The Arrival of Dylan Henry Jones - Sunday 26th Feb

"It Feels Really Lovely Down There"
I can't recommend waking up, sleep deprived, to the sound of screaming.  Especially when it's your wife doing the screaming.  It was about 5am.

The induction drug is a particularly blunt tool.  It doesn't wait for the cervix to soften.  It starts hard and fast rather than a more gradual build-up.  It's kind of like trying to kick a door in rather than knocking politely and using the handle.  So clearly it's going to hurt.  Lots.  Or that should probably be lots more than normal.

I don't know, perhaps if we'd practised with the hypno-birthing stuff more it would have been easier or different, but frankly it was horrible.  F**king horrible.  I have never felt more useless in my life.  It's clear why they used to send the bloke to the pub.

Thankfully, after what seemed like an eternity later, the epidural arrived  That in itself is a tricky operation given that mistakes with a needle going into the spine are going to be life changing to say the least.  So the patient is meant to be still for up to 10 minutes.  Not easy when the contractions are coming quicker than that.  The epidural also works better when it's not leaking onto the floor. but by about 8:30 am there was sufficient pain relief for the syntocinol to be re-administered.

By about 10am progress was good with an internal examination leaving the midwife - who was fantastic - in raptures.
"It's about 4cm dilated but in a contraction it goes to about 6cm.  It feels really lovely down there"

The BTB arrived just shy of 11am and we were given leave to go and get some coffee and breakfast on the premise that nothing was likely to happen for several hours.  Bare in mind that it was expected that bean would be making an appearance late afternoon possibly early evening given the timescales that we were working to.  Our Independent Midwife (IM) had arrived at about 7:30 - another person who'd been having an eventful weekend with hospital visits - not just ours - vets etc.!).

About half an hour I get a phone call from IM to suggest that maybe I might want to return as "things were looking good" (ie fully dilated).  As it happens it's a good thing we were only round the corner.

I walked into the room and carnage occured.  Bean's heart rate was dropping too low and staying too low.   Beans heart rate falls and rises in time with the contractions.  This time it was falling and not coming back up.  He needed to come out and quickly.

The neonatologist team putting in airways and ng lines into bean

Suddenly, people came through the door.  Not in a rush as such, but quietly, efficiently and with purpose.  The NICU team - consultant in two - arrived within 5 minutes of the call being made.  Very quickly it had gone from 3 to about 20.

Forceps and two pushes were all it took.  Out flew beanie.  So quick in fact that the original plan of paralysis and sedation on presentation of the shoulder fell by the wayside.  He came out too quickly.  It was ll:50.  Bloody hell.  I'm a Dad.

Within 10 minutes or so bean - or Dylan Henry Jones as we would now know him - was fully tubed and taken into ICU.

At about 4pm, we finally got to see him.  IM had left the building at this point only BTB, the Mother and I remained.  The Mother had to be taken across in a trolley as she was very tired and sick.

The Mother with Dylan

So many tubes, so much equipment.  But he was stable.
Unfortunately, there was an additional problem: there were gases in the abdominal chamber.  This means that something is perforated.  It could be gastric (bad) or lungs (good - comparitively).  It was unclear and no real way of knowing for the near term.

Dylan Henry was on a nice cocktail of:
Heparin - blood thinner on an arterial line so that they can easily take blood without turning him into a pin cushion
Atrecurium - which keeps him paralysed
Dobutamine and Dopamine - both used for keeping his blood pressure under control
Morphine - for pain relief
Additionally there were lines for food types which are intravenous rather than gastric as the stomach needs to be kept deflated to allow the lungs to grow.

For ventilation he's on a mix of high-oxygenated gas with nitrogen compounds which help the oxygen-blood transfer into the lungs.  He would have started on about 95% oxygen but when we saw him he was already down to about 65%.  The air we breathe runs at about 21% oxygen.

The rollercoaster has started.

The first visitors had also appeared - the grandparents - both sets - arrived whilst BTB were out getting some food and a pint.  The pint on reflection being a bad idea.  The Mother by this time had been moved to a ward and as a special treat I was allowed to stay in the same room.  On the floor, obviously.