Asia's Birth Story

Asia's Birth Story

     After a long 2 months of pre-term labor I went into labor on my own at 39 weeks.  I had been having regular contractions all day that increased time and intensity from about 11 am on until we went in at about 6.  It was a Tuesday and I was actually scheduled for my induction the next morning.  I did not want to go in until I was absolutely sure it was time and so I waited it off as long as possible.  I finally told Adam to get in the car when the contractions were about 5-6 mins apart for about 2 hrs and very painful.  We were off to the hospital and we left Olivia with our sister Trisha.  Olivia then spent the rest of the time with Grandpa and grandma Jacobson.

     When we arrrived at the hospital I was dilated to a 5 and I was in a lot of pain.  We got the epidural as fast as possible, which helped locally for awhile.  Amy and Liz came and were great to have as support.  We were all okay until suddenly my legs were not numb anymore and I was feeling every contraction.  I kept pushing the button, but it did nothing.  Within 5 mins I was in excruciating pain and the contractions were right on top of each other without any breaks---It was transition(most painful part of labor).  The Anesthesiologist came in and told me the epidural was in my vein and not in my epidural space, so I was not getting any pain relief.  He tried to adjust it and pushed medications through it, which made it worse and I had a reaction.  I was in and out and not breathing well.  They put oxygen on me and lots of fluids because my blood pressure was dropping.  After about 1-2 hrs of this, he finally decided to take it out and replace the epidural.  At this point I was fully dilated to a 10 and the epidural was for the pushing.

     After he placed the new epidural I thought the trauma was over, until 3 hrs of pushing happened.  The doctor finally came in and told us the baby was not descending and because we had pushed for more than 3 hrs and the risks involved he wanted to do a C-section.  I was emotionally and physically drained at this point, but I felt strongly that I should not do a C-section.  Dr. Aagard was so understanding and patient and gave it a little more time.  I then asked Adam to give me a blessing and within 5 minutes, miraculously Asia came out.  We were overwhelmed with relief and thought it was all over until it got even worse.

     Asia was born at 455 am. She came out screaming good but slowly over the next hour we knew something wasn't right. She had a temperature and it was so hard for me to console her. Luckily she fed well for 30 mins, but then was checked out by the NICU nurses that came down. They Hooked her up to the monitor and her oxygen level was in the low 70s and tears started to stream from my face. She was very tachycardic, feverish, hypoxic, lethargic, and all around irritable. They did the usual pokes and got her ready then they wanted to take her to the NICU. Once there they started and IV in her hand and put an oxygen hood over her head.

     The pediatrician(Dr. Adams) did a whole septic work up on her and her white count came back abnormal so they knew she has some kind of infection. Her chest X-ray showed streaking fluid which could be pneumonia or just some other infection so they started IV antibiotics.  The pediatrician said if she was born at home she would have died within 2 hrs, we were lucky we were at such a great hospital.

PRE-LABOR

LABOR

ASIA ARRIVES

OLIVIA VISITS HOSPITAL

Big sister-Olivia came to see baby Asia, but all we could show her was pictures.  I don't know for sure if she understood what was going on, but she sure loved hanging with Grandma and Grandpa and loved her gift Baby Asia got her ( baby stethoscope kit).

NICU

We had to scrub down from our elbows for 5 minutes every time we came to visit Asia. Adam had this routine down.

This was before we could hold her.  

She was so sick they didn't want her body to be overstimulated.  It was hard for me to get up at night especially at the hospital and pump and not be able to see or hold my little one.  I was comforted knowing she was in a great place, the NICU at Timpanogos is oustanding! 

Asia Michele was named after her grandma, who we love dearly.  Grandma Michele sets such a great example of how to live and love everyone.  There would be nothing greater then for Asia to grow up and be just like her grandma Michele! Hopefully she can live up to her name.

PARENTS

We could only have 4 visitors in the NICU and they were are parents.  They scrubbed up and were able to see her after she was born.  It was a very different experience, because visitors were not able to hold little Asia or see her because there were no windows for public viewing.

After many tears and days later after I plead with the doctor I was finally able to do skin to skin.  She was not strong enough at this point to nurse, but just to finally hold her close brought much comfort.

Adam was so excited when he was able to hold her... this was about 2 days after she was born.

 

A few days after she was admitted there, I was able to attempt breastfeeding and then they would supplement milk through the NG tube.  She did great and they hardly had to supplement.

Day by day she grew stronger and stronger and more tubes were taken out!

BIG SISTER AT HOME

 Olivia had a hard time while Asia was in the NICU.  Her life was definitely not the same routine as before.  I was needing to go back and forth to the hospital to feed Asia and she was being watched by different people.  Her one stable place was her room and she spent hours in there organizing her toys.  I was worried at times because she didn't want to eat, but I guess all kids handle stress differently.

Taking Asia Home

We finally got to take Asia home 8 days after and we couldn't have been more happy!