The Amazing Story...

Alison wanted me to post something to update you all on our events.

Friday 8/29 Alison wakes up in the morning feeling sick with the flu.  2:30 pm Alison went to the doctor where the doctor agreed to strip her membranes to help move the baby along.  Returning to her mothers house post doctors appointment she began to feel cramping.  At around 5:30pm she started to time these "cramps" and noted they were coming more often and with more impact each time.  We decided to call the hospital after a while and they told us to go ahead and come in when the labor pains were 3 minutes apart and 60sec. long.  Ann Anderson came from Utah to be Alison's birthing coach.  Ann quickly came over after we called the hospital and within a couple of hours we were out the door and on our way to the hospital.

We arrived at the hospital at approximately 9:30pm (we sped, but only a little bit).  Alison was admitted and we started to watch labor pains and contractions throughout the night.  Previously Alison had decided to go with a natural birth, but unfortunately she had the flu and didn't have the strength she needed to endure contractions.  At 2:30am Alison received a visit from the epidural fairy (anesthesiologist).  Upon receiving the epidural we found out

 that it worked and she was able to rest a bit.  

Later Saturday 8/30 in the morning the doctor decided to break her water and help the dilation process along.  At 8:00am Alison was dilated to a 5 and her water had already been broken.  The doctor decided that she had waited long enough and ordered that Alison be put on pitocin.  Within the hour of receiving this wonder drug Alison was dilated to a 7.  

At 10:30 Alison was fully dilated and the nurses were ready for her to start pushing.  

At 11:18am all of Alison's hard work paid off and we were able to see Elena Marie for the first time.  Elena weighed 7lbs 11oz and was 20'' long.  She was beautiful and had the sweetest cry ever!  Alison was finishing up with the doctor while Elena was moved to the side to get measurements and be seen by the nurses.

During the after birth clean up the doctor noted that Alison was continuing to bleed and decided he wanted to stay ahead of any possible problems.  He ordered that she be given an extra line of IV fluids to help her with the blood loss.  

Within the hour of the birth Elena was taken to the nursery because of a slight fever and Alison didn't feel well.  Alison began to slip out of conscienceness and her blood pressure dropped dramatically.  The doctor became concerned and ordered many different prescriptions to try and stop the bleeding and bring her blood pressure back up.  Unfortunately the orders only seemed to take affect for a moment.  Shortly after this happened she began to bleed again and went unconscience.  The doctor ordered a blood transfusion and stronger medicine to try and help Alison recover.  

Alison received the blood transfusion, however, the medicine didn't help her and her uterus refused to stay contracted.  Finally after 7 hours of painful tummy massages and several blood transfusions the doctor decided it was time to go inside and see what was causing the bleeding.  He ordered an emergency operation (DNC) and explained to us the was going to try a number of procedures to stop the bleeding, however, if they were unsuccessful they would have to perform a hysterectomy to preserve her life.

At 7:00pm they took Alison from the room and down to the operating room.  Time passed SLOWLY as we sat in the waiting room trying to hear what had happened.  At 10:45pm the doctor came to me and explained that he tried everything possible to stop the bleed, but was unsuccessful. When the doctor opened her up to see what was wrong with the uterus, he noted that there was significant bruising on the uterine wall and knew right away that the only thing to do would be to remove her uterus.  At around 11:20pm they allowed Connie and Me to go into the recovery room where Alison was and see her.  

At 1:30am they finally were able to move Alison from the recovery area into a room where both she and I crashed for the night after 2 very long days.  

Currently Elena is doing much better and the doctor believes that if she continues on her course she could go home as early as Wednesday or Thursday.  

Alison is getting better, but has needed a couple more blood transfusions to increase the amount of blood in her body.  We expect to go home Tuesday or Wednesday.  We are doing well and are very thankful for all of your support through phone calls and prayers.