God is faithful

I know this is the title of a recent post but I thought it only fitting to repeat. God is good and faithful then, now and always.

Monday morning, October 29, I received my most recent lab results which indicated that my bile acids had increased significantly. They actually increased so much that we were not only in the risky range of Cholestasis of Pregnancy, but the high risk stage where the rates of stillbirth go up quite a bit. With that in mind, we, (the obstetricians, Stephen and myself,) decided that we had better take some measures to get little Jovie out of my womb sooner than later as we didn't want to be one of the 5% of cholestasis patients that have a stillbirth.

After going to the office to have an NST done, see how far I was dilated and make sure Jovie was doing alright, we scheduled to be induced the following morning. I was still convinced that I wanted to try to go as natural as possible so we went home and I decided to try the old Castor oil trick. It wasn't as awful as I thought it would be. Yes, it does have the side effects you can imagine and yes, it did seem to make my uterus contract, so much so in fact that I was having regular contractions about 3 minutes apart by 8:00 pm. They were not painful at all however. We decided to go and get checked to make sure that I wasn't dilating and after being checked, we found out that we were still only at 2cm, the same as we were earlier that day.

The following morning, Tuesday, October 28, we arrived at the hospital at 7:30 and my doctor broke my water. We then walked and walked and walked trying to get labor going without pitocin but no such luck. 1:30 pm rolled around rather slowly and I was given pitocin and told to lay on my side while they monitored Jovie and myself to make sure we both handled it alright. They started out by giving me 1 unit of pitocin, about 30 minutes later, they checked me and we were progressing, they upped the dose to 2 units of pitocin, (I guess this is a fairly small dose. It's about two little drops through the IV per hour.) This really seemed to speed things up. I won't go into all of the details but I'll tell you it was fast and furious! We decided to get an epidural around 3:00 pm. The anesthesiologist was a little delayed and it seemed he may have gotten there a little too late. I was bordering transition as I was getting the epidural. It didn't take complete effect because Jovie was a little farther down and blocking certain areas so that the epidural couldn't relieve me everywhere. I had feeling just about everywhere and the epidural seemed to help take just enough of the edge off of the pain. We started pushing around 3:50 and Jovie entered our world at exactly 4:00 pm. We made it!

Stephen's parents came and brought me my long awaited chocolate peanut butter milkshake. (They got me a large from Baskin Robbins! It was humongous. It must have been 32oz!) My was that fattening beverage good! My mother ran and got me a cheeseburger, yes with cheese! And french fries, and onion rings. Yum. And then, to top off my night, Claire made a chocolate cake with her delicious harvest moon frosting and bittersweet chocolate drizzle. I snacked on this all through the night. Any time I fed Jovie, I would take a couple of bites and praise God for chocolate!

We were able to be released from the hospital this morning with an excellent bill of health. I feel great as does Jovie I presume. We are both thankful she is no longer stretching inside my womb and is now resting peacefully in my arms.

God is faithful! Things don't always work out the way you'd expect or necessarily wanted or even thought was the best way but that doesn't discredit any of God's goodness. He is still as good and faithful as I'd say he was if I didn't have an ounce of liver problems, made it full term and had a painless deliver. (That's dreaming right? :)
Psalm 136

1 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
2Give thanks to the God of gods,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
3Give thanks to the Lord of lords,
for his steadfast love endures forever;

4to him who alone does great wonders,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
5to him who by understanding made the heavens,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
6to him who spread out the earth above the waters,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
7to him who made the great lights,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
8the sun to rule over the day,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
9the moon and stars to rule over the night,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
.... 23It is he who remembered us in our low estate,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
24and rescued us from our foes,
for his steadfast love endures forever;
25he who gives food to all flesh,
for his steadfast love endures forever.

26Give thanks to the God of heaven,
for his steadfast love endures forever.
Amen!

Here are some pictures of our beautiful bundle of joy. I think she looks much different than Pear, however, there is some resemblance.