Olivia's appointment

On the first day after Olivia was born the pediatrician noticed that one of Olivia's hips was dislocated and he said that was normal for a breech baby and we would look at it closer at the 6 week appointment. The following day he said he was a little concerned and had her get an ultrasound. The ultrasound showed that both of her hips were dislocated so our pediatrician referred us to a pediatric orthopedic surgeon in
Salt Lake City. All the local doctors recommended that we go to a specialist.

So we went to Primary Children's Hospital and had her get another ultrasound and had the orthopedic doctor look at her. There are 4 risk factors for dislocated hips in newborns and Olivia meets all 4. Risk 1: Females are at a higher risk for dislocated hips because they are affected by the hormone relaxin that mom is releasing in addition to the hormones their body is making. Risk 2: Breech position. The breech position is working against the bone slipping into the socket. Risk 3: First born. The uterus is the tightest with the first born so there isn't much room for the baby. Risk 4: Someone in the family has had a problem. My little sister Kanika had a dislocated hip but it wasn't as serious. My parents just double diapered her and a few months later she was fine.

Olivia has to wear a harness that holds her legs into a frog position so that they can hopefully slip back into the socket. One hip is completely dislocated and the other hip is partially dislocated. The doctor recommended she wear it basically for 24 hours and to give her a sponge bath only. This also spoils my plans of wearing cloth diapers for the time being.

Olivia has to go back in 2 weeks to see if she is making progress and in 1 month she will get another ultrasound. If this doesn't work we will try again at the age of 5 months and if that still doesn't work she might have to have minor surgery and have her hip manually put back and put in a cast.

I am praying that the harness will work for her. Even though she isn't in any pain it still breaks my heart to see her in her harness.

Labor & Delivery

So if you have been following my post you know that I was concerned that Olivia was breech and I thought she had turned last week which was a great relief. Tuesday morning about 6 in the morning I started experiencing the most excruciating pain (felt like a menstrual cramp times 100). I wasn't sure it was a contraction but then they started coming every 12 minutes and I tried to labor on the ball and I finally woke up Mike. Around 7 AM Mike called our doula because the contractions were starting to get really intense.

I was expecting labor to be a slow process like a contraction here and a contraction there. I thought it was going to slowly build up from 3-4 contractions an hour eventually turning into 5 minutes apart. Boy was I wrong. Mine started without a warning and were so close together.

Around 7:30 AM our doula arrived and she was helping Mike and I try different laboring positions. I was having back labor and we were able to get Olivia to move so that went away eventually. I ate some toast and Mike made me a smoothie while I was laboring. Around 10:30 AM my contractions were 5 minutes apart and I felt like I needed to push so we went to the hospital.

When I checked in I was ready to continue the labor in the hot tub. The nurse checked me and I was 100% effaced but not dilated at all. Then she did an ultrasound and saw that Olivia was breech and the environment in the laboring room totally changed. I felt like a piece of dead meat being attacked by vultures. All these people came in and my doctor showed up and I was being prepped for a c-section.

I decided to do a c-section instead of asking to do a vaginal breech birth. Personally I thought the risks for Olivia were too high especially since it was my first baby. While being prepped and waiting to get a spinal block, I was laying on the bed and my back labor returned. FYI: Laying down in the bed is not a great way to labor.

Since I had labored at home for so long, they were worried that Olivia would come vaginally so my c-section ended up bumping everyone else who had a scheduled c-section. I went in for surgery around 11:30 AM. The morphine made me sick and I started vomiting during the surgery and all that wonderful strawberry smoothie came back up. Mike kept me company during the surgery and my doula took pictures.

Olivia was born at 12:01 PM. It was great to finally hear her cry. The surgery took longer than expected because the doctor had a difficult time stopping my bleeding. Afterwards I was so exhausted. I stayed in the hospital until Friday afternoon. I was a little disappointed that I had a c-section but I would rather play it safe. It was rough because I wasn't expecting to have a c-section and I didn't know recovery would be so difficult the first few days.

In the end I am glad that I was able to labor until my contractions were 5 minutes apart. I am glad that Mike and I hired a doula. Her knowledge was so extremely helpful and next time we will know what to expect and have a bunch of laboring techniques to use.

Baby Olivia Is Here.

Hi everybody, this is Mike and I want to let you know Olivia Lim Durtschi was born on September 23, 2008. Weighing in at 6 lbs. 11 oz. Both her and mother are doing extremely well.
I will let Sandy fill you in on the rest when she gets the time.

Kanika, Sandy's little sister wanted to add how cute Olivia's sideburns and little peach fuzz is. She has long limbs like me. And is very patient hardly fussing when she is hungry. Also like her father. ha! Lots of hair, cute little plump lips and dimples. Very cute for a newborn I would have to say. Then again she is mine.

We are very excited to be parents and hope to give baby Olivia a good home.
Bye Now.

Just hanging out

My blood pressure has been high and I was suppose to be getting some rest but there were still a few more things I had to accomplish on Thursday and Friday. So I probably exerted more energy on those two days than I would have if I was just at work. I did check my blood pressure and saw how big of a different there was when I was sitting compared to when I was laying down and I have been laying down a lot more even though it has been really difficult.

The good thing about laying down is the swelling in my feet have gone down significantly. The bad thing is I feel super lazy. Kanika, my little sister, came by and cleaned my kitchen and it was really hard for me to watch someone else clean and me not being able to help. I guess I have to do what I have to do for the baby.

To occupy my time I borrowed Twilight from my sister-in-law so hopefully that will make time go by fast. I have heard so many great things about the series.

Good news and some bad news...

I had my weekly visit and even though the doctor wasn't there I saw his PA (she is fantastic). The good news is baby Olivia finally turned. I am 80% effaced but no dilation.

Here are all the great and wonderful things I did that hopefully contributed to Olivia turning so late in pregnancy. I went to a chiropractor that specializes in pregnant women who performed the webster technique on me on Friday afternoon, Saturday morning and Monday afternoon. Even though I had to drive to Ogden which is 45 minutes away it was well worth the time and gas.

I took a homeopathic medicine called pulsatilla to help loosen my muscles starting Thursday evening. My doula did some energy work on Tuesday afternoon. I did the slant board since Friday and the polar bear position (aka the chest knee position). I drank water with some redmond's real salt so I could retain water so Olivia would have plenty of amniotic fluid to turn. Unfortunately the salty water made me swell a lot more than I am use to.

The bad news is my blood pressure was high but when I would lay down it went back to normal and my feet have been super swollen. The PA was worried that I might have pregnancy induced high blood pressure so she asked me to lay down as much as possible. She was also concerned that I could get toxemia so I did a stress test today and had some blood drawn. Olivia's stress test turned out great. I don't have any protein in my urine. I'll have to call the office tomorrow to find out the results of my blood test.

So basically I need to be in a horizontal position as much as possible until I go into labor and I might be ordered to go on bed rest if the blood tests aren't great. Bed rest isn't the worst thing that could happen but it is hard not being able to do anything. I still have 9 days until my due date but I think I will probably go over since I am not dilated at all and progressing slowly.

Still Breech and not dilated...

I had my weekly appointment today and Olivia is still breech and sitting very high and I am not dilated. The doctor said we will wait another 2 weeks until we discuss any options but as more time passes by the less likely she will move and since I am so short the baby might not turn at all. Pretty disappointing since I wanted to do it natural and if she doesn't turn he would like to do a C-section.

We did talk about external inversion and he said we would discuss the pros and cons during my 39th week. He said the success rate for first time moms are pretty low. And after feeling my belly today he said my abdominal muscles are really tight so he didn't think that would be very successful.

I did call a local chiropractor last week about acupuncture and their success rate has been really low. I am planning on calling a local woman who is a doula that does foot zoning and energy work that has had a lot of experience turning breech babies with the foot zoning and energy work combination. I also plan on calling some chiropractors outside the valley who do the Webster technique to find out how successful they have been. Basically I am looking at all my options.

I talked with my doula today and she said I might want to look into vaginal delivery of a breech baby. She is also helping me look into other options as well. She has been awesome and the best thing is she said she will support any option that I choose which is very comforting.

Scentsy Candles

I am selling scentsy candles which are wickless candles and will be hosting my launch party on Tuesday, September 16, 2008 from 5:30-7:30 in Logan, UT. If you are interested in attending, please let me know and I would love to drop off an invite. Anyone who attends can enter a drawing to receive a free candle warmer valued at $30. If you can't attend but would like to check out the scents, please email or call me and I can drop off a sample basket.

Scentsy has 80+ fragrances and the candles come in small bars or large bricks so you can use only what you need and change the scents easily by saving the unused portions. The aroma is absolutely amazing because the bars contain more fragrance oils than most candles. You can use them in candle warmers you already have. Scentsy also offers car candles, room sprays and small plug-in warmers for small rooms.

If you have any questions or would like to host your own party, please contact me. You can check out my website at: www.scentsy.com/durtschi