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This is the first version of this story, written by our dear friend Isabel on our behalf, and reflects the bare bones and the "everybody's happy" version that most cesarean patients have in the days right after the birth. For the raw story, see the second version. |
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| Laureen and Jason have asked me to say that Rowan Thaddeus Hudson made his debut at 8:38 a.m. on Wednesday, July 17, 2002. He was no less than 10 pounds and 22 1/4 inches long at the time, giving the obstetrician a bit of a shock. | |
| The events surrounding his birth defy descriptive adjectives. Labor lasted for days and was far too eventful. When asked how much of the story should be made public, Laureen said, "Tell everyone everything. I want credit, and I can't exactly stick a flag on him." So consider yourselves warned... | |
| Her labor progressed very slowly. Being Laureen, she was powering through it with no medication. But when labor actually started going backwards, the nurse-midwife scooped everyone up and went to the hospital. | |
| Laureen got epidural pain medication, then fell asleep for the first time in three days. They started a pitocin (called "pit") drip, in order to make her labor go faster. Nothing happened. They increased the pit rate. Nothing continued to happen. The nurses started to worry. Laureen, eyelids barely open, looked blearily at the tangle of IV tubing and pointed to one of the lines. "Is that supposed to be dripping onto the floor?" | |
| Laureen says that, after about three drops of pit, the baby's vital signs dropped. She slept through that but woke up to find the nurses unplugging, unlocking, and unhooking everything. | |
| "Are we going somewhere?" she said. | |
| "We're taking you for your emergency cesarean," they said. | |
| "WHAT????" | |
| Neither her doctor, her nurse-midwife, nor her doula had been consulted, nor had it been discussed with Jason. She got them to wake up her midwife, who read them the riot act. Once updated, she agreed that an emergency c-section was in order. Laureen asked her how strongly she felt about it. "Well, they've bumped two people to get you in." Laureen blinked and said, "Well, gosh, then it would be rude to say no." | |
| Laureen was in surgery a few minutes later. The obstetrician, an elderly gent who has delivered an awful lot of babies, reached into Laureen's incision, felt the size of the baby's head, and said, "Oh my God!" | |
| Laureen couldn't see over the drape, but everyone was giving her a running commentary. As they pulled out, fussed over, exclaimed upon, and cleaned off the baby, they told her all about it. She finally burst out, "if you'd hand me my f-ing child, you wouldn't have to f-ing tell me about it, would you!" So Laureen and her son were properly introduced. | |
| Because of the exciting events surrounding his birth, he had to go directly to the intensive care nursery. Jason followed him. | |
| Meanwhile, Laureen's blood pressure dropped drastically and she went into convulsions. She said she was wide awake for the whole thing, "...which was very interesting." | |
| While Laureen was the focus of very tense attention in the O. R., Jason was having an interesting time in the I.C.N. | |
| The baby's blood sugar was abnormally low -- not surprising, after such a long workout. The I. C. N. nurses asked Jason if he wanted them to feed the baby intravenously or with formula. After seeing what they had done to his wife, he didn't want them to start an IV on his baby, but he felt he was out of his depth so he asked the doula to come in and advise him. | |
| The I. C. N. nurses bristled, snarled at her and asked her to leave. Jason snarled back, letting the nurses know that they were out of line in keeping him from looking for help to learn how to take the best care of his baby. After that, he was completely in charge of visiting rights. | |
| So the nurses fed Rowan formula and took frequent blood samples to test his blood sugar. Consequently, his blood sugar improved but he was completely confused about breast-feeding and his heels were peppered with lancet wounds. | |
| Laureen asked the nurses about breast-feeding support. They said there was a lactation consultant down the hall. The lactation consultant refused to see Laureen, who was a clinic patient not a hospital patient. Laureen called her midwife, who said that there was a lactation consultant down the hall. Laureen told her about that, then listened to the ticking of the midwife's fuse. "I'll be there in 30 minutes," she finally said, and she was. | |
| A second patient came into the room, so Jason couldn't stay the night. Laureen couldn't keep the baby with her alone, because she could barely take care of herself, let alone the baby. Laureen says they set a land speed record for getting out of the hospital after an emergency c-section. | |
| Happy ending: everyone is just fine. Rowan now knows how to feed, Laureen is up and about, and Jason looks tired. His brother Marc has been a huge help. | |
| Rowan is a beautiful one month old, now that he's been in this world five whole days. He's the only baby I've ever heard of who has to be woken for his midnight feedings. | |
| Laureen was very apologetic about not getting online. She's still very much in recovery from her abdominal surgery, and she and Jason are completely wrapped up in the new center of their universe. I can tell you first-hand that cuddling with him is a real joy. | |
| Cheers, Isabel |