Hi there...Here's the brief update as I'm still out of commission and will
be for a while.  Wesley Sean Hafner-Eaton was born 4/16/98 at 2:55pm
weighing 8 lbs 8 oz and 21.5".  Anyone dying to help a mother/family in
need of support...well, we are it right now (Please don't feel
pressured--but I figure if I don't ask, no one will know).  Here's
why...Wesley gave us quite a scare with potential kidney problems (no urine
and then blood with a substantial weight loss despite documented milk
supply and good latch on/swallowing).  He's fine now and gaining weight (1
week old).  I, on the other hand, am confined to bed because my c-section
incision opened up and spewed horrible stuff. I now have an open wound
draining and will for at least 3 weeks.  I picked up Tristen (27 lbs) and
popped some stitches.  Stupid move I know.  Jim's home this week, but he
goes back to work next week and I don't know how I'm going to stay in bed
with an almost 8 year old and a 3 year old.

For those who want the gory details leading to this, here they are...
Last Wed 4/15 (tax day), I had an OB appointment (this week was due-date
week).  At the appointment, my blood pressure was 160/105 (taken several
times--my norm is 100/60 at most).  Wesley's movement had been slight for 2
weeks and my blood pressure had been up for awhile.  My usually
non-alarmist doc strongly suggested a non stress test and a biophysical
profile of baby. So off to the hospital I went...thinking no big deal.
Well, at the hospital, after an hour it became obvious that the baby was
not doing so well (no beat to beat variation in heart rate and
decellerations not correlating to my contractions) AND that I had almost no
aminotic fluid (which is shocking since my ultrasound just 2 days earlier
showed a normal amount).  So, we continued to monitor (and my blood
pressure went even higher--surprise?).  Three hours later and lots of
"tricks" (positions, oxygen, breathing/meditation), another doc was called
in and we talked about how ominous this was looking.  I wanted to go home
and sleep for the night, but they convinced me that this was looking much
too serious for that.  I stayed and we decided to pursue one of several
paths in the morning: a c-section immediately; induction immediately;
stress-test (with oxytocin) to see how baby might tolerate labor and then
and induction if everything went well.

Come morning (sleep is a joke when your BP is checked every 15 minutes
automatically and you have two monitors strapped to you AND you have to be
on your left side with and oxygen mask) things weren't looking all that
much better, but I wasn't quite ready to give up my hopes of a vaginal
birth after a c-section.  My regular OB came in and was quite supportive in
terms of me making the decision--including letting me go home if that's
what I thought best.  We reviewed all the monitoring strips and decided to
do the stress test and see how that went before trying to ripen my cervix
(still tightly closed at that point and only slightly effaced).  The stress
test slowly pumped in pitocin and increased over a period of hours.  My
uterus complied by promptly contracting and then fully going straight into
hard labor (1.5 minute contractions with 30 seconds apart).  Baby was not
happy and mom wasn't thrilled either since Wesley rotated early in the
contractions to posterior and I had killer back labor.  After Wesley showed
signs of not tolerating labor (severely depressed heart rate and cord
compression), they tried to stop labor (not just taking away the pitocin,
but giving me terbutaline doses to inhibit labor).  Didn't work--at all.
By this point, I was on my hands and knees writhing in pain (no pain meds)
with Jim doing counter pressure on my back.  The c/section room was being
used and there was a line (like planes waiting to take off).  Wesley's
condition bumped us up to next, but I still had 5 hours of back labor (not
much compared to 48 with Kelsey and 39 with Tristen), but still I wasn't
quite prepared.

Fortunately, we had a great team for the c/section and both Jim and Paula
Ek were in the delivery room.  As it turns out, Wesley's head circumference
was larger than my midpelvis (according to the pelvic MRI I had to
determine if a VBAC was even possible) even without him being posterior
(not as good of a fit).  Miracles do happen and pelvis's open and babies
heads mold, but it wasn't very likely with the disparity as great as this.
Wesley came out screaming mad (a good sign for c/sec babies) with Apgars of
8 and 9.  He nursed right away (actually, hasn't stopped in a week) and is
incredibly calm.  He's one of those babies that actually fits the
description of how long newborns are suppose to sleep (unlike Kelsey and
Tristen).  Of course, he's only a week old and you can't base much on that.
Still, he's a cuddler who loves his twice daily baby massage.

I'll be working on birth announcements this weekend, so keep your eyes
open.  Thanks to all of you for your support and encouragement.
Love,
Chris, Jim, Kelsey, Tristen, and Wesley too!




: )Chris Hafner-Eaton, PhD, MPH, CHES, IBCLC  email: [log in to unmask]   : )
: )HSR & Health Educational Consultant        voice/fax: 541 753 7340    : )
: )LLLLLLLLLLLLL**CHANGE THE WORLD, NURTURE A CHILD!**LLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL : )