The Bailly Buzz: Introducing Jonas Keith Bailly- Birth Story and Subsequent Events

**Pictures at the bottom.

After waiting and waiting to go into labor naturally, my Dr scheduled me to be induced at 41 weeks on 12/31/14. I was grateful to finally see an end to pregnancy, but mad, disappointed and sad that my parents would be flying out early on the 1st and may not even get a chance to meet our little guy. My induction was scheduled for 8:30 am, but the day of they kept pushing back my appt until finally they told me I could come in at 1 pm.

Porter, Ash and Dad took me to the hospital and David planned on meeting me there. For weeks leading up to this day I had tried to prepare Porter for what would happen. I wanted him to know where I would be and what would be happening. The morning of, Porter knew something was going on and cried and threw tantrums. It was extremely frustrating and sad. On the way to the hospital he was crying and we just held hands. I of course started crying too. This was the last time with my little man. Fortunately I knew he would be in good hands. Ash and Dad knew exactly how to help him calm down once they dropped me off. They took him to see lots of trucks. That did the trick.

I was admitted to the hospital around 1 pm. The Pitocin was started at about 2:10 pm. I dilated to 3cm+ and 70% effaced. I guess this is a good point to start induction. David was on call in the CICU and we figured he should just keep his call and if anything happened, he had someone lined up for backup. So around 3:30 pm he went over to the CICU to get sign out. Around 4:30 pm the resident came in to check me and I was dilated to 4+cm and 80% effaced, so not a whole lot of progress. She asked if I wanted my water broken and I said sure. With Porter I already had the epidural once my water broke, so this experience was quite different. First of all, it's not painless to have your water broken :). Next time I'll make sure to have the epidural before they break my water. Little did I know that once the water broke things would drastically progress. As soon as she broke my water and walked out the door, my contractions dramatically increased in intensity. I quickly became more uncomfortable and in pain. David was back and doing all he could to keep me distracted. At this point I didn't know how much more I had progressed, but I decided I was ready for the epidural. The nurse notified the anesthesiologist and they came in to consult me and tell me that there were two people ahead of me. Bummer. It was Deja vu from my consult during Porter's birth. The anesthesiologists rambles on and I just want them to stop talking and start the epidural.

A little while later the anesthesiologists are finally there to place the epidural. By now I am in a lot of pain during contractions and am going to "another" place to deal with the pain. They have me sit on the side of the bed to determine placement and while they are doing this David asks if there is something quick acting they can administer for the pain since it'll still take a little bit for the epidural to kick in. The nurse administers Fentanyl and literally right after she pushes it I say, "I have to poop." The magic phrase for, "You better check me.... I'm having this baby now." The nurse quickly has me lie back down to check me and I am complete. This baby is coming now and not waiting for me to get an epidural. The Dr is called in and I am pushing and having this baby within 5 minutes. The pushing is not nearly as bad as the contractions and I was much more productive with my pushing than with Porter because I could actually feel it. Jonas was born within 10 min. 55 min after my water was broken.

Jonas was born at 5:36 pm on 12/31/14. He weighed 7 lbs, 8 oz and was 20.5 inches long.

He had the cord wrapped around his neck twice and was probably experiencing some effects of the Fentanyl because he was blue and limp when he was delivered. The resuscitation team was called in. His first APGAR was 2, but fortunately after some CPAP (although David said it was done properly) and some nasal suctioning, he let out a big cry and I knew he would be okay. His second APGAR was much better, a 9.

The next couple of hours went well. My Mom, Dad and Ash were able to come visit and meet baby Jonas. I was feeling great and everything seemed to be going well. David took his call for the evening because we seemed to be settled in.

**Disclaimer: Graphic content related to postpartum hemorrhaging to come.

My nurse, Andrea, had gone over the reasons why I should call her… feeling gushes of blood or expelling clots larger than a golf ball. Well, later that evening, probably around 10 or 10:30 pm I felt the first gush of fluid. I quickly called the nurse and she checked me. She asked if I needed to go to the restroom, which I did, so she said to make sure to keep my bladder emptied because if I don’t it can inhibit the ability of the uterus to contract properly. A little while later I felt another gush of fluid, so I called her again. She checked me and didn’t seem to think it was too much blood, so she left the room again. Literally about 10 minutes later I felt another gush of fluid. I had to go to the bathroom again, so I debated whether or not I should call the nurse. I decided I would call and let her know, but find out what she wanted me to do in the future if I did need to go to the bathroom also. She sent in the CNA to check me out. The CNA didn’t really know what exactly she was looking for and what was considered too much blood loss. I went to the bathroom and then I expelled a large clot. Probably about the size of a small orange. Not normal, I knew. I showed the CNA and she quickly went to get the nurse. When Andrea came back in, she looked at the clot and had me get back in bed. She massaged my uterus and then I could feel gushes of blood and clots coming out of me. Kind of a surreal feeling. I never felt fear, but I knew this was not normal. Andrea told me what would happen if she had to call a hemorrhage and sure enough within a minute or so she said, “I don’t want to do this, but I have to call a hemorrhage”. A postpartum hemorrhage is considered a CODE, so the room quickly filled with nurses and Dr’s. This all happened around 11:23 pm. I know because the Dr. made a note of the time and said they’d be out of there by midnight. He might have thought that would be reassuring, but to me I just kept thinking, “I have to endure this for 35 more minutes.” Everyone was calm, efficient and professional. Everyone knew their role and went to work. Dr. Nance was the 4^th year OB resident on call. He was extremely patient and explained everything that was going to be happening. Unfortunately no amount of explaining can prepare you for someone to stick their arm up to their elbow into your uterus and then scrape around inside. It was the most unnatural, painful thing I have ever experienced. I went through labor with no epidural and this was by far worse. During labor I was silent, but during this procedure I was moaning and I’m pretty sure I told the Dr. that he had to stop.

A baby is supposed to come out of you. That feels right. An arm is not supposed to go up inside of you and scrape around. That feels so wrong.

I was given more IV Pitocin, 1 IM shot of Methergine and 4 IM shots of Hemabate followed by a 24 hour series of Methergine in order to get my uterus to contract. My nurse said she had never seen so many uterotonics administered and she had never felt a uterus so small after delivery. I guess they really wanted to make sure that my uterus would contract down and there wouldn’t be a repeat hemorrhage. I am so grateful the medications worked. I don’t know if I could bear another clot evacuation.

A catheter was also placed to keep my bladder emptied. To be honest, I was nice not to have to get up and go to the bathroom. By this point I was so exhausted and weak.

You might ask why no pain meds were given. Well, during the second uterine sweep, they did finally give some morphine, but by then it was too late. I had already endured the pain somehow. So, now I just had to deal with the after effects of the morphine which consisted of throwing up for the next several hours every time I tried to eat or drink anything.

I spent the rest of the night shivering, throwing up and coughing. I was so thirsty and just wanted to drink apple juice. The nurse said I needed to limit my apple juice intake since I would drink it and throw it up, but I couldn’t help myself. I was obsessed with drinking and wanted it so bad. I would beg David to give me more. It was actually kind of funny.

During this same period Jonas had a temperature drop that caused him to go to the nursery and be put under the warmer for 2 hours to help raise his body temperature. I was actually so grateful for this because I was in condition to hold him or feed him. My body was exhausted and I needed some rest.

Jonas also had a few periods of troubled breathing related to swelling in his nose caused by the previous nasal suctioning. As the swelling went down, he did much better breathing, especially while eating. Initially he would desat to the mid 80’s while feeding and was extremely fussy.

But, by Thursday afternoon we were all doing better. Yeah! We were well taken care of and I am so grateful for all of those involved in our care. I am also so grateful that David was there. We realized we are a good team and that we really do need each other. And, I am pretty sure that there were angels watching over Jonas and me.

We stayed another night at the hospital just to make sure everything was okay. And, it gave us time to decide on a name. Our list of possibilities included:

Lincoln

Wyatt

Ezra

Benson

Miles

And on Thursday, 1/1, David brought up the name Jonas. It was not initially on the list of final contenders, but as we both looked at our little boy, the name Jonas just seemed to fit. We decided to sleep on it before committing.

On Friday, 1/2 we filled out the birth certificate paperwork and decided to name our sweet boy, Jonas Keith Bailly. Keith is his paternal grandfather’s name and David’s middle name. We wanted to have a family name. I hope that Jonas will grow up to be just like his dad. We need more good men in this world and Porter and Jonas are blessed to have one of the best as their dad.