The Evans: Welcome Baby Anisten!

At 38 weeks pregnant I got sick for a few days with fever, chills, headache, and a weird rash on my belly. I was worried about the baby and so was my midwife. On Saturday morning at 3am I went in to be evaluated at Evergreen's Family Maternity Center. They started doing test after test. They were looking for infection in me and in the baby. I was poked 3 separate times for lab draws, had an ultrasound guided amniocentesis, and three pokes to the spine for a lumbar puncture. They started an IV and were giving me fluid. They also used a catheter to get a clean urine specimen, and did a chest X-Ray. I felt like the science project of the day. We had a Midwife, an OB, an infection doc, and a perinatologist working with me. They were all working together to find out what was wrong with me and the baby. Everything came back normal, except the amniotic fluid had a glucose level of 8, and anything above 15 is normal. The glucose level being low is a sign of stress for the baby and they decided to induce labor and get the baby out. Everything was a little crazy. They checked my cervix, 2cm dilated, and broke my water. They added pitocin to the IV fluid to start contractions. I did have an enjoyable time experiencing labor using the Jacuzzi tub twice, walking the hall, and bouncing on a labor ball. Rylan was very supportive, Mom flew in and visited us with Lilly. When I got hurting pretty bad, I got an epidural (4th and best poke into my spine :) From there, I was very tired having not slept the night before, and still sick. One hour later I started pushing, after 20 minutes baby girl #2 was born. She is beautiful. We had some special care RN's and a respiratory therapist in the room just in case. She did just fine after a little rubbing she started to breath. She got to breast feed, and have her first bath before they whisked her off to get a bunch of tests done to her and an IV placed. Ry went with her, while I rested. They sent my placenta to be tested and cultured. We found out the next day that my placenta had gram-negative rod bacteria which is bad news!! possible E-Coli. They figure I'll be OK because the placenta was no longer in my body, but baby had to transfer to pediatrics for 7 to 10 days of IV antibiotics. So Rylan and I are currently living at the hospital, Mom is watching Lilly. They come to visit every day. Baby is doing very well. We feel blessed to have a new little one, and know that things could be a lot worse. We love you all.

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