Daniel Matthew Perrer

Daniel Matthew Perrer

8 pounds, 2 ounces

19 1/2 inches long

Born 9:57 pm on October 16, 2008

After much waiting, Daniel is finally here! It was quite the event and wasn't exactly the smooth arrival that I was hoping for. Here is the long drawn out version for those of you interested in all of the excitement. I was scheduled to be induced at 7:30 am on Thursday, October 16. Matt's mom arrived into town Wednesday night, and apparently, that's all D was waiting for. At about 11:30 m Wednesday, I started having enough regular and strong contractions to wake Matt up to start timing them. At about 1 am, as I was getting out of bed, my water broke. I was in a state of disbelief- I looked at Matt and told him that had happened. At this point (and at many others for the next 24 hours), I realized that there was no going back. Matt called the doctor, we told our parents, and made our way to the hospital. It was such a surreal feeling- knowing that the next time we came back, we'd have Daniel with us. We checked into the hospital at about 2 am. We were in our own personal birthing suite- at Emory Eastside, they have no nursery. Everything they do for the baby (bathe him, test him, etc) is done in the same delivery room with me. I had on two external monitors- one to track my contractions and the other to measure the baby's heartrate. At about 5:30 am, the nurse started the Pitocin and the fun began. As soon as the Pitocin hit my system, I had one extremely long, painful, and no end in sight contraction. The nurse was right there, and she noticed that Daniel's heartrate was dropping to 80. All of a sudden, about 6 nurses were in the room giving me all sorts of instructions- turn to the left, turn to the right, get on my elbows and knees. Though they didn't stop to explain anything right then, everything was being done to get D's heartrate back up. I was given a shot to stop my contractions. It turns out that they were within minutes of knocking me out and performing an emergency C-section. Luckily, Daniels' heartrate resumed a normal rate. Fast forward a few hours later... contractions and the pain are getting stronger. I had been unsure of whether or not to get an epidural. At this point, there is no longer any question. Epidural all the way. The anesthesiologist came with his lovely pain meds, and, after 3 tries, successfully put an epidural in my back. The pain meds going in created a sense of very warm water being poured down my back. I'm not sure, but I may have promised to name my first-born after him. After receiving the epidural, the contractions felt like nothing. I could feel a little pressure, but absolutely no pain. It was a miracle! I was even able to sleep for a little while... until it started wearing off- I could start really feeling my legs when I touched them and the contractions. After some time, I told the nurse and she called for another doctor to come and give me a booster shot for my epidural. This one, for some reason, didn't take--- still feeling the pain of the contractions. I was regretting telling the doctor that I loved him- I now disliked him intensely because his pain meds weren't working. A few hours later, at about 5 pm, my doctor came in and checked- fully dilated and ready to start pushing. She had another patient next door who was in the same state as me, so the competition was on (little did we know...) I pushed for a short time... for what seemed like 12 hours, but probably for about half an hour... the pain was very intense. The doctor suggested that the anesthesiologist come and give me another booster shot and said that we take a break for awhile. The anesthesiologist took FOREVER to make it to my room. In my pain haze, I sent my mom out to look for him and bring him to me. I didn't even realize that she just went out in the hallway, spent a few minutes out there, and then came back in to tell me that he was coming. At last he came, and with him was a huge syringe full of Lidocain. As soon the medicine hit my body, I felt that lovely warm feeling down my back. This doctor I truly did love. I was painfree again and felt like I could finish this task of having a baby. I think my mom, Matt, and Joann will tell you that I was a different person with pain meds and without and which one they preferred to be around! I was just so thankful that I had a chance to rest and to not have all of that pain for a little bit. Despite all of this, the time in that room just seemed to fly by. It was hard to believe that I'd been having contractions since 11:30 the night before. At a little after 7, the doctor came in. The patient next door had won the contest, and now it was my turn. The doctor had also delivered an 11 pound, 6 ounce baby two babies before mine- ouch! To be honest, the next 2 and a half hours are a blur. I remember a lot of pushing, a lot of Matt counting (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10... take a deep breath... 1, 2, ...), my mom giving me words of encouragement like "Grunt! Push this baby out!", and then a lot of pain. My epidural was no longer working on the pain. Let me just say that Matt was amazing--- he was a very patient counter (though at times, I thought he counted VERY slowly) and very encouraging. He also had the job of helping me push my chin into my chest while I was pushing. Since I didn't really want my chin into my chest, I was pushing back against his arm a lot of the time... Apparently, there was a little lip in my cervix that D had to make his way around (and that I had to push him around). The doctor used the vacuum 3 times... each time, the suction would break (I believe it automatically breaks when it reaches a certain pressure) and she would almost fall backwards off of her stool. Each time, I was just sure that it was Daniel who had popped out. Nope- though according to Matt, the vacuum did help move Daniel down. I remember telling Matt that I wanted to stop--- couldn't they just give me the shot to stop the contractions and let me rest a bit--- that I didn't want to do this anymore--- who knows what else I said at that point. I was just purely exhausted. The doctor would tell me that we were getting close... my response? Just three more pushes??? She and the nurse would look at each other and tell me not quite... And off I would go pushing again. The nurse told us that he was bald... which had to mean that he was getting close! For about the last 5 - 10 minutes of pushing, I don't even remember being in the room which probably ended up being a good thing. I was just a pushing machine. My mother said that the nurse and doctor kept on sharing looks, and an entourage of nurses came into the hospital room. I took no notice. The doctor said that when the head came out, I was to stop pushing so she could suction out his mouth. Well, his head came out and so did the rest of his body- like a rocket, my mom said. Within 5 seconds, the cord was cut and he was on his little hospital crib being worked on by the nurses. I didn't see this, but his umbilical cord was wrapped around his neck twice and under his arms--- his head was pretty blue. He also had a huge sore on the top of his head and under his nose, plus a lot of swelling on the back of his head from the suction. His 1 minute Apgar score was a 2- for his heartrate. He wasn't breathing, had no reflexes, no muscle tone, wasn't crying... I asked the nurse if he was breathing, and she told me they were working on it. Pretty scary... I really couldn't see anything because I was lying down and people were in between me and the crib. I heard a lot of suctioning and pounding, and pretty soon (or after an eternity depending on how you look at it), he was breathing and wailing- best sound ever. His 5 minute Apgar score was an 8- much better! Apparently, he was positioned against head down against my pelvic bone during my last little bit of pregnancy, and, as I was pushing, his head (the top and his nose) repeatedly hit against my bone creating the sores. Also, I was not the only one who didn't want my chin in my chest- neither did Daniel. As he was making his way into the world, he was looking chin up- making for a much harder exit. Daniel wasn't born bald- the nurse was just looking at his forehead and didn't realize it. Because of the rough entry, it was decided that it would be best if he spent his first night in the NICU. We didn't realize it, but it would be the first of several nights. I was discharged Saturday, but they let Matt and me stay in the hospital room until Daniel was discharged from NICU last Monday. The main reason he was in NICU for so long (about 4 days) was because of the big sore on top of his head--- they didn't want there to be any chance of infection. We were able to visit every 3 hours- to hold him and feed him and love on him. All in all, he's perfect! The CT scan (because of the swelling) came back and the NICU doctor didn't really see anything to worry about. We went to a neurosurgeon last week, and he feels the same way. We go back in a month for an ultrasound of D's head just to double-check. The sore on his head and under his nose are all healing up. It was quite an adventure for everybody, but we all made it through fine. He was definitely worth it! Here are some pictures that were taken off him in the hospital.