A new grandson, A new beginning

Oh, what a beautiful baby... mom and baby are doing well. It has been quite a journey these past 3 weeks!

Daughter was "induced" tuesday morning, beginning with a cervadil patch applied to her cervix because she was not quite one centimeter dilated. 12 hours later there was no change, so they applied another patch... Wednesday morning STILL just a centimeter dilated, but "soft", so they began pictocin via IV to get contractions going... she handled the contractions very well, even when they became pretty strong and sometimes only a minute apart.

(She had been off of methadone completely for 2 days, and only 5 mg a day for two days before that, so I was quite surpised that on Tuesday, they were giving her 2 10 mg Norco tablets every 3-4 hours for pain - I thought that was a pretty hefty dose of an opiate (hydrocodone, but they knew her history, so - once she was on the IV they gave her stadol)

Anyway, after 12 hours on the pictocin and pretty strong and regular contractions they checked her and...
no change in her cervix! That was very frustrating for her. They decided to leave off of the pictocin for 6-8 hours and instead applied another cervix softener, a gel applied "behind" the cervix, overnight while she rested (She didn't rest much) - checked her about 6:30 Thursday morning and ... nothing. They pretty much prepared her for a C-section that night, but first, to hers and my own great dismay, wanted her to do the pictocin again, and they really cranked it up. I must say it was unkind to tell her she was going to have a c-section but also have her in hard labor for about 8 hours first! On one hand I understand they were hoping the cervix might just dilate, but on the other they were pretty sure it wouldn't... and they didn't want to give her an epidural until it was time for the c-section because it might "stall" her labor. WTF? She was only in labor because of the pictocin - everything stopped the moment they turned it off... so THAT was heartbreaking to go through with her... she had no real incentive to work thru the pain of each contraction - she was in so much pain *I* cried...

Oh. Oh... And it was just me with her through that horrible 6 hours yesterday. I got to the hospital at about 8:30 am, prepared to spend the day, as I have all week. When I came in the room was dark, she was alone, and she was resting(finally!)... Normally the "boyfriend" is there watching TV, stretched out comfortably ... Baylor has been his personal hotel for the past few weeks. I didn't ask about him, but I did unplug the phone in her room and settled in in the dark so that she could continue to rest. After she woke up and the contractions were getting stronger, but still tolerable, I took a little break and went downstairs - I made sure to plug her phone back in so that she could call my cell if she needed me. OMG. I was downstairs no more than 5 minutes when she called - "Boyfriend" was in jail!!! Do you see why I am so impressed with this guy? He told her it was a case of mistaken identity, cops thought he looked like a suspect from an incident a few days ago and they realized their mistake, but, oops, he had outstanding warrants. Sucks to be him. I have to tell you, I could only laugh. Truth be told, I was THRILLED... and my daughter didn't really seem to mind, either.

SOOOO - Long story short - at 5pm they took her in for a c-section, and I got to be there with her. I also got the coveted band on my wrist giving me access to the baby until he his discharged ... which if he ended up in NICU would be a major help.

He was delivered at about 5:45 pm, and was a little butterball, vigorous and vocal at 6 lbs 10 oz, 18.5" ... Beautiful. Beautiful.

Dad showed up (straight from nasty Dallas County Jail) around 10 pm.

CPS showed up at about noon today, and he has been placed with me and my husband - My daughter and the "boyfriend" are not allowed to have any unsupervised visits for the forsee-able future... I am getting ready to go back to the hospital because they cannot even have him in the room with them without me or my husband there, and the "boyfriend's" family are coming to see him. I do not mind at all supervising everyone of those visits. (The other grandparents didn't even stay at the hospital long enough to see the baby and my daughter out of recovery... they headed off to bail their big addict baby out of jail. Pfft.)

So far, he's doing very well and is not in the NICU... they are watching for signs of withdrawal carefully. Did I mention that he is beautiful? And my daughter looked beautiful holding him? And I dare to hope she will do the right thing... she is sad about CPS, but was prepared for that, and she knows how fortunate she is that he is healthy. She really wants to be a good Mom, and I want to help her be able to be just that... Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers (HUGS)