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The Story of Mikhaila Celeste Adams |
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| It all started on Thursday, September 6th, when Wendy decided she'd go for a walk to see if she could get the process of labor started... Well she apparently DID! That night, Wendy was sore form her long walk, and had a hard time getting to sleep because her body ached. Then at about 1:00 am, Eric was awakened by a moan of "ooohhh, I think my water is breaking!" It was! After the comedy routine of Eric trying to find the phone number to call the doctor (which was supposed to be in the bag at the bottom of the stairs), Eric gave up and looked it up in the phone book. The doctor on call said to come on in. They did. It was now about 1:30 am. It was very peaceful... no traffic, no noises. "Like the calm before the storm," they joked. When they arrived at the hospital, they explained that Wendy's water had broken. The nurses and the doctor on call asked them if they had anything that was still wet so they could check it to verify that it was indeed amniotic fluid. They did not; they had cleaned Wendy up pretty well before they left the house. They tried to get a sample right form Wendy, but they informed them that since there was blood there they could not get a good reading. At this time Wendy was dilated 1 centimeter (for those of you who don't know, you need to get to 10 centimeters). |
Wendy before the pain started setting in. |
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| They told them that they'd give them four hours for the labor to "progress" otherwise they would send them home to wait it out. They were initially confused, because they were under the impression that once Wendy's water broke she would automatically be admitted. They told them in their classes that they typically like to deliver the baby within 12 to 24 hours after the water breaks because of the risk of infection. Apparently they didn’t believe them that the water had broken! |
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Wendy in lots of pain... |
So they spent the next few hours walking the halls, trying to coax the labor process along. At one point Wendy, wearing a new bathrobe over her backless hospital gown, decided she needed to go to the bathroom. As she got to the bathroom another wave of amniotic fluid spurted out onto the bathroom floor. Eric went to get a nurse to have her test that it was indeed amniotic fluid. The nurse said that as soon she saw how much liquid was on the floor, she could tell it was amniotic fluid. They tried to tell her that they had probably five times this much before they got to the hospital! Anyway, they finally believed them that Wendy’s water had broken, and they were officially admitted. Their doctor, Doctor MacKellar, arrived sometime around 6:00 am to check Wendy. He determined that she had increased to about 2 to 3 centimeters, still far from the necessary 10 centimeters. So, as the doctor prescribed, they spent the next few hours again walking the halls, taking a whirlpool bath, and walking some more to try to get to at least 6 to 7 centimeters dilated. |
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| It was now past 12 noon when Dr, MacKellar checked Wendy again to discover that she had barely progressed at all. He explained that they should try Potocin, a drug that makes your contractions stronger. He again spoke of the risk of infection if they allowed nature take its time. So Wendy agreed. It didn’t get bad right away, but after about three hours Wendy’s contractions were so painful she needed to get an epidural. Yes, that’s right they had blown their plan completely because of the water breaking… they had wanted to spend the early part of labor at home, taking it nice and slow and see if Wendy could get through it all with as few drugs as possible. But due to the infection risk, they were sped along and ended up having to get Potocin and later an epidural. They told themselves that there was really not much they could do about it. Soon after the epidural was completed, Wendy was feeling much better. Members of their family started to arrive, and Dr, MacKellar gave them permission to let everyone stay for the “good part.” In fact, he joked that they could put up bleachers, just as long as everyone stayed out of his way during the delivery. So when the real pushing finally began (around 7:00 pm), Wendy’s mother and father as well as Eric’s mother, father and sister were watching. |
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| Wendy pushed and pushed, and pushed some more! She was getting exhausted. They asked all of the family members to leave so that Wendy could concentrate on her job. Dr. MacKellar, decided to help the process along by using the vacuum extractor (a device that he attached to Mikhaila’s head to try to pull as Wendy pushed), but each time he tried she kept slipping out of his grip. Finally he had success using the dreaded forceps. Once he got Mikhaila’s head out it was obvious that the problem all along was that her umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck and arm, pulling her back in with each of Wendy’s pushes. The doctor quickly unwrapped the cord, pulled the rest of Mikhaila’s white, wrinkly body out and put her on Wendy’s chest. The cord was cut quickly and Mikhaila was taken to the little room attached to Eric and Wendy’s to be cleaned up and weighed. Mom was SOOO EXHAUSTED! |A few seconds later the phone rang in their room. It was Eric’s brother Sean calling to see how everything was going. Sean was calling from his cell phone on his way over to the hospital. He was the first person to hear the good news. In fact, Sean got to the hospital and was able to deliver the news to the rest of the family in the waiting room before they could go out and tell everyone themselves. So minutes later the crew came back in and got to spend some time with Mikhaila while the doctor worked with Wendy to clean her up and give her some stitches (she had a slight episiotomy, plus there was some stitching needed due to the forceps). |
Mom and Mikhaila. |
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The view from our room |
After spending three days in the hospital, Eric Wendy, and Mikhaila came home on Monday, September 10th. From their they hope to live happily ever after. THE END More pictures below. Click on them to see a larger version. |
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