So, this story begins about two weeks before delivery. I had been having on and off contractions, or prodromal labor, for two weeks. I would get contractions at 2-3 minutes apart anywhere from 1-9 hours in length. Some would get stronger, and some would just be kind of annoying.
The week of July 7th, I had gone into the doctor on Monday. My blood pressure was a little high, so the doctor stripped my membranes and said that if I didn't go into labor on my own by Wednesday, to call and we'd schedule an induction by the end of the week. On Tuesday, I got worried, because I hadn't felt Logan move in a long time. So I went into the office for a non-stress test (NST). Logan looked great, and I wasn't having too many contractions. The doctor checked me again and I was at 2 cms dialated. She stripped my membranes again.
Nothing happened, so Wednesday I called and she had changed her mind about inducing by the end of the week. I was really disappointed, but scheduled an appointment for Monday morning. The rest of the weekend, I was trying everything I could think of to send myself into labor.
Monday morning rolls around, and I just have this weird feeling. Nick and I packed the last of the hospital bags, and put everything in the car just in case we would go straight to the hospital. I wouldn't get my hopes up, but thought it could be a real possibility.
Good thing we did.
When we got to the doctors office, my blood pressure was extremely high. 130/100. So the doctor and Nick and I decided that the best thing to do was go to labor and delivery and be induced. She didn't want to risk my blood pressure rising even higher. I begged her for an hour so I could go and get something to eat. I hadn't had anything yet that morning.
We had to be at labor and delivery at 11 am. We ran through McDonald's and then home really fast to grab the very last minute things. We called the family on the way.
We got to the hospital at 11, and got hooked up to the monitors and went through all the paperwork. They stuck me with an IV--twice, they couldn't get it the first time, ouch! At 12 pm, they started the Pitocin to get labor going. They checked me at that point and I was 2-3 cms dialated, and 80% effaced. At 1:35 pm, the doctor came in and broke my water. They also inserted an internal catheter to keep track of my contractions.
At this point, they realized the I was having one very long contraction with minor peaks. It was constantly a 4 or 5 on the pain scale, with no break whatsoever. The doctor turned off the Pitocin, and gave me a half dose of Terbutaline to try and get the contractions into a better labor pattern. At this point, I was in a lot of pain.
I held out until about 4 pm and I just couldn't take it anymore. I wasn't getting any sort of break from the contractions. At 4:15 pm, they gave me a shot of Phentenol through my IV. It took the edge away from the contractions for about 15 minutes. At 4:30, they gave me an epidural. I was finally feeling good.
Everyone came into the room that was waiting, and we just sat around for about 45 minutes or so. At about 5:15, the doctor came back in to check on my progress. I was still 2-3cms. At that point, she looked at me and said "I hate doing c-sections, but I don't think there is any other way." I just started crying. It was completely how I didn't want my labor to go. I wanted all the normal things!
She wanted to get me in right then, but I refused to go until I could see Dad again. Of course, since we had thought that it was just going to be a long night with induction, Dad had run home really fast. As soon as I got ahold of him and he got back, we went into surgery.
They wheeled me in first, while Nick changed into scrubs. They would call him after I was all set up and ready to go.
In the OR:
The anesthesiologist was extremely nice. He could obviously tell I was really freaked out about the whole thing. It actually took all of me not to sit there bawling my eyes out. He was making conversation with me, asking about the baby and trying to keep me from thinking about going into surgery!
There was a time when I thought I'd have to go under general anesthesia. They were just giving me a higher dose of medicine through my epidural, and my right side wasn't numbing as well as my left side was. He had to do the test a couple of times to make sure that it would be ok.
After I'm numb, they do another test where they pinch you with pliers or something around your tummy. Of course, I couldn't feel it. Then I realized from the pulling sensations that they had already opened me up! Nick wasn't even in the room yet! At this point, I gave in trying to hide my emotions. I started freaking out. The anesthesiologist asked when they were going to call Nick in.
When Nick came in the room, since they had already started, he got an eyeful of my insides! Luckily he made it in just in time. He came in at 6:12, and Logan was born at 6:14 pm. They finally yanked him out, he was wrapped up and compacted in there, and put him on the table. When they finally pulled him out, I heard the doctor say that he was a little stinker and would never have come out on his own.
They put him on a table right by me and started cleaning him up. Nick went over to him as they measured him, 20 inches, weighed him, 7 pounds 5 ounces, and then he cut the umbilical cord.
I was just sitting there bawling, not believing he was actually there! All of the sudden, I heard the doctor say something about me bleeding and it not stopping. They moved Nick and Logan to the recovery room at that point, while they sewed me up.
At 7:10 pm, they rolled me into the recovery room where I met Logan for the first time. I was able to breastfeed him right away. In the recovery room, I had the worst case of the shakes that ended up lasting about 2 hours.
At 9:00pm, they moved us up to the post-partum wing.
I'll post the hospital/recovery story tomorrow.
-Kristin
No comments:
Post a Comment