Monday, June 23, 2008

Worst blogger, with good excuse

I am the worst blogger ever. But since I have a readership of only about one (counting myself) I'm not disappointing too many people. I do happen to have a good excuse this time for not posting in a while. At 3am on Monday June 2, my water broke, more than 9 weeks before my due date. This time it wasn't just a little trickle, as with Little M five years ago (I was walking around downtown at the time, and, I'm proud to say, I briskly but calmly walked 2 blocks to Geary St. and took a bus to the hospital. A gentleman offered me his seat, which I had to decline).

This time was more like a scene from a lame sitcom. I was awakened by a sharp pain on one side of my belly (like a muscle cramp) and rolled over in bed to try to relieve it, when I felt the leak. I jumped out of bed and ran to the toilet, as more amniotic fluid gushed out along with a small red blob onto the bathroom tiles. Yelling at Big M, "Wake up! My water just broke!" (response: "Huh? Wha?") while I raced around pulling on street clothes, calling Kaiser's Labor & Delivery dept in San Francisco ("My water just broke 10 weeks early!" "What is your medical record number?...What's your telephone number?...Has your address changed since your last visit?" "Christ! Shouldn't I go to the hospital?...Then why are you wasting time getting all this information NOW???"), grabbing beach towels (because they're dark and would hide stains) to sit on in the car. Little M starting to cry, "I'm sleepy!" We had friends lined up to take care of him closer to the due date, but they wouldn't be expecting to be on call yet, so he had to come with us.

Once I got to the hospital I felt a little less panicked. Within the first few hours I had an IV inserted in my arm, a dose of antibiotics (to try to delay labor), a steroid shot (to help develop baby's lungs), and an ultrasound to see how much amniotic fluid remained. Then there was nothing to do but wait (and endure various injections, manipulations, pinpricks, and hospital food).


Fortunately, the baby waited another week before deciding to come out. Unfortunately (for me) he required an emergency C-section. I'll take a vaginal delivery even without painkillers over a C-section any day. That's all I have to say about that.

Baby N, born June 6, 2008, gestational age 32-1/2 weeks, 3 lbs 9 oz., 16.5". He was tiny but strong. I heard him cry in the operating room shortly after delivery, and he didn't need to be intubated, though he did get extra oxygen (piped into his incubator) the first few days.

Last Friday June 20 was his last day in the incubator. The next day his IV was discontinued. With luck we may be able to bring him home by the end of the first week of July.