The bumps in the bottom line are contractions
It looks like the Pitocin is doing what the Pitocin does: contractions have started and Holly is working though the surges like a champ! This means that I’ll be posting less and probably won’t be answering the phone much anymore, though we likely still have many hours ahead of us… We’ll do our best to check in when we can–thanks for all the encouragement!
Holly, between contractions...
Lindsey supporting Holly through a contraction
In case I forget later (because I probably will), I wanted to give a quick shout-out to our fantastic doula, Lindsey, pictured here rubbing Holly’s feet and encouraging her through her surges… Thanks, Lindsey!
It’s a hair past 7:30 AM in the morning here. The doctors have been steadily increasing her pitocin dosage, but without much apparent impact. That’s OK–we’re not in any hurry and just assume take it slow! (Joel’s not very patient, but this isn’t really about him, is it?)
San Francisco sunrise, from the birthing suite
View from our room, Friday morning
It’s now 4 AM and the Foley Bulb as come out, meaning that we’re at about 4-5 cm dilation. That said, we’re not really in labor yet and Holly having minimal sensations. Incidentally, we agreed to participate in a clinical study–they’re apparently experimenting to understand the differences between inflating the Foley Bulb with 30 ml of fluid vs 60 ml of fluid.
Holly was just connected to an IV (she postponed it when we first got here as unnecessary) and we’ve called Lindsey, our doula, to ask her to start heading over in anticipation. The pitocin has been hooked up to the IV and we’ll be slowly increasing the dosage as required.
We both managed to get 4 or so hours of sleep last night… Good prep for the months to come!
Holly is doing well, apparently having contractions 6 minutes apart (according to the fetal monitor), though she can’t feel them. Just took a shower while I ate Chinese take-out.
Holly with her fetal monitor
Check out the video we just posted in the Photo Gallery!
Well, they said that our little Baby G was supposed to be due on Feb 11, 2009 (this based on early ultrasounds), which puts us in Week 38. Over the past couple of weeks Holly’s blood pressure has been a little high and, occasionally, she’s leaked a little protein. Never anything to be particularly worried about, but they had her coming into the hospital every other day to check her bp–high blood pressure and protein leaking can be early indicators of pre-eclampsia…
Anyway, today she was in for her “routine” blood pressure check and, again, it was a bit high. They ran a few more tests and decided that her amniotic fluids were low. Because the baby is considered “full term” at this point, the safest route is induction. Apparently Holly is 1 cm dilated, so they’re going to start slow–just a foley bulb tonight to see if that starts contractions. If not, tomorrow we may start pitocin… More updates later!
For Holly’s birthday this past year, I got us tickets to Wicked, which was going to open in SF in January. At the time, I called her gift our “Last Night Out.” Little did we know that we’d be in the hospital the next day!
Pregnant Wife in Front of the Orpheum Theater
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