A Baby a Day

...keeps the doctor exhausted! It has been a big week for babies here in Whoo-ville. This is the week after the full moon, and man has it felt like it! Many believe that the day of the full moon is the big day for baby-having, but it has been my reality that the moon driven baby boom tends to fall either the week before or the week after the full moon. I have also noticed that there seem to be more demises and miscarriages during the new moon, whatever that may mean, and miscarriages also tend to come in threes.

My first delivery of the week was a multi-gravid patient with a history of rapid labors. She called me around 10:45 pm with "vaguely uncomfortable" contractions, due to her history, I urged her to head in to the hospital, and I tried to get a little rest in anticipation of a late night trek to the hospital. Triage paged at 12:30 am stating the patient was 3-4 cm with contractions every 6 minutes, she was admitted and wanted to move around so she started walking the halls. At 1:30 am she was 7 cm, and I rose from my cozy bed and cuddly baby, dressed, and was out the door within 5 minutes. On the way into the hospital, labor and delivery paged (around 1:45 am) and reported the patient was 9 cm. I walked into the hospital at 1:50 am, the patient's membranes ruptured as I walked into her room. She gave a low grunt as I quickly gowned and gloved, the nurses barely got the bed broken down, and the beautiful baby girl was delivered in one slow, fluid, controlled push at 2:00 am. No lacerations, no pain meds, just a quick and easy labor. I was back home and in bed by 3 am, but, as is often the case after a delivery, the adrenaline was flowing and I had a very difficult time sleeping. The day in the office passed in a blur, and then it was off to a costume party with the kids in tow.

The following morning, the pager bleated at 5:00 am, yet another early morning labor...just in time for Halloween! This patient, too, was 7 cm upon arrival to the hospital, and dedicated to delivering without pain medication...but she certainly wasn't happy about it! She had an epidural for her prior labor, and she kept remarking that "it never hurt like this last time." (!) She did very well, stayed focused, and delivered a bouncing Halloween boy at 7:30 am. She only had one small first degree laceration that did not require repair. Unfortunately, the plastic drape fell during the delivery spilling all sorts of wonderful goop upon the floor of the labor room. Ick. I then sprinted for surgery and once surgery was over, I dragged myself home...not for a much-needed nap, but for a shower and a trip to the kids' fall festival at the daycare. Then it was time to prep for Halloween tricks and treats. Lots of pictures of the costumed children, and a trek around our very hilly, steep driveway-ed neighborhood. CindyLou got more candy than she could ever hope for, Bean rode agreeably in the stroller, and Mr.Whoo and I exercised more in that one hour than we had for at least 8 weeks prior!

The following day, I had a scheduled induction for a post dates pregnancy. When I checked the patient, there was an odd band of scar tissue around the cervix...likely from a previous cervical surgery. The cervix was very effaced and thin, but it was only a tight 1 cm dilated. I waited for the patient to get her epidural, then gently stretched the scar tissue from 1 to 4 cm. I then headed for the office. At 11:30, L&D paged stating the patient was 7 cm and feeling pressure. I wrapped up my waiting office patients, raced to the hospital, and caught a baby at 12:05 pm. I barely had time to eat lunch before the afternoon patients started at 1pm.

The week ended with a jam-packed Friday morning office schedule, topped up with an afternoon scheduled repeat C-section. Fortunately this went beautifully, and I had time to go back to the office to finish up a bulk of charting and paperwork before starting an unexpected weekend off call. I even got to "sleep in" until 7:30 this morning, when I was awakened by the Bean's overflowing wet diaper...fun! We have plans to take CindyLou and Bean to the "Bee Movie" today and tonight to watch FSU get destroyed by BC (all the while hoping that some miracle will happen to let us actually win the game). Wine may, scratch that, will also be involved. Also, woo hoo, I won in Lara's contest! I never win anything! My luck has got to be looking up! :)