Some stats:
Sleep last night (dad): 4.5 hours
Arrival: 5:20 am
Delivery: 2:24 pm
Water broken: 8:00 am
Pitocin: 11:00 am
Labor time: 3 hours 24 minutes
Pushing time: 5.5 minutes
Sex: Female
Weight: 8 lbs. 13.8 oz. (Cade was 7 lbs. 14 oz, Kelson 7 lbs. 11 oz.)
Length: 20.5 inches
Head: 13.75 inches
Chest: 14 inches
Name: Analise Arellano
Got to the hospital at about 5:20. Checked in and into the delivery room by 6:00. Shena let me go out to the Biscuitville on Battleground, just south of Krispy Kreme to get me a bacon egg and cheese sandwich while the nurses (Jim Landon’s daughter, Michelle Butler, was one who helped) were getting her hooked up, taking her vitals, etc. We would have stopped on the way in, but nothing was open yet. I was in the room while Michelle was poking Shena for her IV. Michelle was bragging up about how good she was, then couldn’t get the needle into Shena’s right arm, so she had to switch to the other arm. Luckily she had given Shena some numbing stuff so she wasn’t in any pain while she was digging for a vein. I went inside Biscuitville and took my time eating. I got back to the hospital at about 6:40 or so. We waited around until about 7:50 for Dr. Lowe to come in and break Shena’s water. He did and said if she hadn’t started having good, regular contractions by 10:30, they would start the pitocin. He also said that she could have her epidural just as soon as she felt like she wanted it. He said not to worry about it slowing down the process…recent studies have been saying that there isn’t much to worry about along those lines. The time frame is about the same either way. I talked to mom for a few minutes at about 8:40 or so. She got excited when she saw the caller ID. First thing I told her was “Nothing has happened, I’m just checking in.” She was disappointed. She said Cade was talkative on the way to school. As they drove past Moses Cone he said “Grandma, look, it’s a hospital. But that’s not the hospital mommmy is at. She’s at a different one.” And when they drove past my office he said “Daddy isn’t at work today. He’s with mommy at the hospital to have the baby.” She said Kelson was just playing and hanging out. Probably oblivious to everything that is going on. They brought in a tray of breakfast for me. I’m glad I went to Biscuitville. The eggs were runny and bland, the biscuit was hard. I did eat the mandarin oranges that were included, though. It then became a waiting game. I spent some time surfing on the internet, chatted via IM with Heather Triplett and Teresa Slack (Shena chatted with her for a few minutes, too) and an hour or so listening to music. At about 10:30, Shena had had about 45 minutes worth of contractions every 6 minutes or so, but still not anything happening that meant the baby was coming. We decided to order the epidural and then start the pitocin. The epidural got done about 11:00, and Shena was having a bunch of small contractions every minute, but that was about it. So the nurse was a little hesitant to start the pitocin right away. She finally got it started a little after eleven. Shena kind of dozed in and out until about 12:30 when she started breathing a little heavier. I got up to give her ice chips (my first real contribution for the day) and she started saying that the contractions were really starting to hurt and why wasn’t the epidural working? We tried pushing the “magic button” that gives her a quick dose of it, but it wasn’t working. The contractions didn’t look real bad on the monitor, but she was in a lot of pain. The nurse checked her and she was dilated to a four. Another nurse came in with a fresh supply of epidural drugs, because the others had run out, but it still didn’t seem to be having much effect. After another ½ hour of pain, Dr. Lowe happened to show up (apparently the nurse called to tell him that Shena was in pain and that she had progressed to a four. He checked her again and this time she was too a seven. He said to call the anesthesiologist, and have him give her a different kind of drug. He showed up about 15 minutes later, gave her something else that he said would help, but Shena was still really suffering after about 15 or 20 minutes (the anesthesiologist said it should only take about 10 for it to kick in). At this point, Shena starts saying “I feel like I need to push.” So the nurse checks her again, and says that she is the same as when Dr. Lowe had checked her. Now, every contraction Shena keeps saying the same thing “I need to push.” Both the nurse and I talked her out of it about 10 times over the next ½ hour, just trying to get her to breath. Finally, at about 1:05, Shena looks at me and says “the baby is coming. I can’t not push. Please get Dr. Lowe here!” The nurse was like “Ok, just a minute, let me go and get the meds for the baby, then I will check you again.” She disappears for about 5 minutes. The whole time Shena is having major pain and keeps telling me “I need to push.” I’m not delivering the baby by myself, so I keep telling her “no you don’t. You just think you need to. Keep breathing.” The nurse finally gets back and kind of moseys around getting out the “meds” that she had gone out for. She finally checks Shena about 1:15 or so, and say’s “you are a nine. I will call Dr. Lowe now. If I can just find his number. Let’s see {pulls out little notebook from her pocket}…hmmm…I don’t think I have his number here. Just let me go up to the front desk to get it.” Shena turns and looks at me with the look of murder (I guess that’s what it was…she wasn’t very happy). The nurse has a moment of brilliance and decides it might be quicker to CALL the nurses desk and ask them for Dr. Lowe’s number. She finally gets it, calls Dr. Lowe and says “your patient is at a 9 and says that she feels like she wants to push and she can’t stop it.” About two minutes later Dr. Lowe walks in, while Shena is having a contraction. She is saying “I need to push.” I am saying, “No, don’t push, breath.” Dr. Lowe chimes in from the doorway, “go ahead and push.” Shena’s face turns red as she starts pushing. She only got one little one in when the contraction subsided, which gave Dr. Lowe time to get on his protective gear. The next contraction, for some reason, was 2 minutes later. Kind of strange because they had been coming so fast. But it gave us all time to gather ourselves and get ready. The next contraction came, Shena pushed for ten seconds, breathed, pushed for ten seconds, breathed, then Dr. Lowe said, “Ok, hang on one sec, let me use the bulb on her to get some of the gunk out of her mouth.” Next contraction he told her to “push ½ way,” and out came the baby at 2:24 pm. So her labor was relatively short, from 11:00 to 2:24, but it was extremely painful for the last hour because for some reason the epidural didn’t work the way it did the last two times. The baby came out like they all do, blue and disgusting. She rated an “8” initially (she didn’t cry much in the beginning, just a couple little ones) and then a “9” on the second evaluation (which I think they take like 10 minutes later, or something like that). She looked good…for an alien. We got to hold her after the initial tests and shots (which took about 20 minutes) for the first 45 minutes or so until they finally came and took her to the nursery, and Shena to her room. We got over to her recovery room at about 4:30. I then called mom and met her and the boys at Target so that they could by Analise her first birthday presents. They picked out their own gifts (with a little help from Dad. Kelson wanted to buy her this stuffed horse that was bigger than Cade). Cade bought her a little baby doll, Kelson got her a little white stuffed puppy. Mom stopped at Steak ‘n Shake and bought us all hamburgers, fries and chocolate milkshakes for dinner (I hadn’t eaten, really, since Biscuitville) and we brought it back to the hospital to eat dinner with mom. Just as we were finishing eating, they brought Analise back from the nursery where she had been weighed, measured, bathed, and warmed up in a warming cart they have. The boys were excited to see her. Cade wanted to hold her immediately, and Kelson did as soon as Cade did, but only for about 30 seconds, then he was done with her. The boys were excited to see that Analise had brought a present for them, too. Kind of a goodwill gesture. She got Cade a 100 piece Spiderman puzzle, and she got Kelson a 24 piece Chicken Little puzzle. They were grinning ear to ear when we told them that she had brought those for them. The boys stayed for about an hour and a half or so, and then mom took them home and put them in their pj’s, while I got Shena situated for the night. I then came home, put the boys to bed, and put together this little piece and downloaded pictures to send out to everybody we thought would want one.
Again... we said "shopping" to make her giggle!
Analise has this thing now when you mention "shopping" she starts to smile and chatter. Sure we think it's cute now... just wait a few years! ;)
S-T-Y-L-E that's what I have!
It's so hard to get all of the them to cooperate at the same time. Hey... it took me three separate visits to get a good one of the boys... at least i got an alright one the first visit with all three of them. What a crazy hour it was!!!!!!
