Well, here's my wrap-up:
First of all, I'd like to thank every one of you who posted kind words during Jill's pregnancy. I read every single post -- more than once each -- and got a lot of comfort out of them. This was a bit of an anxious time for us, particularly at the very beginning and the very end. It's nice to have strangers pulling for you, and it was great to read the posts from those of you that have walked this path before us. You all made a difference and I really appreciate it.
We went to work on Thursday just like we always do, though we were both a bit sullen. Thursday was our due date and we were really hoping for some contractions or something -- not "business as usual." I called Jill around 10:00 to see how she was doing. She was feeling a bit "weird," and both of us admitted that the anticipation was ruining our concentration. We simply couldn't keep our minds on our jobs. I told her I'd call her at noon and if she was still feeling strange we could go home at lunch and take the afternoon off. That's exactly how it played out. We got home around 1:00.
We weren't expecting anything to happen. Jill was watching TV and I was revewing some papers I brought home from work. She got up to go to the bathroom and said "this is weird, something is coming out of me." Her water had just broken... We called the doctor and they told us to come right in. We pulled our things together and got to the hospital around 4.
They immediately admitted us. Jill was having no regular contractions so they put her on Pitosin. She was 2 cm dilated and nearly 100% effaced when we got there. Billy, I do think her labor was short, but I attribute that to the Pitosin. It sparked hard regular contractions by 6:00. She had an epidural put in around 8:00 when she was at 4.5 cm. The pain was just too much for her. She was at 10 cm by 1:00 a.m. Because of her condition, they let her go until 2:30 before they encouraged pushing. She pushed hard for two hours but couldn't move the baby past the pelvic bone. So they went in with forceps at 4:30. Colin was born at 4:54 -- a bit dented, but healthy and happy.
Jill's blood pressure never deviated from a band between 105/70 and 135/85, but did fluctuate wildly within that band. Fortunately, all of those numbers are fine.
Jill never experienced a single abnormal symptom. She was not short of breath until she had been pushing for an hour or so (and all of us, healthy or not, would feel the same way). She had no rythym problems. No weird swelling. Nothing.
We go back to the Cleveland Clinic in April for a six months followup. We know that her heart didn't affect the pregnancy, and we're hopeful that the pregnancy didn't affect her heart. Based on her two recent echos, we don't believe it was at all. But if something has changed, we'll be prepared to act appropriately.
We're very thankful to our doctors, particularly Drs. Stewart and Sherman at the Cleveland Clinic and Magee Women's Hospital respectively, and the entire Maternal Fetal Medicine Group at Magee. Without their care and advice, we may never have tried to have a baby. Turns out that they all knew what they were doing.
If someone in our shoes someday reads this, I hope it helps them make decisions of their own. Everyone's different, and our strategy may not work for someone else, but I hope this thread at least provides a measure by which questions can be asked.
I'm so relieved! And I'm so happy!
