The Knapp Family: March 2008

Aiden James was born on February 28, 2008 at 5:40 p.m. via c-section. He weighted 6 pounds 12 ounces and was 19 ½ inches long.

Jim and I were at our last childbirth class on Wednesday night. During class I thought I had coughed and peed a little, because I felt a little wet. When we had a break, I went to the bathroom. As I was walking to the bathroom, I told Jim that I really must have peed myself. When I went to the bathroom, I peed a lot, and had some blood. I thought that my water had broken, because when I stopped urinating fluid continued to come out. We went back to class and told our instructor that we were going to labor and delivery. When we got there, I sat on the bed at triage waiting for the nurse to come in. When she came in I got up, and discovered that where I was sitting was soaked with blood. My water had not broken; I was bleeding. The nurse immediately got me hooked up to monitors, and the baby’s heartbeat was fine. I was having contractions, many of which I felt.

My doctor came in and examined me and told me that I was only fingertip dilated. He felt that the blood was due to either placenta previa or a placenta abruption. He performed an ultrasound, but wanted to wait until morning to have a more thorough ultrasound done. I was admitted to the hospital and moved to a room. The ultrasound was supposed to be first thing the next morning. The doctor told me that based on the results of the ultrasound, he’d either be inducing me, or delivering my baby via a c-section. He said that either way, baby’s arrival was eminent. Because I might be delivering via c-section, I was told I wouldn’t be able to eat or drink after midnight. Not what a pregnant girl wants to here! A nice nurse bought me lots of snacks, and I ate right up until midnight. We called Lisa, who was planning on coming down to help with the dogs, and she arrived early the next morning to help out. She stayed with us at the hospital while we waited to find out how our baby would be delivered.

We had the ultrasound around 11 a.m. the next morning. The ultrasound tech wasn’t sure if it was placenta previa or not, so she had another tech look. They also did a transvaginal ultrasound. The techs concluded that it was placenta previa, which mean that my baby would be delivered via c-section. My c-section was scheduled for 5 p.m. We waited around all day for 5 p.m. to roll around. I was prepped throughout the afternoon, but time seemed to go so slowly. Finally, at 5 p.m. Jim and I were taken down to the operating room to prep me for surgery.
Jim wasn’t allowed to come in until I was already numbed and prepared entirely for surgery. He waited outside for a good twenty minutes while they prepped me. The needle in the spine was not fun, especially without Jim’s hand to hold onto (although a nice nurse let me hold her hand). My legs and butt immediately started going numb, and the doctors and nurses had to help me lay down on the bed. As the medicine took effect my blood pressure dropped significantly making me sick. Of course, since I hadn’t eaten anything since midnight the night before, dry heaving was not fun.
Once I was 100% prepped for surgery, Jim was brought in. I was very much out of it and don’t remember too much except for feeling a lot of tugging and pulling on my belly. At 5:40 Dr. Morey picked Aiden up over the sheet and said “hi mom.” At this point, Aiden wasn’t crying. He was very blue. We also did not know if he was a boy or a girl. The nurses and pediatrician took Aiden aside to clean him up, and he began crying, which was the sweetest sound in the world. About two minutes after he was born, Jim asked Dr. Morey if he was a boy or a girl (Jim thought he saw boy parts, but wasn’t sure). Dr. Morey said “looks like a boy to me.” Jim and I both cried. Then, the pediatrician bought Aiden over to us and said that he needed to go to the Special Care Nursery because he was having some difficulty breathing. After that, I was given a sedative, and Jim says that I actually fell asleep and was snoring while they stitched me up.

When I woke up, I was being wheeled into recovery. Jim and the doctor informed me that I had lost a lot of blood-25% of my total blood volume. At that point, I didn’t care. I just wanted to see Aiden. I sat in recovery for about an hour with Jim and Lisa, and sipped some juice. Once they felt I was stable enough, they wheeled me to my room. Meanwhile, Jim was able to go to the Special Care Nursery and snap a few pictures of Aiden. A very nice nurse even let Lisa sneak in to see Aiden (visitation was limited to parents and grandparents. After Jim and Lisa visited Aiden, they came back to my room with pictures of him. Aiden was on oxygen because he was having some problems breathing when he was born. He was grunting a lot. He was also on an intravenous feed.

Throughout my first night in the hospital, a very nice nurse named Joy would check on Aiden prior to checking on me. She gave me updates almost eveyr hour. My favorite update was at about 4 a.m. when she told us that Aiden had been taken off the oxygen tent!

The next morning I was able to get out of bed and be wheeled to the Special Care Nursery to meet Aiden for the first time. It was so wonderful to be able to hold him! He was so tiny and had so many wires and tubes attached.

Aiden had to stay in the Special Care Nursery for five days for various reasons. He was jaundiced, had a high sodium level, and was having difficulty gaining weight. Luckily, even though I was released the day before Aiden, I was able to stay in the hospital so that I could still nurse him and be near him. Finally, on Tuesday, Aiden was able to come home!

Aiden James Knapp was born four weeks early on February 28, 2008 at 5:40 p.m. via C-section. He weighed 6 lbs. 12 oz. and was 19 1/2 inches long.

Due to several complications from being early, Aiden spent five days in the Special Care Nursery. He came home on March 4. We are thrilled to have our entire family home, and are focusing our efforts on getting Aiden to eat and gain some weight! We will post a full birth story once time allows......

Mom and Dad waiting to meet Aiden