Hayden has finally arrived

Hayden Marek Fusca

12-24-09, 9:10 am

6 lbs 9 oz, 19 in

I had a doctor's appointment on 12-23-09 to check and see how my blood pressure was doing after being put on bed rest. Unfortunately it was still too high for my doctor so he sent us to the hospital for observation around 2 pm. We were at the hospital for several hours and around 4:30/5:00 the nurse came in and said she had talked to my doctor. I had borderline hypertnesion and he would let it be my call; I could get induced now or go home and get induced on Monday. Mark and I talked it over and decided that since I was already at the hospital, they had already done all the blood work and I already had an IV plus the fact that Mark only had one vacation day left, but because of the holiday weekend he could actually stay with me without losing pay that inducing on the 23rd was the best option for us. They took us over to labor and delivery and got me set up in my room. They let me order dinner real quick (they weren't going to let me eat after they induced me) and said they would be back to give me the cervidil at 7pm. The doctor on call came in at 7 and told me that I had been having contractions since I got to the hospital (I had been hooked up to a fetal monitor since I got there) so she wanted to wait and see if they would progress on their own before giving me the cervidil. At 9:30 pm the nurse came in and said that my contractions were dying down and that she was going to give me the cervidil and that I would get pitocin in the morning. A restless/sleepless night followed. Mostly from excitement and a little from anxiety and also the bed was not the most comfortable. I finally passed out/fell asleep around 3:45am. At 4:30 am the nurses came rushing into the room and woke me up. I was sleeping on my left side and they immediately turned me on my right side and put me on oxygen. Apparently the baby's heart rate had dropped to 80. After putting me on my right side the baby's heart rate went up and stabilized. The nurse said the baby was probably on the cord, but she removed the cervidil and told me that they wanted me to rest for now and that we would start the pitocin at 7am. When 7am rolled around I asked the nurse if I could just walk around to help jump start my labor instead of having the pitocin. She said my blood pressure was too high and that I had to stay in bed. At that moment I had a mini meltdown. I started crying and unloaded all my fears on her. I told her that I was afraid to get the pitocin because I was afraid that it would bring on my labor too fast and that I would need to get an epidural and besides the fact that the needle in it of itself scared me I was afraid that if I got the epidural that it would stall my labor and that I would ultimately need a c-section. My number one fear of my entire pregnancy (besides losing the baby) was having a c-section. I was so worried that something was going to go wrong... It took the nurse about half an hour to calm me down and I was finally given the pitocin at 7:45am. At about 8:00 my worst fears began to all happen at once. My body did not respond well to the pitocin. Instead of having one contraction every five or six minutes I was having five and six contractions in one minute. The doctor came in at 8:10 and said that the baby's heart rate was too erratic and he was going to break my water to try and help regulate my contractions. At around 8:20 he came in again and said that things were not getting any better and we were going to have to have an emergency c-section. They wheeled me into the surgery room and had Mark wait outside while they prepped me. Things didn't go right even during the prep. Right before they were about to give me the spinal block my IV stopped working. They though it might be blocked and tried to flush it, but that didn't work so they had to start a new IV. Then when the anesthesiologist went to administer the spinal block he told me to arch my back so I arched it as far as I could (which is hard to do when you're pregnant). I heard him say "No, arch your back" so I sucked it up and arched farther than I thought was physically possible in my state. I then heard him say "What is wrong with you?!" The nurse then came up and said "Honey, you need to lean the other way..." Oops! Once I figured out how to correctly arch my back I was given the spinal block (which by the way is a VERY interesting experience). They laid me on the table and started to get ready. I started yelling to the anesthesiologist "Should I be able to move my toes?! I can still move my toes!" He said I would be fine and that they would make sure that I couldn't feel anything before they start. A few minutes later I could feel a tugging sensation (not painful at all) on my stomach and I asked the doctor if he was making sure I couldn't feel anything to which he replied "Um, I'm already half way done". At that point they let Mark into the room and I started to relax. I figured it didn't hurt so I might as well calm down and just wait for the baby to come. I remember telling the doctor "If you really want to make me feel better about this (the c-section) you could tell me the baby's head is too big to fit through my pelvis" (The week before I had asked if there was any way to tell if the baby's head was too big for a vaginal delivery and he had told me we wouldn't know until I tried). I also told him while he was in there to feel free to take out some extra fat. What felt like 5 minutes later I finally heard a cry followed by "It's a boy". Hayden was finally hear. Mark got to go over to the table where they took him. I hear the nurse say "Dad where's your camera?" Mark didn't think he could bring it into the room... Next thing I hear the nurse say is "Run, hurry!" He was able to get the camera and take some pictures in the delivery room. When they finally brought Hayden to me the first thing out of my mouth was "He's so tiny!" I got to "hold" him for a few minutes and then Mark and Hayden went to the nursery and I went to recovery.

Bed Rest

Well, it's been a while since I've had time to post anything on the blog so I'm doing several posts all at once. I've got more time on my hands now that I've been put on bed rest after my last doctor's appointment. Everything has been going fine so far and I've only got 3 weeks left until my offical due date. This last visit, however, had my doctor a little worried. I've been retaining water in my feet/legs for weeks, but at this last visit my hands were starting to swell too. Add to that the seven pounds I had gained since the visit the week before and my elevated blood pressure and you get put on bed rest. My doctor said it was just a precaution because I'm starting to show symptoms of something that could be bad (I'm assuming he was referring to preeclampsia.) After the appointment I was talking to the nurse and she said if my blood pressure wasn't better by my next appointment (Dec. 23) I would probably have to go to the hospital to be induced. After a mini melt down I was able to clam down and relax. I've been doing my best to lower my blood pressue with a low sodium diet and just relaxing and trying to treat the bed rest as a vacation. I'm not sure if my blood pressure is lower, but so far I've lost 10 lbs. of water weight and my cankles are almost completely gone. I've even made peace with the fact that we might wind up with a Christmas baby. Fingers crossed everything will go good at my next appointment and I'll get to wait until the baby wants to come on its own. Since there isn't much time left either way I'll do my best to keep the posts up to date. We plan on bringing the computer to the hospital with us so I should be able to post pictures up pretty soon after the baby is born.

The Finish Line is in Sight

I've been working on the accent wall in the nursery. It's been slow going doing everything in stages over the past several weeks, but the end result is exactly what I wanted. I am doing the same accent on the opposite wall. I am almost done, the circles are drawn and just need to be painted. I know it probably won't be done before the baby comes, but at least one of the walls is done and 3/4 of the room look like I want.

Halloween

This Halloween Mark and I decided to stay home and hand out candy. We weren't going to dress up at all, but the morning of Halloween I couldn't take it... I had to do something! In 27 years I've never missed dressing up for Halloween. At first I was going to paint my belly because I thought it would be fun and easy and I might not get the opportunity to be this pregnant at Halloween time again. As we were on our way to get paint we stopped at Petsmart. The more I thought about painting my belly the more I thought about the fact that it was going to be 40 degrees that night and how Mark is not artistically inclined so I would have to paint my belly by myself. While we were wandering around Petsmart I noticed that the dog costumes were on sale. I found this cute pumpkin costume and figured I could make it work (The best part was it was only $3.75 so I didn't feel guilty if it didn't work out). I think that it turned out ok =)