The Copeland Ramblings/

The whole story one week later!

Here I sit on our son’s 1 week birthday! I think back to the last month and think wow! What a ride! I thought I would write out the entire story… no details to be left out! =) Enjoy.

When I was 41 weeks pregnant, we had a midwife appointment. While there the midwives said that it would be unsafe for the baby if we let the pregnancy get to 42 weeks.  I am very pro natural birth and very anti induction or anything like that… I truly feel that the baby will come when the body is ready. But we were pretty much stuck between a rock and a hard place. The midwives said that the hospital does not do inductions Fri, Sat or Sun. So the latest I could be induced would be Thursday… putting me at 41 weeks and 3 days. I was devastated. As much as the pregnancy was getting so miserable and I so wanted Emmaus to come before my family left… I hated the thought of medically inducing labor. The midwives said that I should try castor oil and using a breast pump (which produces oxytocin, which causes contractions). But they advised that I do three does of castor oil at home and head straight to the birthing center for the time we used the breast pump. They said that often times doing this will cause labor to come on fast.

So Tuesday morning at 7 am I grimly woke up and headed downstairs for the first 2oz dose of castor oil… this was so so hard. I don’t have a very strong gag reflex but this was NASTY beyond belief! I mixed it in orange juice and used a straw… I gulped it down and went back to bed, feeling extremely queasy. 8am rolled around way too fast… time for dose number two, but only 1oz this time. I got about ¾ of it down before I puked it all up… great now I have to take that dose again. YUCK. 9 am came around quickly and I was determined to get it down… it went down pretty easily. Now it was time to pack up and go to the hospital… By the way, castor oil is a natural laxative… I downed 5 oz of it… I have never had such a sore bum before in my life… and that’s all I will say about that.

We made it to the hospital and met my midwife, Barb. We quickly started the breast pump regimen of 10 minutes on, 5 minutes walking. We did this from 10:30 till 2:00. I had very minor contractions that weren’t too painful and very random. Well 2:00 came around and nothing had really changed. Barb decided I should probably go home, but to wait until she consulted with a doctor about when to start the induction. Sad sad sad! Well we got all packed up and got our jackets out, when all of the sudden I started having very painful contractions every 3 minutes. After 5 contractions Norm flagged Barb down and said that I was finally having contractions and they were very close together and very painful. She walked in and took one look at me and said you are in labor! This was at about 2:30 in the afternoon. Everyone started running around frantically trying to get everything ready for baby! Barb decided to get all the baby stuff ready first just incase… I was having contractions very close together often times 1 min apart. Then, she had a nurse come in and start my IV with antibiotics for Group B strep… this is to protect the baby from getting Group B Strep from me during birth… the antibiotics take about 4 hours to be at its best protection, so they wanted to get it started pretty quick, just in case.  As soon as the antibiotics were in my system (something like 15-20 minutes later) I got into the jacuzzi tub.  I was in there until I felt that I should be checked because I felt a lot of pressure. I got out to be checked and Barb said I was only 5 cm! I nearly died! I was in soooo much pain. It seemed more intense than my labor with Canaan which lasted 20 hours. I asked her to break my water because I figured the pressure I was feeling was from my water. She said she would but wanted to check to make sure everything looked ok first. She was checking and felt something that shouldn’t be there… possibly a blood vessel running through the sac… if this was the case and my water broke the baby would be in extreme danger and have no life line. She had Angela, the other midwife there, to check, she felt it, too. At this point they gave me nitrous oxide (laughing gas) because I was in INTENSE pain. I heard someone over the hospital loud speaker asking for the doctor to come to the birthing center STAT! Yikes! He came in and also confirmed that he felt something there but wasn’t sure if it was a blood vessel or not. They started discussing transporting me via ambulance to Owen Sound (about 45 min away) and having a C-section. Then they checked me one more time and all of the sudden I was fully dilated and the baby was COMING!  (this is about 20 min since I got out of the Jacuzzi). Next thing I know everyone is yelling at me PUSH! PUSH RIGHT NOW! RIGHT NOW! His head was out before I really had a chance to do anything and his shoulders were coming out the wrong way. So they had to twist Emmaus and he was a little bit stuck… they were all yelling at me to push! I was really in shock and didn’t know what to do, all the while I was super doped up on laughing gas… that stuff really does a number on me. Emmaus came flying out and he was so dark blue (he looked nearly black) and not crying so they took him right over to the baby warmer and were rubbing him to death trying to get him to breath… then finally he let out a little cry! Praise God!  We were all so happy he was here. He was born at exactly 6:00 pm on November 25th.

Fast forward to the next day, Barb came to check on us and do the discharge check so that we could go home. Once again we were pretty much packed up and ready to go. Emmaus was showing some signs of jaundice. Normally jaundice is not a problem except in the first 24 hours it can lead to brain damage because the blood/ brain barrier has not fully formed. They did a quick blood test to check his levels and once again Barb had to call a doctor for a consult. The doctor in Owen Sound said that from his levels and his age he needed to be transferred as soon as possible. So here we are… Emmaus was being loaded up into an Isolette to be taken to the hospital. I was told that I would not be able to ride with him in the ambulance… I lost it. I could not believe the events taking place and they were taking my baby from me! Barb chimed in! Thank GOD! And asked the paramedics if they could fit me in! They looked at each other and decided that it would be ok… maybe because I was standing there silently sobbing…

This whole story is taking forever! I will now write just an over view of our time in Owen Sound and later if I have time I will write it out in more detail.

Basically there were 3 things that could have caused the early jaundice: his extreme bruising on his face from shooting out of me so fast, our blood type incompatibilities (rh-) and Group B strep. They kept him in an isolette getting light therapy and had blood tests every so often. He had to have his glucose checked at each feeding. It was a very tough time, having to stay in the hospital with Emmaus by myself and me not being a patient… it was very hard to look after myself and to heal while I was looking after my poor boy. Long story short his levels were good enough to go home on Friday evening. He was sent home with a light therapy pad.  On Monday the doctor said that his levels were doing good enough to be done with the home therapy! Yippie!  Emmaus has about 15 holes in his foot from blood tests and his poor feet are super bruised. But his face is looking much better and his jaundice colors are slowly looking better!

We are so happy to have Emmaus with us! He is already past his birth weight. He was 9lbs 2oz on day 5, one ounce past his birth weight! We know how to make chunky boys. =)

Thank you everyone for your prayers!

On this day..

• Emmaus' Birthday Pictures - 2009
• Another look at life in Guinea - 2007
• Splish Splash - 2006
• Todd in Sepia - 2005