Friday, February 25, 2011. I was in bad need of some coffee and the nurses warned me that their coffee was horrible. So I called my mom and ordered Hardee's to eat, and called Lydia's mom and ordered a Starbucks! Dr. McLennan, our normal doctor, was on call now, and came in around 8:30 to check on things. He said that in looking over things from the night before, he was a little concerned about Lydia's blood pressure, but we would just keep an eye on it. He had a smile on his face as he examined Lydia, "I'll give her 6 cenitmeters and about 70%" he said. That was a huge jump from just 12 hours earlier. He was pleased that the Cervadil did what it was supposed to and ripen Lydia's uterus.
He wanted to hold off on the Pitocin, since she was progressing along so well. He came back in about a 1/2 an hour later (which I thought was strange), and said that he noticed something on the monitors that he wanted to look at closer. Graham's heart rate had dropped really low a couple of times. He said it was nothing to get upset about but that he wanted to watch it closely. He left and I went to the lobby to eat a very quick bite of breakfast. The coffee hit the spot as well as the biscuit from Hardee's. Lydia's dad Sam had brought doughnuts from Dunkin Doughnuts also, and they were a nice dessert! Our parents were waiting in the main lobby of the hospital, as Lydia did not want to have visitors before Graham arrived.
I came back upstairs and Lydia had full on contractions going on. So they put in an epidural which provided her a lot of relief. we sat through most of the morning working through contractions every 10 - 15 minutes or so. Dr. M came in around 11 because he was still concerned about Lydia's blood pressure so he wanted to do a few more tests. At that time, he checked Lydia again, and he smiled again, "I'll give it about 9 centimeters and almost 100%!" He was really pleased with the progression and said he thought we'd have a baby soon!
I texted quite a few people at that point, including the family that was now waiting in the 13th floor lobby. about 12:15 he came back in because Graham's heart rate had dropped again and he wanted to monitor him a little closer. He explained to us that Graham's heart rate had been dropping extremely low each time Lydia had a contraction. The problem was - she was only going to have more contractions before it was over! He stayed for about 15 minutes and ordered a test or two and asked them to give Lydia some medication. He said he was going to continue monitoring things and worst case scenario, we'd just do a c-section.
That was a memorable moment in the day that I still remember. If you know me, I like to plan things and have all of the unknowns thought about ahead of time just in case. We had been to weeks of LeMaze class to practice breathing and birthing, the one thing they didn't cover ... c-sections. The one thing I had not considered ... c-sections. The one thing (probably was many more) I wasn't mentally prepared for ... c-section. I laughed jokingly and just thought that we are usually not the type of people that have to worry about the "worse case scenario".
Dr. M came back in the room about 30 minutes later, that was the visit that changed the day, the experience, and our lives.
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