The Long Version

Okay, so here is the long version of the delivery story.

We went to the hospital at 9 pm on Wednesday September 19th for Steph’s induction. We didn’t really do much Wednesday night. They gave Steph some kind of gel to soften her cervix because she wasn’t dilated at all. Then they gave her a sleeping pill and we snoozed (well, she did, I got to curl up in a recliner for the evening, could’ve been worse I guess).

We got up the next day and Steph was barely dilated still. They installed a foley catheter at about 8:30 to speed things up a bit, and started a pitocin drip (there will be several medical terms, that I am sure I am misspelling) in her IV. Two and a half pain filled hours later, the foley catheter came out and Steph was 4 cm dilated. At that point, she was having pretty painful contractions. She dealt with the pain for about another hour before they gave her some nubane which gave her relief for about an hour. After the nubane wore off, she dealt with another hour of painful contractions before the epidural arrived. Steph was still 4 cm after the epidural. About 20 minutes after Steph got her epidural, they came in to break her water, and she had gone from 4cm to 11cm in about 20 minutes and was ready to go. They brought the doctor up and we started into pushing. Steph pushed 4 times over a span of about 5 minutes and out came a screaming Griffin at 2:05 pm. The delivery process went unbelievably well.

They moved us up to the maternity recovery floor about 2 hours after the delivery. At about 5 pm, Steph’s epidural started wearing off. They gave her some Motrin to help with the pain, and about an hour later, Steph’s pain had worsened to the point that her head was buried in her pillow, she was nauseous, and her legs were shaking from the pain. We thought that maybe she broke her tail bone, because the pain seemed to be localized in that area. I finally convinced the nurse that the pain wasn’t normal, and they gave her a shot of fenegrin and Demerol. The fenegrin did a good job of reducing her urge to vomit, but the Demerol didn’t do jack for her pain. I had to force the nurse to call the doctor because something wasn’t right. They just kept telling us that the pain was normal and that she would be sore after having a baby. The doctor on call came up, and I think he thought that Steph was being a sissy too. He was initially unsympathetic and acted like we were wasting his time. He did an excruciating exam and determined that she had an egg sized hematoma resting on her tail bone. They gave her some deloden thru her IV, and about 5 minutes later, her pain was tolerable. The doctor said we would wait until tomorrow to determine if she needed surgery. The hope was that the swelling would put enough pressure on the burst blood vessel to stop the bleeding. If the swelling had increased significantly, surgery would be required, if not, we could still elect to do the surgery to relieve her pain. They did say that the hematoma pain would be relieved immediately following surgery. Steph got her deloden thru her IV every 2 hours on the dot to keep her pain at bay, and we waited for the morning.

The doctors came back in about 8:30 the next morning to see how the hematoma had progressed, and determined that it was about 4 times the size that it was the previous night, and that surgery was necessary. Unfortunately, they had brought in Steph’s breakfast, and we nibbled a bit, so we had to wait 8 hours before they could do the surgery. The next several hours are kind of blurry in my memory. We had some visitors, but everybody was nervous about the surgery. Eventually, they came down to take Steph to the surgical floor. They let me back into the prep area with her, and we both were pretty scared. Our doctor came in and explained everything and said she had been reading and discussing the procedure with her colleagues all day and felt more than prepared for the surgery. They needed to drain her hematoma. Hopefully they would find the bleeding blood vessel, and be able to tie it off. They did say that finding the bleeder was a long shot. If they didn’t find the bleeder they would pack the area and put a lot of pressure on it to try to stop the bleeding. There was also a good potential that she would need a blood transfusion.

We spent the next hour and a half or so in the waiting room before our doctor came out. She took us to a small waiting area to give us the update on how things went. She said the surgery couldn’t have gone much better than it did. They drained the now football sized hematoma, found the bleeder, and were able to tie things off. The only real concern was if there was another bleeding blood vessel contributing to the problem. They still packed things in to provide lots of pressure just in case. I was very emotional, and the doctor got a bit upset as well, and I think I about squeezed her guts out when she said she was going to be fine and didn’t need a blood transfusion.

We spent the next couple of days recovering in the hospital. They let us keep Griffin at the hospital with us and allowed him to stay in the hospital nursery at night. Steph recovered well over the next couple of days, each day was dramatically better than the previous. They released us on Monday September 24th. We were in the hospital for 5 days total. To put things into perspective, Steph’s mom had open heart surgery earlier this year, and was in the hospital for 5 days.

The doctor said it would probably be about 6 months before Steph is completely back to normal. She will probably be pretty much back to normal in 8-12 weeks, but will have discolorization and some swelling for about 6 months.

Griffin was great thru the whole thing, which is good, because I don’t think I could have taken worrying about both him and his mommy. Our nurses were wonderful thru the whole thing (for the most part, we had one dud), and I can’t say enough about our doctor. She was fantastic with caring for Steph physically and taking care of both of us and our families emotionally thru the whole thing. She wasn’t on call the weekend after the surgery, and stopped in both days to check on us. She also called from home to see how we were doing on Monday (we could hear her kids running around in the background). She was amazing. We probably would have survived with another doctor, but I don’t think we could possibly have had better care.

Now we are at home and are working on figuring out G-man’s schedule and how to function as a family. We are settling in well, and would be happy to have visitors. Thanks to everybody for the cards, gifts, and prayers.

The Big Day is Here!

Okay, this would be a long one, but we just got home today, and I'm fried. So here is the important info. I'll follow this up with a more in depth recap for those who are interested.

Griffin Elwood Cousino was born Thursday, September 20th at 2:05 PM. He weighed 6 lbs even and was 18.5" long. The delivery went pretty smoothly, but a couple of hours after, we discovered that Mommy had some complications and would need surgery. It was a emotionally and physically strenuous couple of days, but the bottom line is that mommy and baby are both doing very well, and we came home today. Here are a couple of pics for your viewing pleasure. He also has a baby pic available on the hospital web site at

http://www.mountcarmelhealth.com/216.cfm?uaction=display&hid=086&bid=59940

The Cousino's with Heidi Arbona the best doctor in the world!

Daddy checkin out the new addition

Mommy's boy

The Cousino's

Griffin holdin on for dear life!

Griffin chillin on the way home....

Final Countdown

The visit with the doctor went well today. No real change to speak of. The big difference is that they will be inducing on Thursday. We go back on Wednesday just to make sure nothing has spiked, but they have us scheduled for 5:00AM on Thursday. They did say that it will be a long process because Steph's body isn't ready yet. She probably won't deliver until early morning on Friday and we will probably be in the Hospital until Sunday. Steph is doing great aside from a bit of cabin fever. I don't know what else to write, so I am going to shut up now...

The Waiting Game

Back from the Doc. Still without a baby. I guess that is good news, but Steph is ready to get off the couch, and the anticipation is killing me. This is the fourth time in a row that they have said, "I don't think you will make it another week." It kind of sounds like most people don't follow the doctors orders, and I think this is part of the reason they keep saying less than a week. Steph has been pretty good about keeping to what the doc said to do, and so far it seems to be working. She has tried to do a few thing she shouldn't be doing. I just wack her over the head with a big stick and put her limp carcus back on the couch. Her BP is up, but her lil brown jug had less protein than the last time (and that is a good thing). More bed rest to come. Our next appointment is on Monday afternoon.

Return of the Lil Brown Jug

We had another stellar visit with the doctor today. Basically everything is the same again, which is good. They are very happy that the preclampsia is not getting worse. We go back on Thursday. I thought if we made it to Wednesday, they would be getting the baby out, but it sounds like they are going to continue to monitor steph and the baby and make decisions based on that. (Making decisions with the most current information available??? What the crap is that...) They did say it probably wouldn't be more than a week, but thats what they said last wednesday...

Anyhow, Steph's reward for layin on her booty for three days....

Thats right, everybody's favorite JUG-O-PEE!!!

No Change

Well, we dropped of Steph's jug this morning and then had some other lab work done. Then we went to see the doctor this afternoon. They put Steph on a monitor to check the baby and checked her BP (which is still high). Basically, nothing has changed since Wednesday except that she has some protein in her whiz. They sent us home. I guess its good that she hasn't gotten worse. Steph is still on bed rest and we go back to the doc on Monday. I'm glad that the baby will have some more time to develop his lungs, but it sucks that we have to wait and worry for the rest of the weekend. If nothing changes by Monday, we go back on Thursday and Steph gets to fill another jug. I guess I should dig that stupid blue pee plate out of the trash.

I tried to put the car seat in the back of Stephs car earlier today. The base fits great, but when you put the carrier in, the person in the passenger seat will get a mouth full of their knees. Not really sure what we are going to do about that...

Jug-o-pee

gross. That blue plate is going in the garbage...

Hospital Info

Hospital Address:
500 South Cleveland Avenue Westerville, Ohio 43081

Its on the North side of Columbus; North from 270 onto Cleveland Avenue.

More info is available at:

http://www.mountcarmelhealth.com/85.cfm

Whoa Baby!

Steph and I had a follow up doctors appointment earlier today. Her blood pressure is still very high (even though she spent all morning on the couch doing nothing as directed). She is on bed rest, and gets to "can" her pee for 24 hours. They sent us home with a pilgrims hat and an ugly brown baby bucket seat (pictured to the left) to help her collect her samples. I don't really know how these things are supposed to work or help her with her "specimen", but Steph seems to get it. They also said we have to keep it refrigerated, so no drinking mountain dew from our fridge.

On a more serious note, Steph’s high blood pressure, swelling, and the spots she has been seeing are all signs of toxemia/preclampsia/pregnancy-induced-hypertension. If untreated, this could send Steph into seizures and can also harm the baby. Treatment for this involves bed rest and the cure is delivering the baby. We have to return to the doctor on Friday, and he said to bring Steph’s bag and the car seat. We are doing a balancing act between keeping him incubated and maintaining his and Steph’s health. The doctor wants us to make it to Wednesday September 12th before inducing, but said depending on the results of her 24hour peepee and our visit on Friday, we might be sent to labor and delivery to be induced Friday afternoon.

As of today, she is 35 weeks along and they estimated the baby’s weight at 4lbs, 9oz (10th percentile for this stage in the pregnancy). The doctor would like Steph to be at 36 weeks before he induces her, so that would put us at next Wednesday. The major concern is his lung development and the doctor said that lung development has no correlation with weight, so him being just 4.5 lbs doesn’t factor into his lungs. At 36 weeks, baby survival rate is essentially 100% and 90% of infants go home with mom. At 35 weeks, we are still at a very high survival rate, but typically a significantly higher percentage has to stay in the hospital for several days or weeks.

We are hoping for the best, and I think the doctor is preparing us for the worst. I will update again as soon as I can…