Cora Leigh's Arrival

Cora Leigh arrived a little earlier than we had anticipated. Erin went to the doctor September 15th for her 38-week check and was told that her blood pressure was "unusually high". This came as quite a shock to her as she had previously had no problems with her pregnancy. She was advised by her OB/GYN to go to the Mother/Baby Triage Unit at UK Chandler Medical Center for further testing and observation.

I was at work when Erin called me with the news. Unfortunately, I still had 2 patients on my schedule so I could not leave right away. By the time I was able to leave work, one of the doctors had told Erin that it would probably be a good idea to go on home and get the luggage. So, I went home to get our luggage (which we had fortunately already packed) and then headed to the hospital not knowing if our little girl would be born that day or not.

Erin and I sat in the triage unit until approximately 8:30 pm when we were informed that she had been diagnosed with pre-eclampsia and was going to be admitted and her labor induced. By 9:30 that night, Erin and I were in our room in the Labor & Delivery unit at UK Hospital. We made several phone calls to our parents and friends and waited. The chief OB resident came into our room and told us that they would soon be inducing Erin's labor and informed us regarding how this process would take place. She then left our room to go get the medication to start the induction process...

A few minutes later, the resident returned to our room and informed us that Erin had begun contracting on her own and that they would be doing some things to help her along with her labor. This was a great blessing as it is sometimes difficult to induce labor in women with pre-eclampsia. They had to start Erin on magnesium, which relaxes the body and is actually used sometimes to stop contractions, to prevent any complications from the pre-eclampsia (brain swelling, seizures, kidney damage). We were told to get some sleep if we could as we had several long hours ahead of us.

At around 4:00 am, I stepped out of the room briefly to get Erin some ice chips. When I opened the door to the hallway I was very surprised (and still half asleep) to see Erin's parents and sister standing in the hallway. They had driven through the night and were probably as tired as we were!

When Erin was 4-5 cm dilated, she decided to go ahead and ask for an epidural. At 4:30 am, the anesthesiologist came to place Erin's epidural. As he was almost about to place the needle into her spine, his pager went off and he had to leave the room. This caused Erin to have to go through the entire process of numbing the skin at her back twice! (But she was a real trooper and probably much braver than I would have been.)

We were able to get some rest for the next few hours and waited as Erin's labor progressed. At 2:25 pm Wednesday afternoon the nurse told Erin it was time to start pushing. This was a long and exhausting process as the magnesium makes it difficult to push. Erin pushed for 2 1/2 hours before Cora Leigh made her entrance into the world at 4:52 pm. Cora Leigh weighed 5 lbs, 13 oz. and was 19.25 inches long and had a head full of brownish red hair. Erin and I instantly fell in love with her!

Here are some pictures of our journey.