Friday May 30th - The ultrasound turns out to be not as perfect as planned. With baby's movement decreased and the amniotic fluid low, we are advised to head over to the hospital for the dreaded induction. We arrive at St. Mike's at about 7:00pm. They perform another ultrasound and confirm that the amnio fluid is low. My blood pressure has gone up and they start to suspect preeclampsia (although my blood pressure has been perfect throughout my entire pregnancy - go figure!). With so much working against us, by 8pm they slip me some cervidil to jump start labour.
Saturday May 31st - By 9:30am - no progress. The docs give me another 12 hours to see if it kicks in. I spend the day walking, bouncing on the birthing ball, knitting, listening to music and breathing through quite a bit of cramping. By 9:30pm - still no progress. They bring in the foley catheter. Extremely unpleasant. Movement becomes a little more difficult, but I do my best to stay upright and positive. Six hours later - still no progress. They bring in the big guns - oxytocin. Movement becomes almost non-existant.
Sunday June 1st - At 11am (40 hours later, with contractions coming at two minutes apart and lasting about a minute long - still no progress) I'm in the O.R. leaning over for a spinal tap. At 11:57am, just in time for lunch, Presley Mary Grace arrives via caesarean section.
Although Presley is a big, healthy girl she was born with a cleft palatte. The only difficulty that causes for now is feeding. Since she has no suction she cannot breastfeed and must nurse from a special nipple. I'm pumping as much breast milk as I can and we're all mastering the Haberman. We've met with the cleft palatte team at Sick Kids Hospital and she will need surgery somewhere between 9 and 12 months.
Although our birth plan was shredded and thrown out the window our main concern was Presley's safety and health. Our new mantra will have to be "Shit happens. Deal with it and move on". I have a bit of healing to do and Jay and I may never sleep again, but we're okay with it all. Our little girl is so incredible, we have been truly blessed.
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