Anya Leigh Wockenfuss

~Anya Leigh Wockenfuss, 1 day old~

I'm a few days behind, obviously I've been a little busy :) Anya Leigh Wockenfuss was born at 3:24AM on Monday, August 27th 2012. She weighs 6lbs 2.8oz and is 18" long. My labor was less than 3.5 hours, and I got my VBAC!! I will warn you now, this post contains bloody birth photos.

Saturday August 25th I had decided to "deep clean" the living room to get rid of all the dust and cat hair. I was literally scrubbing the walls and on my hands and knees scrubbing the baseboards. I figured it would just be a bonus if I went into labor, right? Well, it didn't put me into labor, or so I thought... I started leaking a tiny amount of fluid, and didn't think anything of it until the next morning. It really was just a tiny amount. I went all day Sunday wondering whether or not it was amniotic fluid, even until almost 10PM Sunday night when I called my OB's after hours line and asked what they thought. They said for the small amount I was describing, it probably isn't amniotic fluid, so that eased my mind some and I went to bed.

~12:20AM, Last picture of me pregnant! 37w5d~



Two hours later, at exactly midnight, I woke up as I was repositioning myself in bed and I felt the definite "this is my water breaking" gush. I got up and went to the bathroom, and let my mom know "this is definitely it!". She called Mom-Mom Cordner to come meet us so we could go to the hospital.

~3:14AM, trying to rest before pushing~



I had my first contraction at 12:23AM 8/27/12. My second was at 12:30AM. By the time I had the third at 12:36AM, we were in the car on the way to the hospital, a 15-20 minute drive that is much quicker in the middle of the night rather than during rush hour. We got to the hospital at about 12:50AM and contractions were 5 minutes apart. It only took them minutes to get me into a room, and contractions were already 2 minutes apart. At about 1:30AM they checked my cervix and it was 5.5cm dilated, and 100% effaced. My blood pressure was very high, so they put oxygen on me. At this point I wasn't getting any time to rest between contractions, and I requested an epidural. By 2AM the anesthesiologist was in the room. It took over 45 minutes from the time they came in the room until they had the epidural in. It took so long to position me on the bed, wait between contractions that never stopped, and then I got poked 3 times to get it in just right. Compared to having contractions at the same time, the epidural did not hurt at all, honestly! I was 10 cm & +1 station and ready to push by 3AM and the epidural was finally in. I did two sets of pushes before deciding that I wanted to try and rest through the next few contractions so she could come down on her own.

 

I only got to rest through 2 or 3 contractions before Anya started having decels in her heart rate, so they said it was time to push. After less than 10 minutes of pushing, Anya was out at 3:24AM! She cried right away loud and clear, and she looked GOOD! She wasn't blue at all! In fact, her apgar scores were 9/9! Within 2 minutes they took her out of the room to clean her up and access her. I was very happy that MomMom Cordner got to cut her cord!

 

I didn't expect them to bring her back in to me, that was a great relief to see she was stable enough that I could actually HOLD her for a minute!! It was just a minute, but it was the best one :) Then they took her away to the NICU.

 

The birth photos are extra bloody because I lost a LOT of blood, 1200cc. It was more than with my c-section with Emoree, when I lost 800cc. At first I was afraid I had uterine rupture, which is a risk of a VBAC, but it wasn't. I was torn up internally and externally, and had to have an hour of what I call "vaginal reconstruction surgery", because they literally spent an hour stitching me back up, at least 15 stitches. For this I was very greatful for my choice to get the epidural!! Sometime either during or after the stitching I almost passed out and they had to put me back on oxygen. A few hours later once the epidural started to wear off, I was in serious burning pain and begged for pain medicine, which they brought me 2 percocet which made me sleepy ALL DAY.

 

~1st NICU photo, 3 hours old~

 

Grandma & MomMom Cordner got to see her in the NICU first, at about 6:30AM while I tried to sleep. She looks so good for being a heart baby!!!

 

It seemed like it was taking them forever to decide to move me from Labor & Delivery down to the Postpartum Unit. They did have to wait for x-ray come in to do an x-ray on me first, because they lost a piece of gauze during delivery and had to make sure it wasn't inside me. Luckily, it wasn't. Around 11:30AM was the first time I attempted to get out of bed to go to the bathroom. The nurse helped me into the bathroom, and I immediately started feeling strange and asked for help... they got me back into the wheelchair just in time because I passed out cold! I was awoken by my mom yelling at me and slapping my face, and then right after they put oxygen back on me I didn't know where I was, I thought I was in a different room. They left me sitting in the wheelchair for a little bit before moving me down to the Postpartum Unit.

 

Once downstairs in my room, I took a nap for a little bit before they finally brought me lunch at 2PM. Poppy Cordner brought me a special doughnut :) The Cordners left, and my parents had to leave to take Emoree to her pre-k meeting to meet her new teacher, which Emoree enjoyed. Meanwhile, around 3PM my nurse took me to the NICU to see Anya for the first time :) I would have gotten to go sooner, but with how dizzy I was I wasn't stable enough to go earlier. It was nice seeing her, but I couldn't stay long. It is so hot in the NICU, and I was getting sleepy. My parents brought Emoree up to the hospital afterwards to see me, and Emoree got to open her big sister present :) She couldn't go to the NICU to see Anya because she had started with a cold on Friday.

 

After my dad and Emoree left, my mom and I went back to the NICU so that I could see her again and get pictures of her. My mom stayed with me both nights.

The next day, my mom and I woke up by 5:30AM and couldn't go back to sleep, so we decided it was a good time to go see Anya. We stayed until shift change at 7AM, when they ask all visitors to leave during change of shifts. We went back to my room, and I had breakfast, they took my IV out, and I took a shower. My mom left for a few hours to do some things at home, so I went back to the NICU to visit Anya and take more pictures of her :)

 

Anya's sats were running a little higher than the cardiologists wanted them to, but she was stable and doing well so she did not need to be intubated before surgery :) At this point, she had 1 IV in her arm, and two in her umbilical artery. Dr. Kaushal came in and talked to me on Tuesday (when Anya was 1 day old), and told me that surgery would be the next day, at 7:30AM. I was surprised and relieved, knowing that at 2 days old Anya was stable enough to have her first open heart surgery.

 



So that night before her surgery, I made sure I got to hold Anya as much as I could :) I was absolutely content sitting there for 3 hours holding her, not caring at all that my dinner was sitting in my room getting cold. Her MomMom, Poppy, and Aunt Mary Ellen also came to see her that night too. After they left, my mom and I went back to say goodnight to Anya around 11PM, knowing we would be up early the next morning.

 

 

So that is my little miracle! Her surgery day will be in a seperate/next post to come.