DOCTOR VISIT JOURNAL

THE ONLY REASON YOU WOULD WANT TO READ THIS IS IF YOU'RE PREGNANT YOURSELF FOR THE FIRST TIME, OR YOU'RE CRAZY!  IF YOU DON'T LIKE DOCTOR STUFF - MOVE ON BEFORE YOU GET GROSSED OUT!

Last Update:  7/30/99

We have 4 doctors that all work out of the same office.  I will deliver at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York City.  However, the doctors' office is not at the hospital.  If you'd like more info. on the hospital, hit the "Grandma visits the Hospital" button.

The Address for the doctors is:

            This guy could do stand-up.  He is hilarious!  When he heard Will was from Kentucky, he asked me if we were related!  He's a little Italian guy with a bald head and pronounced ears.  He confirmed that I am pregnant.  Blood tests revealed I am slightly anemic, so I am taking Slow FE everyday.

            I had my first ultrasound today.  It was very exciting!!  I saw the little fetus, 9mm long and it's tiny little beating heart!   It was amazing.  It looks like a little black-eyed pea.

            She's the only woman in the practice.  She is a stickler for details!  She reads absolutely everything on my chart and reviews with me.   She seems concerned about my family's genetic background and requests information from our genetic counselor at University of Kentucky.  We discuss the possibility of having an amniocentesis to detect any genetic abnormalities.  I assure her that my karyotype is normal, and there shouldn't be any problems.  However, I'll obtain copies of all my records for her.  A copy of this can be read if you click here.  We hear the heartbeat for the first time and put it on a taperecorder!  It's incredibly fast. 

Called me from his home to tell me that my cholesterol test is a 90!   He requested that I start eating eggs, bratwursts and Big Macs.  Nooooooo problem!

They received my genetic records, and they are relieved to see that my karyotype is indeed normal, and that I am at no higher risk than anyone else of having a baby with genetic abnormalities.   A copy of this can be read if you click here.  We heard the heartbeat again!!!  So exciting!!!

I took my triple-screen test (checks alpha-fetoprotein level along with the amounts of human chorionic gonadotropin, HCG; a pregnancy hormone, and unconjugated estriol, a form of estrogen produced by the placenta.)  The levels of these three chemicals may indicate the presence of Down Syndrome.    The detection rate is higher than 60%, with a false-positive rate of nearly 25%. 

Had my results been abnormal, we would've had to do an amniocentesis.  However, my results were normal, so we had an ultrasound done instead to find out the sex of the baby.  Here she is!

This is a profile of her lying on her back with her head on the left.  Her mouth is wide open.  She must be laughing already!

            He's a big guy!   And funny.  Everything looks good.  The baby's size is good, and the heartbeat is loud on the Doppler.

            Took another glucose test (took one in October maybe?).  They both came out normal.  The test is like a coffee cup full of flat coke.  Yuck!  Again, heartbeat is good and loud!

He teaches at Mt. Sinai.  Very hip and cool.  Looks like he plays jazz.  He also looks the youngest.  He's the most serious of them all.  He said my tummy looked like a good size, and the heartbeat is excellent.

She took Will and I on a tour of Mt. Sinai.  We were very disappointed at the aesthetics of the maternity floors.  The rooms are small and not decorated.  We'll have to bring some plants, wallpaper and curtains when we go.  We'll have time to redecorate, won't we?  Better forwarn the parents about this!  She was lots of fun, and told us all about what will happen when we get there.

She came to our apartment, and started teaching us about the delivery.  We also started learning breathing techniques for labor.  Will was really into it.  He was conducting me like a Sonata.

Tummy looks like a good size and heartbeat sounds good.  She says it's safe to fly as long as there's a doctor on the other end of the flight.

Had to switch radiologists because Dr. Bloch doesn't take my insurance anymore.  We were a little nervous, until we saw their equipment.  It showed us stuff in color!  We know now for sure that it is a girl.  Phew!  Got it all on video tape too.  She has so much personality already.  She was sucking her thumb and picking her toes (just like her daddy!)

Things still look good.  We will do an internal next week to see what shape my cervix is in...if it's softening etc.   That will tell us how close we're getting to birth time!!

We learned how to put on a diaper (Will got to practice on a doll.)  He was soooooo nervous.  Isn't that cute?  He also learned how to dress the doll.  A little different from the GI Joe doll he grew up with.  He kept wondering where to put the little gun belt.

Everytime I go to the office, I give the pee, they take my blood pressure (always on the low normal level) and then...THEY WEIGH ME.  I always forget that part.  I weighed in at 181.5.  OH MY GAH!!!!  Have you ever?  I never did. 

Then he gave me an internal exam, and said, "Wow, the head is really low, this is a big baby, you're 2+ centimeters dialated and about 70% effaced (which means the cervix is only 30% the length it used to be.)  I have to be 4 centimeters with contractions or water broken to go to the hospital.  He says I'm going to go in a week!  OH MY GAH!!!!!  Have you ever?  I never did.  So, Will and I went home, packed a bag and put it by the door.  Unbelievable.  We'll see...

So, I haven't delivered yet!  I am 90% effaced, and still 2+ centimeters dialated.  This time he said we'd have it within 12 days.  THAT'S ALMOST 2 WEEKS FOR CRIPES SAKE!  All my books say that no one can really predict with any accuracy.  So, we just wait!!

No change!  Bummer.  He offered for me to come in Monday, and if I'm more ready, he'll induce me toward the middle of next week.   However, Will and I decided not to induce unless we really need too.  He was just offering in case I couldn't stand it anymore.  I felt that would be starting her life out on my terms instead of hers.  I want her to come in her own time. :-)

I'm 3 cm dilated.  Whoopie.  Next appointment is Tuesday, May 4th.  C'mon Daisy!  Let's go!!  Whoo Hoo!  Please...please?

We had a false alarm Friday night. :-(  I started to go into labor, so we called the doctor, and she said to go ahead to the hospital so they could see if I was in labor.   When I got there, they detected early contractions, and a good heartbeat.   However, an intern examined me internally and said I was only 1 1/2 cm dilated!   I told her that I was told 3cm last Monday, and her response was that Dr. Bellow was probably being a little over optimistic.  Can you believe that?  Anyways, they sent us home and the contractions went away.  I haven't felt anything but baby movement ever since! 

Now that we've had the weekend to think about it, I'm not sure the intern knew what she was doing because her exam took a long time, and it hurt instead of it just being uncomfortable.   Maybe she pushed the baby up, or maybe Daisy changed her mind when she started poking around.  I'm going to speak to the doctors tomorrow. 

12:00 midnight:  It all started around midnight, the night of May 3rd.  I was watching Oprah Winfrey's show on special mothers that had had more than 10 kids.  I was tearing up, feeling very emotional, and the contractions started.  They were pretty far apart, so I just walked around until they got very painful.  So at about 4:00am we drove to the hospital where a nurse hooked me up to a machine to measure my contractions.  After an internal exam, they decided that I had dialated to 3 cm, and was experiencing strong contractions. 

                6:00 am They admitted me!!  They moved me down the hall to a very nice room that faced Central Park.  I had a tv that worked too.  The nurse gave me some demoral (sp?) and I was out while Will called the family who had all arranged to fly in for the birth.   That was my mom, my dad, Betty and Jerry (Will's parents.)

                9:00 am Dr. Nachamie arrives and lets me know that my contractions have stopped.  She said that we could induce or I could go home.  Considering everyone was flying in, I decided I had to go through with it.  Plus, I was ready.   However, the demoral was effecting me in a bad way.  I was feeling drunk and not clear-headed.   I think they gave me too much or something.  I went back to sleep after calling my dad and telling him in my drug-induced state to "Give me a break" and get his #$%^ on a plane.  He was there by the next time I woke up.

                1:00pm     The afternoon was hazy.  Everyone arrived and visited me.  I was sad that Bob and Karen couldn't be there, and I was grateful to have our other parents there.   I was still a  druggy and was complaining about it a lot.  At some point, I got a new nurse who prayed with Will and I.   That was awesome.  

                3:00pm     I think it was around this time that I received my epidural.  It was not a good experience, so if you are going to get one, don't read this.  An anesthesiologist and a training physician came in and told me all the gruesome things that could happen to me if the epidural didn't go well.  They never asked permission for what followed.  The training physician, who could best be described as a russian-speaking nazi.  "Hold still!!!"  he'd yell as he'd stab me with a needle in my spine in between contractions.  He missed the target THREE TIMES.   Finally, I asked, "Do you know what you're doing?  Is this normal?"   After all, I had never had one before.  The attending doctor took over, and quietly yelled at the guy in front of me after the procedure was over.  His reply was "Everything is just fine.  It went very well."  I replied with "Obviously not if you had to take over."  As soon as they left, I reported the incident, and got another anesthesiologist.  It didn't really help though.   More on that later.

            6:00pm     I was talking to my parents when I suddenly felt very strong contractions.  Very strong.  I started doing lamaze, and quickly was in a lot of pain.  I told my nurse, who was now the nurse I had had when they admitted me, and she asked, "Does it ache, or is it painful?"  I said, "It's killing me."  She called an anesthesiologist, who took 20 minutes to get there.   Once he arrived, I was in serious pain, 8 cm dilated, and he noticed that the line from the bag to my back had come disconnected.  I remembered vaguely an hour and a half before a loud beeping when I was sleeping, and a temporary nurse (filling in during the shift change) had called the anesthesiologist.  He never came and she left for the day.  She never wrote it on my chart, (which infuriates me) so I hadn't had any medecine for that long.  I was experiencing natural child-birth.

        7:00pm     To compensate for the loss of medecine, they plugged me back in, and added some to comfort me.  It felt very nice, and I went to sleep to get ready for the delivery.

        9:00pm     I'm fully dilated, Dr. Nachamie arrives, and we start to push.   Very exciting!!  Except...I had so much drugs in me now, because of the epidural problem, I couldn't feel enough to push.  There were no anesthesiologists available because there were 32 deliveries occurring in the hospital that day.  Also, the monitor that tells you how strong the contractions are wasn't working very well.   So, we were guessing as to when to push.

        10:00pm     After an hour of pushing, it was determined that Dr. Nachamie was going to have to use forceps (she is a master of using them - teaches all the other doctors in New York.)  But, in order to do that, she will need the assistance of another doctor who is in doing a C-section.  Meanwhile, my epidural is wearing off because I've been pushing for an hour.  Again, there is no anesthesiologist available.  She goes away, and I spend an hour pushing for no reason other than that's what my body wants to do.  This was the almost the worst part.  I was crying very hard, and yelling at the nurse to get someone to help me. 

        11:00pm     Finally, everyone arrived with more drugs.  Will held one leg, a nurse held the other, a doctor pushed down on my stomach, and Nachamie pulled the baby out.  I was pushing contantly with hardly any breaks or breaths.  I wanted that baby out!!!  I was calling out to God to help me, I was in so much pain.  I thought I could handle it since I had done CATS, but this was much worse.:-)

        11:15pm     Pop!  Out came the baby.  I remember everyone became very quiet except Will who was crying and saying comforting words to me.  She didn't really cry at first. She just kind-of whined.  She was totally alert, but laid back about the whole thing.   They placed her on my belly and I couldn't believe it.   Her color was beautiful and she was huge!  Her eyes were looking right at me, and she was a beautiful new soul in this little body.

        Midnight     24 hours after it had all started, our parents came up to see her.    They were so excited to see their new grandchild.  First the moms came up, then the dads, then our friends Alison and Peter (we told them she was my sister! )

That's it!  What a ride!