Introducing...

Casey Susanne Boudreau!



Well, as many of you may already know (via emails, phone calls, etc.), our daughter Casey decided to arrive before her scheduled induction date! Here are the nitty-gritty details...

I was taking a nap on our couch yesterday afternoon when I woke to a gush of water. (not Niagara Falls, but enough to get my attention.) I inspected the situation (and yes, that includes the gross idea of smelling it) and felt that this was probably anmiotic fluid indeed.

I called Tee Jay at work, who stated that he was already packing up for the day and getting on the subway, and I told him that my water may have broken and to GET HOME!

Within the next hour, I sped around the house, cleaning things, putting out fresh sheets, etc. I was having no contractions and no further trickle of fluid. Assuming that the baby's head was probably blocking the cervix (and thereby blocking any possible leak), I decided to lay back down when Tee Jay arrived home. Again, I experienced a gush of water.

We called the doctor's office, and though contractions still hadn't started, we were instructed to head to the hospital. We arrived at Virtua Memorial at approximately 8:00PM, and we didn't notify anyone except for our parents, because we really weren't sure if this was going to be the "real deal" or not.

I was hooked up to fetal monitoring and given an exam, finding that I was not dilated and that the resident doctor didn't feel my water had broken after all. However, because Casey's heartbeat was hovering around the 170 and 180 range, we would probably stay put for an hour or two to monitor it.

Tee Jay and I were peacefully watching TV the first time the nurse came in, saying, "WHAT is going on!?!?!?" and grabbing the printout of the fetal monitoring. I took a look at the screen, and saw that the heartbeat was down in the 90s! The nurse changed my position and put me on oxygen, and Casey got better at that point.

Because of the deceleration, we were told by the resident that we would stay overnight for observation and possibly go home on Saturday morning (but that Dr. Grossman, whose shift would begin Saturday, was a little more "anal retentive" than the others - so he might begin the induction a day early).

Casey had other plans... after two more decelerations, the resident arrived in the room again and placed the catheter in me to help with dilation - thus beginning our induction on Friday night! Again, we called our parents to tell them that Pitocin would be started Saturday and to start making their travel arrangements.

And then, one last time, we were in for a surprise when just moments later, around 10:30PM, the resident popped her head back in and said that our doctor on-call had been watching the monitoring from home and decided that, because I wasn't dilated at all yet, we couldn't wait through a normal labor time period. This baby was being delivered Friday night.

I asked, "I'm having a c-section? Does that come with a sedative?????"

But I calmed down over the next several minutes, knowing that we all wanted what was best for the baby. Tee Jay made final calls to the parents about the new change in plans... he scrubbed up... I received a spinal anesthetic (like an epidural, but no tube was left in my back and the medication would only last for an hour or so)...

and at 11:26PM on Friday, February 20, 2009, our girl was born. She weighed 7lbs, 4oz, and was 21.25 inches long.

It all happened so fast (we certainly hadn't expected a baby on Friday!), but the nurses (especially our L&D nurse Linda), the nurse anesthetist (Dave), and our OB Dr. Gorlitsky were wonderful. We were in good hands, we know we are in God's hands, and we are proud parents finally!