I am sure many of you are wondering how Grace’s doing. Here it is….
After almost 3 hours tough labor, our nurse was getting concerned about the baby’s vitals. Grace’s body temperature was creeping up while the baby’s heart rate was a little unsteady at times. At first they decreased the amount of epidural so that she could actually feel the pain to help her with the push. But that didn’t work too well.
While the position of the baby’s head was improving with every push, it just wasn’t enough. So a doctor came in and explained to us a couple of options Grace had to help her with the delivery: vacuum or scoop. Grace decided on the vacuum since it had a less change of tearing on you-know-where.
Once that decision was made, a whole fricking team of people came in with special equipments which required modification of the birthing bed. WTF. They didn’t say the setup was going to be so elaborate. It’s almost intimidating.
The whole room, at this point, was filled with female nurses, doctors and specialists. Barring Bryan, I was the only male in the delivery room. That was an odd experience.
After the vacuum was setup, it took three really big pushes to get the head out, and another gentle push to get the rest of Bryan out of Grace. After this intense maneuver, Grace still suffered a third degree laceration. OUCH!
Grace took everything like a champ though. No tears. No complaints. Just really deep breathes and big pushes.
A few stitches later, Grace was all smiling with the baby in her arms. Obviously the industrial-strength pain-killer was doing its job. I have a feeling she won’t be so smiley when she goes back to consumer-strength pain-killers when she gets home…
Grace has been in recovery room since last night. She will be there for a couple of days with the Bryan.
Hanging out with granny…