Finally Here (daddy's version)

Carter Rollins Wright was born December 7th 2010 at 6:22 pm. He weighed in at 6 lbs 11 oz and 19 1/2 in. long. Here is his first pic in his Tech gear. (Thanks Blair!!)




So first and foremost, mommy and little man are both doing great. It was a long tough journey but we made it and we couldn't be happier.

The journey began Monday morning. The follow-up visit from last Friday's news brought us back to the hospital for more tests. The blood pressure was still elevated and the presence of protein remained in the urine. They sent us to the hospital b/c the blood results would be known much sooner that way. Blood came back and the platelet count was lower than it was Friday. All of these signs were pointing towards Toxemia. At this point the only thing waiting would achieve would be for mom's condition to get worse...the pregnancy was full term, and baby was healthy, so the decision to induce was an easy one...in hindsight...not so much.

Inducing from a dilation point of zero is not what I (Jamie) had expected it to be. In order to speed up dilation, you force the body into contractions. Yeah, these contractions don't feel too good. So we started this process at about 1:30 in the afternoon. By 8 pm the contractions warranted some serious grimacing and heavy breathing. By 10 pm we were in need of medication (at the discouragement of the nurse). The thing about the medication is that you can only have 2 "rounds" of it. No more. The other thing about it is that it doesn't remove the pain, it just masks it, and it sends mommy into la-la land.

So drugged up we began our night. At 1:30 am they were going to check for dilation again and then assess whether or not to go another round with the inducement method, or start on the petocin drops. From 10 pm to 1:30 the night went much like this....sleep for 5 minutes (thank you drugs) wake up screaming for a minute and a half to a fierce contraction...10 seconds later sleep for 5 minutes...wake up screaming for a minute and a half. Sleep for 5 minutes, scream for a minute and a half. Sleep, scream, sleep, scream...you get the picture. 1:30 am rolls around and the dilation is around 1 cm...it's sometime around here where I was able to dose off. Mom's sleep was lasting longer and the screams must have been lighter...that or I was just that exhausted. 30-45 minutes later I was awake again...5 am was approaching and the contractions were getting worse. More drugs please. Again at the discouragement of the nurse. (Do you know what pain is? Tell her no one more time and you will.)

Drugs it is...this round didn't seem to last near as long as the first. By 10 am the pain was unbearable again. At this point they checked and dilation was between 2 and 3 cm. Not the 4 cm that they wanted it to be before the epidural, but close enough for government work I guess. So epidural time it is. Now for my somewhat embarrassing story. So for the epidural they had her sit on the edge of the bed feet resting on a chair that they had in the room. They instruct me to help by and I repeat "straddle the chair sitting on her feet". So I straddle the chair and sit on her feet...only to look up and see the nurse giggling uncontrollably and then I hear the anesthesiologist say, "well that is a first". Apparently she meant, sit on the chair straddling her, while sitting on her feet. Whatever, I'm not afraid to straddle a chair.

Epidural in, pain is gone. Petocin is on the drip. Now we wait for the dilation to progress. I catch another 30 minutes of sleep somewhere along here. A couple of hours in the epidural was "wearing off". The steady drip was not keeping up with the level of pain. So we ordered another round and the bartender, as he referred to himself, came by with the good stuff. 10 cc in under 2 minutes...a lot better than the 15 cc in an hour that the drip was set to.

It's somewhere between 3 and 4 in the afternoon now...27 hours into this. The nurse continues to check her progress and she's at about 4-5 cm dilation...but now we have a problem...little man's heart rate is elevated...It had been sitting nicely b/t 150-160 since we started. Now it's been 170-180 for the last 10-15 minutes with no evidence that it's going back down. Add to that that mom now has a fever of 101...This leaves the internist uneasy. She thinks an infection may be setting in causing both. She calls in back up. Doc comes in and is just as uneasy about it. Similar scenario as what lead to inducing...while nothing is in danger at this time, the only thing that can happen is things will get worse. C-Section is the suggested route and we say go for it. An hour later we're the proud parents of a beautiful and healthy baby boy.


So here are a few more pics from tonight...

Here is his reaction after I told him that UGA beat us in B-Ball...again.



Here is his reaction after I explained to him about Paul Hewitt and to go ahead and prepare for many more losses just like that.



Mom's follow up will come tomorrow!