Pugh, family of four

Friday morning, March 19th I woke up with yet another TERRIBLE headache. My doctor was on call that morning and when she made rounds basically told me ok, enough is enough. As she said, I was a smoldering case of toxemia. Nothing was super dangerous at the point I was at, but why wait a few more days and something take a dangerous turn for the worse. Little did I know that one of the things they were watching in my blood work was my platelet count. It had been on the steady decline. If it gets below 100,000 you can’t have an epidural!!!!!!!!!!!! (It has something to do with clotting.) Mine on the blood work were 102,000. On a repeat test they rose to 115,000. As Dr. Wittber said, why risk them dropping? I was totally with her. I am the first to admit that NO PART of me ever signed up for natural childbirth!
So, a little before lunch three nurses came in and said let’s get your IV started. You are being induced. With that, I endured a solid 30 minutes of pure torture where this nurse attempted 4 times to start an IV in my arm with no numbing agents and blew three veins. I was balling (screaming more like it), my mom was crying, and we were both praying Hail Mary’s as loud as we could belt them out. I’m sure those nurses thought we were drama queens. But, I promise that was the WORSE part of the entire birthing experience. It literally felt (to steal a line from Steal Magnolia’s) like someone was driving nails into my arm.

(All set up in Labor & Delivery... ready to get started!)

We called Eugene (who was at work) and told him to head to Jackson. It was baby time!! We got back into labor and delivery about 1pm and they started me back on the most miserable medicine known to man, magnesium sulfate for my blood pressure. It makes you feel very sick (flu like) and H.O.T.! Also, you are not allowed to get of the bed while you are on it. They started the pitocin 1:30 and things got moving. At the point they started the pitocin I was already 4 cm and 70% effaced. I got my epidural around 6:30 and my doctor broke Caroline’s bag of water around 8pm. I was 6 cm at that point. At 9pm Eugene’s sisters were sitting in the room with me visiting and I began to feel this indescribable pressure. The nurse just happened to walk in and I said, I feel this really uncomfortable pressure. She checked me and sure enough, I was 10cm! I couldn’t believe it. It seemed like everything flew by.

10 cm... It's go time!

Around 9:30pm they rolled me back to the operating room. Both babies were head down and we knew that a vaginal delivery was our goal. Of course, the dr did say, now you have this small, SMALL chance of having her just fine and then him not descending and having to have a C-section. But, we almost never see that. However, that is why I would be delivering in the operating room…just in case.
Once we got set up, Caroline’s birth went really easily. It seemed like I only pushed a few times 6-7 if I had to guess and she was out. At 10:00pm on March 19th, my beautiful daughter joined this world! What a great feeling!! She was screaming bloody murder and all I could think was “Yes, her lungs work!” Oh, and “She looks just like a Pugh.”

Caroline Beauvais Pugh 3.19.10 10:00pm 5lbs 1oz 19 inches

Within minutes my dr did a sonogram to ensure that Worth was still head down. He was, but of course was still pretty high. We waited about 5-6 minutes and I began pushing with Worth. Dr. Wittber ruptured his bag of water and the next thing I knew it was an EMERGENCY! He had a condition called Cord Prolapse. His umbilical cord came out first. In a matter of sheer minutes (maybe seconds) they had me moving from one side of the operating room to the other. I was quickly put on the operating table and am pretty sure they had me cut open and Worth out before the C-section drape had been hung in front of my face. It was such a serious situation that Eugene wasn’t even allowed to be in the room during Worth’s arrival. It was very scary. I was FREAKING out to say the least. But, I have amazing doctors and those nurses were so incredible. Everyone worked hard to keep me calm and console me during these scary minutes. At 10:35pm on March 19th I heard another sweet cry. My son had joined our family. Again, what an amazing feeling! Both of my children were here and doing well.

Farnsworth "Worth" Eugene Pugh, IV 3.19.10 10:35pm 4lbs 14oz 18 in long

GOD IS GOOD!

Worth did spend 18 hours in the NICU for low blood sugar and he needed a little help breathing. However, he is just fine now. Eugene and I feel blessed beyond measure to have our family here and safe. Even though their birth was a little more “intense” than we anticipated I would do it 8 million times again.

I love my family of four!