Warning- graphic in nature
I have typed up every tedious detail in his birth story. I love to remember these things for later.
The short version is that the week before he was born I went to L&D thinking I was leaking fluid, they told me no. A few days later the leak became obvious right after I got Isaac off to school. I laid in bed not wanting to lose any fluid and hoping that I could stay at the hospital and keep him inside for awhile. We kept him in for 2 more days, long enough for 2 more steroid shots to kick in, and induced on Thursday Oct 27th. Contractions became regular by 8:30 am and he was born at 11:25 am without an epidural. He stayed in my room with me for an hour and then they took him to the NICU.
The long, tediously detailed version
On Thursday night (10/20) we took a trip to L&D. For two days I had noticed that things were quite drippy, unlike anything I have ever experienced in pregnancy. I agonized over it, pretty much knowing that they wouldn't find anything, but worrying about the what if. My sister in law spent a lot of time talking it over with me, and we decided it was best to know for sure what was going on. So Dave and I went in for a very quick visit to L&D. It was only an hour and a half, they did two tests which were negative for amniotic fluid. I was monitored with practically no contractions the whole time. We went home and moved on. Every night though, when I would get up for my potty breaks, I would feel like an accumulation came out. I would turn on the lights, get all stressed as I tried to figure out what was going on. I even used ph strips, but the ph just wasn't high enough. On Monday night, the same thing happened, but I was sick of waking up for nothing, so I just ignored it and went back to sleep after my potty breaks.
I woke up at 6:00 am, as I had been doing most of the time. I just couldn't sleep in for some reason. Did my regular morning thing, ate breakfast, checked stuff online, got Isaac to school, and I was hoping to slip a bath in before getting Henry off to school. I went into my bathroom for my hourly visit, and as I was more alert this time, I noticed more dripping. I thought about it for a minute, and then I squatted on my bathroom floor and put my hand underneath me. It was pretty wet. I knew immediately it was all over. I laid right in my bed, squeezed my legs together, and started making phone calls.
I first called Dave at work. He was teaching, but I had the secretary interrupt him. I told him my water broke and I think he pretty much walked right out of his class. He was in the car and on his way so fast! I then called my mom and asked her to come watch the kids. Next I called Brooke, my sister in law, and asked her to come up and drive me to the hospital. She is a nurse, so I felt really comfortable with her driving me. Her kids are also in school, so I knew it wouldn't be too hard.
Lastly I was going to call the dr's office. I realized that it was Tuesday, which is my ob's surgery day. I just didn't feel like talking to a nurse. I remembered that my ob had given me his cell phone number. So I called it! He was going to be spending the morning shopping with his wife, and then coming in for surgery. I asked him if I could stay pregnant and he told me that if I hadn't delivered by the following day I would be induced. I begged him to reconsider. He told me he'd see me at the hospital.
I was so sad. I really didn't feel ready to have a baby. I knew it wasn't time yet. I felt totally puzzled as to why it happened. I wished I could just go back to sleep and wake up having not happened.
My little Dawson overheard my phone conversations and was worried. He kept asking me if I was excited to see baby Walker. He couldn't understand why I said no. Poor kid, kids hate seeing their mom upset.
Brooke came up quickly, and helped me get ready. She got me clean underwear and clothes and dressed me. She packed the remaining things in my bag. All the while, I was laying in bed trying to keep my fluid inside. My mom arrived, and so did Dave. Dave was just so panicked that I was going to deliver in the car. I told him it wasn't urgent, I wasn't in labor. I walked outside and Brooke had the car nice and warm for me. I reclined the seat so I was laying down as much as possible, and off we went to the hospital.
When we arrived, I somehow kept questioning myself. Did this really happen? I kept asking if Brooke thought I was faking it. I walked up to the window at L&D and she started asking for my information. Then she asked if I was okay to stand there. I told her not really, so she wrote down my name and said she would take care of the rest. It was SO nice of her. I went back and got a room. I laid down and I believe my first nurse was the manager of the floor. She tested me for fluid, and it was positive. I laid perfectly still. She asked me if my blood pressure was typically high. I told her it was never high. I can't remember for sure what the reading was, but it was quite high. A few readings later it had gone back to normal. I think I was so stressed out about everything that caused it to be high, but having settled in at the hospital, I was calmed down a bit.
I was given a "rescue dose" of betamethasone for his lungs. My doctor agreed to consult with a perinatologist in Ogden about my situation and see if he thought waiting to deliver was okay. They wouldn't stop labor, but the wouldn't force it either. I chose to not leave my bed the entire day, I used a bedpan even to avoid it. My dr gave me a quick ultrasound and it showed that there were small pockets of fluid still, so it was definitely a leak. He told me that the baby would continue to make fluid.
Brooke stayed with me through the day. Dave was a little stressed, so I sent him out to do some things. I really wondered if Dave would see the birth or if labor would start and he wouldn't have time to make it back to the hospital. I had a hair appt that morning that I missed, and that evening, my wonderful hair dresser came and did my hair so I would look pretty for delivery. Contractions came that night for a few hours, they were pretty close together, 3 minutes I think, but then they went away. Some time that evening Mel the NICU nurse came in to talk with me. He said, "You're going to ask me when you're going home and I'm going to ask you when your due date is." I kept reassuring him that it wouldn't be that long, that I had healthy preemies. He said 3 weeks minimum. I was determined to prove him wrong and I did. We made it home in 2.5 weeks! But he did make me very worried. I was choking back tears.
The next morning came and I was still pregnant. And ultrasound tech came and checked everything out. He measured 33 weeks, and 5 lbs 4 oz. She said his head was nice and round. My fluid had replenished so well that I was in the normal range. Normal is between 7 and 28, and I was at 14. I wasn't leaking as much anymore, so I felt pretty stable. The perinatologist said if I wanted to wait until 35 weeks I could unless I developed an infection. But he recommended delivering 24 hours after a second dose of betamethasone. My doctor said, "The only thing worse than a preterm baby is an infected preterm baby." The decision was between delivering Thursday and waiting until Monday. I leaned toward the first option and Dave leaned toward the second. But both doctors preferred the first option, so I decided to go with that. I didn't like the idea of risking infection. Knowing what I know now after seeing infected babies in the NICU, I feel SO good about that decision.
I had the BEST nurses throughout this process. They were all so nice, and so capable.
Dr. Fowers told me to take a shower on Wednesday and do a little walking Thursday morning to see what happened. Oddly, it didn't start any contractions at all. So Pitocin was started around 7:30 or 7:45.
My nurse was named Dawn, and I don't think I could have had anyone better for my labor. She thought it was so weird to be blasting me with pitocin at 34 weeks, it's uncommon. She started it slow, and didn't have to turn it up too high before the contractions started at 3 minutes apart. I think they started a little after 8:00. She said the average person gets up in the high teens, low twenties of pitocin, but I was in labor at only 8. She checked my cervix and it was 3 cm and 60% effaced. My doctor came in a few minutes later and said I was 3 and 80%. She looked skeptical, but thought perhaps I had changed that quickly. I asked him to check to see if there was a forebag, which there was, so he broke it. That's why I hadn't been leaking as much.
I not only got to have my ob there, but also my pediatrician. They stuck around for awhile thinking it might be only a few minutes, but it wasn't quite as fast as we imagined. In the first hour I mostly sat on the ball, and it wasn't too bad. I changed from 3 to 5 cm and maybe 80% effaced. I tried hard to empty my bladder as much as possible so he could drop. I worked to get Dave to support me through contractions, which he wasn't too excited about, but he did it. I called Brooke and asked her to come since I wasn't sure how much help Dave would be, and my mom was with the kids. I spent the second hour on the ball as well, and after an hour of pain there was no change. I was disappointed.
I should say that these contractions were not painful for very long. I pulled out the contraction app to see if they were even long enough to be doing anything. It only hurt for about 20-30 seconds at the peak, the rest was fine. In between contractions I felt great. So while it wasn't pain free by any means, it was totally do able. I just kept thinking about my friend Carrie and how she had a natural birth with her water broken and pitocin. She told me I could do it too, and I held onto that when I was feeling pain.
Dawn told me if I could get him to drop it would be over fast. I asked for some Fentanyl. She came to put it through my IV, and I changed my mind. Mostly because I didn't like the idea of feeling better for awhile, and then feeling worse again. It seemed like it might be better to just stay in pain. She increased my pitocin to 10. So I decided to move around a little more and see if he would drop. I got on my hands and knees, sat up, laid in the lateral position, sat on the ball, and even tried a contraction on the toilet which I hated. She checked me and said I was completely thinned out and a 6.
Dawn asked if I was feeling pressure with my contractions and I told her I was. She called the doctor. This was 11 minutes before he was born. I felt more pressure and went to the bathroom. The contractions were coming really close now and I was cranky about it. I didn't want them so close, even though I knew it meant the end was almost there. When I came out of the bathroom, the doctor walked in. I laid down and he checked me at 7 cm 100% effaced and 0 station. I was sad because I thought I should be ready to push. When I said that my doctor told me I didn't have to wait until I was 10 cm to push. Little did I know it was only 6 more minutes until he was born. The nurse called the pediatrician in saying it was close, and he was only in the room for a minute before birth. It was all perfect timing.
I had a terrible contraction in which I bit Dave on the chest. I knew that was a stupid thing to do, so I bit his shirt on the side and tried not to scream. The contraction ended, but the pain didn't really go away. I was so mad to not have a break in between contractions that when the next one came I started saying, "I can't, I can't, I can't." After 10 second of that contraction, the pain was unbearable. I was waiting for the urge to push, but I didn't feel it. No one told me I could push, I was waiting for someone to tell me to. But when that pain was unbearable I made the decision mid-contraction to just push. Exactly 15 seconds later he was born. One push was all it took. I won't lie, it hurt pretty darn bad. But when he was all out it felt so much better.
He was blue and not crying at first. Dr. Fowers was suctioning him out and he let out a small, gurgly cry. He showed him to me really fast, and then took him over to the NICU nurse and my pediatrician. They cleaned him up a little, puffed out his lungs a little, and weighed him. Would you believe his weight was exactly what the ultrasound predicted? I was impressed. Dr. O'very looked at the bottoms of his feet and declared that we were looking at a true 34 weeker. I guess he was hoping my dates were off and we would have an older baby.
My natural childbirth (forced by Pitocin) took only 3.5 hours. And I did it! The last few minutes were so painful, but I really don't need an epidural for only a 10 minutes.
Now I was told that there was no chance I would nurse this little guy in my L&D room. They would take him straight to the NICU. But my cute NICU nurse, Wendy said, "I'm going to let him stay and play for an hour." So I got to keep him in there and nurse him. He took awhile to find any interest, but he did nurse and it was awesome. I was so pleased.
When they handed him to me for the first time, I was startled. He didn't look at all like I expected him to. In fact, I said that he didn't even look like he was mine. Wendy assured me he hadn't left the room, so he must be mine. His face looked so long and skinny, and his hair is a little darker than even Henry's I think. I actually thought he was kind of funny looking. I thought that for most of the first day. Now he looks like a 50/50 split of Henry and G. to me. He has the eyelashes like G. (hopefully stays that way), dark hair like Henry, face shape like Henry, but head shape more like G. Eyes like....all of them looked the same at that age. No dimples, and only a small cleft in the chin. Nose, I would say like Henry. Now of course, I think he's beautiful.
I felt so good after delivery that I hopped off the bed and walked upstairs. I was very pleased with the whole process and very happy that I felt so good.
No comments:
Post a Comment