Glory to God for our new family member, Isaac! His name means "laughter," for Sarah in the Bible reacted with such when the Angel of the Lord told her she would conceive a bear a child in her old age. Isaac was an upstanding dude in the Old Testament and I'm certainly surprised and delighted that God should let me have a baby at age 42, so we thought Isaac would be the perfect name to give our son!
So here's a quick summary of our son's beautiful entrance into the world!
At 4:35 AM on June 29th, I woke to my water breaking! It was mostly clear with occasional little bits of pinkness from a light "bloody show." So we called my Aunt Tess and Uncle Fred to come over (since they are fully vaccinated against Covid), and we called my parents to tell them we were headed to the hospital.
When my midwife Angela Carter Sprunger first examined me at the hospital, Isaac was high up in my belly at Fetal Position -3. I was 3 centimeters dilated and 50% effaced.
Surprisingly, though, I was having no contractions.
At 10:06 AM, they started my first round of the antibiotic, given through an IV, to combat my Group B Strep.
At 2:00 PM, the midwife checked me again. I was still only 3 centimeters dilated and still only 50% effaced. But this time, my baby was up even higher at fetal station -4. Nurse Angela did an ultrasound to confirm that my baby was still head-down, but she really suggested we consider the use of Pitocin since I'd need many and strong contractions to get baby down into the birth canal. Michael and I decided to think about it, and Angela obliged to give us more time.
At 2:10 PM, they administered my second round.
At 2:30 PM, I was finished eating my lunch. I was still not having any contractions.
Sometime around 3:30 PM, the baby's heart rate decreased, which sent nurses flying in to reposition me on the bed. Protocol had them then start running fluids into my IV. They looked very concerned as they repositioned me but, once the heart rate was back up, they assured me it was probably no big deal, that he probably laid on the cord and pinched it, and that this probably even happened at home during my pregnancy but I'd never know it.
At 3:45 PM, they tested my blood sugar since it was an hour since I had last eaten. It was 142. They would have liked it to be below 140, but this isn't too much over it, thankfully. As we know, the placenta prevents my pancreas from making enough insulin to regulate the sugar in my blood.
Since I was still not having any contractions, at 4:51 PM, they started me on the lowest dose of Pitocin, which they called "One drip." They said it's half-life is 15 minutes and that if I had a poor reaction to it, they could stop it and the drug would leave my body in just 1-2 minutes. They would be checking my blood pressure regularly, since sometimes the use of Pitocin can cause blood pressures to rise.
I was scared at first to go on such a powerful drug which my natural birthing teacher told me to avoid at all costs years ago. But the midwife told me it was necessary. My body needed help kick-starting contractions, and we were under a time constraint: Infection can start to set in for both the baby and mother after the protective bag of waters has been broken for 12 hours. And I was now at 13 hours.
I agreed to the Pitocin, and thank God for whoever made that drug. It helped my body do what it needed to, and the experience felt completely natural. (I had been worried that the contractions caused from Pitocin might be unnaturally powerful.)
At 5:31 PM, they increased my Pitocin to the next level since I hadn't had any contractions. They go up by odd numbers. So I was now on "three drips." I began to feel contractions 17 minutes later.
At 6 PM, they upped my Pitocin level to "five drips" and gave me a third round of the antibiotics.
At 6:34 PM, I went to the bathroom and saw more blood as part of the "bloody show." The nurse looked and said this was normal.
At 6:37 PM, they upped my Pitocin level to "seven drops." Contractions were very strong now and I had a feeling that there was no need to go any higher with the drug. The nurse agreed. Each time I had a contraction, I could feel pressure on my bladder and lower parts, as baby's head was pressed lower.
At 7:45 PM, I asked to be examined again and I was found to be 8 centimeters dilated and baby was now thankfully at the 0 position, meaning he was at the lowest station he could be. What a relief!
Then at 7:57 PM, I asked to be examined again because I felt like soon I would need to push. The midwife said she was not surprised because sometimes just a few minutes is all that is needed to get to fully dilated. She checked and said I was "complete," or fully dilated at 10 centimeters and ready for delivery.
My active labor (or strong contractions) lasted 2 hours and 57 minutes, I learned later. During that time, I was getting contractions every 2 to 2.5 minutes, and they were lasting 60 - 90 minutes each. The pushing part of childbirth lasted 38 minutes.
At 8:35 PM, Isaac was born! He was born head down and face toward my spine and slightly looking at my right hip. He received Apgar scores of 8 and 9, just like Liam. He lost 1 point on the first scoring because of his purple color. Just like with Vera (who got Apgar scores of 9 and 9), I had skin-to-skin chest contact with Isaac for 2 hours following delivery before they did any weighing or any other evaluations on him. When he was weighed, he ended up being 8 pounds 3 ounces, just like Liam! Isaac was 20 inches long.
Then, after Isaac was born, my placenta came out 12 minutes later. I asked to see it. It was very interesting.
The midwife said my blood loss amount was normal. This was an improvement from the other 2 births where they said I had "a lot of blood loss."
In the notes, the midwife wrote, "Very pleased with delivery." And I could tell because she was really ecstatic and came closer to me to shake my hand afterward, bouncing it up and down many times, saying, "I knew you could do it!" How kind. She was the best midwife I had so far!
I had 2nd degree lacerations instead of 3rd degree ones, as I did with Liam and Vera. I'm sure this is because my midwife Angela was very hands on. Her fingers were moving around my opening constantly, probably in an attempt to stretch me out before baby's head was there. She was also looking intently, I'm sure, to see if she had to do anything quickly for baby (like maybe the "granny roll" where they remove the cord if it's around the neck). She may have been doing this since we had some scares with the heart rate dropping, depending on Isaac's position. Her vantage point there did show her that Isaac was keeping his one little hand up beside his cheek, and she said that may have been why he didn't come out immediately when I pushed. Once he finally put his arm down, then he was able to move through the birth canal.
Midwife Angela sewed me up afterwards but discovered two white "inclusion cysts," which she sent off to pathology for testing. Thankfully, they came back as benign. She said they might have been there because of the other two tearings I had with the other births. They showed me these as well. They were half the size of a pencil eraser.
At 9:06 PM, Isaac peed for the first time!
At 9:25 PM, he started nursing.
At 10:45 PM, he was weighed and evaluated. His blood type was determined to be A+, which is different from Liam and Vera who are both O+ like their Daddy. But, because he was positive, I would have to receive the Rhogam shot again, which they did the next day. He was given his Hepatitis B shot, a protective eye ointment, and a Vitamin K shot. His blood sugar was found to be 52, which was great. His little feet were stamped for the hospital records. They said there's a website we can go to online to see a print out of his feet and to purchase gifts with those feet on it.
At 4:10 AM on June 30, he had his first poopy diaper which is that black tar-like meconium.
His temperature and blood sugar levels remained fine through the night. Anything above 40 was good, they said, and he had 47.
At 5:45 AM, they took blood from me in order to prepare my Rhogam shot for administration later.
Unfortunately, then as you know, I forgot about burping him, and so he started spitting up my breast colostrum through the night.
By 6 AM, his blood sugar had dropped to 34. So their protocol was to place a sugary gel substance in his mouth, but he didn't like this and spit it up.
So by 7:39 AM, they were asking us to supplement breastfeeding with some formula given by syringe.
That morning he had his first hearing test and passed. His blood sugar was then 43, but now they suddenly wanted it to be higher than 45. So they gave him a sugary gel again and we continued with both breastfeeding and formula supplementation.
At 4:00 PM, he had a wonderful 51 score as his blood sugar.
Two hours later, it was a 42.
He didn't like the formula as much, it seemed, and he did continue to spit up quite a bit of it. We worried that this would bring his blood sugars down, and although it may have, I can't find any notes about those scores.
At 7 PM, his blood sugar level was 60 and they were thrilled.
Sometime thereafter, the nurse performed his Newborn Screening. This was very, very stressful on Isaac. I never heard him cry so hard in his life and I was extremely uncomfortable and wanted my baby back in my arms! She had to prick his feet so much in order to collect many separate blood samples for various genetic tests. His oxygen level was determined to be great.
At 9:46 PM, his blood sugar score was 48. His weight was expected to drop in the hours after delivery, but it hardly did. His weight was now 8.01 pounds.
Our feeding routine was: nurse on both sides, then Michael gives 10 mL of formula while I use the breast pump. My colostrum was clear, and sometimes I'd only get 1, 2, 3, or 4 mLs.
At 11:48 PM, Isaac's blood sugar was 42. They were glad it was above 40, but they wanted to keep checking it. The lactation consultant said that expending energy (from breastfeeding or crying) could actually cause his blood sugar to drop. So maybe all that crying he did during the Newborn Screening reduced it. I also learned that skin to skin contact with me will actually help regulate his blood sugar! So the more I held him, the better!
At 2:25 AM on July 1, his blood sugar was 61.
At 5:47 AM, it was 49.
At 6:49 AM, I got my Rhogam shot in my left butt cheek!
They said at this time that Isaac had a 2% weight loss since birth which was great.
His bilirubin score was 7.9 which was great.
His feet continued to look purple but they said this is typical and that he's fine.
At 8:31 AM, his glucose score was a 51. This was the third consecutive good score, so it was time to celebrate! No more glucose monitoring would need to happen. If he were to have low blood sugar, we'd know because he'd be lethargic and unable to expend energy for breastfeeding. So now, the lactation consultant said, I could breastfeed exclusively! After all, babies are fully able to regulate their blood sugar on their own when you've reached the 48 - 72 hour mark after birth. On demand nursing doesn't begin until after we've had our first pediatrician appointment which will be the next day, they explained. Until then, I must wake him every 2-3 hours and initiate breastfeeding.
At 9:25 AM, he got his first sponge bath, given to him by Daddy and the nurse.
At 2:59 PM, Dr. Hipple from Eden Park Pediatrics took him for his circumcision and Daddy escorted him down the hall, although a nurse then escorted Daddy back to our room. Isaac was safely back with us at 3:22 PM.
A nurse told us that we were to continue with formula supplementation, which surprised us. So Michael gave Isaac some and I returned to the use of the breast pump. This time, instead of producing only 4 mL, I produced 11 mL! The removal of any formula use the last many hours had certainly increased my production.
At his first pediatrician appointment the next day (July 2), we learned that no hemangiomas were visible and that his purple feet were oxygenated and the right temperature. The condition is called Synoptic Profusion and could last for over a month.
We learned that his rapid breathing of 69 breaths per minute is a bit over the 60 they'd prefer, but that he has a case of "Wimpy White Boy Syndrome," which means it takes white males longer to adjust to life outside the womb than, say, African American boys who adjust within the first 30 minutes or maybe it was first 6 hours (I can't recall which). His bilirubin level was an appropriate 11.8, and we learned this amount will go even lower as he continues to poop.
At this appointment, he appropriately weighed only 7 pounds 14 ounces (which is less than a 3% weight loss) and grew a bit in length, from his birth length of 20 inches to now 20.25 inches!
Thank you for letting me share all this! Please thank God with us for the new life of Isaac Lee Goddard! We are so in love!
I delivered Isaac in Room 402, which is nestled right between the rooms I birthed Liam (403) and Vera (401) in.
Isaac was born 4 days before my expected due date. Liam was born 3 days before my expected due date. And Vera was born 2 days before my expected due date.
