xSin
Mummy to Aria
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Wow!! My little champion baby!!!
Born June 28th at 18:48pm weighing 6lb 6oz after a nightmarish induced labor experience.
I was being monitored for low amniotic fluid since my midwife appt on Friday 22nd... the regiment of care THAT obstetrician came up with was 3x a week Non-stress tests and 2x a week ultrasounds just to monitor how the fluid & how baby were doing. I spent all day Friday in hospital being monitored ... And went in twice on Monday first for an NST and then after some scheduling confusion, went back in the afternoon for an ultrasound. The NST showed a "drop" when the technician was playing with the monitor thing though and the overall amniotic fluid number had dropped drastically from my previous formal ultrasound as well so Tuesday morning when I was in hospital for my NST the midwife and on-call obstetrician informed me that I was going to be induced that day based on Monday's results.
I felt lucky to have midwifery care because she went to bat for me right then and suggested that rather than have me be "held" in hospital that day, they let me go home, pack a bag, make some phone calls, get ready etc... and I could come back at dinnertime.
Tuesday June 26th we went in at 6pm as directed to for the beginning of the induction process. Because of the situation, we had to simply wait on the on-call ob/gyn to finish dealing with everything else that took priority and I got the first Prostin gel application at I forget what time, (several hours after I went in) -- They monitored me for an hour and we sweet talked our way into going home for the night!!! (Thank goodness we did!) 3pm cramping started hard enough to wake me up but it wasn't unbearable and we made it back to the hospital at 8am the next morning which was our designated time.
Wednesday June 27th I went in and got the second gel application at probably 12 hours on the dot past the first application. 10:30am'ish is when I got the second one... and this time they weren't willing to let me go home. Cramping was getting more severe and they eventually moved me out of the 4 bed assessment room, into a room that was somehow, even worse... it was one of their birthing rooms (so they say) that doubles somehow as a storage / utility type closet for extra equipment, is attached to an actual utility closet so people are constantly in & out of it, and there is no shower, no bathroom, no ability to dim lights, nothing. Still being worried about the perceived "problem" of low amniotic fluid Wednesday was VERY uncomfortable for me because I spent more time worrying about the monitors being able to pick up Tadpole's heartrate and my contractions, than my own comfort levels. Care (if you can call it that) was minimal and verging on neglectful to the extent that my OH finally snapped when after we requested a hot water bottle and they refused to give me even that, we were both ready to go home. Basically after the 3rd gel application, I stayed hooked up for the obligatory hour of post-application monitoring and then I got out of the bed and disconnected my own monitors and phoned my midwife (who the on call midwife at this point since Tuesday hadn't been to see me either) ...I wanted backup and support and an advocate for my care because I suck at having a "voice" and I don't like seeming like I'm complaining in situations like this.
We left the hospital at 9pm that night and told the staff we'd be back either at 7:30am the next morning or when my waters broke and labor started.
I wish I could describe the level of agony I was in being strapped to the worlds most uncomfortable bed, that whole day, cramping, contracting, and not being allowed to move about because they "needed to keep monitoring me" and additionally kept on forgetting about me because I was pretty low priority in the overall scale of the labour & delivery ward. Any requests for natural forms of pain relief (shower, heating pad, hot water bottle) were met with offers of morphine which I refused. (Quite appalling really that they can offer me morphine, but can't manage a hot water bottle)
Once we got home labour intensified because I was in private comfortable surroundings with access to a hot bath, a comfortable bed, and a bathroom.... and I was able to focus on my own comfort rather than "is the monitor reading everything?" -- at 12:30am my waters broke and we headed back to the hospital.
Upon arrival they put me back in the assessment area where I stayed in agony again, until labor stalled once more. I was in enough pain now though that I found my voice and so when the nurse came to inform me that they were going to induce me on Oxytocin and get me into a birthing suite because I "wasn't in labor yet" I finally spoke up & told her that I had been in labor, and I'd been ignored yet again (this was at about 7am) for several hours, and requests for a simple shower to relieve the pain had been ignored, I'd spent the whole time again hooked up to monitors, unable to move around... so obviously labor had stalled.
My OH spoke up and being very upset at this point with the lack of care I was getting, he told the nurses station in no uncertain terms that either they figured something out or he was going to remove me from the hospital again and we'd have the baby at home and their treatment of me would be front page news. (At that point I probably would've gone along with it too) -- Within 10 min I was moved into a room where I could have a shower, have a ball, have some privacy, had a bathroom, etc. I was hopeful of jump starting labor again on my own since they were (in my eyes) "threatening" me with the dreaded Oxytocin and so I showered, had contractions, bounced on the ball, had contractions, but then it dwindled off again... Basically what my OH and I think happened is that the whole ordeal of trying to get me basic care, lasted so long that the Prostin wore off and even though my waters had broken, my body still wasn't ready to continue and so labor halted basically.
I was REALLY upset about that because I was REALLY nervous about Oxytocin based on what little I know of it, I wasn't sure that I would be able to manage it AND still have no epidural... I was very concerned it would lead to an epidural and ultimately a c-section.
They brought in a new doctor this time ...(So far, this was Obstetrician number 4 since Tuesday) to talk with me, my OH and my midwife. I also had a dedicated room nurse (Maybe they assigned me a dedicated nurse because I was being a "difficult patient" who knows) ....of ALL the doctors, this was the ONLY one to ask me my name, ask me my age, ask me a couple questions about my personal health history... he was the first person to treat me like a person that wasn't my OH or my midwife essentially. He was direct, and honest in answering the questions that my OH and I had... and that is probably the single main reason why I agreed to go ahead and do the oxytocin. (At this point my OH was already asking me if I thought I could handle 12-15 more hours of agony, and agony that we both knew would be far worse than what the Prostin gel had given me)
We were given a chance to go get lunch because I was told that once they started the Oxytocin, the monitors had to stay on constantly, there'd be no more showers, there'd be no eating, etc etc. (Luckily, our room nurse has been through a similar experience and she was willing to bend the rules a little,... we did still get a couple showers in)
They started Oxytocin at 11 or 11:30am somewhere around there and once it hit, it hit pretty hard... My midwife had been with us since we'd gone in at 1am after my waters breaking so she'd gone home for a quick nap and shower / freshen up.
My OH was my rock
my hero I genuinely could not have gone through that without him. He joined me in the shower so I had him to lean on during contractions, he kept me bundled in warm blankets when I started to get cold... he knew I was uncomfortable being naked around people I didn't know so to help me be more comfortable with it, he was naked right alongside me. He held me during contractions, comforted me with skin on skin contact, when things really intensified he was my coach telling me how to breathe ... yelling at me to breathe when I wasn't listening... I ended up asking for the gas & air and he ended up being the one to hold it for me and found out that the first mask they gave me had a hole in it so wasn't being effective... when the gas stopped being so effective he distracted me while holding me by telling me stories about Tadpole's first birthday and what we were going to do 
Pain kept on escalating and I confess I did break down and beg for an epidural. It wasn't what I wanted and I never did get it because I waited so long to "give up" that I was quite literally already in transition to the second stage of labor when they came to do a blood test before being able to administer it... Our room nurse is the one who said she was going to check me before letting them give it to me and she checked and the cervix was "all gone" apparently.
Weird switch in labor... they go from yelling at me through my haze and fog of pain to "Breathe!" to telling me "Hold your breathe hold your breathe hold your breath and push!!!" (this struck me as highly ironic yesterday)
Once I was in the pushing phase, it was all over really fast. 3 contractions, with 3 pushes per contraction and my beautiful Tadpole was delivered!! A wonderful amazing PINK bundle of joy!
Aria Lily B. was born finally at 18:48 June 28th 2012
There's so much more that I could write about... such as when our room nurse went on her dinner break and the evil witch nurse was there for 30 min, labor got way more difficult with her glaring around the room... I just about kicked her in the face when she told me that I "had to move" because the blasted monitors had fallen off. I'd spent DAYS at that point hooked up to the damned monitors and Tadpole had been FINE throughout ALL of it. The only thing that saved her was I was worried about being "overboard" in what I said, so I said nothing at all and focused on the fact that as far as nurses go, she was really really young. (Our other nurse that was with us through it all, she understood that you don't ever tell a mother in the middle of a contraction that she "has to move" so that you can reconnect a freakin' monitor to her)
Pics added
(Finally found my camera cord!!!)
Born June 28th at 18:48pm weighing 6lb 6oz after a nightmarish induced labor experience.
I was being monitored for low amniotic fluid since my midwife appt on Friday 22nd... the regiment of care THAT obstetrician came up with was 3x a week Non-stress tests and 2x a week ultrasounds just to monitor how the fluid & how baby were doing. I spent all day Friday in hospital being monitored ... And went in twice on Monday first for an NST and then after some scheduling confusion, went back in the afternoon for an ultrasound. The NST showed a "drop" when the technician was playing with the monitor thing though and the overall amniotic fluid number had dropped drastically from my previous formal ultrasound as well so Tuesday morning when I was in hospital for my NST the midwife and on-call obstetrician informed me that I was going to be induced that day based on Monday's results.
I felt lucky to have midwifery care because she went to bat for me right then and suggested that rather than have me be "held" in hospital that day, they let me go home, pack a bag, make some phone calls, get ready etc... and I could come back at dinnertime.
Tuesday June 26th we went in at 6pm as directed to for the beginning of the induction process. Because of the situation, we had to simply wait on the on-call ob/gyn to finish dealing with everything else that took priority and I got the first Prostin gel application at I forget what time, (several hours after I went in) -- They monitored me for an hour and we sweet talked our way into going home for the night!!! (Thank goodness we did!) 3pm cramping started hard enough to wake me up but it wasn't unbearable and we made it back to the hospital at 8am the next morning which was our designated time.
Wednesday June 27th I went in and got the second gel application at probably 12 hours on the dot past the first application. 10:30am'ish is when I got the second one... and this time they weren't willing to let me go home. Cramping was getting more severe and they eventually moved me out of the 4 bed assessment room, into a room that was somehow, even worse... it was one of their birthing rooms (so they say) that doubles somehow as a storage / utility type closet for extra equipment, is attached to an actual utility closet so people are constantly in & out of it, and there is no shower, no bathroom, no ability to dim lights, nothing. Still being worried about the perceived "problem" of low amniotic fluid Wednesday was VERY uncomfortable for me because I spent more time worrying about the monitors being able to pick up Tadpole's heartrate and my contractions, than my own comfort levels. Care (if you can call it that) was minimal and verging on neglectful to the extent that my OH finally snapped when after we requested a hot water bottle and they refused to give me even that, we were both ready to go home. Basically after the 3rd gel application, I stayed hooked up for the obligatory hour of post-application monitoring and then I got out of the bed and disconnected my own monitors and phoned my midwife (who the on call midwife at this point since Tuesday hadn't been to see me either) ...I wanted backup and support and an advocate for my care because I suck at having a "voice" and I don't like seeming like I'm complaining in situations like this.
We left the hospital at 9pm that night and told the staff we'd be back either at 7:30am the next morning or when my waters broke and labor started.
I wish I could describe the level of agony I was in being strapped to the worlds most uncomfortable bed, that whole day, cramping, contracting, and not being allowed to move about because they "needed to keep monitoring me" and additionally kept on forgetting about me because I was pretty low priority in the overall scale of the labour & delivery ward. Any requests for natural forms of pain relief (shower, heating pad, hot water bottle) were met with offers of morphine which I refused. (Quite appalling really that they can offer me morphine, but can't manage a hot water bottle)
Once we got home labour intensified because I was in private comfortable surroundings with access to a hot bath, a comfortable bed, and a bathroom.... and I was able to focus on my own comfort rather than "is the monitor reading everything?" -- at 12:30am my waters broke and we headed back to the hospital.
Upon arrival they put me back in the assessment area where I stayed in agony again, until labor stalled once more. I was in enough pain now though that I found my voice and so when the nurse came to inform me that they were going to induce me on Oxytocin and get me into a birthing suite because I "wasn't in labor yet" I finally spoke up & told her that I had been in labor, and I'd been ignored yet again (this was at about 7am) for several hours, and requests for a simple shower to relieve the pain had been ignored, I'd spent the whole time again hooked up to monitors, unable to move around... so obviously labor had stalled.
My OH spoke up and being very upset at this point with the lack of care I was getting, he told the nurses station in no uncertain terms that either they figured something out or he was going to remove me from the hospital again and we'd have the baby at home and their treatment of me would be front page news. (At that point I probably would've gone along with it too) -- Within 10 min I was moved into a room where I could have a shower, have a ball, have some privacy, had a bathroom, etc. I was hopeful of jump starting labor again on my own since they were (in my eyes) "threatening" me with the dreaded Oxytocin and so I showered, had contractions, bounced on the ball, had contractions, but then it dwindled off again... Basically what my OH and I think happened is that the whole ordeal of trying to get me basic care, lasted so long that the Prostin wore off and even though my waters had broken, my body still wasn't ready to continue and so labor halted basically.
I was REALLY upset about that because I was REALLY nervous about Oxytocin based on what little I know of it, I wasn't sure that I would be able to manage it AND still have no epidural... I was very concerned it would lead to an epidural and ultimately a c-section.
They brought in a new doctor this time ...(So far, this was Obstetrician number 4 since Tuesday) to talk with me, my OH and my midwife. I also had a dedicated room nurse (Maybe they assigned me a dedicated nurse because I was being a "difficult patient" who knows) ....of ALL the doctors, this was the ONLY one to ask me my name, ask me my age, ask me a couple questions about my personal health history... he was the first person to treat me like a person that wasn't my OH or my midwife essentially. He was direct, and honest in answering the questions that my OH and I had... and that is probably the single main reason why I agreed to go ahead and do the oxytocin. (At this point my OH was already asking me if I thought I could handle 12-15 more hours of agony, and agony that we both knew would be far worse than what the Prostin gel had given me)
We were given a chance to go get lunch because I was told that once they started the Oxytocin, the monitors had to stay on constantly, there'd be no more showers, there'd be no eating, etc etc. (Luckily, our room nurse has been through a similar experience and she was willing to bend the rules a little,... we did still get a couple showers in)
They started Oxytocin at 11 or 11:30am somewhere around there and once it hit, it hit pretty hard... My midwife had been with us since we'd gone in at 1am after my waters breaking so she'd gone home for a quick nap and shower / freshen up.
My OH was my rock
my hero I genuinely could not have gone through that without him. He joined me in the shower so I had him to lean on during contractions, he kept me bundled in warm blankets when I started to get cold... he knew I was uncomfortable being naked around people I didn't know so to help me be more comfortable with it, he was naked right alongside me. He held me during contractions, comforted me with skin on skin contact, when things really intensified he was my coach telling me how to breathe ... yelling at me to breathe when I wasn't listening... I ended up asking for the gas & air and he ended up being the one to hold it for me and found out that the first mask they gave me had a hole in it so wasn't being effective... when the gas stopped being so effective he distracted me while holding me by telling me stories about Tadpole's first birthday and what we were going to do Pain kept on escalating and I confess I did break down and beg for an epidural. It wasn't what I wanted and I never did get it because I waited so long to "give up" that I was quite literally already in transition to the second stage of labor when they came to do a blood test before being able to administer it... Our room nurse is the one who said she was going to check me before letting them give it to me and she checked and the cervix was "all gone" apparently.
Weird switch in labor... they go from yelling at me through my haze and fog of pain to "Breathe!" to telling me "Hold your breathe hold your breathe hold your breath and push!!!" (this struck me as highly ironic yesterday)
Once I was in the pushing phase, it was all over really fast. 3 contractions, with 3 pushes per contraction and my beautiful Tadpole was delivered!! A wonderful amazing PINK bundle of joy!
Aria Lily B. was born finally at 18:48 June 28th 2012
There's so much more that I could write about... such as when our room nurse went on her dinner break and the evil witch nurse was there for 30 min, labor got way more difficult with her glaring around the room... I just about kicked her in the face when she told me that I "had to move" because the blasted monitors had fallen off. I'd spent DAYS at that point hooked up to the damned monitors and Tadpole had been FINE throughout ALL of it. The only thing that saved her was I was worried about being "overboard" in what I said, so I said nothing at all and focused on the fact that as far as nurses go, she was really really young. (Our other nurse that was with us through it all, she understood that you don't ever tell a mother in the middle of a contraction that she "has to move" so that you can reconnect a freakin' monitor to her)
Pics added
(Finally found my camera cord!!!)
can't wait to see pictutes, I'm sure shes precious!
