Marianna's story Part Two

When Marianna was born she received great Apgar scores.In the first hour it took her awhile to get warm, I was cold and shaking from the shower I took right before giving birth, so she was under the warmer until she got nice and snugly. The nurse listened to her heart, then listened again. "Sounds like she has a murmur but its hard to tell" she mentioned to another nurse. But nothing more was said. The next day Marianna's jaundice levels went up and things were discussed about what to do to flush it out of her system. Feeding her from the breast a lot and keeping an eye on it was the plan. The pediatrician came in later on Sunday and went over her vitals. She listened to her heart...then listened again...then listened even longer. "It sounds like she has a gallop. But i can barely hear it" she said to us. "I will talk to Dr. Ross of Children's Dayton Hospital. He is the Pediatric Cardiologist." So a few tests were ordered. My new baby was sent down to get an x-ray and EKG. Daddy went down with her because I was in no condition to see my baby get poked and prodded. Also an Echo was ordered for Monday. The nurse came in when she got back and took her blood to see how her jaundice was doing. Apparently not good because they felt it best to put her under the lights in an incubator. She had to wear shades to protect her little eyes.

So the plan changed to feed Marianna, put her straight back into the incubator. Then repeat. Plus something was wrong with heart. This was NOT how I pictured our vist to the hospital. A nurse came in late Sunday afternoon almost right after we got her back from doing the tests and said the Echo would be done today. This time I went with Daddy into the nursery. for 30 minutes my baby was gooey with gel and had an ultrasound done of her little heart. At this point in time i really really wish I would have payed more attention to MY ultrasounds so i knew what to look for in hers. Then again my heart was never on the screen, so maybe i couldn't tell what was going on. MA (Marianna) did so well. She only fussed for a little bit but was pretty content.
That evening and early morning was filled with so many tears and tired eyes. There really was only one question on my mind. "What was wrong with my baby?" How could there be something wrong with her? I tried to eat right and was as natural as possible when it came to putting pills in my body. Was it my late high blood pressure that caused this?....So many many questions ran through my mind. No one could even imagine the rate my thoughts were coming.Again I couldn't even hold my baby through all this. It was feed then back in the incubator until her jaundice levels went down. This alone was a heartache and to add on a problem with her heart was even more of an ache.
Early that Monday afternoon we received the phone call that would change so much. I couldn't even answer the phone when Dr. Ross called. Todd did and listened to the news. My beautiful 8lb 8oz baby girl...,the feisty little hiccuppy baby in my belly, had not one but two holes in her little heart. This condition we later learned was called VSD.
What It Is
The septum is a wall that separates the heart's left and right sides. Septal defects are sometimes called a "hole" in the heart. A defect between the heart's two lower chambers (the ventricles) is called a ventricular septal defect (VSD).
When there is a large opening between the ventricles, a large amount of oxygen-rich (red) blood from the heart's left side is forced through the defect into the right side. Then it's pumped back to the lungs, even though it's already been refreshed with oxygen. This is inefficient, because already-oxygenated blood displaces blood that needs oxygen. This means the heart, which must pump more blood, may enlarge from the added work. High blood pressure may occur in the lungs' blood vessels because more blood is there. Over time, this increased pulmonary hypertension may permanently damage the blood vessel walls.

If the opening between the ventricles is small, it doesn't strain the heart. In that case, the only abnormal finding is a loud murmur.

In our daughters case she had two holes. One near the top and a smaller one at the bottom. The "gallop" sound was part of the muscle at the top tear trying to heal its self back down. That gave me some hope. Knowing that my baby was already fighting. The Dr. seemed to think that she was doing already better than expected. Especially since the heart was trying to heal its self already. After finding out this news I'm sure you can imagine the day we had. I wont even describe it.
The next day Marianna's jaundice levels still went up and the pediatrician recommended we supplement with formula along with the breastfeeding. This broke my heart even more. It went on like this until Wednesday. I was so happy to be going home I ran around my room that morning and cleaned like a madwoman. Not under the advisement of my midwife! Now two months, two EKG's, and one echo later, Marianna is two months. She is doing well and things are looking on the right track. She still has these holes in her heart and very well may have this condition for the rest of her life. The goal is to have them close up on their own but even if they don't as long as they don't get any bigger she can do everything normal in life. Soccer at age four? WHY NOT! I'm hoping and praying (?) for a positive outcome. She is progressing like normal though. Even if I try not to let her cry. I wouldn't want her little heart to wear out. It saddens me so. But the main thing to do everyday is to treat her like any other new baby. Hug and kiss the crap outta her!!

Marianna's Birth Story

On Saturday April 4^th I woke up at 7AM feeling slightly off. I was having pains that came over me every 4 minutes. I timed them for about an hour . Sure enough they were contractions. I woke up Todd at told him that I think we were going to have a baby that day, but to go back to sleep and I would call the midwife and see what she thought. I then waited till about 8:30AM until I called. She told me to take a bath then maybe walk around for an hour to see if it really “was” contractions. I called my Doula to see what she thought. She told me to take a shower yes but to maybe call the midwife after that b/c I couldn't talk through my contractions and I had previous high blood pressure. (The midwife on call that weekend was of course the ONE midwife I had never met!). I woke up Todd and told him to get Gavin ready to go to his aunts & uncles house. I then took a nice warm WONDERFUL shower! When I got out and got dressed my contractions I realized were coming even closer. 2 -3 minutes apart and for about 30 – 40 seconds. I called my midwife and Gail (doula) and we headed to the hospital. We arrived at the hospital at 10:30AM. As we started up the elevator to the maternity ward I realized I was having a contraction. I told Todd that when the doors open he needed to stand in the elevator doorway b/c there was NO way I was going to be able to get out. I started to have the contraction and the doors opened. Todd then proceeded to walk out. Leaving me in the elevator...alone. The doors shut and the elevator started down. I pushed the button for the maternity floor and tried to stay calm. The doors opened and a male nurse from the floor below came on the elevator. The contraction ended and I started to laugh. The nurse looked up at me and I said “I was having a contraction and my husband left me on the elevator.” The nurse's eyes got real big and he started to stammer and ask if I was OK and if I needed help and if I knew where I was going. The elevator went up to the birthing center and the doors opened. Todd was right there freaking out and pouring out apologies. I couldn't stop laughing. To me if that was the worst thing that happened to me that day, the rest would be a breeze! We got into triage and the nurse checked me. I was 4 -5 cm dilated and 80% thinned out.

At about 11:30 I got into a room and started my labor process. I was on the birth ball for about a ½ hour then decided to walk. Which in my opinion was the worst idea! I knew it would help a lot but it hurt the worst. Thank god Todd was there for me to hold on to. At about 12:20 my midwife checked me again and I was 5-6 cm dilated and 90% effaced. I went back on the birth ball for another 20 minutes. To me I was just concentrated. I was super hot and felt like puking! But I decided that water would help. So I went into the shower about 12:45. I started to feel a lot of pressure and the midwife thought I might be ready to get in the tub. Around 1pm I sat on the bed and one of the nurses checked me while another one started the tub. I was 8cm dilated and 90% thinned. But something was different. The nurse wanted to make sure the baby's heart rate was strong enough for me to go into the tub since it was warm water. She couldn't find Marianna's heart beat. The midwife took over and smashed that fetal monitor all across my belly. She finally found it and it was very very low. I felt like I needed to start to push and sure enough every time I did her heart rate went dangerously down. At 1:10 the midwife decided to put a internal fetal scalp monitor on Marianna's head. But her heart rate was still low.

Everything suddenly started happening so fast. I heard nurses paging surgeons and calling for iv's. I kept pushing when I needed to and realized I wasn't breathing when I did push. Todd and everyone was yelling at me to breath because every time I would take a breath, Marianna's heart rate would go up. My water had broken as soon as she put the monitor on her head and I had started pushing even harder. Somehow my body knew that she needed to come out right then! Suddenly as fast as ever at 1:18 Marianna was born. As she came out she was holding onto her cord. Silly girl!! They rushed her over to the oxygen cart and she received great Apgar scores. 8 the first minute then 9 at the 5 minute.

As I went over the labor with my doula I realized that I was only in labor for 3 hours and 15min. Wow. So that was my labor story. I have much more to come. We stayed in the hospital until Wednesday. So much more happened.