On Monday morning, September 3, (baby's due date) Chris and I went to the hospital, took the elevator to the third floor and got checked in to the maternity ward for elective induction. GDM combined with a darkening mental horizon meant that despite my distaste for being induced, it was the better route. Plus, EVERYone at church got a real kick out of the fact that I would be laboring on Labor Day.
Our nurse during all of the labor and delivery was Nancy, a fabulous caregiver. I couldn't have asked for better. We did all the usual things, answer a bazillion questions, change into a hospital gown, get an IV going, started penicillin (for group B strep), etc. The doctor, Dr. Pittard, came in and checked me, I was at a 2, and so we started pitocin.
At a quiet moment of the morning, Chris gave me a priesthood blessing. Sometime near 11am, the contractions, while still within the range I can handle, started heading towards what I new would be exhaustingly painful, so I asked if the anesthetist could be called. Ofttimes it takes awhile before they can get there, and I would rather be ahead of the pain than behind it.
Jamie, an anesthetist with an easy-going manner and a great sense of humor, got there fairly quickly, and he got the epidural started. But weirdly, only a band of about six inches, starting from the top of my large belly to about my belly button, went numb. I could still feel and had full range of motion from the belly button down. Nancy (who kept getting tips from Jamie over the phone) and I tried shifting my position, seeing if gravity could help the epidural take effect further down, but clearly the epidural was not going to descend any lower.
Nancy informed Jamie, and he came back to see if he could assess the problem in person and provide a solution. He couldn't see how, even with my scoliosis, that band would be the only thing that had gone numb. Apparently, that could have been a typical response if the epidural had gone in at around thoracic vertebrae number 10 (T10), but he had put the epidural in at around lumbar 3, a vertebra at least 5 inches lower than T10. That's a long way for the epidural to travel, and seemed quite unlikely. Jamie said he wished he could take an x-ray and figure out what had happened, but couldn't seeing as I had a baby in my abdomen.
So he told me, "We can either do a new epidural, or no epidural." I said I liked the first option best (no contest!), so he, apologizing for the first one failing, set about putting in a new epidural. It wasn't nearly as painful getting the second one done (although I've never found epidural getting to be particularly painful, especially compared with some of the other pains of labor, like getting checked, or even getting an IV put in), thanks to the first one numbing that section of my torso so well. Jamie put the new epidural in at about L4, one vertebra lower than the first. The only clue as to what went wrong the first time was that a larger amount of epidural medicine than usual oozed out of the first "wound" site. So it's clear the epidural didn't end up where it was supposed to go, but why that resulted in the six inch band of numbness, we may never know.
Almost immediately after Jamie got the second one in, I felt my legs start to tingle and get warm, and within minutes we could tell that epidural no.2 was a win. Jamie again apologized and I assured him it was fine. The important thing was we got there in the end! He joked that we'd just call the first epidural acupuncture. I agreed.
One of my favorite parts of this episode was that Chris was given a chair to come sit by me at the bed while the anesthetist worked at my back and the nurse stood at my front. That was new for us. Nancy suggested he could hold my hand for support, and I was surprised at just how supportive that small thing was, holding hands while I got all poked and prodded in the spine.
The rest of the afternoon and early evening was pretty uneventful. I could rest, and just lay down the whole time, which is mostly what I did. I spent some of that time going through all the "educational stuff we need to you know before you can get discharged" on the iPad they gave me, and Dr. Pittard came at about 2pm and checked me again and broke my water, (his original plan was to break my water at noon and THEN I'd have an epidural, but since with Lucy I had progressed really quickly once my water broke, and since he'd been held up in the OR, I changed things up by having the epidural first) but most of that time I spent resting and waiting for little boy to be ready to be born.
Sometime between 6 and 6:30pm, Nancy asked if I wanted to be checked, she had a hunch I was close. She was right! I was fully dilated and effaced. Dr. Pittard was called and we were soon pushing. Little Michael Lewis Machado was born at 6:51 pm. He came into the world all wiggly and hollering and blue, just like the other three did. He was 8lb 11.7oz and 21 inches long. Our heftiest baby yet.
We came home from the hospital on Wednesday after receiving wonderful care from all the nurses (shout out to Madonna who is like the coolest, 60 something, Mary Poppins-like nurse I've ever had). Michael had some jaundice but it is now receding, and we are starting our life as a family of 6. Mom, Dad, two boys, and two girls. His siblings already adore him and love to hold him (for about 20 seconds at most) and give him kisses. And Dad and I are getting our fill of a sweet, sleepy newborn.
Welcome to the world, my new son.
Our nurse during all of the labor and delivery was Nancy, a fabulous caregiver. I couldn't have asked for better. We did all the usual things, answer a bazillion questions, change into a hospital gown, get an IV going, started penicillin (for group B strep), etc. The doctor, Dr. Pittard, came in and checked me, I was at a 2, and so we started pitocin.
At a quiet moment of the morning, Chris gave me a priesthood blessing. Sometime near 11am, the contractions, while still within the range I can handle, started heading towards what I new would be exhaustingly painful, so I asked if the anesthetist could be called. Ofttimes it takes awhile before they can get there, and I would rather be ahead of the pain than behind it.
Jamie, an anesthetist with an easy-going manner and a great sense of humor, got there fairly quickly, and he got the epidural started. But weirdly, only a band of about six inches, starting from the top of my large belly to about my belly button, went numb. I could still feel and had full range of motion from the belly button down. Nancy (who kept getting tips from Jamie over the phone) and I tried shifting my position, seeing if gravity could help the epidural take effect further down, but clearly the epidural was not going to descend any lower.
Nancy informed Jamie, and he came back to see if he could assess the problem in person and provide a solution. He couldn't see how, even with my scoliosis, that band would be the only thing that had gone numb. Apparently, that could have been a typical response if the epidural had gone in at around thoracic vertebrae number 10 (T10), but he had put the epidural in at around lumbar 3, a vertebra at least 5 inches lower than T10. That's a long way for the epidural to travel, and seemed quite unlikely. Jamie said he wished he could take an x-ray and figure out what had happened, but couldn't seeing as I had a baby in my abdomen.
So he told me, "We can either do a new epidural, or no epidural." I said I liked the first option best (no contest!), so he, apologizing for the first one failing, set about putting in a new epidural. It wasn't nearly as painful getting the second one done (although I've never found epidural getting to be particularly painful, especially compared with some of the other pains of labor, like getting checked, or even getting an IV put in), thanks to the first one numbing that section of my torso so well. Jamie put the new epidural in at about L4, one vertebra lower than the first. The only clue as to what went wrong the first time was that a larger amount of epidural medicine than usual oozed out of the first "wound" site. So it's clear the epidural didn't end up where it was supposed to go, but why that resulted in the six inch band of numbness, we may never know.
Almost immediately after Jamie got the second one in, I felt my legs start to tingle and get warm, and within minutes we could tell that epidural no.2 was a win. Jamie again apologized and I assured him it was fine. The important thing was we got there in the end! He joked that we'd just call the first epidural acupuncture. I agreed.
One of my favorite parts of this episode was that Chris was given a chair to come sit by me at the bed while the anesthetist worked at my back and the nurse stood at my front. That was new for us. Nancy suggested he could hold my hand for support, and I was surprised at just how supportive that small thing was, holding hands while I got all poked and prodded in the spine.
The rest of the afternoon and early evening was pretty uneventful. I could rest, and just lay down the whole time, which is mostly what I did. I spent some of that time going through all the "educational stuff we need to you know before you can get discharged" on the iPad they gave me, and Dr. Pittard came at about 2pm and checked me again and broke my water, (his original plan was to break my water at noon and THEN I'd have an epidural, but since with Lucy I had progressed really quickly once my water broke, and since he'd been held up in the OR, I changed things up by having the epidural first) but most of that time I spent resting and waiting for little boy to be ready to be born.
Sometime between 6 and 6:30pm, Nancy asked if I wanted to be checked, she had a hunch I was close. She was right! I was fully dilated and effaced. Dr. Pittard was called and we were soon pushing. Little Michael Lewis Machado was born at 6:51 pm. He came into the world all wiggly and hollering and blue, just like the other three did. He was 8lb 11.7oz and 21 inches long. Our heftiest baby yet.
We came home from the hospital on Wednesday after receiving wonderful care from all the nurses (shout out to Madonna who is like the coolest, 60 something, Mary Poppins-like nurse I've ever had). Michael had some jaundice but it is now receding, and we are starting our life as a family of 6. Mom, Dad, two boys, and two girls. His siblings already adore him and love to hold him (for about 20 seconds at most) and give him kisses. And Dad and I are getting our fill of a sweet, sleepy newborn.
Welcome to the world, my new son.
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