The Birth Story

Savannah was due to be born on August 27th, but I was ready for her to come on approximately August 15th. I was not excited to still be pregnant at my doctor's appointment on August 19th, and my doctor knew it, so he looked for all sorts of reasons to induce. At that appointment, he hooked me up to a fetal monitor to monitor her heart rate and contractions that I was having (which were not happening at all at that point in time...) and we did an ultrasound to measure fluid and see if the placenta was pulling away from my uterus (which is wasn't...). After the fetal monitor and ultrasound, it was determined that there were no medical reasons to induce and to come back again on the 26th.

So for a week I tried everything I could think of to induce other than consuming anything that I thought could potentially harm my baby like mineral oil, caster oil or anything like that. I wanted to have my baby so badly, but I didn't want to cause her or me any harm in doing so.

On the 25th, I was pretty much resigned that I was not going to have this baby any time soon and that I should just deal with it. I was very uncomfortable, and my feet were ridiculously swollen. My mom came over and we sat together and watched a movie ("Better off Dead" Awesome...) while I soaked my feet in epsom salts. After the movie was over and the swelling in my feet still hadn't gone down any, Dave got a blood pressure cuff from his parents and took my blood pressure. My blood pressure reading came back normal on it, I don't remember exactly what it was, but somewhere in normal ranges. Daniel had come back with him and they were outside playing ball, so after a while I went out with them and started talking with my neighbors Mary and Andrea.

After a while, my mother-in-law Michelle came over to get Daniel and take him home, and Dave and I spent the rest of the evening talking with Mary and Andrea. We stayed out literally until 2 AM with them (well Andrea went to bed earlier than that but her husband Jim came out). After going inside, I remember praying that I would be patient for my baby to come and that the doctor would know when it was time for her to come.

Well, it was time for her to come apparently.

I had an appointment at 8:50 AM on Thursday August 26th. We woke up and got ready for the appointment making sure that the hospital bag went with us, just in case. We also loaded up the laptop to make sure we'd be able to put updates on Facebook throughout the day. The big mistake was only having a string cheese to eat and throwing some granola bars in my bag.

Dave has recently switched jobs and wasn't sure he'd be able to stay with me the whole appointment, so my mom and Dave and I all went to the doctor's office for that appointment. We got into the exam room at about 9:30 and they took my weight and my blood pressure. Well, everything was not normal this time. The blood pressure came out as 178/128! Explains why my feet were so swollen and I was so super uncomfortable. The nurse told me to lay down on my left side and she would be back to check it in a while because my blood pressure was WAY too high. So I laid down and we all waited for them to come back and take it again.

The nurse practitioner came in this time and took my blood pressure while I was still laying down. The reading came out still high 148/97 so it was determined that they were going to induce labor, but the doctor needed to see me and check where I was at. So while we waited for the doctor, my mom attempted to french braid my hair while I was still sitting on the exam table (the picture rocks) and I ate two granola bars that I had thrown in my bag that morning. So the doctor came in and checked me, I was 3 centimeters dilated and 70% effaced. After checking me he told me to "Go to the hospital, go directly to the hospital, do NOT pass GO, do NOT stop and In-n-Out Burger", so after getting a copy of my charts to take to the hospital, we went directly to the hospital.

After checking in at Labor and Delivery around 10, we waited in the hall for them to finish cleaning out my delivery suite and my mom did my hair in a french braid to keep it out of my face for the delivery. As soon as we were in the room, a nurse started an IV, and started me on pitocin. At this point we just sat around and waited. They checked my blood pressure which amazingly had gone down quite a bit and just monitored it.

At about 2:30, the doctor came by to break my water, which hadn't happened on it's own. Well, after my water broke contractions started coming. They started coming harder and faster, and by about 3:30, they were coming about a minute apart and were lasting anywhere between 60 and 90 seconds. They hurt, and I wanted and epidural, but I was afraid that if I got it too early it would wear off and I would end up going through the actual delivery feeling everything, and I didn't want that. After talking with the nurse about the concern and her assuring me that it was continuous flow and I wouldn't feel any pain, we ordered the epidural.

The anesthesiologist came in to do the epidural at about 4.Now let me say that I am deathly afraid of needles. They terrify me and the epidural needle I have heard is big, and I knew that if I moved there could be all sorts of complications and side effects from the epidural which I definitely didn't want. So this process was infinitely more scary for me. After having everyone in the room sit down the anesthesiologist started while Dave held my hand and I squeezed my eyes closed as tight as I could and waited for it to be over.

They used a numbing agent to numb my back where they were inserting the needle, and the anesthesiologist told me to let him know if I felt any sharp pains on either side of my back. He let me know I would feel some pressure, and put the needle in. After he started threading in the catheter that would put the Phentanyl directly into my spine to block the pain, I felt a sharp pain on the right side of my back, so he put some more numbing agent in me. After threading it a little more, I felt another pain - this one hurt so bad I started to cry - so again he put some more numbing agent there so I wouldn't feel it.

After the catheter was fully threaded, he let me know that I would feel a shock go down my leg, the nurse said it would feel like a charlie horse. Well let me tell you what, I've never had a charlie horse like that before! I thought it felt more like someone hooked up some jumper cables to me and tried to jump start my leg.

After the epidural was in, I felt infinitely better, no more contractions! They were still coming, only I couldn't feel them. At this point in time I would no longer be able to get up and walk around so they put a catheter in so I could still use the bathroom. Also at this point they put in internal monitors for her heart and my contractions because it was very difficult to find her heart beat using the external monitor, and the contractions it was measuring weren't measuring correctly.

At this point, we just had to sit around and wait. We had to wait while my cervix got fully ready to deliver a baby. They had me on oxygen off and on to help lower my blood pressure and regulate the babies heart beat. While we waited, we watched the food network, and then we watched "Mrs. Doubtfire". I dozed off and on trying to get some rest. After the movie was over, I was measuring at 10 centimeters and I was 99% effaced. It was almost time to start pushing. My mom, Dave's mom and my dad were all there and I was getting nervous. Dave was ready though to help me through it and to become a dad.

After having everyone leave the room at about 9:45 it was time to start practice pushing! The nurse helped us practice push, then we started to really push for about 45 minutes while trying to get the baby into position for the doctor to come. When the doctor arrived, we were pushing on every contraction, which I was feeling at that point as pressure. So the doctor got there and we pushed and pushed and pushed! After pushing for about 15 minutes (I think, time was a little distorted at that point and Dave isn't home for me to verify...) the baby's heart rate dropped drastically so they took her monitors off took the contraction monitors out and the decision was made to do a vacuum extraction.

The doctor got everything ready and told me that instead of doing a series of three pushes like we had been we were going to push push push push until she was out. So we pushed 4 times and the head was out! After telling me the head was out, he pulled the rest of her little body out. She had the cord wrapped around her neck and one of her arms, so after unwrapping them, the doctor asked Dave if he was going to cut the cord or if Dave was. Dave said he was, so he cut the cord and the put Savannah on my belly, and I got to see my little baby for the first time. She had so much hair, but I seriously remember thinking that she looked a little gross, she had all this white stuff covering her, I remember asking what it was but I don't remember the answer so look it up if you're curious. And then they took her away from me to do her check ups.

Dave went with Savannah while the doctor finished with me. He got all of the placenta and afterbirthing taken care of while they checked up on my baby and weighed her and measured her.

She weighed 7 lbs 13 ozs and was 19 1/2 inches long. Born at 10:54 PM on August 26th.

After they were done checking on her, it was determined that her core temperature was too low, so they put her under a heating lamp for about 20 minutes to get her temperature up. Then they gave her back to me and I really got to hold my baby for the first time - and I fell in love. Again. There is nothing like the joy of holding your baby. I got to nurse her and cuddle her for a little while.

Then the family came in and got to meet their grand daughter (remember only my mom, dad and Dave's mom were in the waiting room). Daniel was there too, I don't know how he got there, or when, but he came and got to hold her as well.

It was very exciting for all of us. After the family left and they did a final check on me in labor and delivery to make sure I wasn't hemorrhaging, we went to Mom and baby.

So there it is. The story.

Sometime, I'll get to telling you about Mom and Baby and the following days.

Savannah Lynne Higham

We are super excited to announce the birth of our Daughter Savannah Lynne Higham!

She was born Thursday August 26th, 2010 at 10:54 PM. She weighed 7 lbs 13 ozs and was 19 1/2 inches long.