At 37 weeks along Baby Reeves (or medical technology) decided my pregnancy wouldn't be complete without another reason to worry! A regular prenatal exam indicated that I measured small, so an ultrasound was ordered. The scan showed that my amniotic fluid was borderline low and the baby was estimated to be in the 30th percentile measurement wise (compared to the 83rd at 32 weeks).Our doctor consulted another and it was decided that I shouldn't go beyond 39 weeks. Repeat ultrasounds were ordered for confirmation and monitoring. The 38 week ultrasound showed that the levels stayed about the same, but it was too soon for another size estimate. Another scan two days before the scheduled induction showed that the fluid level had come up a little bit, so we weren't sure where we stood. We had a final ultrasound at 39 weeks exactly (the day I was scheduled to be induced) and the amniotic fluid had increased again and the baby measured in the 60th percentile, so the induction was cancelled. Needless to say we were glad that there were no medical concerns with the baby, but anticipating and planning for the baby's arrival on June 9th certainly made it harder to wait for the baby to determine it's own birthday.
The end of classes, disorientation activities and Tuck graduation thankfully passed smoothly without an urgent trip to the hospital. However, I felt slightly less positive about our due date (June 16th) passing by with no real sign of movement from the baby. Finally, on Saturday, June 18th I decided to call the OB resident on call because I was questioning whether my water had broken. Convinced we would be heading home after an hour, we played it safe and dropped Hesburgh at the boarder's and headed to the hospital. I was a little nervous they were going laugh at me and send me home. However, apparently my concerns were valid and my water had broken (in fact, it likely broke early the day before). I was 3cm dilated when we got there, so they admitted me and we were there for the duration. (At this point we made the calls to family notifying them of the baby's impending arrival and my mom hopped in the car for a frantic 9.5 hour drive to meet us at the hospital).
Things didn't progress quite as fast as the doctor's would have liked so they started pitocin (to increase contractions, etc.) after several hours. I got an epidural in the early evening (after waiting about 30 minutes longer than I should have!!) - but it quickly became clear that it was only working on half my body. Anesthesia was amazing and tried multiple methods of providing relief (giving more medication to try and "catch that side up", pulling the epidural out a little to see if it was spread to the other side, etc.). Finally, they decided the best bet was to replace it. Again, they were fantastic and stuck around the room for a while to make sure that it worked, etc. This time it was much better!
Around 9pm they checked my cervix (5cm at this point, I think) and for some unknown reason the baby's heart rate dipped and didn't come back up for 6 minutes despite all their attempts with oxygen, etc. So, in a whirlwind they whisked me to the OR (a very scary experience in that situation, but again, the support of everyone in the room made both Adam and I feel more at ease). When we got to the OR the baby's heart rate (again inexplicably) came back up and was doing great. We hung out in the OR for 30 minutes or so monitoring it. Finally they decided that with a strong heart beat there was no need to proceed with the emergency c-section. (Dartmouth is very averse to any unnecessary interventions such as c-sections). So, we headed back to the room for more labor. (At this point my mom arrived). With the help of some anti-nausea medication (I got sick in the OR) I got about an hour and a half of sleep after all of this drama.
After allowing things to calm down a bit they checked my cervix again and the baby's heart rate dropped again (this time coming back up much quicker). The doctors huddled and decided that it would be warranted to go ahead with a c-section at this point because it had happened more than once. They did, however, leave the final decision up to us. With their guidance we decided to go ahead with the section for the safety of all involved.
At 3:08am on June 19th baby Reeves was born. Needless to say, Adam's declaration of the gender was both amazing and emotional after 75 years without a girl in the Reeves family (and 9 months of referring to the baby as "George"). It took us about 12 hours to settle on a name, but surprisingly we were able to agree pretty easily. We were excited to surprise my mom with the announcement that the baby's middle name would come from her. So, after a long wait and a little drama, Harper Susan Reeves joined our family. I can't say enough about our experience at DHMC and the wonderful staff there (and I promise I am not saying that cause I work there!).We are settling into our little family of four (counting Hesburgh) and enjoying every new adventure (even those that come with very little sleep).
Finally, I am happy to report that Harper is already showing to be very skilled in an area often perfected by little girls - wrapping her daddy around her little finger! Below are a few pictures.
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