Here's Jocelyn's birth story for those that have the desire for a very long tale!
Induction was scheduled for 7:30, so we arrived at the hospital early, got checked in eventually, yada yada yada, got on the monitors for a baseline, yada yada yada.
8: 30 - get hooked up (2 IVs which hurt like heck, BP cuff, heartbeat monitor, contraction monitor - in other words, way too many wires) start pitocin, no contractions
9: 00 - increase pitocin, no contractions
9: 30 - increase pitocin, no contractions
10: 00 - increase pitocin, maybe a contraction here or there, back is getting cramped from being in bed so ask for a break from the monitors. No break allowed - moved to chair, loving chair
10: 30 - increase pitocin, back to no contractions, hating chair, hating wires, hating decision to be induced - ask to go home, ask for break from monitors, no break given, start to cry - get to be on remote monitors so can walk around, marginally better, still crying, still no contractions
11: 15 - increase pitocin, hate walking, hate sitting, want to lie down but heart monitor errors out when do, contractions start but don't seem bad so don't bother telling anyone
11: 30 - Josh goes out for a butt, I lie down despite the heart monitor errors, nurse comes in to fix the belt thingy, I want her to go away, I want these wires off of me, I want to go home, contractions start getting worse, fast I start breathing, which sort of helps, contractions aren't lasting too long and are pretty bad but not horrible
11 :45 - nurse notices my breathing and decides to check me, I'm 4cm, nurse says I can have an epidural whenever I want, I figure I can suck it up a bit longer
12: 00 - I remember I'm not the kind of person that sucks things up and ask for the epidural, I get up to use the bathroom since this will be my last time out of bed for a while, my water breaks (just a slow stream, not a gush or anything)
12:30 - get ready for epidural (questions, my own heart monitor, etc)
12:45 - start getting epidural, much more painful than I remember and seems to only be working on my right side, increase pitocin a bunch
1 :00 - epidural in, still only working on right side, right leg completely immobile, left leg fine, doctor checks me, I'm 4-5cm, I send Josh to call and say it's going to be a while
1: 15 - Jocelyn is having moderate heart decelerations with contractions (under 100bpm), nurse checks me, I'm 4-5cm but head is low
1: 30 - right SIDE only epidural has changed to right LEG only epidural, contractions are intense and I am getting pretty loud with my "breathing", Josh seems a bit frightened, I remember thinking that was unusual
1 :40 - nurse decides I'm way too loud for your average epidural patient, says she'll check me and if I'm not complete, she'll get me more epidural
1 :45 - nurse checks me, I'm 8cm. nurse leaves to get epidural-guy, as she's leaving, I start to push, so I yell "I'M PUSHING!" Panic ensues, mostly my own. Nurse comes back and checks me again, agrees the head is coming out. Nurse hits code button and many people come running in, my doctor being one of them. They tell me to go ahead and push but only enough to relieve the pain (i.e, "just push a little")
Two baby nurses (I think one was a trainee) set up for the baby while two regular nurses and my doctor frantically try to break down the bed and gown and get ready for delivery.
Josh is in charge of my one leg that won't move. They put up the stir-ups and Josh inserts the immobile leg.
My other leg is less of a problem, I can hold onto it and put it in the stir-ups between the contractions - luckily there is still 30 seconds or so between contractions, which I spend asking for drugs and explaining to all in the room how much it hurts. I explain it to them louder during the actual contractions, but for some reason felt I should try in a calm voice as well.
During contractions I do my best not to scream (Josh tells me I was mostly successful), I try to make as little noise as possible and just push, but I can safely say I did not succeed at that. I feel like I'm pushing out a station wagon and it's not going to budge. Doctor and nurses say I'm doing well but I don't believe them. I'm most thankful for Josh who tells me that she's actually moving, which motivates me to keep pushing, though I also spend a lot of time explaining that I can't actually push a station wagon out because it hurts too much.
2:01 - FINALLY she pops out, and I mean pop. It felt like it was all one motion, just bam, there's your baby. I feel a billion times better.
She had the cord around her neck a couple times and she was pretty purple, However, she got an apgar of 9/9 and, of course, seemed and seems perfect to me.
After the afterbirth etc etc and all the stitching (at one point I finally told my doctor that she was concerning me with the length of time it was taking to stitch me up, but she said it wasn't that bad - she was just a perfectionist) Jocelyn starts nursing, Someone drops off a sandwich and oreos, which I inhale without tasting. I feel great, really awesome, and relatively embarrassed about my behavior. Josh goes to call the grandparents.
In the next two or three hours, Jocelyn only stops nursing to be weighed and bathed, or when a nurse comes in to punch me in the stomach. I finally ask for a pacifier and a shower. I've still got the stupid spinal catheter in from the so-called epidural and my IVs (that still hurt like heck) and the blood pressure cuff and I want everything out of me and I was not to be sitting in a pool of blood.
They take everything out. I shower, and feel much better. Back to nursing!
Josh and I spend the next few hours discussing how much the day blew chunks but ended well. He stays while I inhale my dinner (when trying not to taste the horrible hospital food, I find eating very fast to be the best method), and then is excused to go home and get something for himself to eat, and to make a bunch of phone calls, and to sleep. He agrees to come back the next morning and join me in my fight to leave the hospital in as close to 24 hours after birth as possible (we managed the task in 25 hours - not bad).
So I would say out of all 3 birth stories, this is my least favorite, most painful, and most frightening. However, my recovery is moving along swiftly and my daughter (can you believe it? I have a daughter!) is beautiful. While I would do it all again for her, not sure I'll be signing up for a fourth time.
No comments:
Post a Comment