Finally Our Turn

I have waited to write our birth story because the 8 days that followed were very difficult on our family, but baby boy is thriving now so I am ready to share!

August 13 I had my 36 week appointment where my BP was high. I got tested for preeclampsia, but it came back negative. The next day I felt sick, so I knew my BP was high again (my head felt foggy, a common symptom for me). I went to triage and got tested again for preeclampsia, which came back positive. I started the induction process on August 18 at 11pm. They gave me cervidil and checked my cervix. This hurt me so bad!! I was 1/2cm dilated and 30% effaced. I was having contractions starting about 1am, very mild. I didn't even feel them all. They took the cervidil out and I was 2cm dilated. They gave me fluids because babys HR was too high and not wanting to come down. Contractions were about 2-4 minutes a part and lasted about 30-45 seconds. They gave me misoprostil to help continue contractions, but they told me to get up and eat some lunch. I sat in a chair after lunch and felt a pop, but thought it was excess discharge. It was actually my water breaking. I got checked at 3:15 to confirm water breaking, and I was 3cm dilated and 30% effaced. Around 4:45pm, I got my epidural placed. I had asked for an early epidural due to back problems. The epidural hurt a little going in, like sudden nerve spasms, but each spasm only lasted a second or two. I got checked at 5:45pm and was still only 3cm, but got up to 60% effaced, but they could feel his head. We started on a low dose of pitocin at 6:20 because my contractions slowed down. At 9:45, baby boy started giving his nurse a run for her money. He began having late decels. We tried juice, the peanut ball, everything and he continued to have late decels. He would calm down for a few minutes at each position change, but then would continue having late decels. At 11:30pm, it was decided to give me an amnio infusion and the late decels finally stopped happening. Around 1am on August 20, I was checked and finally had some change. I was 7cm and 90%. Because I had the epidural, they wanted my body to get baby as close to the exit as possible, as long as he was fine. At 3:45am, they came and said I was ready to push. I began pushing at 3:49 and he was born at 4:15am. The cord was wrapped around his neck once, but everything else was perfect. I ended up with a first degree clitoral tear (no idea how that's even possible), but I did not feel the stitching because of my epidural. I was up walking around 5:30am and I felt great.

Cooper Grant was born 8/20/20 at 4:15am weighing 6lb10oz and was 19 3/4in long.

We stayed in the hospital until August 23 because Cooper had jaundice so he was under phototherapy lights for 2 days and we had to stay an extra day because we had to make sure he could keep his bilirubin down. August 25, I got a call from his pediatrician that said something showed up on his newborn screening bloodwork and I needed to go in immediately to get another bilirubin test done. 4 hours later, his pediatrician called and said he needed to be taken to the NICU now. His bilirubin was 20.6 or so (which is super high, anything above 30 could cause brain and liver damage). We were in the NICU for 3 days and now Cooper is doing amazing. The thing that showed up on his NB screening was a disease called Galactosemia. He can't consume any dairy products, including breastmilk. He has to be on soy formula. The disease causes dairy to not be broken down appropriately for sugars, so the sugars build up in his blood. The disease also causes problems with blood clotting that was treated with 2 plasma transfusions. He is doing amazing now at 17 days old. His body is working finally. We have not had a confirmed diagnosis, we have done genetic testing though. But they are very certain he has either Type 1 of this disease or a variant called Duarte Varient or something like that.

Taken yesterday

4 days old first night home