Day Eight.2

Lara is resting. She initially received relatively low levels of Pitocin, also known as Oxytocin, periodically throughout the night; however, that dose has increased. Lara is currently having dull but steady contractions, occasional cramping. Our medical team believes that she is firmly in early labor. While I indicated in a previous post that this was slow, Dr. Fries stopped by told us that Lara is progressing as anticipated.

A word about one of our doctors who I mentioned in another post – Dr. Melissa Fries – who has seen us several times during our stay. Dr. Fries is a 26 year Air Force doctor who, according to her Medstar bio, focuses on caring for those whose road to motherhood has been difficult and uncertain. Dr. Fries presently serves as the department Chairperson and the Director of the Special Moms / Special Babies program. Most importantly, she has a farm. As mentioned in a prior post, Dr. Fries has been patient and understanding consulted with William Fife, a 20-year family physician at Lancaster General Hospital in Pennsylvania.

For non-medical experts (raises hand), Pitocin, according to John Hopkins, has a few uses during pregnancy but in this specific case is a drug used to stimulate contractions. This hormone is given continuously through an IV typically starting a very low dose and slowly increasing over several hours. Overnight, Lara started at one milliliter per minute; she is now at 13-14 mL.

Based on online research and my six years of watching Grey’s Anatomy, 13ml seems high. Further analysis suggests that the recommended high does limit of 9-10 mL pertains to women who are at later stages of labor. As Lara is starting earlier than her body anticipated, the ripening stage, she needs a higher dose over a longer period.

She goes to the bathroom roughly twice an hour and has experienced slightly more amniotic flow, with slight coloration. We have yet to see a clear indication of bloody show, which is not a phrase that describes a frustrating night at the theater for a British duchess.

Lara has manageable back pain, which seems consistent with being bed bound and could also indicate contraction activity. She also has manageable nausea, perhaps as a result of the her medications or low caloric intact. After about three days, she finally had not one but two poos! An exciting day so far.

While awake, Lara enjoyed a clear liquid diet for breakfast. Enjoy is not the word that she would use but I’m assuming this is a PG blog. Her meals consist of chicken broth, assorted jellos, juices, and black coffee. Actually, this is also her lunch and dinner, sans the coffee. If you are aware, Lara has a normal diet. She does not eat bird portions but does has a gluten allergy. This has made eating hospital food, which has gluten and generous portions of salt, problematic.

Robin, our Labor and Delivery nurse, returned to us this morning. She mentioned that coffee should not be considered part of a clear diet. Lara as a devoted coffee drinker, disagreed. As a result, they each presented broadswords and dueled like J. R. R. Tolkien characters. Okay, that last sentence is completely fabricated but I’m just checking if you’re pay attention. Actually, Robin told a story of how when she was admitted once, she asked for a vegan diet. They didn’t known what that was, so they didn’t get her anything. Problem solved. Eventually, they gave Robin a veggie burger but when she asked for lettuce and tomatoes, they said no because it wasn’t a vegan option. I say all this to say that we don’t have many food options and Lara is metaphorically staving.

The hard part is that we’ve been in this strange labor space for a week. If this were normal times, we could have visitors, get magazines from the local drug store and maybe she could walk the halls. We live 10 minutes away by car. Coronavirus effectively confines us to the hospital, she can’t leave her room, I cannot leave the grounds. We hurry to apply masks when someone knocks, and those people can enter at anytime, 24 hours a day. Not a great way to give birth, but we feel very fortunate to have all of you supporting us and that our medical team has done so much to ensure that our baby has the best possible birth.

On the bright side, if we do not move to active labor before this evening, the team will pause the induction process. This will give Lara a little time to eat a solid meal for the first time in 2 days and free herself from the medical contraptions for a couple hours.

Thanks for your time.