It's not secret that I was preparing for and hoping for a VBAC (vaginal birth after c-section) a.k.a. trial of labor. Everything was falling into place: no complications on my part, a head down baby, started showing labor symptoms without intervention, term baby...
On Tuesday morning (the 29th) I had a good feeling that I would be going into labor very soon. Sure enough, while having dinner with my in-laws that night, my water broke. It worked out perfectly because they were able to take Kenzie home with them and Mike and I headed off to the hospital to meet Miss Daphne. I was excited and eager to deliver her like I believed I was intended to.
That's where everything started going nothing like I planned.
I knew that I was already dilated 1 cm and 50% effaced. Apparently my water broke a little earlier than my OB would have liked. We checked in at the hospital and found out that although my water had broken I had not started contractions and was not any further dilated or effaced...first problem. The triage nurse knew I was a VBAC but seemed really skeptical because after your water breaks you can't be sent home (like you would if you thought you were in labor but had progressed far enough) but they can't just leave you either because of danger of infection without the amniotic fluid to protect the baby.
I had no choice but to start pitocin...second problem.
I moved to a labor and delivery room , started my epidural (which was embarrassing and awkward but bless my husband's heart for dealing with it) and was set up for a long night of contractions and trying to sleep...gearing up and reserving my strength for delivery. After a few hours, I progressed to 3 cm but only with the help of my nurse. After a few more hours...nothing. On top of that Daphne wasn't handling the pitocin well. Her heart rate kept dropping, forcing the nurse to turn off the pitocin altogether...third problem.
10 hours after arriving at the hospital, despite the pitocin, efforts on my nurse's part to help me progress, and my water breaking, I was still dilated only 3 cm, my baby's heart rate was unstable, and my contractions were progressively tougher but with no results. Around 5;30 I spoke to my OB who basically said that I could keep trying for the VBAC but my chances of going to an emergency c-section vs. a planned one were increasing fast because of Daphne's heart rate. For the safety of my baby, I really had no choice but to prepare for my second c-section. I had a moment of tears where I mourned losing my only attempt at a vaginal birth but quickly resolved to embrace our new plan.
After zero complications and sleeping through most of it, we greeted our second daughter at 6:17am on the 30th. She was perfect, APGAR was great, heart rate strong and stable. In recovery, Daphne latched and nursed extremely well and it seemed like everything was looking up...
Many parents know that newborns go through a couple screenings in the hospital including hearing. Daphne failed her hearing test twice. We also noticed and were told by every nurse and LC that she was tongue tied. Frustratingly, the pediatricians who do rounds through the hospital every morning kept saying her tongue tie was fine and required no intervention. So we headed home.
After being home only 24 hours, Daphne became inconsolable for almost 3 hours and was showing alarming BMs in a small period for a newborn so we ended up at Phoenix Children's emergency room. Fortunately, she was fine and we were discharged but not before the ER doctor who also happened to be a lactation specialist told us that Daphne was very tongue tied and we needed to get her frenulum clipped ASAP! Done!
Our pediatrician referred us to an ENT who happened to be her husband to get the tongue tie taken care of. While there, the doc looked in her ears and commented on Daphne having tiny ear canals. We mentioned that she failed her hearing test twice so he decided to suction out any built up fluid that could have been causing a blockage. He discovered that she has some kind of obtrusion in both ears (basically a deformity) which was preventing him from seeing her inner ear anatomy and from passing her hearing tests. We are now waiting to see an otologist (sp) who is going to likely look into a CT scan to see if her inner ears formed correctly and decide on the next course of action to open up her ears. There is no way to know right now if there is any hearing loss or problems with the inner ear.
We are still working on nursing together now that we had the tongue tie fixed. I am anxiously waiting to hear about Daphne's ears. In reflection, there are several things that have happened outside our control but Daphne is amazing. She's eating, sleeping, she smiles, she laughed yesterday, and Kenzie already loves her and does so well with her.
I guess you just never really know how things are going to unfold.
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