Sydney

Background:

My sister had a massive DVT in her left leg that extended up to her IVC and back down to her right leg. She had recently had knee surgery and thought the pain was due to that. She finally went to the ER when her abdomen hurt so badly that she thought she might die. They diagnosed her with appendicitis and took out her healthy appendix. When this did not fix the problem, they found the clot. She was diagnosed with heterozygous FVL. I, in turn, got tested as we were all advised to do and much to my amazement (no history of clotting) was homozygous for FVL and was heterozygous for MTHFR. My family doctor counseled my husband and I to never have any children...that it was too risky for me. I didn't like this advice and found my current high-risk ob/gyn. He said to "go for it" and we tried for 6 months to have Sydney. The seventh month was lucky!

Pregnancy:

Meds -
-Fragmin 5000 units once daily
-Materna (pre-natal)
-No Baby Aspirin
-Folic Acid 3 mg daily
-Insulin (Humalog) after GD diagnosis at 26 weeks

Other -
-twins were found on the 9-week ultrasound but one was a blighted ovum (no heartbeat - abandoned sac)
-twin vanished (re-absorbed) by 14 week ultrasound
-partial placental abruption at 15-16 weeks
-gestational diabetes at 26 weeks

Labor & Delivery -
I was induced at 37 weeks 5 days because my doctor considered me full term and he wanted the baby out as soon as possible. He said the chance of clotting grew exponentially later in pregnancy and they were worried about a big baby due to the GD (they sure were wrong though).

I went into the hospital on Monday, January 6th 2003 and had taken my last shot of Fragmin earlier that evening. I was put on IV Heparin and given some cervix ripener. I don't know how to spell it but it was something like Mysoprstil? They hooked me up to a contraction monitor and I began to have them immediately...small ones. They said they wouldn't give me the second dose of the tablet (ripener) and that they'd check with me in the morning.

On Tuesday morning they began the induction. At 8:25 am they broke my water and I was already 2 cm dilated. They stopped the Heparin IV and began Oxytocin (Pitocen). I was informed that when the Heparin wore off in approximately four hours that I could have an epidural. I was thrilled. I thought that I might not be able to have one because of the Fragmin/Heparin issue. At 8:45 I was so uncomfortable that I thought I would not be able to tolerate labor at all! They told me I would go one centimeter an hour so I assumed I was still a 2. At 9:05 I screamed at my husband to NOT TOUCH ME and NOT TALK TO ME. I couldn't believe this was how much labor hurt and that I had SOOOO far to go. However, the wise nurse checked me and informed my husband that it was time to push...40 minutes and I was at 10 cm!!

They paged my sister who was an on-call pediatrician that day and told her that I was pushing. She had left my room only half an hour before and told them to stop joking...they said they weren't. She arrived but only to find that I would NOT push. I fought them tooth and nail. I crawled up the bed and pulled when they said push. You see, I wanted my epidural. I begged my husband to make "them" wait. He was flustered and didn't know what to do.

There's no way the baby was waiting. I put up my best effort though and prolonged pushing for two hours! In the future, I'll know that two good pushes and the baby would be out...imagine that...a one hour labor? It just hurt so much that I just wouldn't push. My sister finally convinced me to push and at 11:25 am on January 7th, 2003 there was my beautiful little Sydney. It was only 3 hours since they broke my water.

Birth Stats:
Sydney Catherine Sara
5 lbs 10 ozs
18 1/4"
I had fifteen minutes with her and then they took her straight to the NICU for blood sugar checks and because she wasn't breathing too well...she was very grunty. They kept her there for 24 hours because of the breathing and then released her to us. All her blood sugar checks were perfect. We went home on the Thursday and she's a thriving one year old today.

Complications:
I got a DVT behind my left knee when Sydney was four months old. They say it doesn't have anything to do with the birth but I don't think they can say that for sure. I would have liked longer anti-coagulation therapy for post-partum and might ask for this next time. I also might like to take baby aspirin during pregnancy...I feel that this might have stopped the partial abruption.

Suzanne