Laurel Elaine Platt

Laurel Elaine Platt was born on Saturday, April 7, 2012, in Pella, IA.  

She was 20" long and weighed 9.5 oz.

My due date was April 5, and we passed that and went right into April 6 with no sign that delivery was imminent.  April 6 is my Mom's birthday, and also was Grandma Evenhouse's (who passed away in January) birthday, so I thought it would be nice to have the baby that day.  I had my weekly doctor visit in the morning on Friday, April 6, and was only dilated to 2/3, with no signs of labor, so we set up an appointment to be induced for the following Wednesday.

WARNING:  I am going to write out the entire story of Laurel's birth.  It won't be too graphic, but I want to have it down somewhere.  If you have no interest in reading about the ins and outs of giving birth, please feel free to scroll through and just look at the pictures.  :)

On Friday evening around 7pm I started having contractions.  We had a friend over for supper and cooked brats and potatoes on the grill, and then I sat in the recliner for the rest of the evening keeping track of the contractions.  By 8pm or so I was having them every 10-15 minutes, lasting 30-45 seconds.  I wrote them all down because I like to keep track, but also because i kept my mind off the pain a little bit!  I called the OB department in Pella (which is a 30 minutes drive away), and the nurse there said to wait to come in until the contractions were about 5 minutes apart, or if I could not longer take the pain.  She also advised us to get a little sleep while we could!  I went to bed eventually, and around 12:30am told Scott I was going to the bathroom, and then it was time to head to the hospital.  I managed to expel a lot of the food in my digestive tract, then around 1am we drove to the hospital.

Since it was Easter weekend, the hospital was pretty short staffed.  There was just one nurse on duty in OB when we got there (although once it was established that I was staying, she did call in another OB tech).  The first thing I did was go to the bathroom and clear out the rest of my digestive tract...while simultaneously throwing up everything left in my stomach.  I was proud of myself because I managed to get everything into the garbage can, making clean-up a snap!  Then they put me in a robe and checked me and I was dilated to 4.  The nurse got some stuff ready, I threw up again (in the bowl this time...thanks to Scott who scoped out the room and found where it was hidden), and then we talked about pain killing options.  I decided I would have an epidural, but first I wanted to walk around, maybe sit in the jacuzzi or on the birthing ball, and endure for a while.  Then she checked me again, and in 30 minutes I had already dilated to 7cm!  So instead of walking around, they called in the anesthesiologist (sp?) and I had the epidural then.

Things slowed down a bit, and both Scott and I tried to get some sleep.  During the next few hours my doctor and the nurse were a little concerned because the baby's heart rate was really high, and they were concerned about something...they did tell me the medical terms, but at 3am when I am tired and on pain medicine, I don't have a very good memory!  Anyway, they put me on oxygen, put a couple internal monitors on the baby, and decided to turn up the epidural a bit, in the hopes that would help the baby.  As a result, I lost all feeling from the waist down, and had absolutely no muscle control over my legs.  If I wanted to lay on my side instead of my back, I had to ask the nurse to turn me!

Around 6:30am, it was time for me to start pushing.  Everything was progressing nicely, and they felt the baby would be fine.  Because of the loss of feeling, I was unable to feel any contractions or control my legs, so the nurse stood on one side of me holding a leg, Scott stood on the other side holding a leg, and they looked at the machine and told me when to push!  Scott was not prepared to be that involved in the birthing process, and it was interesting when the nurse had to go do something, and when they had a shift change, because I had to hold my own leg in place with my hands!  They completely turned off the epidural about 20 minutes into the labor process, and I still could not feel a thing 2 hours later!

After the first 30 minutes or so of pushing, the doctor could see the baby's head starting to come out, which was exciting.  I was pushing well, and we thought it wouldn't be too much longer!  However, as I continued to labor, it became clear that the baby's head was elongating, but was not getting any further out.  We had known that my pelvis was somewhat narrow and angled, but as I labored it became pretty obvious that the baby was not going to come out easily.  The baby's heart rate was still pretty high, but she was facing the right direction and lined up, but just not moving; however, the doctor didn't feel that using a forceps or other device would be safe or more effective.  The doctor wanted me to push for at least 2 hours before moving to a c-section, as that is the average labor time for first-time mother's, and as long as the baby was doing ok.  Finally after about 2 hours and 15 minutes, I was able to stop pushing while they prepped for c-section.  The doctor apologized, as he does not like to have to resort to c-section when everyone is planning on natural labor, but our attitude was that we would be happy any way the baby came out healthy!  Then the doctor prayed with us (another reason I love my doctor!) and we got ready for surgery!

Did I mention that it was a holiday weekend?  You need 3 doctors in the OR during a c-section, and usually on a holiday weekend you would have the on-call surgeon, the on-call OB doctor, and the attending doctor.  Well, my attending doctor happened to be the on-call OB doctor that weekend, so we didn't even have another doctor on call!  My doctor made a personal request to another doctor to come in, and thankfully he agreed to.  We had to wait a little bit for all the doctors and nurses to get to the hospital, and to sign all the paperwork.  In the meantime I could twitch a toe finally, until they shot me up with the epidural again for the surgery, and inserted the catheter, got the iv ready, etc.  I had to take out my earrings, but was allowed to keep my glasses on.  I also got the full body shakes and shivers, which they explained was pretty normal, but uncomfortable.  They also explained that after the surgery I would probably go to one of the c-section recovery rooms, which are in the hall outside the OB department, as they had 4 inductions scheduled for the next few days, and the labor/recovery rooms would be full!  That was fine with me...anything was fine at that point!

Here I am all ready to go to the c-section.  Sometimes they bring the patient there in a wheelchair, but since I was completely unable to move my legs, they brought my whole bed.  

 In the OR they were playing 80's music, which was fun.  They transferred me to the table, put heated blankets over my upper body, and strapped my arms down spread-eagle...that was not real pleasant, but it keeps you from twitching and allows the blood pressure cuff and iv to work better.  After they put up the curtain, Scott was able to come in the room and sit by me.  The anethesiologist stood by my head, and he and the doctors told me what they were doing as they started the surgery.  

It turns out that I have a very narrow pelvis.  When it came time to get the baby out of the birth canal, the doctor had trouble even getting his hand in to push her up and out!  All three doctors commented on it, and my doctor looked over the curtain shortly after the procedure and told me he highly recommended a c-section for all future children, as it would be very difficult for me to ever deliver a full-size baby.  In fact, he was very relieved we had done a c-section, as even if the baby's head had come out, the shoulders wouldn't not have fit!

When they took the baby out, they said, "It's a girl!"  Scott and I had not known in advance, but we both said, "Of course!"  There are a lot of girls in my family.  :)  We were thrilled!  They took the baby over to the table, and had to do some respirations on her, but after a couple minutes I heard her cry.  She did not do real well on the initial apgar test, but scored very high on the 5 minute one.  Scott got to go over to the baby and cut the umbilical cord and watch them clean her off, etc., and I laid on the table while they continued to work on me and waited to see the baby.  Finally they brought her over, and I saw how beautiful she was!

The first time I got to touch her.  Not the most comfortable way to snuggle!  I said hello, and she looked at me right away and was very calm.

There's my beautiful baby!  Please bring her close enough to my lips so I can kiss her, and will someone please unstrap my arm?!

Scott cutting the umbilical cord

Proud Daddy

Baby girl Platt!  We had a couple girl names picked out, but were going to wait to see her before we decided for sure.  She was born at 9:56am, and we had people around, or were sleeping until about 6:30pm that evening, so she was know as Baby Girl Platt for a few hours.

 Shortly after, Scott and the nurse accompanied the baby to the OB nursery, and I stayed in the OR while they finished cleaning me out and stapling me up.  At one point I told the anesthetitian (sp?) that my shoulder muscles really were hurting.  He informed me that there is a nerve that connects from your shoulders to your uterus, and in fact they had my uterus pulled out and turned upside down right now, which is why they hurt...that may have been just a little too much information!  After they finished stapling me, they brought me to the recovery room, where the nurses finished their reports and monitored me to make sure I was doing ok.  Finally, after 30 minutes there, they wheeled my bed back to my new hospital room.  We made a quick pit stop by the nursery window to wave at Scott, the baby, and my Mom.

We did call Mom before I went into c-section, and she passed on the progress to everyone else.  At one point she got sick of sitting at home, and just went to the hospital.  She got there just as Scott and the baby were going into the nursery, so she got to be there right away!

 They did bring the baby in as soon as they could so I could nurse her.  She had already been sucking her fingers, and latched on right away like a pro!  I think I was more worried about the breast-feeding working out than I had been about the whole birthing process!  I was very happy that it went well, and was very happy to be able to snuggle with my baby.  Then they took her and bathed her and brought her back all cute with a little bow...we took pictures right away, and it fell off about 3 minutes later.

cute baby girl!

big yawn while Mommy is burping her

Family photo!

I was not able to move my legs at all for a few hours, and finally got feeling back in my legs that evening.  It was kinda nice to be in bed and not have to move for a long time!  As the epidural wore off, I discovered that not only did I have the pain of major surgery and being cut open, but also the muscle pain of 2+ hours of hard labor!!  Every muscle in my body hurt!  Then, they started an iv with potassium in it, and my face got very red and itchy (they then gave me an anti-histamine), so it was a bit of an uncomfortable night.  I was very relieved at 11am the next morning when the surgeon declared me ok and I could get up, use the bathroom, and take a shower!

We finally had a chance to name the baby that evening, and called Scott's Mom first with that news--we wanted to let her know first, since she lives farther away and could not come right away to see the baby.  I was in the hospital until Tuesday morning.

We have about a billion pictures and stories to tell.  Thanks to everyone who came to visit in the hospital, and for all the congrats on facebook and in the mail.  Thanks also to the people who have brought us food since we've been home.  It is wonderful to be so valued and loved by our family, friends, and church family!