shoelaces17
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I will warn you up front I did not have the best birth experience so if you are nervous about your upcoming birth do not read! It is also a long read and probably has some spelling mistakes! So sorry in advance!
After having a really good pregnancy with side effects like nausea and sciatica I couldn't believe at 36 weeks my blood pressure was randomly high at a doctors appt. they sent me home and said to watch it and let them know if I had any side effects that go along with preeclampsia which of course started the next day with a horrible headache that did not go away for 6 hours. I would of went into L&D triage but we had a horrible winter storm that and basically the roads were impossible to travel on. I finally had to go in after taking with the on call OB several times that weekend on Sunday when I went in my BP was 160/99 and after several hours in triage it finally went down and they sent me home.
Later that week on Tuesday night the horrible headaches started again, I was starting to swell and my BP's were high all day and I was starting to shake for minutes at a time. I let my husband sleep that night while I basically stayed up and felt miserable because he works nights and I wanted him to get some sleep before we headed to the hospital agian. Little did I know that when we left that morning I wouldn't be coming back.
Long story short we went into triage again, at 9 am we were there for a several hours when they decided to induce me at 37 weeks 5 days. I was very nervous because being diagnosed with Pre-E meant that I could not have the birth I had planned, no birthing ball, no showers, no hep lock for an IV. I was very upset, but my husband and I kept it to ourselves knowing there was no other way to keep baby safe. (His Heart rate was jumping up to the 180's when my pressures were getting really high)
So Hubby had to run home to get our stuff I was measuring 2 cm and 50% effaced they started the Pitocin and Magnesium drips at 2pm. I was not allowed to get out of bed because of the Magnesium drip which reduces your muscle reflexes, so they but in a catheter around 3pm which wasn't bad since I put them in 100 times I knew what to expect (I'm an RN so is my husband)
And the long process started, My BP was being checked every 20 mins, so I had to keep the BP cuff on I couldn't lay on my back because baby didn't like that position and his heart rate would go up, I could only lay on my sides and when I did they would lose his heart rate on the monitor so they would have to come in to move the monitor and find him again. At around 2am I was having another one of the pre-e headaches that really had gone away all day and was only made worse by being stuck in a bed that I was crying my eyes out asking for something to make the pain go away because all I was seeing was gray specks in front of my eyes and couldn't control how bad my body was shaking all over. I was given demerol and it worked pretty quickly and because I had been up for 24 hours and was exhausted it was putting me to sleep and making my O2 rate drop so they had to put an oxygen mask on me.
I was stuck at 3 cm til about 4am where my waters broke on their own, after they were talking about breaking them to get things moving, so I was pretty thankful they broke but the contractions were way more than intense and not being able to move because I couldn't get out of bed or move the way I wanted because of the monitor was torture. I was in so much pain I asked for the epidural.
The doctor came in and after 25 long minutes of trying to stay still during contractions and being told half way through it wasn't going to work and having a funny bone feeling going down my tailbone I was told it was not going to work and he couldn't find the right location and used an educated guess (Def. what you want to hear when your in labor right) I could still move both my legs they just felt heavy. Eventually this faded and I could feel everything on my left side but not my right. I was in so much pain and felt really hopeless at this point wondering why my body failed me by developing pre-e and and all I really wanted to do was ball my eyes out.
I finally got to 7 cm at around 8am they then did a internal monitor on the baby because they kept losing him on the regular monitor (My nurse and an older nurse did this and I almost kicked the older nurse out of my room because she was so rough and didn't believe that I could feel what they were doing I will never again let them do an internal monitor without having multiple people try to find the baby because it was horrible) after dealing with this they would only let me lay on my left side and I was having a really hard time dealing with the contractions because I was so constricted in how I could move so they tried to have the epidural amount changed which really did no good when you can feel on one side. At around 10 I was 9 cm and they started to get the room ready, this is where I had my freak out with my husband crying saying I could not handle this anymore and I wasn't strong enough to do this. My contractions looked like mountain peaks on the monitor and I just couldn't do it anymore. My nurse basically just looked at me and said I didn't have a choice ( Which of course I KNEW that, I really just needed reassurance) My husband was great through out it and helped me as much as he could.
Finally I started to get the urge to push and was of course told to wait until they were ready which OMG is the worst feeling ever seriously it is absolutely crazy how intense that urge is. We did some pushes with the nurse and then had to wait for the doctor (who wasn't even mine because she wasn't on call, but I didn't care bc I just wanted him out) I only pushed 40 minutes they snipped me a bit but it wasn't even a full episiotomy and he was out on the next push, which was the best feeling ever. He wasn't put on my chest, my husband wasn't allowed to cut the cord, he was taken over to the nurses right away because of the magnesium I was given, NICU had to be called because his left lung was not inflating. I barely paid attention to them getting my placenta out (which I was not allowed to keep and encapsulate because they sent it down to pathology because of the pre-e) I did feel them stitch me up but it didn't matter because I was so involved with staring at the nurses who were putting my son on the cpap machine trying to get his lung to inflate. After about 15 minutes of the nurses working on him he was given the ok and didn't have to go to NICU and was put on my chest and it was absolutely wonderful. He weighed 7lbs 2.8oz and was 20.5 inches long born at 37weeks 6 days on 12-12-13 at 11:48.
I had to stay on magnesium until my pressures went down and the magnesium drip was done which was at midnight that night after that we were finally able to move to postpartum. We only stayed their a day and a half and were sent home. He lost 10% of his birth weight by 4 days and was only 6lbs 4 oz at his first doctor appt and his bili was elevated so we had to do one night of the lights at home but we did not have to supplement because my milk finally came in on day 4. At his 2 week appt which was a few days ago he was 7lbs 10 oz which they were amazed because it is rare to get a baby so far past his birth weight when he lost 10% with just breast milk alone!
He is a great baby and I couldn't have asked for a greater husband to be his father. He is such a great help, and I couldn't have done it without him. We both spent the week after he was born really mourning our birthing experience, it was not what we wanted at all I think my husband feels a little guilty because I wanted to use a midwife and a birth center from the beginning but he wasn't comfortable with it. We already plan on when we have the next one to use a birth center and hopefully get the birth we want.
After having a really good pregnancy with side effects like nausea and sciatica I couldn't believe at 36 weeks my blood pressure was randomly high at a doctors appt. they sent me home and said to watch it and let them know if I had any side effects that go along with preeclampsia which of course started the next day with a horrible headache that did not go away for 6 hours. I would of went into L&D triage but we had a horrible winter storm that and basically the roads were impossible to travel on. I finally had to go in after taking with the on call OB several times that weekend on Sunday when I went in my BP was 160/99 and after several hours in triage it finally went down and they sent me home.
Later that week on Tuesday night the horrible headaches started again, I was starting to swell and my BP's were high all day and I was starting to shake for minutes at a time. I let my husband sleep that night while I basically stayed up and felt miserable because he works nights and I wanted him to get some sleep before we headed to the hospital agian. Little did I know that when we left that morning I wouldn't be coming back.
Long story short we went into triage again, at 9 am we were there for a several hours when they decided to induce me at 37 weeks 5 days. I was very nervous because being diagnosed with Pre-E meant that I could not have the birth I had planned, no birthing ball, no showers, no hep lock for an IV. I was very upset, but my husband and I kept it to ourselves knowing there was no other way to keep baby safe. (His Heart rate was jumping up to the 180's when my pressures were getting really high)
So Hubby had to run home to get our stuff I was measuring 2 cm and 50% effaced they started the Pitocin and Magnesium drips at 2pm. I was not allowed to get out of bed because of the Magnesium drip which reduces your muscle reflexes, so they but in a catheter around 3pm which wasn't bad since I put them in 100 times I knew what to expect (I'm an RN so is my husband)
And the long process started, My BP was being checked every 20 mins, so I had to keep the BP cuff on I couldn't lay on my back because baby didn't like that position and his heart rate would go up, I could only lay on my sides and when I did they would lose his heart rate on the monitor so they would have to come in to move the monitor and find him again. At around 2am I was having another one of the pre-e headaches that really had gone away all day and was only made worse by being stuck in a bed that I was crying my eyes out asking for something to make the pain go away because all I was seeing was gray specks in front of my eyes and couldn't control how bad my body was shaking all over. I was given demerol and it worked pretty quickly and because I had been up for 24 hours and was exhausted it was putting me to sleep and making my O2 rate drop so they had to put an oxygen mask on me.
I was stuck at 3 cm til about 4am where my waters broke on their own, after they were talking about breaking them to get things moving, so I was pretty thankful they broke but the contractions were way more than intense and not being able to move because I couldn't get out of bed or move the way I wanted because of the monitor was torture. I was in so much pain I asked for the epidural.
The doctor came in and after 25 long minutes of trying to stay still during contractions and being told half way through it wasn't going to work and having a funny bone feeling going down my tailbone I was told it was not going to work and he couldn't find the right location and used an educated guess (Def. what you want to hear when your in labor right) I could still move both my legs they just felt heavy. Eventually this faded and I could feel everything on my left side but not my right. I was in so much pain and felt really hopeless at this point wondering why my body failed me by developing pre-e and and all I really wanted to do was ball my eyes out.
I finally got to 7 cm at around 8am they then did a internal monitor on the baby because they kept losing him on the regular monitor (My nurse and an older nurse did this and I almost kicked the older nurse out of my room because she was so rough and didn't believe that I could feel what they were doing I will never again let them do an internal monitor without having multiple people try to find the baby because it was horrible) after dealing with this they would only let me lay on my left side and I was having a really hard time dealing with the contractions because I was so constricted in how I could move so they tried to have the epidural amount changed which really did no good when you can feel on one side. At around 10 I was 9 cm and they started to get the room ready, this is where I had my freak out with my husband crying saying I could not handle this anymore and I wasn't strong enough to do this. My contractions looked like mountain peaks on the monitor and I just couldn't do it anymore. My nurse basically just looked at me and said I didn't have a choice ( Which of course I KNEW that, I really just needed reassurance) My husband was great through out it and helped me as much as he could.
Finally I started to get the urge to push and was of course told to wait until they were ready which OMG is the worst feeling ever seriously it is absolutely crazy how intense that urge is. We did some pushes with the nurse and then had to wait for the doctor (who wasn't even mine because she wasn't on call, but I didn't care bc I just wanted him out) I only pushed 40 minutes they snipped me a bit but it wasn't even a full episiotomy and he was out on the next push, which was the best feeling ever. He wasn't put on my chest, my husband wasn't allowed to cut the cord, he was taken over to the nurses right away because of the magnesium I was given, NICU had to be called because his left lung was not inflating. I barely paid attention to them getting my placenta out (which I was not allowed to keep and encapsulate because they sent it down to pathology because of the pre-e) I did feel them stitch me up but it didn't matter because I was so involved with staring at the nurses who were putting my son on the cpap machine trying to get his lung to inflate. After about 15 minutes of the nurses working on him he was given the ok and didn't have to go to NICU and was put on my chest and it was absolutely wonderful. He weighed 7lbs 2.8oz and was 20.5 inches long born at 37weeks 6 days on 12-12-13 at 11:48.
I had to stay on magnesium until my pressures went down and the magnesium drip was done which was at midnight that night after that we were finally able to move to postpartum. We only stayed their a day and a half and were sent home. He lost 10% of his birth weight by 4 days and was only 6lbs 4 oz at his first doctor appt and his bili was elevated so we had to do one night of the lights at home but we did not have to supplement because my milk finally came in on day 4. At his 2 week appt which was a few days ago he was 7lbs 10 oz which they were amazed because it is rare to get a baby so far past his birth weight when he lost 10% with just breast milk alone!
He is a great baby and I couldn't have asked for a greater husband to be his father. He is such a great help, and I couldn't have done it without him. We both spent the week after he was born really mourning our birthing experience, it was not what we wanted at all I think my husband feels a little guilty because I wanted to use a midwife and a birth center from the beginning but he wasn't comfortable with it. We already plan on when we have the next one to use a birth center and hopefully get the birth we want.
