Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Birth story part 2.

 

If you missed part 1, make sure you read it  here, so you know the whole story. 

Again. It's long and full of TMI!!! Read at your own risk of getting visuals. Haha!

Where did I leave off? Oh yes. The dreaded shift change.  We had just gotten our mobile monitoring straps on, and were headed out to the hall to do some more walking.  Gotta stay off the bed to get this going!  The mobile monitoring system is horrible!  One slight move, and you flat line. Or you flat line your baby, which is nerve wracking! I would rather have walked around in circles by the bed whilst being hooked up to the machine.  Anyways. Here comes the new nurse.  She had to adjust my straps like a million times, and at one point all I wanted to do was sit down, but couldn’t because she just got the heartbeats all lined up.*Cue sarcasm here: Next comes the best part. The nurse says to me “I bumped your Pitocin drip up to a 4”.  Um. What?  Excuse me? Speak into my good ear. You what? So much for low and slow. I want the other nurse back!!  My poor family stood there helpless as I asked her why she did that.  “We need to see some progression.”  After that I knew it was going to be an interesting night. I just wanted my baby to be safe and come into the world healthy.  

So the adventure continues when this new nurse tells me that she wants to put me on internal monitoring because it’s more accurate to tell the baby’s heart rate since she was still dropping down to 40, 50, 65,  with every contraction.   I’m sure the Pitocin had a lot to do with that. So in goes the internal baby heart rate monitor tube thingy. Let me tell you. This is SO painful.  I don’t even know what this woman was doing down there, but all I know is that I never want that to happen again.  There was a lot of blood, well, it sure looked like a lot, and a lot of pain.  Of course she couldn’t get it in correctly, so it took like 10 hours  5 minutes.  5 painful minutes.  Then for the internal contraction monitor thingy, one of my doctors came in to do that one. Thank the Lord she did!  It didn’t hurt at all, and she was in and out!  So now.  I sit there and wait. For contractions. For baby.  At that point, Vivan’s heart rate still wasn’t behaving through contractions, which were coming on really strong and fast at that point.  Apparently her heart rate dipped really low, and the nurse instructed me (through level 9 pain contractions) to lay on my right side to see if her heart rate would rise. Then I had to get onto my left side.  Then she had me get on all fours with my badonkedonk in the air, my head down on the bed, with tubes and wires coming out of me all over the place.   This one was hard, because I couldn’t move for the contractions that were coming. They had given me a shot of something to stop the pitocin for the time being so that Vivian can recover.  It was at this point that I heard a prompting from the Lord that I needed to get an epidural.  I just knew I was going to have a C-section, and if I didn’t get the epidural, I would be put under general anesthesia.  I wanted to be awake for the big moment.  So in a way I took back control, and asked for the epidural.  In less than 5 minutes the Anesthesiologist was there, and in less than 10 minutes I was numb.  My heart rate started dropping right away. Of course.  So I got an IV and some drug to help with that.  All I kept thinking was “This happened to Becky Ditchfield too!! This happened to Becky Ditchfield too!”  Haha.  Shortly after this, the Pitocin drip kicked back in, and the Doctor came in and gently told me I needed to have a C-section.  She was so very sweet about it the whole night knowing that I did not want one. I really appreciate her sensitivity about it.  Anyways. It was Vivian time!  I got rolled down the hall, and into the surgery room to be prepped.  One of the nurses got Jeremy surgical clothing to change into, and he joined me in the room after they got the drape set up.  A couple of minutes later, we heard loud suction, and crying. She’s here! Woohoo!  And what happens next? They bring her over to show me…..and I promptly have to throw up.  Nice, Lisa.  I see my baby girl whom I’ve waited years to have. And I loose my cookies.  Awesome.  Got it in my hair too.  Come to find out I was really dehydrated, and all of the drugs in me were making me a little sickish.

So I didn’t get to do skin to skin. Nor did I get to breastfeed right away. Totally bummed about that. But she’s healthy. That’s what really matters.

I got rolled into the recovery room with Miss Pitocin Drip, and the next thing I  remember is seeing her with a syringe to put something in my IV drip.  I had to ASK her what she was giving me.  And WHY she was giving it.  Demerol.  Really?  You’re not going to tell me you’re giving me DEMEROL???  I had the shakes really bad, and Demerol helps it apparently.  Oye.  I was glad at that point that Jeremy got to join me.  I just couldn't wait to see our baby again!

   I finally got wheeled over to the post natal side of the hospital. And boy was I glad about that!  New nurses!  And they were awesome.  The rest of our stay at the hospital was fantastic. 

And we got to take home this little bundle of cuteness.

 

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Tuesday, October 21, 2014

Birth Story. My crazy, eventful, glorious Birth Story. Part 1.




Be forewarned. This will have a lot of TMI in it. It is a birth story after all. Haha.
Oh. And this will be long. I’m going to make two posts of it.
So.  Wednesday, October 1st. I had my weekly appointment at the OB at 11:00 ish.  We got in the room, and the Doctor did a cervix check. (Those are not very pleasant! It’s like having a whole  hand shoved up your vajayjay. Although it’s nothing compared to what happens later…)  Apparently I was dilated to between  1-2 cm.  Sweet.  After she finishes, I notice that she has nails like a vampire. Long ass nails.  I thought to myself, “She should not have long nails like that especially if your putting them up inside a woman!  What the heck!!” After that, we go use the restroom and head to the elevators. And that’s when I felt it. Did I just pee myself?  What is that wet feeling? Umm. Jeremy?  Of course on this one day, there are literally 5 people waiting for the elevator. Never on a regular day. Just on the day that my water breaks!!!  So yes. We head back to the doctor’s office as I’m gushing fluid down my jeans.  So. Weird.  Then I start thinking.  I bet the doctor ruptured my water sac with her talons!  Cut the nails, lady!!!  We were instructed to go home and get our things, eat, and get back to the hospital. It’s go time!!  So our first stop? Jimmy John’s!!! I had to go 9 months without that lovely lunch meat of yumminess!   Italian Night Club. Oh Yes. It was SO good! I did realize that I may barf it up later (I didn’t) but I surely didn’t care at that moment!  We ran home, got our bags and last minute things that I thankfully had made a list for.  Then we headed back to the hospital. Yikes!  I started to feel contractions by the time we left the house.  Nothing consistent. One every 8 minutes.  4 minutes.  6 minutes. 3 minutes.  Totally sporadic.  When we get to the hospital, I get hooked up to the monitors to see how baby and I are doing in the heart rate department.  All is good so far.
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I get the IV tube put in. She blows up the first vein. Man that hurt!  Finally got it on the second shot. Thank God!
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After about 20 minutes, I was cleared to go walking to progress the labor process.  Around 6, the doctor comes in and suggests Pitocin to get things started. Just one drip of it to help out.  I didn’t really want it, but I wasn’t progressing at all, so I agreed as long as it was low and slow. Which my nurse assured my multiple times that it would be.  I was put back on heart rate monitoring because of the Pitocin.  Good thing, because for almost every contraction I had, Vivian’s heart rate dropped for a couple of seconds. Quite concerning after a while.  The Doctor came in frequently to monitor the heart rate drops and assess the situation.  This went on for an hour and a half.



Then at 7:30….the dreaded nurse shift change happened…….



See part 2 tomorrow.

*Here is the link to Part 2: http://an-ordinary-princess.blogspot.com/2014/10/birth-story-part-2.html