March 10, 2009

This day will forever be in mine and Greg's hearts as the day I delivered our first baby. Our son Ty Gavin Fischer was born at 9:38 pm and weighed 6 ounces and was 8 3/4 long. It's hard to relive the moments we just went through but I do want to get them down so I will never forget.

Monday 3-9-09 - I woke up feeling kinda crummy. I had a sore throat, ear ache, was congested and achy, and the night before I had thrown up so I wasn't quite sure if I was okay or not so I called in sick to work and called and got in with my OB doctor. I went in to the doctor at 10:15 and she checked me out and gave me a prescription for a z-pac for my sinus/cold problems and was going to have them swab me to see if I had the flu. She had me sit up on the exam table to check the baby's heartbeat but couldn't find anything. She told me not to be worried and that my placenta was probably too high and was interfering with hearing it. So I went to ultrasound for them to do a heartbeat check. I knew almost right away that something was going on because the tech was suppose to just check for a heartbeat but she was measuring a bunch of things and asked me who my doctor was. She made a phone call to have Dr. Bradley come in to the room. Dr. Bradley was on her way back from somewhere on an airplane and wouldn't be in until 1:30 so my PA Stacie came in along with another doctor to tell me that our baby had died. I hated being there by myself and hearing that. I've never felt so alone. Stacie took me out of the ultrasound room and back into an exam room where she explained that I would be sent over to the hospital to labor and delivery and go through the birthing process. She gave me a few minutes to make phone calls so I called Greg and my mom. My mom came over to the clinic right away from work and Greg took off from home almost right away. Mom and I left the clinic and went to her house for a little while until Greg got there and then we went and grabbed a bite to eat at Taco Johns before heading back to the clinic. We met with Dr. Bradley briefly at the clinic and she went through the plan with us and then sent us over to the hospital to be admitted. We got settled into a room on the Labor/Delivery wing and got blood work done, (hopefully they might find something that will give us an answer?) got hooked up to the IV, and got started on a supository pill that they inserted through the vagina onto the cervix to help open it up for delivery. Every four hours the nurse came in to insert another pill. Nothing really happened that first night.

Tuesday 3-10-09 - When morning came Dr. Bradley came by to check on me and she said my cervix was still closed. She decided to try me on a different medication. I had just gotten a dose of the old medicine about a half hour before she came in and then I got checked and then had to go through it again with the new medicine. With all that medication getting put onto my cervix I was very sore down there and it got really unbearable. I think I went through a couple rounds of that new medicine and then my last dose before Dr. Bradley was done for the day she gave me a double dose which seemed to do a little more. At 5:00 Dr. Obritsch took over as the oncall doctor and he wanted to try to insert a gel with a catheter to see if that would speed things up. I thought that it was painful before but when he checked me and used that catheter I was in so much pain that I didn't know how much more I could take. We discussed pain management options and he thought I would be better off with IV pain medication instead of an epidural. I asked if I had the IV pain medication and if it wasn't helping then would I still be able to get an epidural and he said yes. I went for the IV meds to start with. I got a little sleepy from that and kept drifting in and out. At this time I also was getting hot/cold spells. I felt like I needed to go to the bathroom at one point but since I had just been given the IV meds my nurse didn't want me to get up because I could get dizzy. Thats when they decided to give me a freezing cold bed pan! I couldn't go the bathroom though. I felt like I had to go but I just couldn't. After awhile my back was hurting from the bed pan being under me so the took it off and then the nurse and Greg helped me into the bathroom. When I went I hardly went so it must've been the baby coming out that was causing me to think I needed to go. I got back into bed and was watching the clock knowing that the doctor was coming back to see me shortly to check me and to possibly break my water. He came back and checked me and I was ready to deliver. They wheeled me into a birthing room and the delivery went pretty fast. I didn't actually push much because the doctor was pulling the baby out. It was very painful. I just squeezed Greg's hand and said owie a bunch of times until it was over. The best news that night though was when Dr. Obritsch said that the placenta came out with the baby and that I was fine and wouldn't have to go through surgery on top of all of this.

My mom and Greg's mom were both in the delivery room with us and made some phone calls after the baby was delivered. Pastor Lynne came up and did a blessing for the baby and comforted us. I was happy to have the support I did. The moms, my husband, the nurses, my doctors and Pastor Lynne. I couldn't have done it without them. We spent a few hours in the room with the baby. Just looking at him and cherishing the time that we had together.

We arranged for Eastgate Funeral Home to take the the baby and they are going to keep the baby until the ground thaws. We are going to bury the baby up on the hill in the pasture west of our house once the ground is soft enough. Pastor Lynne will be there to do a short service for us.