Birth Story:
I woke up around 6am on Saturday having a couple contractions that seemed a bit stronger than the Braxton-Hicks ones, but I wasn't sure. About an hour later I had a few more labor signs, so I knew it was the real deal. I continued to labor throughout the day, but they never got very regular and they were still 10-20 minutes apart, so the doctor said to just come to the hospital when they got more intense. By the afternoon I was stir crazy, so Neely came to get Claudia, I did a few chores around the house to distract myself, and Glen ordered a spicy Italian pizza for us to eat while we watched the Husky football game. Once I started eating the pizza, the contractions started to pick up and all of a sudden they were intense and 5-10 minutes apart, so we jumped in the car and headed for the hospital. I got an exam and we were surprised to find that my cervix was 5cm dilated, so they admitted us around 8pm. I was in quite a bit of pain at this point, but they got the epidural in super quick. The labor ward was quiet and we had a wonderful nurse and doctor (Dr. Daniel). It was much easier than with Claudia. After 2am on Sunday I had progressed to 10cm, so I started pushing and after 10 minutes she arrived! She surprised us all by weighing 9 lbs. 13 oz., exactly 2 pounds heavier than Claudia. Also, she was 21 1/2 inches long compared to 19 for Claudia. I tracked the same weight gain with this pregnancy, so we were all surprised by her size. Teagan was in the more favorable face-down position to come out, so despite her size, I got her out easily, except for some 2nd degree perineal tearing, but honestly a small price to pay for an easy delivery. All up, the labor lasted 20 hours. Teagan came out crying loudly and she was a little bit blue, but was able to get her color quickly.
Postpartum Story:
Shortly after Teagan's birth, I developed several minor complications: moderate bleeding that required medication to get my uterus to contract, fever, mild tachycardia, and elevated white blood counts. Teagan also had a mild fever and elevated white blood counts, so they decided to treat her for chorioamnionitis as a precaution. This required 48 hours of ampicillin and gentamicin antibiotic treatment by IV. They will monitor each of our blood cultures for 5 days, but I did not require the antibiotics proactively like Teagan, and both were clear of infection at 2 days.
I was able to feed her a bottle within an hour of delivery, but after that, she got agitated when trying to eat and spit up a lot. When they took her to the NICU to start her IV, they discovered she had amniotic fluid in her tummy from such a quick delivery, so they suctioned that out and she felt a ton better and was then able to eat normally. She also had zone 1 (very mild) jaundice, not requiring treatment. Besides the intervals of antibiotics, they also decided to monitor Teagan for low blood glucose since I was on prednisone throughout my pregnancy, which causes me to have elevated levels, and therefore she might have problems keeping hers up. The poor thing had her heal pricked every time she fed. Her first few readings were slightly low, so they kept monitoring her until she got 3 normal readings. Glen and I were very annoyed by all the extra poking and prodding poor Teagan had to go through even though logically we knew it was best to error on the side of caution and take advantage of technology to make sure she was healthy. None of us got any sleep that first day/night.
Thankfully by Monday things had settled down a bit and we could try and get into a routine. Unfortunately then I started feeling crummy. Nothing serious, but I got super uncomfortable. I had to get IV cortisone injections at intervals after delivery which made me feel really yucky, I had a swollen perineum, headaches, and worst of all, I started getting back, shoulder, and neck spasms. They said it was from the epidural and also from having such a large baby. It made it impossible to get comfortable and and rest well, even with pain medication. Thankfully, Teagan is such a good girl, and Glen totally had things under control on his own. He's the master of feeding, diapering, and swaddling. Teagan had an extra large amount of meconium stool, so Glen had to change about ten black tarry diapers. He also had to go home and get bigger clothes for Teagan because she is so big that she has skipped the newborn sized diapers and clothes.
At three days old, Teagan was cleared for infection, so we got to go home! Claudia stayed with Neely & Emilio most of this time, and also one night with my parents. We are so lucky to have family nearby to help us out during our recovery stage and Claudia is just the right age (3-1/2) to be able to adapt to the situation. She is so excited to be a big sister.
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