How it went down....

The birth day. Not a detail filled account but a birth story all the same. Read at your own discretion.
Written yesterday for on-line friends/support. A fairly clinical account as I'm still processing the emotional side of the whole week.

***My blood pressure shot up Thursday. At the OB Thursday afternoon it was 151/94 (with home pressures as high as 170/100) and I was 2 cm and 50% effaced. We made the decision to induce knowing that if it wasn't pre-e yet, it would be in a matter of hours or days. I was 36w6d.
We decided on going to the hospital with the NICU, just in case, which turned out to be a very good decision.
I got to the hospital around 4 they started my abx (blessedly I didn't need mag). At 6:15 my OB broke my water in hopes it would be all it took to get labor going. I piddled around with lame-o contractions for a few hours and we started the pit at 10PM. The pit got things going but I was already getting tired. At 1:30 I requested an epidural. It was a big decision for me and a hard one as I haven't had one since 1994. I was just so tired physically and emotionally. My nurse was great-had a homebirth herself and 2 unmedicated hospital births and Chris was wonderful but an unmedicated birth just wasn't meant to be this time-my husband and nurse were very supportive of my decision and helped me try not to feel guilty-she checked me before we called the anesth, hoping I was 7-8 but I was only 4. I gave up. The anesth came, did an intrathecal first then an epidural. I was pain free by 2:15. Then my BP crashed 15-20 minutes later (I think)*That* was an absolutely HORRENDOUS experience. Two doses of epinephrine and oxygen and I was OK but feeling awful. Although from this point on my OB never left my side-bless his heart-he had been seeing patients all day and would see patients all day Friday too-his birthday-Tristan and Dr. M now share a b-day:-) . The baby was also having deep variable decels and I was dilating fast now. 4cm at 2:30 and complete at 3:20. Because of the deep decels and suspected nuchal cord there was no 'laboring down' and I had to push hard and fast (which is no easy feat with a heavy epidural) NICU was called and an NNP and two nurses were waiting for him. Tristan arrived at 3:26AM with apgars of 8&9 and NICU cleared him to stay with me for a while. I was able to hold him for about an hour-although he was working hard the whole time. He went to the nursery for observation but was only there a couple hours before it was decided he needed the NICU. At first it was thought he just had TTN (transient tachypnea of the newborn) but all through Friday he got worse and worse and Fri into Sat morning was very bad with him dropping his sats to very dangerous levels. Sat mornings chest x-ray showed a pneumothorax. The doc did a needle aspiration and it was successful. From that point on our stay in the NICU was purely recovery and healing and a little bililight therapy.
We came home today and I don't know if I have ever been so grateful and felt so blessed in my life.