The Last Ten Days
November 14th, 2009
I think that all of you know by now that Brandon and I are parents! On November 4, at 10:55 PM, Soren Lauridsen Vrosh was born. He weighed 8 pounds and was 20.5 inches long. What some of you might not know is that there were some other complications. I just wanted to give you all a quick run-down of the story, in case you’ve been getting bits of information second hand and don’t really know what happened.
On the morning of November 4, I started feeling some contractions. I was going to attempt to give birth without the use of medications or interventions, so I labored at home that morning and afternoon. Around 5:00 PM when then contractions were strong and pretty close together, we loaded up the car and headed to the hospital. Once we were admitted, we found out that I was already 10 centimeters dilated, so as soon as my doctor arrived, I began to push. We were all really excited because this meant I had made it through quite a bit of labor without pain meds. But then, Soren decided to get his head stuck. So I pushed for four hours, making no progress, and finally had to get an epidural. By this point, I was so miserable and we thought that if I wasn’t in so much pain, my body could continue to try to move Soren further in the birth canal. But then that didn’t seem to be happening at all, so after all of that, he was delivered c-section. Which is fine. Because he’s beautiful.
So Brandon, Soren and I were recovering in the Family Birth Center at SW Washington Medical Center for the next few days. On Saturday afternoon, a few hours before we were scheduled to be discharged, I started to feel some weird pains under my right-side ribs. We asked about it and the doctors and nurses said that with c-sections, there are often times little pockets of gas in your abdomen which can cause some discomfort. So that evening, around 9 PM, we went home.
Overnight, my pains started to get worse. The next day, the entire right side of my abdomen started cramping up and seizing every five minutes or so. Luckily, my mom was staying with us, so we had help taking care of Soren, as I was completely unable to do anything at times. By that evening, Brandon was so concerned that he said it was time to go to the ER. Because I was breast feeding, we had to bring Soren with us, which was scary because of how germy the hospitals are, especially in the ER. I was admitted quickly, but the doctors were having a hard time diagnosing what wrong. First they thought it was gall stones, but an ultrasound didn’t back that up. Then I had a CT scan and they noticed a large build-up of fluid in the area of where a postpartum mother’s appendix would be, however they couldn’t see it to determine whether or not it was inflamed. We made the decision that Soren should be switched to formula, so my mom took him home and cared for him there. I went immediately into surgery. My appendix ended up looking fine once the surgeon removed it, but he also noticed that a large amount of infectious fluid had collected above my liver. I came out of surgery and spent the next three days recovering in the hospital. The surgeon, my doctor, and the obstetrician who performed my c-section all concluded that nothing really went “wrong” with my c-cection. I just happened to be very unlucky and developed an infection of the peritoneum.
ANYWAY, I’m home now and am feeling much better. It’s kind of a slow recovery, but I’m up and around and trying to figure out how to be a mom to Soren. Throughout this entire ordeal, Brandon has been absolutely amazing and I cannot tell you how much I love him. Also, our parents have been so supportive and generous. We are so, SO lucky to have all of them living close by. Most importantly, however, is that Brandon and I have a healthy, beautiful, baby boy and that is more than we could ever ask for.
I apologize for not being more communicative during the past ten days, but now that I’m feeling better, I promise that will change : ) Hope you are all well.
Love,
Britta, Brandon & Soren
Love.
