Genevieve Hope

2019-01-14T20:41:24Z

So I have it down somewhere…..
Saturday night (12/1/18), I peed my pants in the King Soopers parking lot. Joe was worried that my water had broken, but I knew that no, I was just pregnant and incontinent! So Sunday morning 12/2), around 4:45, my water broke. I doubted it a little, because of the night before, but I was pretty sure this time I knew what was up. Still, I waited to call the on-call midwife until a little after 6, just to make sure. I’d had maybe one contraction by then. Sophie said to call her back at 8, but that we would plan on me maybe coming in at 10 just to confirm what was going on- they can do a test to see if it was amniotic fluid, or pee, or what. So I called her back at 8, and had had two more contractions in that time. We scheduled for me to come in at 10. I texted Cortney, our babysitter for Maggie, and told her to come over at 9:30 to pick up Mags. At this point, Maggie and Joe got up for the day and I filled them in on what was happening.
Just before 9, I called my mom to tell her what was going on. She asked if I was having contractions, and I said I wasn’t super comfortable at that exact moment- but I was clearly still able to talk through things fine.
Cortney came over just before 9:30, and by that point- so quickly- I was lying on the floor with contractions happening pretty quickly. Maggie was freaking out kind of- she’s never seen me in pain before. They left, and Joe rightfully insisted that we get out to the car NOW, before the next contraction hit. He thankfully took out Maggie’s carseat, so I could lay down in the L-shape of the backseat and the hatchback. I thought about calling Sophie to tell her about the very rapid change of plans, but I couldn’t. I was hurting pretty badly. As we drove away, Joe said he didn’t remember if he locked the house or not- he asked if we could go check and I said no way- so we went to the birth center.
We got there, and Joe went to tell Sophie that we in fact weren’t there for a water check, but instead were in active labor. Because it was a Sunday, she was the only one there- she hadn’t called the nurse in yet, since she didn’t know we were “coming in hot.” So we went into the closest birthing room, and she asked me to get up on the bed. I didn’t think I could move my legs apart that much to climb up there, so I asked if I could just lay down on the floor. She said that was fine- whatever was best for me. This was at 10:00, when we got there. She started coaching me through pushing, and Genevieve was in my arms at 10:15! Holy hell.

I guess babies usually come out kind of purple, but then pink up quickly when they start breathing. Genevieve didn’t pink up right away, and Sophie got out the bag thing to get some air in her. That didn’t worry me right away. The time when I knew it was trouble is when she cut the cord, only about maybe 10 minutes after birth- they’d waited probably 45 minutes before cutting Maggie’s cord. I guess the cord was pretty short, and it was too hard to work on her air while she was laying there between my legs. It’s blurry for me, some of what happened next, since I was still in labor la-la-land. Joe remembers better than I do, so it was much scarier for him. They couldn’t get her to breathe, though she still had a solid heart rate, and she never lost consciousness or went floppy or anything. The nurse, Eileen, was there by this point- I don’t know how Sophie got a hold of her. They talked about needing more medical support for Genevieve, but only maybe, and maybe they waffled about how soon to call in. Joe feels like they waited too long. I don’t know- maybe they did. I don’t have a good grasp of time for this part. They ended up getting an ambulance.
Joe and Eileen went with Genevieve in the ambulance over to Swedish Hospital, which is barely a half-mile from the birth center. I stayed back to recover on my own (and I needed to get stitches too). Joe took my cell phone, so I just waited there for a few hours until I could go. Joe’s aunt and uncle ended up coming down to be with him at the hospital until I could get there. He and his uncle came to get me later- maybe around 5 or so. (That’s long at the birth center- with no complications, they usually send you all home together at about 4 hours postpartum.) I’d talked with Joe a few times through Eileen’s phone when she came back, so I knew what was going on. Joe met with the doctors over there, and they’d also gotten Genevieve breathing once she got in the ambulance. They figured out she had a cleft, and that that was impacting her breathing. I think it’s once they got to the hospital that they really saw her teeny jaw. A doctor there told Joe about the possibility of a jaw distraction surgery, but said they don’t do them at Swedish, so we’d probably transfer the next day. I rode in the ambulance with her the next day for our transfer to Children’s. (My first ambulance ride, but Genevieve’s second! Also- the transfer people are part of the Flight For Life team, which is not at ALL concerning when they casually tell you that Flight For Life is going to transfer your kid- right. Let’s be trauma-informed here, people, okay?)

We started meeting with ENT doctors right away at Children’s, and also with OT. Thankfully, the main occupational therapist we work with is a woman I teach Sunday School with at church. I didn’t know her well, but I’m so glad for a familiar face, especially right away with so many many people coming by to our room.

My mom had come to town the night she was born, and stayed for a week. After that, Cathy came out for a week to help out. She left the morning of the surgery, and my mom came back that night. She stayed until we sent her home for five days in early January, and then she’s been back.

Genevieve had her jaw distraction surgery at 15 days old. She rocked it, probably better than we did. They did 15 milliliters of distractions- so two little turns of the hardware each day, done in time for my birthday. She looks so different, and had a real chin now! It’s hard to see on the early pictures, but somehow a half-inch makes all the difference in my kid being able to breathe. Now her tongue has room to move forward and not restrict her airway. She can lay on her back now; for the first two weeks, she was pretty much only on her belly, since that was the only way she could breathe comfortably. She did get a slight infection in one of her surgical sites, to they took her back to the OR briefly on 1/4 to clean out the infection and stitch the wound closed (that side hadn’t closed fully over the metal distractor, like the other side had.) All this had impacted her feeding, which is really the reason the hospital stay has been so stretched out. She’s had a feeding tube in since Swedish (except for the times when she is a little Houdini and pulls it out, or when she pukes it out like she tends to do at least once a week or so). She can’t suck because of the cleft, but she can use a special bottle to basically chew/chomp down instead of sucking. But she doesn’t have the stamina yet to drink a full bottle. We’ve been working on it since the distractions finished, and then had some setbacks from the infections. And what it means is that she has a newborn’s stamina to eat, but a six-week-old’s appetite, and we kind of missed the typical window of when babies really work on developing this skill. So it’s really slow work. And hard, because she’s so healthy now. (There is a joke that I am pumping half-and-half instead of milk, because she’s growing so much! She’s gained two pounds since her birth- she’s over 10 pounds now!)

So we work, and we wait. Genevieve has made it clear that she will work her body in whatever way she wants to- she will come out with the force of a cannon whenever she feels ready; she will eat when she’s ready; she will start moving her neck (while only laying on her belly) to turn her head at a few days old; she will just do what she wants. God help us as this kid grows up- she will be a force.

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Ramblings of a 28-year-old girl

Genevieve Hope