Savannah Altaya Mangelson entered the world on Saturday, December 31, 2011 at 8:01 pm. She weighed 8 lbs. 8 oz and was 20 inches long. She was super alert when she first came out and couldn't stop looking at me. She is such a beautiful baby and feel blessed to have her added to our family. If you like birth stories you can continue reading. I like hearing other stories so I want to write about it here. Plus I need it for my journal which is what this blog is turning into.
So here is the story: I went in for 40 week check-up on Monday the 26th. My doctor said everything looked good and she was happy that the baby's weight was estimated at only 7 lbs. 14 oz. I had gestational diabetes with this baby and they were worried that if the baby was too big I wouldn't be able to try for the VBAC. and I really really wanted to be successful in having a natural birth because it's better for me and the baby as well as the ability I have to have babies in the future. So I was excited about that and then she told me to come back Jan 4th and if nothing had happened by then we would probably have to induce labor. Well my doctor called me the next day saying that she didn't know what she was thinking that she wanted to induce me on my due date which was Thursday the 29th. I was a lot nervous about that because I didn't even feel close to having a baby yet. I was worried that my uterus wasn't going to be able to handle the synthetic oxytocin and I didn't know how the baby would react. And then she said she wasn't going to be able to make it to the hospital that week because she had fallen and hurt her knee. I felt destined to fail because we had been talking about this VBAC ever since I got pregnant and I was really hoping that she would be there but luckily the doctor on staff for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday was the doctor who saved Jake's life when I had an emergency C-Section with him. That made me feel a little better knowing that she would be there and if any doctor knew what my body would be able to handle it was the doctor who had done my previous C-Sec. So we went in Thursday morning at 7:30 am after dropping off Jake at my Mom's the night before. They started an IV and got me on the Heart and contraction monitors (I hate those monitors by the way. They are so uncomfortable and they are super sensitive. It felt like everytime I moved the baby would be off the monitor and the nurse would be harrassing me by readusting the monitors all the time. Plus I was really nervous that I wasn't going to be able to move because of them. I did have a portable thing that I could walk around but when I walked she came off the monitor of course so towards the end of my induction it felt like that just wanted me to stay in bed because everytime I moved they would bug me about putting the monitor back on. And I understood that because I was on Pitcoin the baby needed to monitored but it was really frustrating.) Anyways.. they started the Pitocin at a low dose and then increased it every half hour or so.. before long I was feeling contractions.. That made me excited because I felt like if I was already feeling contractions then maybe this baby would come soon. Well that sure wasn't the case. They took me off the pit at night and let me rest and started it again on Friday morning. Well needless to say I got about 4 hours of sleep in between the nurses coming in and out. I started having contractions again on Friday after they raised the pit to the max they could for me. But they didn't really get worse. They were uncomfortable but didn't really hurt and I was only dilated to a 2. So they decided they were going to try doing a Foley Bulb which is like a balloon that they insert into the cervix and fill with sterile water. It's supposed to put pressure on the cervix to help it dilate. Well my cervix was still not thin enough and it was too posterior that they couldn't get it in. So that was a lot of fun. The next morning they asked if I wanted to have my bag of waters broken. I was really nervous about that because I didn't know if it was going to do anything and I was kind of losing faith. I felt like something more should have happened by then and I kept feeling like I should just do the C-SEction because it would probably be better than putting my wasted body through all the stress of labor. Especially since I felt like if nothing had happened after two days then what would one more day do. But I talked to Shaun and we decided to try it. I really wish I hadn't done it. It was really hard for her to get her fingers up there and then it took forever to break them. But they eventually did and my contractions got a little stronger. I had told myself that if I hadn't made any progress by 3:00 then I wanted to just do the C-Section. 1. because I wanted that doctor to do it and she would be off at 7:00 2. because I didn't think that I could handle much more.. even though I wasn't in a lot of pain I was super uncomfortable from being stuck in bed for almost 3 days... my feet were swollen beyond belief because of all the fluid... and my emotions were out of control. I couldn't even talk to the doctor when she came in because all I would do was cry. I know it sounds so pathetic but I had had less than 10 hours of sleep in the last 2 days and I had been yanked here and there and everywhere. It was getting a little frustrating.
So by 3:00 nothing had changed and I asked if I could talk to the doctor. She had been in a c-section so she came in about 4:00 and I told her that I was leaning toward doing the c-section. She had checked me that morning and I was at a 3 and she said a lot of times that when women hit the 4 mark then their labors take off.. But I had to hit an 8 by 9:00 the next morning or they just do a c-section. I told her I would rather not go through all of that just to call it a c-section the next morning especially since she wouldn't be there to do it. She said that she would let me try a little longer and give me some time to make the decision and then come back. So I talked to Shaun again and I couldn't decide. I felt like a failure. That I was giving in to do a C-Section after all that work but I felt like my body wasn't going anywhere and it seemed pointless. I was nervous that I would be limited in the number of kids I was allowed to have and having any more kids was going to be a pain because of the 2 C-Sections so close together. As I was going over all the different choices in my head I felt like a should get a blessing. I had already had a couple of blessings but I felt like I needed another one. So I asked Shaun to give me a blessing. I don't remember what he said. all I remember was the women in the room next to us screaming like crazy as she pushed her baby out. I felt a very calm feeling and a voice saying that there was no way I would be able to have the strength to do that if I kept going and it would probably just be best to do the C-Section. I can't tell you how fast I calmed down and how peaceful I felt when that blessing ended. I knew that I was going to have my little girl that night and that everything was going to be ok. It was a wonderful testimony builder for me on the importance of blessings. I told the doctor this time without crying that I wanted to do the C-Section. She said that she would stay after her shift and do it so that the other night doctor could assist. I was so grateful that she sacrificed her time to help me.
Now the only thing I was really scared about with the C-Section was the Spinal Anesthetic that they were going to be doing. Last time during my emergency C the anestehisologist hit my nerve twice sending electric currents down the left side of my body. It had hurt so bad and I was super nervous. Needless to say the anestisologist on call that night was the same one that had done it the first time. But she was aware of what had happened the first time and was determined to make sure it worked. WEll after 45 minutes of her poking around my back.. my feet were asleep from sitting in the sam eposition for so long... she finally found a good spot and got the medicine in. It was a totally different experience this time. I was more aware of what was going on. with Jake I think I was in shock because I don't remember anything that happened after they pulled him out.. When they pulled her out I got to see her and touch her and then Shaun held her by my head while they put me back together... this time it was weird because I could feel them (I say feel but I didn't really feel it.. more like I could feel a lot of pressure and stuff) pushing my uterus back in and I could tell when she was sewing me up. It was very uncomfortable but they worked fast and I was off to recover.. this time holding my little girl. It was so nice to have her with me and she was so awake and looking at everything.
We had picked out a couple of names that we liked before we went to the hospital but while we were in the hospital we started to look through a baby name book and decided on three names.. Ellie Grace, Kylie Noel or Kylie Altaya, and Savannah Altaya. I had always loved the name Savannah when I was younger but it had been replaced by my love for Altaya after my mission. But when I saw her I knew she was a Savannah but I kept Altaya as a middle because I still loved it. So I love her name...
Anyways we were in the hospital until Tuesday morning. I was sooooo ready to go home. So was Shaun. So when we were in the hospital she was doing really well breastfeeding but as soon as we got home my nipples started to swell up along with being engorged so she couldn't latch on. That night at midnight after trying to feed her for an hour and a half I finally pumped and had to supplement with formula because she was so hungry and she hadn't had any poopy or wet diapers since she had been home. It was making me really nervous. She slept most of the night. She woke up at 5 am and I tried to breastfeed her again but she couldn't latch on. I was getting really frustrated which doesn't make it better. Plus I was having a guilt-trip moment over Jake. I hadn't seen him much for 5 days and then I wasn't allowed to pick him up or anything and he didn't understand that so he would just hold onto my legs and cry. I felt sooo bad. I finally broke down that morning and decided that I would just pump and supplement until my swelling went down enough that she could latch on. I once again felt like a failure because everyone always says.. you have to breastfeed.. it's the best for the baby.. blah blah blah.. I finally decided that what was best for the baby was to make her happy by letting her eat when she wanted and however much she wanted. WEll let me just tell you that she is a porker. She started eating 4-6 oz every feeding and sleeping anywhere from 4-6 hours. I started wondering if she was just going to sleep.. But she was happy and pooping and peeing.. plus she gained 6 oz in the 2 days since she left the hopsital and the doctor said that she was looking really good. So everything is good with her.
Me.. a different story.. I started noticing on Tuesday night that when I laid down it was really hard to breath.. IT felt like someone was standing on my chest. I had never felt like that before.. but Wednesday I didn't notice it much unless I laid down.. But Wed night it felt worse and I woke up a couple of times gasping for air.. I had a really hard time catching my breath and there was a lot of pressure in my chest. I decided that if Thursday I felt it still I would call the doctor. Well Thursday it was even worse. I could feel it even just sitting there. So I called the doctor and they told me to go to the ER. I was like.. o fabulous.. Shaun had the day off so I went to the ER and he stayed with the babies. After 2 hours of waiting I wanted to leave to go home and pump and come back. But they called me back and Shaun called his Mom and came to be with me. I got to the ER and 2:30 and I finally saw a nurse at 5:00. She hooked me up to monitors and saw that my pulse was 40. She said "your heart rate is not good. I better go get the doctor." and left. I was freaking out a little bit. She came back with a crash cart and put defibrillator tabs on me. I think the part that freaked me out the most was that she wasn't explaining anything. She was just doing a bunch of stuff. Anyways the doctor came in and said they were concerned that my pulse was so low. He asked if I normally had a low pulse. I said that I didn't know. So he asked me a bunch of questions and I told him about my 3 day induction and my c-section and all about the pain and discomfort I was having. He said that he wanted to do an echocardiogram to check out my heart. He wanted to make sure that the chest pain didn't have anything to do with my heart.. and also he wanted to do a CT to make sure I didn't have a blood clot in my lungs from the surgery. Well after 4 more hours we finally got all the results back and he said that everything looked pretty good. He said that the cardiologist said that the right side of my heart looked a little strained and he thought that it was because of all the fluid in my body. My heart was having a hard time controlling the all the fluid. He said he could give me medication to help with the fluid retention but a lot of times it makes people dehydrated and he didn't want to mess with my breast pumping. So he said to wait it out and if it got worse or it was still bothering me in a week or so to come back in. So that was a scary night but at least everything is ok as long as I my swelling will go down. It's still a little difficult to breath especially when I lay down but it's getting better.
So to say the least it's been a rough week but I have a beautiful baby girl and a handsome son and a supportive husband. I'm so blessd and couldn't be happier.
