of drama and some scares later, we're good.
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