It's a girl!

Delaney Jo Mencke
March 19, 2010
12:05 PM
5 pounds 12 ounces
18 1/2 inches






Delaney made an early arrival yesterday after a long couple of days. Thursday, March 18th, started out like an ordinary day. Craig and I both went to work as usual, and we had a doctor's appointment scheduled for 3:15 Thursday afternoon. This appointment was to re-check my blood pressure and get the lab results of my 24 hour urine collection. We got to the appointment and started the usual routine: pee in a cup, step on the scale, listen to the heartbeat, measure the belly. Then, the doctor got to looking at the blood pressure readings and things began to change.

They decided to hook us up for another NST to check on baby and make sure baby was okay. We were all hooked up and chilling in the back room, while the doctors discussed what to do with me. Next thing we know, we are told that we will be sent over to Labor & Delivery at 5 p.m. Naturally, I freaked out a little bit and Craig got crazy excited. We walked into the office more prepared to be scheduled for an induction when we hit 37 weeks next Thursday or Friday, not right now! So, Craig made a few phone calls while I tried to compose myself. We headed over to L&D about 4:30p.m.

We got all checked in and I was hooked up to 2 IVs and a catheter by 6p.m. They placed the first Cytotec pill to start ripening my cervix. They inserted another one at around 10 p.m. I was also attached to a blood pressure cuff that automatically took my blood pressure reading every 15 minutes. So, between the hourly visits by the nurse and the 15 minutes intervals between arm strangulations by the cuff, I got maybe 30-45 minutes of sleep all night on Thursday. They decided I was having too many contractions with the Cytotec to have more doses of that, so at 2 a.m. they started the Pitocin. They started low and slowly upped the dosage gradually every 15-30 minutes. By 6 a.m., I was having decent contractions, but I was only dialated to about 1 1/2-2 centimeters. At 8, I was at only 2 centimeters, so my doctor decided to break my water to jump start things. All it did was start an hour long contraction with no rest periods. I contracted for that hour and was in more misery than I can ever remember. I was ready to throw in the towel. I had an epidural placed by 9 a.m., which helped a lot. I think my tube count was up to about 6 by this point. The epidural took away virtually any feeling of the contractions. I was having too many contractions and they were worried the baby would start suffering, so they slowed down the Pitocin and eventually stopped it just to give my body some rest periods. I continued to have contractions every minute or so until 11 a.m.

At about 11:20ish, Dr. Eisenhauer came into check my progress and discuss the options. I was still only 3 centimeters, after 3 hours on serious contractions and multiple other hours of ripening. 18hours and still virtually no progress. She said that she thought we were going to end up with a c-section. We had the option to continue down the road we were on for a while, but she was sure we'd end up with the same result. We decided not to wait for the inevitable. By 11:30 a.m., we were all being prepped for a c-section!

Miss Delaney Jo was born at 12:05 p.m. Considering how small she is and how early she is, she is perfect! So far, I think she has a lot of her daddy in her. She has big hands with really long fingers and really long feet! She also has a lot of curly hair and is fairly dark with some lighter sections! It's almost as if she has hi-lights! She also have gorgeous blue eyes, and her daddy's pouty lips! She is still super sleepy, but this is common in all newborns, especially early babies and smaller babies!

We are so far very fortunate to have her doing so well, and especially avoiding the NICU. Her lungs are good, which is a major concern with premature/early babies, so that is a huge relief! She is having a little trouble keeping her body temperatures up, so she did spend last night in the nursery under the warming lamps. She has maintained much better today! She is also well with the formula supplements, and we are both learning this breastfeeding business. Each time we get a little better!


We will post more pictures and stories later!