The Story of Naomi

As promised here is the story of how our precious little girl made her grand entrance into the world. It all began when the doctor determined that we should be induced at 38 weeks, due to the fact that my blood pressure was going up. On Thursday morning, March 8, we got to the hospital at 7am and started the induction process with Cervadil (sp?). It was supposed to soften my cervix and prepare my body for labour. After 12 hours I only had a few cramps but no labour started. We spent the night in the hospital and tried again the next morning. At 8am we started Prostaglandin gel. We go one dose in the morning and another dose at 2pm. By 7pm I was starting to feel some contractions and so we were getting very excited. Unfortunately these contractions petered out by the morning and we were no further along than when we started. The doctor gave us two options: 1)take the day off and try again on Sunday, or 2) break my water and see what happened. He warned us that breaking my water would most likely result in a C-section by the evening. Ron and I decided that if there was a chance that we could have a natural childbirth we would take the day off.
We spent Saturday afternoon relaxing and decided to go out for dinner. We went to Greek Island and enjoyed one last dinner just the two of us. We came home and watched a movie and went to bed early.
Sunday morning we were back at the hospital for another round of induction. We tried to stay positive but the entire process was very draining. The doctor gave me another round of Protaglandin gel and we waited.... and waited...we got another dose and waited some more. Again I started to feel some contractions by early evening but they were gone again by morning.
On Monday morning, March 12, I had made a little progress. I was 3 cm dilated and my cervix was softer. The doctor decided that it would be advisable to break my water and to start me on an IV of Oxitocin to start regular contractions. The contractions started an I felt relieved that we would soon see our little baby. As the contractions got stronger I felt more and more discomfort in my back. At 2pm I got checked and I was still only at 3cm. I decided to try the laughing gas as the back labour was getting more and more painful. By the evening the pain was becoming very intense. I got checked again and I was still only at 3cm. The nurse told me that the doctor would be back at 9pm and would give me options. I set my mind to make it until 9pm. At 8:50 the nurse told me that the doctor would not be in until 10pm. The nurse was having a hard time keeping the babies heart rate reading on the monitor and so she had a monitor attached to our babies head. When this happened I lost my composure. I continued to be in severe pain until the doctor arrived.
When the doctor came to check me I was still at only 3 cm. I had laboured for 14 hours and made no progress. We decided that a natural childbirth was not meant to be. She called down to the OR and we prepared for a C-section.
We got down to the OR and I went to get an epidural before Ron was allowed to come in. The anaesthesiologist tried to freeze me numerous times, however he as not able to get it to work. The result was that I had to go under general anesthesia and Ron was not able to attend the birth.
As I was in recovery, Ron got to hold her until I got there. I was in recovery for about 1 hour and then I got to meet our daughter. I am so lucky to be her mom!
Our beautiful daughter, Naomi Grace Klasen, is such a blessing. We are so privileged to have her in our lives.
I am slowly recovering from my surgery and trying to adjust to this new schedule that Naomi has created for me! Breast feeding is going alright, pray that I have the strength to continue even when it is difficult. Well, I think that this post is long enough. I will write more later... My little princess is ready to eat again.