The Birth Story (and hospital stay)
Working backwards trying to catch up a bit on everything that has happened.
Went in Monday July 9 and begun the induction process at 10:15 am. They didn't put me on the IV to begin with but used the prostoglandin "pill" placed next to the cervix to help soften it. Mom, Mark, and I went out to walk around town and grab some lunch. By the time we got back to the hospital around 3:30pm I was having regular contractions about 5 mins apart. Yippee!! Midwife was able to break my water around 4:15pm (which was totally gross!) and about an hour later they moved me to a labor and delivery room.
Mark's mom had arrived at that point, so she and my mom sat nervously on the side watching everything. Elisabeth kept working on a crochet project but finally had to give up because she couldn't concentrate on both. The moms were a wreck and Mark wasn't much better. Most of the time I was pretty oblivious to it all.
Since I was less than 5 cm dilated they waited until around 9pm before ordering my epidural. By that point I was in so much pain. Thank goodness for a very patient anesthesiologist who had to place it in between very heavy and painful contractions. They kept telling me to arch my back like a cat and bring my knees to my chin. ?!?! How in the world was I to manage that? haha But oh the wonderful wonderful feel of drugs finally hit me and I was even able to nap off and on for a bit.
*things get a bit fuzzy from here* At some point I ended up getting a pretty high fever. And Patrick's heart rate was hanging between 180 and 200. The midwife ended up bringing in the doctors to run the show because at this point I had become a high risk delivery. Around midnight I was 9cm and Patrick had made no move to drop down further into the birth canal. The doctors decided to order a blood test on the baby, where they went in and took a small sample from his head, to make sure he was getting enough oxygen. Things looked good and he wasn't stressed so they opted to let me labor on longer. By around 4am nothing had changed. Baby still "stuck" in the same spot and heart rate over 200. They did another blood test and decided it was time to call it and do an emergency cesarian. I was a bit sad but at that point I was so exhausted I just wanted it all over with.
They had hoped to be able to do just a local spinal block for the delivery, but I had had the epidural in for so long the tube had losened and they were afraid to do another. So I ended up getting knocked out with general anesthesia. I didn't wake up in recovery until 6am and all I wanted was to see Mark and Patrick. Mark sadly wasn't allowed in the delivery room because of them knocking me out but they brought little Patrick to him as soon as he was born. My mom, Elisabeth all got to meet my son before I did!
Fast forward to Friday....We were all set to go home. Packed, cleaned out the room, everything in the car. Last thing left to do was weigh him. He was born at 4.520 kg and had dropped to 3.974 kg. This was a loss >10% of the birth weight so they told us we needed to stay. I really really wanted to breast feed but was struggling. And the weight loss was because my milk had not come in yet. The "first Milk" was just not enough for such a big boy! We had to supplement while I worked with the torture machine (breast pump) which killed me. But it just had to be done. It was actually a good thing they decided to keep us a little longer. Late Friday afternoon I had a hemeaoma (blood accumulation under the skin) that burst and made me bleed out from my incision like a stuck pig!
We spent the weekend getting me healed and working on my milk production. On Monday Patrick weighed in at 4.096 kg which meant we were cleared to go home! No more hospital. Hurray!!!
*there are a few other anecdotes I am sure I will end up writing about but for now I wanted to make sure I got this part down.*
Went in Monday July 9 and begun the induction process at 10:15 am. They didn't put me on the IV to begin with but used the prostoglandin "pill" placed next to the cervix to help soften it. Mom, Mark, and I went out to walk around town and grab some lunch. By the time we got back to the hospital around 3:30pm I was having regular contractions about 5 mins apart. Yippee!! Midwife was able to break my water around 4:15pm (which was totally gross!) and about an hour later they moved me to a labor and delivery room.
Mark's mom had arrived at that point, so she and my mom sat nervously on the side watching everything. Elisabeth kept working on a crochet project but finally had to give up because she couldn't concentrate on both. The moms were a wreck and Mark wasn't much better. Most of the time I was pretty oblivious to it all.
Since I was less than 5 cm dilated they waited until around 9pm before ordering my epidural. By that point I was in so much pain. Thank goodness for a very patient anesthesiologist who had to place it in between very heavy and painful contractions. They kept telling me to arch my back like a cat and bring my knees to my chin. ?!?! How in the world was I to manage that? haha But oh the wonderful wonderful feel of drugs finally hit me and I was even able to nap off and on for a bit.
*things get a bit fuzzy from here* At some point I ended up getting a pretty high fever. And Patrick's heart rate was hanging between 180 and 200. The midwife ended up bringing in the doctors to run the show because at this point I had become a high risk delivery. Around midnight I was 9cm and Patrick had made no move to drop down further into the birth canal. The doctors decided to order a blood test on the baby, where they went in and took a small sample from his head, to make sure he was getting enough oxygen. Things looked good and he wasn't stressed so they opted to let me labor on longer. By around 4am nothing had changed. Baby still "stuck" in the same spot and heart rate over 200. They did another blood test and decided it was time to call it and do an emergency cesarian. I was a bit sad but at that point I was so exhausted I just wanted it all over with.
They had hoped to be able to do just a local spinal block for the delivery, but I had had the epidural in for so long the tube had losened and they were afraid to do another. So I ended up getting knocked out with general anesthesia. I didn't wake up in recovery until 6am and all I wanted was to see Mark and Patrick. Mark sadly wasn't allowed in the delivery room because of them knocking me out but they brought little Patrick to him as soon as he was born. My mom, Elisabeth all got to meet my son before I did!
Fast forward to Friday....We were all set to go home. Packed, cleaned out the room, everything in the car. Last thing left to do was weigh him. He was born at 4.520 kg and had dropped to 3.974 kg. This was a loss >10% of the birth weight so they told us we needed to stay. I really really wanted to breast feed but was struggling. And the weight loss was because my milk had not come in yet. The "first Milk" was just not enough for such a big boy! We had to supplement while I worked with the torture machine (breast pump) which killed me. But it just had to be done. It was actually a good thing they decided to keep us a little longer. Late Friday afternoon I had a hemeaoma (blood accumulation under the skin) that burst and made me bleed out from my incision like a stuck pig!
We spent the weekend getting me healed and working on my milk production. On Monday Patrick weighed in at 4.096 kg which meant we were cleared to go home! No more hospital. Hurray!!!
*there are a few other anecdotes I am sure I will end up writing about but for now I wanted to make sure I got this part down.*