Still Waiting for Baby YD No. 5

Rested, relaxed and ready for Baby YD #5.

Welcome to live coverage of the birth of Baby YD#5. We’re coming to you from the ninth floor of Methodist Hospital here in Omaha.

For those of you who are new to the YD Baby narratives, we have been doing this since Emily was born in March of 1997. At that time, Sean was using a Macintosh laptop with a dial-up Internet connection. Today’s coverage is being brought to you via an HP laptop (thank you Patrick Ragland) and IP connection in the “Daddy Room” here in the maternity ward.

6:52 a.m.
Lauren came into Danielle’s room this morning and without even acknowledging her, started singing “Happy Birthday” to her stomach.

7:30 a.m.
As the girls were getting ready for school, they had a lot of questions. Will it hurt? Will you bleed? How long will you be in the hospital? Emily looks a little nervous, but Julia is excited about having Aunt Bridget pick her up from school.

8:15 a.m.
Only 15 minutes late, we arrive at the Methodist. One time, we had to use the emergency entrance after hours and the security officer offered Danielle a wheelchair. This time, no one even gives us a second glance as we walk in the main doors. We’re hoping for a bigger room than we had last time (2002 when Olivia was born).

8:35 a.m.
Our nurse for the day will be Joan, who has worked in the maternity ward for seven years. She doesn’t get off until 7 p.m., so she’ll be with us for the long haul. Shadowing her today is Sara, a senior at Clarkson College. Beth, a resident medical student, also shows up. We’re a little leery of students, since one of them did a poor job of stitching up Danielle after Julia was born.

8:50 a.m.
The clock is ticking now that the pitocin is dripping into Danielle’s IV. Things are really hopping in the maternity ward, Joan says. They have already delivered more than 200 babies this month. Over the course of a normal month, about 300 to 375 babies are delivered.

9 a.m.
Stacy, who is Olivia’s godmother, arrives with her fiancé, Michael. It’s good to see her, since she has the laptop. She also brought Dani a purple heffalump named Lumpy. He’s making himself at home on her stomach.

9:15 a.m.
Dr. Bassett arrives. Danielle asks him what his guess is for a delivery time. He said he has a c-section at 2 p.m., so 3 p.m. is great. By lunch would be even better, Joan says.

Dr. Bassett says Danielle is about two centimeters dialated, which is no change from the past three weeks. He also said she is 60 percent effaced, which is less than the 80 percent he told Danielle she was a week ago. “He just tells you what you want to hear in the office,” Joan says.

9:59 a.m.
Joan has increased the pitosin to try and “get things going.” But so far, nothing is happening. If the pitosin does not work, they’ll have to do a c-section.

10:25 a.m.
Sean is working to get the computer’s wireless connection going. Unfortunately, it is not working. So we’re going to Plan B. to get these updates on-line.

10:30 a.m.
Danielle’s mom, Beppie, arrives. She is one of five people in the room now: Stacy, Michael, Sean, Dani’s sister Frans, and Dani’s niece, Laura. Joan made a comment earlier that only two people could be in the room at the time of delivery, but that she could “make an exception” for us.

10:55 a.m.
The pitosin dose has now gone from six to 18 to 24 to 30 on the levels. Dani is feeling some contractions, but nothing to shout about.

11:10 a.m.
We can hear the woman next door delivering. Danielle described it this way: “We heard them counting and she pushed three times and the next thing we heard was the baby crying.”

11:20 a.m.
It is nearly time for the local midday news programs to begin. When Sean was working at KMTV in 1999 (Lauren), 2000 (Julia) and 2002 (Olivia), Danielle was mentioned on the station’s Midday news when they showed KMTV’s Skyview camera at 72nd & West Dodge pointed west toward the hospital.

11:30 a.m.
Joan has upped the pitosin level to 36. The contractions are two to four minutes apart at right now.

Noon
It’s lunch time – for everyone buy Danielle. She hasn’t had anything to eat since about 7:30 last night. They don’t let moms eat anything after midnight on the day before induction, to prevent nausea.

12:15 p.m.
We have decided to start the movie Stacy brought, “Guess Who,” starring Ashton Kuchar.

12:30 p.m.
Joan checked and Danielle is four centimeters and 80 percent effaced. Her pitosin level has been upped to 48.

12:50 p.m.
So much for the movie. They are administrating the epideral, so everyone but Frans has been cleared from the room.

1 p.m.
Dr. Bassett is back to check on her progress a little early. He said she’s pushing five centimeters and projects the delivery to come about 4 p.m. He said we have to be finished by 5 p.m. because he has a big office meeting. He is off to do a c-section, which will take about 40 minutes.

1:10 p.m.
Danielle says her legs and feet feel warm, but she is experiencing a little shortness of breath. Joan doesn’t think it’s a problem, but she is going to let the anesthesiologist know about it.

1:45 p.m.
The anesthesiologist has arrived to check on Danielle, who said it feels like someone is standing on her chest. Jolon is also in to find out why we are not regularly hearing the heartbeat. Danielle can still use her legs. Joe said that they have changed the way epiderals are, so that you can push.