Married to the Empire

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

This Motherhood Thing

It's so not for the faint of heart! 

I had a regular OB appointment yesterday with plans to run errands afterwards.  Things didn't work out that way. 

When my OB pulled out the doppler thingy to listen to the baby's heartbeat, things weren't sounding right.  Even I could tell immediately that something was wrong.  His heartbeat was steady and rhythmic for a while, but it kept skipping beats.  *boom boom boom skip boom boom boom skip*  Then it just went all sorts of crazy-erratic with no rhythm whatsoever. 

My doctor immediately sent me to the hospital with instructions not to worry.  Uh, yeah.  Right.  Naturally, I was freaking out. 

I contacted Steven, who left work right away to meet me at the hospital.  I also quickly sent off an email to some close friends asking for prayer, as well as posting on Facebook.  I have to say that I love this aspect of the technology age, because I had people all over the world praying for our baby within minutes! 

I spent a couple of hours in the hospital hooked up to various things.  The baby's heartbeat was still wonky, but everything else was fine, so I was eventually sent home.  But I was told that my doctor wants me to go to the hospital for this testing twice a week until the baby is born.  I go again on Friday.  I was shaky from fear and hunger, so Steven and I went out for a much-needed late lunch after all that. 

My OB called that afternoon to tell me that she set up an appointment for me with my high-risk OB, who said back in June that she didn't need to see me again.  So much for that!  So, Baby Alex had an echocardiogram this morning with her. 

The glorious thing is that his heart was in perfect rhythm this morning!  The high-risk OB couldn't find anything wrong with him.  Thank you, Jesus!  But I have a new worry: she said his umbilical cord is loosely wrapped around his neck.  However, he was practically dancing in there while she was trying to examine him, and she said that as long as he's active like that, he's fine. 

I asked a friend this morning how she survives motherhood.  It's killing me so far, and he's not even out of my body yet!  She said motherhood is the most wonderful thing, but it's often like having your heart ripped out of your chest and stomped all over.  So far, I'm finding that to be true. 

4 comments:

Heather said...

Your friend is right!

And do not worry much about the cord. Most good OBs/midwives will just push the cord over the head as they are born. And if it is really tight and cannot be moved then it will be cut earlier then normal, but really it happens very frequently. I was born with mine around my neck 2 or 3 times. I was dancer too :) And he might have it all resolved before hand anyway!

Keeping you and baby in my prayers,
Heather

Leah Spencer said...

I hope you don't worry too much about the cord. My baby had his wrapped around his neck 3 times at birth, but his heart rate was fabulous during labor, so we never worried. It was also wrapped around his torso 3 times, and his foot 3 times! :)

Instead, I hope you'll consider delaying the cord clamping and cutting. I personally feel that cutting the cord within minutes of a birth is akin to the blood letting from a couple hundred years ago. The cord carries approximately 33% of the baby's blood volume. Cutting the cord at birth is cutting the baby off from 1/3rd of it's blood supply. And if the cord blood is so valuable to be harvested and stored for years by some... why not give that lovely blood to the baby in the first place?

Even if you have a c-section or such, you can still delay the clamping and cutting - at least 15 minutes, if not more. For my son, I feel that it made his birth much more peaceful; it was a gentle transition from the womb to my arms and breathing on his own. He never cried for the first hours he was born. We also received comments how alert he was in the days after birth - which I contribute to the extra blood giving him energy to enjoy his new life.

Sorry if I went on and on! I'm kinda passionate about this. ;)

Anonymous said...

Saying a prayer for you to have a safe and normal delivery. This 'becoming' a mother is not easy. I wish I could tell you it was get easy with time...but that is not true. With true the problems that come just change a little.
I hope so much that all goes well for you when it is time to deliver.Roxie in Round Rock

Jen said...

Yes, your friend is right.

I had my baby on Saturday, and the cord was around her neck as she came out. No big deal, they just cut it quickly and gave her a little oxygen to perk up her color. She was totally fine and no one was concerned.

Those tests are kind of a pain, but also kind of a nice time to just sit with baby. I didn't have them this time, which I liked, but realized I kind of missed too.

Praying for you and baby. It really is thing after thing you wouldn't think you could do, but you can. It's an amazing experience, designed by God for you!