The punchline first, since this isn’t a murder mystery: Kathryn Elizabeth “Liza” Granade was born today at 12:19 P.M. She weighed 7 lbs. 7 oz., and was 19.5″ long. She scored an 8.9 on the Apgar scale.
Getting to that point, now…. We went to the hospital at 1:30 A.M. By 3 A.M. Misty was in active labor. By 8 A.M. she’d stalled — she had contractions but no progress. Two hours later the pain had gotten bad enough that she went from no drugs to in-IV drugs. An hour later she was on a full epidural plus pitocin. Still nothing.
By noon we were worried. Then Liza’s heartbeat dropped and would not come back up. Our doctor walked into our room, looked at the monitors, checked Misty for non-existent progress, and said, “I’m sorry we have to do this, but we’ve got to get that baby out right now, and that means a c-section. We’re taking her now.”
If I didn’t know how dire things were from what she said, her actions told me. She had Misty disconnected from the monitors and her bed moving in two minutes. Our nurse was on her portable hospital phone calling the c-section team. We flew down the hall, our doula and I trying our best to keep up. A minute later Misty was in the operating room, and they determined that they needed to put her to sleep. That meant I stood outside in the hall in a mask and gown I no longer needed and fretted.
Ten minutes later they wheeled Liza out to me.
That was, bar none, the most frightening thing I had ever experienced. If our doula hadn’t been there, I’d have gone insane. She had the time to explain what was going on. The doctors and nurses were too busy saving Liza and Misty both.
Everyone’s resting now, thank goodness. More later as the situation warrants.
26 Comments
Cripes – I didn’t know you guys had signed up for the Adventure Birth Sequence*, but I’m glad to hear it all worked out.
*In which Liza defeats Blanka with her natality move.
Glad everything worked out for the best. Keep us all posted.
WOW,
Liza sure knows how to make an entrance! I am very glad and relieved to hear both she and Misty are doing well.
I’m planing on making the sojourn back to Decatur sometime soon let me know when it’sokay to stop in…
You know, whenever people tell me, “oh, bloggers are so prone to drama!” somehow I doubt this is what they meant. Thanks for giving us the good news *first*!
And hooray!
Scary, man.
Whew. Very glad to hear all came out ok, and congrats to mom, baby, sibling, and Dad who did not succumb to heart attack
Also, well done on that naming. Proper spelling and all!
hey guys,
jason and i are very happy that misty and liza are doing good. can’t wait to see them when we are finally moved to huntsville.
Liza is officially doomed to be a drama queen.
Congrats on everything working out! I hope mom and baby continue to do well. I’ll try to call soon.
Wow.
I’m so glad everyone is okay.
(Ten minutes??)
Oh man… shades of Travon’s birth… I’m glad that everything turned out very well, and congrats to you all.
Glad to know everything turned out fine. Lots of love to Misty, Liza, you, and Eli.
Holy cow. I’m so glad things turned out ok. Birth is a wild mystery, and a winner is you (and you, and you, and you little Liza).
Congratulations.
First: glad everyone’s OK. That must have been harrowing.
Second: congratulations! Daughters are the bestest. Hi, Liza, and welcome to the world! Guess what, Eli, you’re going to have to learn ‘sharing’! But not for a few months at least, so start rolling that idea around now…
Finally: My sister went through two emergency C’s: one for her twins, and one after an attempted VBAC. Stress levels were through the roof, similar to I imagine yours were, but everyone’s doing great now and thriving nicely.
P.S. Photos?
WOO!
Congratulations to Misty, and welcome to Liza! Your story felt like a flashback — Dante’s birth went down almost exactly the same way, sans the general anesthetic for Laura.
I am so thrilled for you all that you made it through this part of the crazy process.
We’re thinking about you guys! If Eli needs to come hang out w/Will for awhile, please let me know. We would love to help in some way.
Chrissy
Hoo boy. Sara had an emergency C-section for Ellric which was not quite as harrowing as that sounds, but man. Now you have a great story to not tell pregnant women.
Congratulations!
Congratulations to all involved! Glad the outcome was good if the road a bit rocky.
We’ll have a drink (or three) in your honor this weekend.
Happy Day, glad to hear both are well. Many congrats to you all. I look forward to pictures and next meeting when maybe we can see the newest pirate.
Woohoo, welcome to the emergency C-section club! Can Liza say “arrr” yet?
As a seasoned professional, my advice to you is: save some of those painkillers. Stephen is going to need them later.
Yikes, that sounds scary–I’m glad things turned out well! Congrats!
Welcome, Liza!
Congratulations!
Thanks, everyone. Misty’s going to love reading all of y’all’s comments when she gets home on Sunday. And gets some sleep, I’m guessing. Liza is still doing great, and Misty is doing much, much better.
And for Liza-not-my-daughter: a nurse told us that, when pressed, our OB-GYN can do a c-section in 5 minutes instead of 10.
Thank you for prefacing this with the fact that everyone is okay – that must have been an incredibly scary thing for everyone involved. There’s no way to properly express how Sam and I feel that both Misty and Liza are fine, that you didn’t have a heart attack or aneurysm while waiting in the hall, and that Eli must now cope with the having-to-share-his-parents issues associated with having a new infant around the house.
Hi guys,
Took a couple weeks after my emergency C before I could walk with any level of comfort (or do anything else, really), so be patient. It *does* get better!
Just saw this. A belated “Good heavens!” and an equally belated “Yaaaay!” Congrats! I hope everyone is well.
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[...] happy to report that both baby and mommy are doing fine. More details are available now at Live Granades. Congrats to the happy family! Posted by Duckie / May 10, 2007 @ 1:55 pm Post A Comment [...]
[...] birth was not without drama, but everyone is fine. Congratulations to our friends Stephen & Misty on their latest addition [...]
[...] Kathryn Elizabeth “Liza” Granade was born May 10th at 12:19 P.M. Congrats to Stephen & Misty… [...]