Saturday, December 29, 2018

Clint's Birth Story

Clint James Rinderknecht was born on November 13th, 2018 at 2:17 pm. He weighed 6 pounds 2.9 ounces and was 19.5 inches long. His birth story is a bit different than my other two kids and a lot different than what I expected, so I want to get it written down before I forget the details of it all. 

It all started the Monday before he was born. I went in for my NST and mentioned that I had been itchy. The nurse asked if it was on my hands and feet, and I responded by telling her that it was kind of just all over. I then asked her if it was bad if it was on my hands and feet and she said yes. I did what you should never do and googled my symptoms while having my NST. I found out that the itching was a symptom of intrahepatic choleostasis.

However, what really got me nervous was the fact that the itching got worse at night and that another symptom was yellow urine. My itching most definitely got much worse at night and I would wake up and scratch my feet over and over again. My pee had also gone from clear to a very vibrant yellow within the past couple of weeks and I couldn’t get it to become clear no matter how much water I drank. I had a prompting to be tested for IHC and asked the nurse if that would be okay. She said of course, but that she just needed to call my doctor and confirm that it was okay first.  She then drew blood to look at my liver enzymes and my bile acid levels. 

Now, just to let you know how serious this is, women who have intrahepatic choleostasis generally deliver between 36 and 37 weeks because the risk for stillbirth skyrockets after this. With this knowledge, I of course began to panic. I was told the test would take a couple of days, so I knew I was going to have a lot of anxiety until I got the results. 

Late that night I got a call from an unknown number, but found out after listening to the voicemail that it was my doctor. She left a message saying to call her back in the morning because she had my results. I called her back immediately and she let me know that my liver enzymes were off of the charts and that I did indeed have intrahepatic choleostasis. She then said that I would get a steroid shot the next morning and one the following day, and would be induced that week. She told me she would call the specialist in Des Moines in the morning as well and said I would get a call in the morning from the nurse to let me know when to come in.

I was of course overwhelmed and scared, but I had felt strongly that I had choleostasis, so I can’t say that I was surprised. I called my mom to tell her and then woke Chanse up to tell him as well. That night I hardly slept because I was so nervous that something was going to happen to my baby. I made sure that he moved often so that I knew he was okay. That morning I got a call from the nurse and she told me that I was going to come in to get a second round of blood drawn, as well as a steroid shot. She then said that my doctor was on the phone with the specialist in Des Moines and that she would call me when she got off the phone.

Not 5 minutes later, I got a call from my doctor saying that I was going to be induced that day and not to worry about the steroids or anything because the baby needed to come now. She said to get my things ready and come into the hospital to be induced. I called Chanse right away because he was on campus and he headed straight home. I called an awesome friend from church to watch the kids and she was amazing and said that she would be happy to. As soon as Chanse got him from campus, we loaded up the kids, dropped them off, and then headed to the hospital.

As soon as I got there they asked me if I wanted epidural because they knew that my labors went super fast. I said that I would love one! I honestly never thought I would have the opportunity to get an epidural again, but was so excited that I was going to get one! The plan was to get my IV in, give me the epidural, and then start the pitocen to induce labor. However, things didn’t go quite as planned.

I was checked before my epidural and was still at a 3 and about 50% effaced (this is where I was at the Thursday before). I then got my epidural and I can honestly say it didn’t hurt at all. Not one bit. The doctor came in after I received my epidural and noticed that I was contracting regularly. I could feel the contractions before my epidural started to kick in of course, but I just figured it was because the nurse had checked me.

My doctor checked me and saw that I was at a 5 and was now 80% effaced! Granted, I had just been checked by the nurse less than an hour before. She said that I was in labor on my own and that there was no need for pitocen! This is the second time that this has happened to me. I went in to be induced with Rosalie at 38 weeks and 3 days because she was measuring small (IUGR) and they found out I was already in labor. However, they did start me on the pitocen for a small amount of time with her before they realized I was in labor on my own.

So, knowing that I was in labor, my doctor told me that she was simply going to break my water and let me go on my own. She then broke my water and the contractions just kept on coming. This labor did take a bit longer for me and I honestly think it was because I was only 36 weeks and 5 days. The nurse checked me about 10 minutes later because I was feeling some pressure, but I was still at a 5. I just wanted to be safe because I knew my body had the ability to have a baby pretty dang fast if it wanted to.

After that, I just rested and relaxed for about two hours and they checked me again. At this time I was at an 8 and was about 90% effaced. The baby’s heart rate kept dropping during contractions though and it was making me super nervous. The nurses had me reposition myself from one side to the other in an attempt to help with his heart rate. This didn’t help, but thankfully his heart rate would pick right back up between contractions. This went on for about 2 minutes and then my doctor came in. At this point she checked me and I was complete!

They got everything ready and told me to push on the next contraction. As the contraction came I pushed and out he came! I could tell that he was bigger than my other babies right away, just by looking at him. Soon after seeing him, I looked down and saw that he had a true knot in his umbilical cord. The doctor said that he was a miracle baby and I couldn’t have agreed more!

I had skin to skin with him right away and at this point we still didn’t have a name for him. But looking into his little face and seeing him, I knew that I wanted to name him Clint James. He was so perfect and looked so much like Rosalie. I honestly felt like they were twins! He came out crying, but they could tell his was working a bit harder to get his lungs to work. They went ahead and weighed him and checked him out and then gave him back to me to nurse. He latched on right away, just like my other two, and nursed really well. He probably nursed for about half an hour and I was thrilled! However, it took a lot out of him to nurse, so they had to monitor him afterwards because his lunges were working a bit harder again.

He was monitored for most of the day after that, so when Chanse brought the kids, they were just able to look at him and not hold him. They didn’t seem to mind though and were so thrilled to meet their new baby brother! I loved seeing how excited they were and how much they loved their new baby brother! By that night, Clint’s lungs were much better and we started working on nursing again. He was still so tired from delivery, and because he was premature, they told me he would be even more sleepy and uninterested than my other babies had been. They were so right! I could get him to latch on to nurse, but he didn’t want to nurse for long. I could also tell that it was more work for him to get the colostrum out and he would get tired.

Oh and before I forget to mention this, the pains that I felt when nursing, when my uterus contracted, were SO much worse than they have ever been! When they say that it gets worse with each baby, they are SO right! Anyways, they had to monitor his blood sugar super close because preemies are more at risk for low blood sugars. His were a bit low, so they gave him some glucose gel and some formula to help supplement him, along with nursing of course. This seemed to help, but his levels were still low on the morning of the second day, so he had to get an IV and we ended up needing to stay a third night.

Thankfully, the IV helped and my milk also came in, so he didn’t have to work nearly as hard to nurse. He was taken off the IV that night and his blood sugars were able to stabilize on their own. We left the hospital around 11:30 am the next morning and I was so thrilled to go home!

Clint is such a blessing and the perfect addition to our family! I am so grateful for him!

xoxo
Rachel

1 comment:

  1. Wow, wow, wow!!! This story (and you) is amazing!!! So glad for such wonderful nurses and doctors!!! What a blessing!

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