Kaylee

The Birth of Kaylee.

(ÜberKinder version 2.0)

When Alice and I got married, we planned on having at least two kids, well, it looks like we’re done for now

Alice and I started trying for another child back March or so of 2005, about a year after my brush with cancer. We were pretty soon or our way to having a second child. In a perfect world, we both would have loved to have had one girl and one boy, and Alice settled into the idea our next would be a boy. I, meanwhile, had an inkling it would be a girl.

We started to work on names around November of 2005, and I quickly fixated on Warner if it was a boy. However, a name for a girl eluded us. We spent a couple of weeks bouncing around names, with no luck. I was watching Firefly one day, and spotted a name I thought would fit. “Kaylee Higgs?” asked Alice. Didn’t sound too bad!

Linnae was due on January 5th 2004, and was born a couple of weeks early on December 25th 2003. Our second child was due around the same time of year, so we expected it to be born in 2005. Well, 2005 ended, and no baby. The due date rolled past, and no baby. Alice eventually was going in for all kinds of checkups to make sure things were ok. She even got 3 cervical sweeps to try and get things going. No luck.

As an aside for all you folks out there that have not had the pleasure of having a pregnant wife around… tread carefully. By week 36 they’re effectively looking for anything that will get the thing out of them. Heaven forbid they go overdue.

So, Alice is overdue, and eventually, Alice got scheduled for an ultrasound to be done on January 17th to see if everything was ok. Turns out that although everything was fine healthwise for her pregnancy, her due date was re-adjusted. Instead of January 9th, and only 7 days overdue, she was actually due on January 5th and was 11 days over due. 41+ weeks!

This would, however, be the end of the wait, as the ultrasound must have set her off. We drove home from her Parent’s place after dinner to arrive home about 8:30pm. I watched Stargate:Atlantis, and fell asleep on the couch at about 9:40. I awoke to go upstairs, and sat down at the computer to check email before heading to bed. As I was clicking about, I hear Alice lurch out of bed and crash into things on her way to the bathroom.

Now, if you have never had a pregnant wife, you may not know the panic that sets in if you think your wife has stumbled and fallen. Suffice it to say I was a bit worried when I ran to our washroom. I was greatly relieved, however, to find Alice sheepishly sitting on the toilet. “My water broke” she says. I look and sure enough, her water has indeed broken. “I always wanted to know what it would feel like to have your water break, now I do” she finished (last time, her water broke, and she wasn’t aware of it until 3 hours later).

Once the water breaks, labour is soon to follow, and Alice started into labour about 10 minutes after her water broke. We’re old pros at this though, so we didn’t exactly hurry out the door. The car had been packed with our supplies for the hospital since the start of December. We casually set our MSN away messages, posted some things, and packed up the car with the final bits and headed out.

We got out the door just after 11:00 pm, and as we’re about 40 minutes from the hospital, and still have to drop off Linnae at Alice’s parents, we proceed, with haste, up Highway 99 towards Vancouver. I was really hoping that a cop would pull me over or something so we could get an escort, but no such luck.

We dropped off Linnae, who was soundly sleeping, then turned for BC Women’s hospital. Alice’s contractions were about 2 minutes apart lasting about 30 seconds at this point. Last time around, she was going to try for a natural birth, with no drugs. Well, this time around, she was asking for an epidural as soon as we were admitted.

Alice’s labour last time extended over 26 hours. This one appeared to be going quite faster. Her initial check showed the cervix at 6 cm. 30 minutes later when our doctor arrived, she was at 7cm. We were quickly moved into a delivery suite (Number 2, last time we were in number 7), and things got rolling.

Alice was in quite a bit of pain this time, so they started prepping for the epidural before they had a signed order for one. By the time the anethesologist showed up, she was all ready to go. They stabbed into her spine and she was soon feeling no pain.

So by 1 am or so, Alice is doped up, feeling no pain, and I’m napping on the floor. They’re set to check back in on her at 4 am or so, to see how she’s progressed, and sure enough, by 4am, she’s fully dialated and ready to start pushing. They do a couple of test pushes, and call the doctor back in.

Dr. O’briain arrives again, and by 4:20, Alice is starting to push when the contractions come. It’s quite funny though, as she can’t really tell when there’s a contraction. “I think… maybe… yeah… I think I should push?”. By 4:50 am or so, the head’s around the corner, and we’re down to the wire. The baby hung up by its shoulder under Alice’s pubic bone for a while, but after some wrenching on its neck, the baby slipped free. At 5:01 am, Alice has our new child on her chest. I know I had tears in my eyes again.

She’s a girl! Alice had been dreaming that we were having a boy, so while she was surprised it was a girl, she’s had so much fun with Linnae that she was as delighted as could be. I wasn’t surprised when little Kaylee arrived. Turns out she’s not exactly little. 8 pounds and 9 ounces (8.7 ounces), isn’t considered “small”. And she’s got HUGE feet!

I got to cut the umbilical twice this time. First when the baby was delivered, and then later when they needed to trim it down. This time the intern that was observing gave us a tour of the outside of the placenta and the inside of the placenta( warning gross!). I also found the discarded umbilical cord hanging on the sink. This shot of it is almost artistic!

Pretty soon, Kaylee was all bundled up and we were on our way to our recovery room in the Balsam ward. From the water breaking to move up to the room a total of 8 hours. A heck of a lot better than 26+! The end of the drama I was thinking by this time.

We didn’t get a single room this time, but we were the first in a double room. Alice got settled in, and I headed down for breakfast. I made some calls on my way down, and then went to the cafeteria. I ate, headed back to the room, and we both (all three of us!) took a nap for a bit. We got up, and Kaylee got her first bath.

I had arranged to go and pick up Linnae and Alice’s parents at noonish, so they could come and meet the baby. I left the hospital and Alice was feeling ok. The intern had arranged to have her IV taken out, and we figured we’d be heading home by the next day.

I arrived back at the hospital with Linnae and Alice’s parents. As we arrive back at the room, nurses were running out of the room with blood soaked sheets. “Stay outside for a minute!” I got the in-laws to hold there while I went in to find out what was going on. Turns out, Alice had started bleeding quite badly. Her Uterus had “gotten lazy” and stopped contracting. Her womb was filling with clots. The clots preventing it from contracting fully. If it failed to contract, then the blood that was formerly flowing to the placenta area wouldn’t stop and she’d bleed to death.

Linnae got to see her Mom and Kaylee for a minute or two, and then the nurses were back. Emergency surgery? Kaylee would have to go upstairs to the Nursery in the Fir ward? What was I to do? Bit of panic set in. Alice’s parents said they could get themselves and Linnae home on the bus, so off they went. I took Kaylee upstairs, and went back to find Alice.

Alice had been taken back down to the delivery and admitting suites. The doctors had gone back into her uterus to remove the clots. Alice had lost a fair amount of blood, 1600CC or so. They weren’t convinced they’d got it all though, so she was scheduled to go back into an emergency surgery to further inspect clean the clots from her uterus, which would allow it to properly contract.

She was wheeled off into surgery and I gave her a kiss as she went in. I was going to meet her in the recovery room in under an hour. I grabbed a bite to eat (I was feeling pretty weak, I’ve got to eat pretty regularly now post cancer surgery) and went up to see Kaylee while Alice was in surgery. I fed her a bit of formula, and then went back to see Alice in the recovery room. She made it through just fine and her uterus was properly contracting.

We headed back upstairs, and were put into a new room by ourselves. From here, we settled in pretty well for the next day and a bit. Alice is since fine and has only to take some Iron supplements to help out with her hemoglobin levels. Kaylee has a touch of Jaundice, but as her Liver’s more mature, she’s handling it better than Linnae did. No blue lights for her. By Thursday, we were given the ok to head home.

We bundled her up, put her in the car, and headed home. We got Linnae on the way south towards home. We’re now all safely here and settling into our new life as a family of four! Linnae’s been wonderful with her little sister, no jealousy yet, and she’s being very helpful. We can’t wait to get some pictures of them together.

Again, amazing treatment by the staff at BC Women’s! Great doctor’s nurses and a heck of a lot better food this time around!

Vital Stats:

Birth Date: January 17 2006 at 5:01 am
Weight: 8lbs 9ozs
Length: 50 cm
Hair: Dark and lots of it
Eyes: Look like they’re brown
Fingers and Toes: 10 of each.

For more images see the gallery.