I was planning to make a post today talking about how hectic this pregnancy has been but true to form the baby threw us a curve ball late last night when Nats water broke.
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We labored for another 6-8 hours, in the tub, bed, bathroom couch. We absolutely loved the midwives birth center for just how flexible and comfortable it was.
Nat was almost completely dilated. The baby began to descend.
And the lil human turned the heck around and went back inside.
They were almost +1, but went back to -2 inches and contractions stopped being productive.
@nat's blood pressure began to climb dangerously and the midwives had to send us to a hospital.
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We were originally planning to drive to the hospital but Nat's blood pressure kept shooting up and we had to call an ambulance to transfer faster.
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We were originally planning a low intervention water birth, which Nat truly handled shockingly well until we hit the BP limit for midwives in WA. I learned soooo much preparing for this day and in the process of watching our midwives and doula working.
The care and professionalism that crew had was top notch.
As has become standard practice for us, the second we got to the hospital birthward no one was wearing a mask. 🫨
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The rooms and halls are full of signs about how diligent the staff and patients were about masking at some point, that's clearly not today.
I ask our nurse to please wear a mask. She audibly scoffs and rolls her eyes, then trudges off down the hall to wherever the disused box of paper surgical masks are hidden.
One by one we ask nurses, doctors and anesthesiologist to don masks. All do... eventually
Most let out an honest to goodness "sure, but where are masks???"
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Aside from the careless lack of masking the hospital team is pretty mid tbf, I mean they know what they're doing and they at least will allow us to do well proven but Dr frowned upon birth practices like delayed cord cutting until after blood flow has stopped.
But if this is a trend I think the most important things still on our baby registry are likely to be baby covid supplies.
So Dad's special request is a portable air purifier and new filters
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Meanwhile, Nats in extremely good spirits and a lot less pain. We ended up having to do quite a few interventions to get their blood pressure down.
The baby remains stubbornly happy not quite being born just yet, their pulse is strong and they're kicking Nat in the ribs every chance they get.
We're coming up on 24hrs of labor soon and with some luck we'll be passed the hard part later tonight.
Love you @nat, keep up the good work
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After 24+ hours of labor we're so happy to say the baby is finally here!
@nat was such a good patient in the face of some pretty scary emergencies along the way and we'll have to stay a couple days for observation but I'm so thankful the doctor's were able to get their blood pressure down.
The baby pulled one last stunt during delivery and was born with the umbilical cord wrapped around their neck twice.
This kid clearly tryin to wear me out already
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Our hospital stay keeps getting extended but good news, @nat's recovering well and should be able to be discharged tonight. However baby Assata has jaundice and needs to be under this space aged baby grow light looking contraption until Monday. So we're stuck at the hospital for another day until kiddos bilirubin levels get down to normal.
Oh also, the postnatal care team has been a lot better than the labor & deliver at bedside manor so no complaints from me
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We finally made it home on Monday and had baby's first Dr appointment yesterday. So excited to find out they should be fully recovered from jaundice very soon.
We're overwhelmed by the support we've received from mastodon, our local friends and mutual aid groups. We have one urgent request this week for help getting a mini freezer so we can get ahead on milk+food prep. A few small donations should knock this out, the registry allows partial payments.
https://www.amazon.com/baby-reg/nat-smith-alan-meekins-september-2024-seattle/1XLSIOAV2GTT3
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@[email protected] Glad to hear they're both doing well. My youngest also had to spend a few days under the lamp for jaundice.