The "Birth Plan"

We spent a LONG day last week at the delivery hospital: six appointments back-to-back, with a small break for lunch and a walk around the block. (My compressed lungs need a break from mask wearing, y'all.)

Part of the schedule included 'birth planning,' which, if you have read any pregnancy books, is generally described as a time for you to explain your wants, needs, requests, demands for your labor and delivery...everything from who can be in the delivery room, to if you want medication, to what music you want played. (They can apparently get very specific.)

A high risk pregnancy, with a baby who needs surgery, comes with a very different birth plan. Although the question of medication is still up to me, there is a lot that is not. Essentially, we sat down earlier in the day with a labor and delivery NP, who walked us through the induction process, and then later with the cardiologist and a NICU doctor (who was wonderful, by the way, and I hope is there when we actually have the baby) who walked us through the birth plan. 

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Here goes:

I will be induced at 38 weeks and 6 days. This has been described as a very slow process with a lot of waiting around and being in the hospital. Unlike natural labor, there is no waiting out the early stages at home. It is most likely that I won't deliver until the next day. (Of course I asked about if I could eat. I have been assured I can eat up until a certain point when I won't be allowed--and probably won't want to. When the NP told me I should definitely bring a 'snack bag' for after as well, I was completely won over. You know I don't travel without a snack bag.)

Baby will be given to me for 60 seconds, while they delay cutting the cord ("delayed cord clamping") and then taken to the resuscitation area in the room, to monitor breathing, etc. Hopefully all is stable and good, and off he/she/they will go to the NICU at the delivery hospital. E can go immediately, and I am allowed to go once I am mobile (or can get into a wheelchair). They want me to start pumping right away, and preferably near the baby to help with that process.

There will be tubes for nutrients and an echocardiogram, but Baby will stay for 24 hours, during which time I can be with them for a much time as I want. Then, there will be a transfer to the children's hospital. Until I am discharged, I cannot join E and the Baby there, but I've been told that they try to get me out as soon as physically possible (even shortening the normal time for a C-section recovery if that is what I end up having to have). 

Over the next few days, Baby will be monitored, and there will be multiple echocardiograms to get a much more accurate picture of what's happening with the heart. Surgery will likely be about 4 days or so after delivery, and from there, we wait for both the heart to recover and for Baby to be able to eat on its own. (The NICU doctor said that is usually what keeps you there the longest.)

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As I have heard from MANY mamas, the birth plan rarely goes according to plan, so I am just going to hope we make it to the induction day, and then I will do whatever I am told. :) 

In other news, Baby weighed in at 4.4 lbs (22% percentile), looks so big on the ultrasound (!), has an adorable nose, and was so busy practice breathing and doing somersaults that the echo images were not as ideal as they needed to be. [We have had to add another echo for our next visit...]