Um... SURPRISE!?!?!

Talk about a whirlwind of a week... I still am not completely sure what day it is. Someone said he was born the 5th? Sounds 'bout right...

As you all know, it has been quite rocky for the past few months, especially more so as of late. To cut to the chase as far as the weeks go, the doctors just went back and forth on what to do with me and whether or not they thought I needed to give birth early at Danville just to be safe. This past Friday comes, we go to our scheduled appointment, and the doctor just about has a heart attack and the latest results from some of my labs, (elevated protein yet again, only we're talking like 1000x what it should have been) and called down to Danville right away. Danville said send her home with strict instructions to keep her Monday morning appointment, and a list of symptoms to look for that would mean she should go directly to Mt. Nittany Hospital.

An hour later... contractions 8 minutes apart, we were at Mt. Nittany. Four hours later I was on a morphine drip being told I would have to spend the night, and that the specialist in maternal fetal medicine from Danville happened to be the guy on call at Mt. Nittany that night due to a staff shortage, so he would be taking care of me. Um, yeah right. The minute he walked in the room to review my case he told them to find an ambulence, I was headed to Danville immediately, and to start me on a bunch more meds that would make sure I made it the hour and a half drive without giving birth. The contractions were about 5 minutes apart at this point, and I was officially in labor. (3am?)

One long ambulance ride and an entire IV bag of Magnesium Sulfate later, we pulled into the parking lot at the hospital in Danville just in time for me to puke from all of the drugs combined with motion sickness and staring out the back window. Meanwhile, Stephen and my father were on their way somewhere about 15 minutes behind. They got me unloaded, pulled me up to the maternity ward, and proceeded to attack with about 10 different doctors and nurses. In the end they finally established who would be on my case, and I was down to 3 nurses and 3 docs, one of which is the chief resident.

For those of you who have no clue what Magnesium Sulfate does to a body, join the club. I was woozy and half-drugged from that point on. No, not pain meds kind of drugged, just really confused and completely aware that the words coming out of my mouth didn't always make sense anymore. Anyway, once the crew had reviewed my case and were all on board, they decided to monitor me and see how the contractions went on their own. I was given more fluids via IV and a second bag of Mag (which is a muscle relaxant) and hooked up to all of the classic monitors. Steve and my dad arrived right around that point and settled in to wait with me. 8am came Saturday and the only difference was that the contractions were about 4 minutes apart, and the doctors continued to watch and wait. My mom, Chris, Grandma Jean, Mindy & Christy all arrived around noon to be with us because the doctors were fairly sure that Johnny was going to be coming out, it was only a matter of time. Not long later Dotty, Gary & Elizabeth showed up to join the party in the waiting room. Though I saw visitors on and off, I was in a lot of pain and basically just trying to hang in there. No pain meds, I wasn't allowed.

Once the doctors had decided we were in for the long haul, they added penicillin to my drip. Though this may sound like no big deal, especially as I am not allergic, it was probably the most painful thing I have ever had injected into me in my life. It stung so bad that after a few hours my arm felt like it was on fire and I was screaming for them to at very least switch hands that it was being pumped in through. Like the Mag drip hadn't been enough?! -- This all occurred around 7pm on Saturday, and with my arm covered in an ice pack I started to really freak out. No one would allow me my normal medications at this point because I was in a new place and they wouldn't really listen when Steve was yelling that I am bipolar and should be given my normal dose asap since they had missed the last two in the mix of things. The contractions were less than 3 minutes apart and the most painful thing I had ever experienced, and yet no doctors would tell me what the next step was. I'd been like that for over 18 hours and it was just getting worse with no sign of an end. All I wanted to hear was that we were definitely moving forward and that if it went on much longer they would somehow help it along. I tore off my blood pressure monitor and was attempting to do the same to the straps that followed my contractions and the baby's heart rate when my mom and Steve finally held me down and told me I wasn't allowed to leave, no matter how incompetent the doctors seemed to be. Did I mention I was loopy from the Mag still? Bag after bag of that stuff!

Finally around 1am Sunday morning a doctor came back to visit me and said that he planned on checking how dilated I was (for the first time since I had been at Mt. Nittany) and taking steps from there. I was about 5cm, having progressed all naturally, and he said there was no problem, he would start me on a hormone that would cause the contractions to speed up and me to dilate a little quicker. This is when my mom, Chris, Mindy and grandma, and dad finally went home for some sleep. Christy stuck around because she is Johnny's godmother and wanted to be there for me. God bless her, I still don't think I could have made it through without her.

Around 4am the anesthesiologist on call came in to talk to me about an epidural. Stephen and I had previously decided this was a good idea, and the head doctor from that department in Danville had seen us the day before to confirm our plan. Well... apparently that was NOT the case in the on-call lady's mind because she proceeded to give me a 30 minute lecture on how I was going to end up paralyzed and it was going to kill my baby and she did not in any way shape or form want to put it in for me. The nurses, Stephen, Christy, and my already-confused self just stared at her. I was in PAIN, severe pain, in the middle of labor, and she chooses this as a time to lecture me, after I've had no drugs and no help thus far with the promise of an end in sight the minute they put the epidural in? Steve told her to get out.

So... we proceeded with just a small bit of IV drip pain meds, which my two-nurse team basically said didn't work on anyone and might as well be a placebo. 6am Sunday morning comes - the doctor finally decides to break my water. To be honest, if I was unsure of what time of day it was and where we were before this point, it was nothing compared to the next 12 hours or so.

From 6 until almost 10 I pushed. Solid. Breathe for two seconds, wait a minute for the next contraction, (if I was lucky enough to have that long of a break in between) and then push. When they say child birth is the hardest thing a woman can ever do in her life, I'm not sure they are right. It isn't that it is hard, its that you have no choice but to keep going!!! It is definitely the most PAINFUL thing I think I will ever experience, but you hit a point where its no longer a matter of being hard or easy, it just has to go down.

At 9:52 Johnny officially crowned. The nurse said to stop pushing for a second, she was paging the doctor. At 9:52 and 1/2 seconds I said "okay" and paused. At 9:53 Johnny came flying on out with so much force and a very surprised mother, father, and aunt watching as the nurse managed to catch him before he fell to the floor. My child did not enter the world like a civilized normal being, he rocketed into it with enough energy and determination to blow half the world away.

This is the point where everything started to blur into oblivion for me. It was like an episode of ER with the entire NIC Unit flying in the door to take care of him, half the janitorial staff trying to clean everything up so no one fell over, three or four extra doctors I hadn't even seen before, and every nurse on the floor all yelling and working over top of one another. Somewhere amidst all of this two docs descended on me to do my post-labor care and next thing I knew there were bright lights on so various people could see what they needed to, and somewhere across the sea of people was my husband, standing over the warming unit Johnny was in, (who I still couldn't see) staring at him. My one moment of complete clarity was when I saw Stephen's face and said "It's okay... you can touch him," as he finally reached out to meet our son for the first time.

I think it was about 45 minutes later before they finally handed the little guy over to me and I got to see the person I'd been carrying around all this time. Beautiful, full head of blonde hair, long skinny fingers, dark blue eyes and his mother's nose to boot, Jonathan Stephen Delafield weighed 6lb 9oz, was 20.5in long, and was singing to the whole room. He proceeded to hum this squeaky little tune for the rest of the day, and on through most of the night. No crying, no screaming, just these little noises to let us know he was here.

Around noon on Sunday everyone started showing up again, and there has been a pretty consistent stream of visitors ever since. The rest of that day past noon was once again a blur, and though I barely slept, I was barely awake either. I still have not gotten more than 3 1/2 hours of sleep, as the doctors spent the entire night running tests on both Johnny and I. Because of my hemophilia issues, they were very worried when my blood loss was so high. My mother later told me that I looked like someone had bleached my skin I was so white. They were planning on giving me a transfusion, but I convinced them to hold off just another hour to see if I could regenerate some. My body successfully did this, with the help of a lot of IV bags, but they refused to take me off of the Mag until at least 12 hours had passed. I spent the parts of the night where they weren't bugging or prodding me with my son laying on my chest, humming to each other. Meanwhile, we were able to get Stephen and my father, who had stayed to help out, a good number of hours in to recoup and ready them for the morning.

Around 5am Monday I finally handed Johnny off to the nursery to try for some sleep because I was in too much pain to lay comfortably with a baby in the bed as well. This is when I got those few hours I mentioned, and then was woken by the nurses with Johnny for morning feeding time! He was scheduled for his circumcision at 8am, but needed a good meal before he could do that. One long but successful fight later, he was fed and ready to go, but the baby doc came in to inform us that they were putting the procedure on hold. Last minute thought-- what if the baby has the same hemophilia as the mom? So he got blood tests instead!

Tomorrow morning we will find out what the results from the lab have to say, which will then determine whether he goes home and gets snipped later or can go ahead and do so before we leave the hospital. They wanted to keep me under watch for a little while longer as well, so it all worked out. Meanwhile the day was filled with yet more visitors, including Johnny's aunt Elizabeth and aunt Christy Lynn who drove up from DC just to meet him! Aunt Mindy got to meet him for the first time as well, and aunt Christy Michelle finally got to hold him. Grandma Kathy took more pictures than she will know what to do with, and even Sara Smith was able to join in on the ride up.

As it is now past 1am Tuesday morning, I believe I must try for some more of that sleep everyone keeps insisting I get, but Johnny and I have one more feeding session to go first. I will try to keep everyone updated as things go along, but in the meantime I am still stuck at the hospital! Feel free to pass along information to anyone who asks, as I can't keep track of who all I was supposed to call or keep up to date. At least now I'm off that Mag drip!!! I can see straight again!!! :-)