Henry's Birth Story

Again, sorry for the delay, priorities have been elsewhere the past few weeks!

As you already know, we were admitted to Memorial Hermann on Monday, March 29th, for continued monitoring of my low platelet count and possible pre-eclampsia. My platelet count had been falling steadily throughout the month of March, the levels fell from 150 to 136 in one week and was then down to 115 within a few days. Labwork was redrawn when we were admitted to the hospital, the results of which were 109: low, but not dangerously so.

Monday and Tuesday were fairly uneventful- between blood pressure checks and lab draws I passed the days by reading, watching mind-numbing television, or simply wasting time on the internet.

Wednesday morning (March 31st) began as the the day before had: ordered breakfast from the hospital's room service program, watched a little bit of The Today Show, and waited for the doctors to make their daily rounds. Dr. Boone (with our OB practice) came by around 8:00 am to let us know the results of the labs drawn the night before. Unfortunately, platelet levels had fallen again and were now down to 96, which meant that we were getting a little too close to the danger zone. The anesthesia team will not perform a spinal or epidural for any platelet counts under 90; it was explained to us that if the puncture isn't able to close completely, there can be swelling around the spinal cord which could cause permanent paralysis (I'm well aware that this was a very rudimentary explanation, so if anyone reading has more information please let me know!). If my levels continued to drop through the day, we would be forced to have a c-section under general anesthesia which would have meant that Daniel would not have been able to be in the room and I would not get to meet Henry until after recovery. Dr. Boone was waiting to hear from Dr. Cook to determine how we should proceed, however, knowing Dr. Cook and the caution that he had exhibited throughout the pregnancy, Daniel and I had no doubt that we would be meeting Henry very soon.

After speaking with Dr. Cook, we were added to the OR schedule for the day- of course we were at the very end of the list thanks to that breakfast I had already finished. Luckily, it gave us enough time to let everyone know and for our parents to come down and make it in time for Henry's birth! When 4:00 finally rolled around we were more than ready to get the show on the road.

They came and got Daniel and I around 4:30 and brought me to the operating room while Daniel waited outside and got dressed in his surgical gear. The anesthesia team didn't waste any time in getting me prepped for surgery. It's funny that I've dealt with hundreds of patients preparing for surgery but have never actually been the patient- wow, was it nerve wracking. There were probably 7 people running around setting up the room before the doctors arrived- the entire time I kept trying to figure out who had the same roles as my neurosurgery OR friends (scrub tech, nurses, etc) which kept the nerves at rest for a few minutes.

The had me sit on the table and turn to the side to place the spinal. In case you didn't know, this was one of my greatest fears going in to the labor process. In the few moments that I spent trying to age the Resident who was doing the procedure, he prepped and completed the spinal with ease. I only felt a small pinch at the beginning, absolutely nothing to worry about. Afterward, he said I had a great spine with plenty of space to work in (good to know for future procedures). They rushed to get my legs on the table before the anesthesia set in which only took a few seconds.

When I was settled in, they let Daniel come sit by my head and wait for the show to begin! Drs. Nanda and Cook arrived and we were ready to go. I truly couldn't feel anything below my shoulders and was very surprised to find out that they had begun the c-section when they announced that the first cut was made at 5:10.

Within moments I began feeling some pulling and tugging (no pain however) and heard Dr. Nanda say "I can't get the head" repeatedly and with increased urgency. We later found out that they had to use the vacuum to assist with his delivery because I had developed a large fibroid throughout the pregnancy that we did not know about. I still do not understand how it is possible to have an ultrasound one week prior to delivery, in which they spent quite a bit of time taking head measurements, and not notice a very large fibroid behind which the baby's head is stuck. Regardless, Henry became an "outside baby" at 5:14- a mere 4 minutes after the c-section began.

This is where Daniel's and my delivery experiences begin to change. I honestly did not even realize Henry had been born, I thought they were still having trouble getting him out. Daniel however was able to see everything going on and knew that we had a baby who was not crying immediately and who was requiring work from the nurses. In an amazingly short period of time 5 people ran into the OR- at this point I was still not nervous and for some reason believed that there must be someone in trouble they were having to get to (you would think that I would have had more common sense and realized that we were the ONLY people in the OR, if anyone was in trouble it was me or Henry).

Finally we heard our little guy cry and it was an absolutely beautiful sound. I had been having nightmares that Henry would sound like the newborns we had roomed next to during our last hospital stay- the ones who closely resembled donkeys screaming. One of the people who had rushed into our room came over and let Daniel and I know they were the NICU team and had been called when Henry was born because his first APGAR score was only a 3 (out of 10, a very low score). She explained that Henry wasn't breathing when he first came out and had to be bagged in order to start (all of which Daniel witnessed while I was blissfully unaware). The APGAR scores are recorded at 1 minute and 5 minutes of life- Henry had improved from a 3 to an 8 by his second reading. Thanks to this improvement he did not require any additional care or treatment in the NICU and the team left the operating room. I have to say that I was thoroughly impressed with the speed and efficiency of care that Henry received. I've never been a patient, never seen how the game works when a true emergent situation occurs, but I was amazed to learn that the team had been called, rushed to a different section of the hospital, and evaluated my baby before I even knew he was outside of my body. It's due to this reason that I will never hesitate to be a patient or have any future children (in the distant future, don't get too excited Mom) at Memorial Hermann, Texas Medical Center.

Dr. Cook asked Daniel if he would like to go see Henry at the nurses station and I urged him to go. Sidenote to delivery staff: if the baby is located on the other side of the blue screen divider and the mom isn't stitched up yet, you should make sure that the father isn't too squeamish or that all surgical areas are hidden from view. Poor Daniel ended up with a view of my insides that I'm sure he'll never be able to forget- which I think is kind of funny because I would like to have seen the surgery and wish I could have it on video. I digress.

We were held in the OR for quite a while waiting for a certain type of needle to be delivered to the room that Dr. Nanda preferred to use. While most of the drama was finished we had one final issue when my blood pressure dropped very low and had to be given a dose of epinephrine to get it back up again. Daniel was able to hold Henry while we waited- we just stared in amazement, it was such a joy to finally meet our little man.

Here are a few pictures from Henry's birthday!