Baby Alyssa is Finally Here!

After 32 long hours of labor and an emergency c-section, a healthy baby Alyssa was finally born at 2:56 in the morning on Thursday July 9, 2009. We were hoping for the 8th so that she would be born on 07/08/09, but we are just thrilled that she is healthy and happy. It was a rather difficult delivery.
It started on Tuesday night at around 7 p.m. The contractions continued into the next day and we headed to the hospital after tracking the contractions for several hours. Jim made a chart of the contractions on Excel. When we got in to the hospital, Julie was dialated to 1 cm. After four hours of contractions, it was still at 1. So they sent us off, the nurse said that eating something might help the contractions get stronger or stop all together. So we went to the food court at the mall. The plan was to walk around the mall in hopes that the contractions would get stronger. That kind of happened. While taking an hour to eat a hamburger, the contractions increased in intensity and duration. It quickly became apparent that we would be lucky to walk back to the car.
We then called the on call doctor (Our doctor was off that day) to ask if she would prescribe some pitocin and an epidural to speed up the contractions. The doctor said that Julie wasn't in labor, which was completely ridiculous. She was in so much pain she could hardly talk on the phone. So, we decided to check into Circus Circus, a casino right next to the hospital. The hospital had a deal for $30 dollar rooms. It was quite the ordeal to get Julie into the room. By then, the contractions were very strong. It was all we could do to get Julie through the ever-intensifying pain levels. The contractions were now lasting about 2 minutes or more with just 30 second breaks in between. We monitored them for an hour, then called the hospital. The nurse we had worked with earlier told us to come right back in to see what was happening. Luckily Julie was at a 3 and was emitted to the hospital. She was set up on IV's and finally given a pain medication in the IV.
That made a huge difference. Within minutes, Julie was asleep for a couple of minutes. Later that night she finally got the epidural, which took the pain all away. What a blessing that was to see after all of the pain she went through earlier in the day. As midnight approached, we were all anxious to see if Julie would get to a 10 and be able to deliver before midnight. The nurse kept coming in and changing Julie's position. The problem was that the baby's heart rate kept dropping and staying down after each contraction. The nurse could sense a problem, and eventually called in the doctor around 2 in the morning. Julie had been progressing slowly through the night, but went from 6 cm. to 10 from 1 to 2 in the morning. The last hour was hectic.
Another problem was that the epidural had leaked into Julie's spinal fluid, causing numbness from the waist down. This became a problem when it was time to push. Julie didn't have enough feeling to really push the baby out. It would have been a problem anyway due to the baby's low heart rate. So the doctor called for an emergency c-section. Julie was so strong and didn't hesitate. Our goal was a healthy baby, Julie was willing to do whatever was necessary. After surgery, little Alyssa came out at 2:56. We soon learned that the source of the problem was the placenta. For some reason it was extremely calcified. That usually happens on a late delivery, but she missed her due date by only three hours. Due to that, she was only 6 lbs. 1 oz. when she came out. She is very healthy though. Julie has been recovering well, she can now take some laps around the recovery wing of the hospital. We will be here until Sunday.
Baby Alyssa is very calm and cute. She enjoys snuggling, sleeping, and eating. We are thrilled to have her in our little family.