don't let this scare you from having children of your own....lol
this is as *I* remember it. i'm sure everyone else that was with me would have changes to make, but...as far as my brain is concerned...
serious kudos if you make it through this. LOL.
Okay. Finally getting around to this. It's been almost 3 exactly since Aiden was born, and they've possibly been the best worst three weeks of my life. If that makes any sense. But without further ado, my story...
I woke up at 9.30am Sunday, the 10th, with mild contractions - nothing really different than what I'd been having for the past week or so, except that by this point, I was past my due date. The contractions didn't stop after I was up and moving around, so we started timing them around 11 or so. They were about 8 minutes apart, and I started to get kind of excited, because...maybe this was it! Oh, btw, having a contraction WHILE peeing is something out of a horror movie. WTF. Anyway, my mom had come down to Texas to stay with us to help out (hubster is deploying soon, so he's gone long hours with training and other army bullshit), so she was here, and my sister and her bf had also come down around my kid's expected due date. We all had a nice breakfast together, and then I went off to take a bath/shower. We found this great contraction timer program online, but the hubster wasn't going to come chill in the bathroom with the laptop, and i wasn't about to try to balance it myself, so I was in there, texting him everytime one started and one stopped. lol. because we rule. they we're getting longer and closer together, but not really PAINful yet, so we putzed around a bit more and then went to the park and walked around and fed the ducks until the contractions were coming about every 3-5 minutes and lasting for roughly a minute or so.
We went home, sat for an hour to make sure the contractions didn't change and when they didn't, we called labor and delivery, because they had told us to call when they were 5 minutes apart and lasting for 60-90 seconds. All 5 of us headed off to the hospital, with bags packed. We almost got into an accident on the way there when a wheel (not a tire, the whole damn wheel) fell off of a car that was being towed and rolled right out in front of our car, and then my moms car. I was mid-contraction, trying not to laugh because OUCH, but it was just too weird...
We get to L & D, and they hook me up to the non-stress test monitors and at this point, it's like, 4.30 - 5pm, and I'd been having regular, steady contractions for 7 hours. They check, and I'm 1cm dilated, which is what I'd been for two weeks already. Bummer. My blood pressure was high, as it had been for the two weeks prior, which had prompted pre-eclampsia testing, and two NSTs a week and a couple of ultrasounds to make sure my amniotic fluid level was okay, and to make sure his growth was okay. While I was at L & D, they noticed he wasn't responding like "normal" when I was having my contractions, so they did ANOTHER ultrasound (haha, Tricare insurance...I got 4 ultrasounds out of you!) and everything looked fine. I wasn't dilated enough to be admitted, so after being there for two hours, the midwife on duty came in and told me to go home, take some Tylenol, and keep my next prenatal appt. WTF. I don't think she thought I was in real labor, and I'm still kind of pissed about that.
So we left, I was in tears because I really just wanted him out of me at this point and the contractions were starting to get really uncomfortable. We stopped to get some dinner, and I ate it in 3 minute intervals between contractions at home. By 8.30pm, they were so strong and painful, that I was writhing around in bed, trying to remember to breathe my "cleansing breath" when I could feel one starting. Easier said than done. By 9.30, I was in tears and making some pretty awful groaning noises and begging my hubster and mom to take me back to the hospital. I'd never been in so much pain in my life and I was SO ready to quit. lol. In between moans, I was feeling pretty bad because I was sure I was freaking the hell out of my little sis and her BF with my scary noises and my crying and carrying on...
Finally, we went back to the hospital around 10pm and they checked me again - dilated 3cm at this point, after 12 hours of labor. They noticed that during some of my contractions, Aiden's heart rate would drop a bit, so they admitted me around midnight to keep an eye on both of us...I was happy, because they WERE going to send me out to walk around for an hour and hope that I dilated to 4cm, because the hospital I had to go to won't admit unless you're 4cm. I got into my birthing suite, and my family came in and kept me company until I got my epidural around 3am. Okay. Epidural = best thing ever for this girl. I thought my back and hips were going to split apart until I got that medicine in me. Then, all was right with the world. lol.
Sometime, a couple of hours later, the midwife came in to break my water. I had dilated to 5 at this point, whoo. There was a LOT of meconium in the bag of water, so they explained what they'd have to do after he was born - suctioning his airways out right away. She also said he was facing forwards, which would explain the AMAZING pain i was in - back labor! The little buggar had flipped around since my last appt. Fine. Then, things started to go wrong.
I'd already tested Group B Strep positive, so I had a continuious drip of anti-biotics going into my system. The epidural was working wonders. I was even joking around and kind of getting excited! Apparently, Aiden still wasn't responding as they wanted him to during my contractions, so they put an internal fetal monitor on his head. I had just started to doze off, and I felt some fluid trickling (or thought I had) so I asked my hubster if he could check for me and as he moved my leg, the monitor started beeping and it showed no heartbeat for the kid. I thought we'd just knocked the monitor loose from his head as we were trying to move my legs, so I hit the nurse button. Before I could blink, I had 4 nurses running into my room and shoving me over onto my right side (from where I'd been on my back) and his heart-rate came back. They seemed concerned, and I was freaked out at this point. My hubster went back to sleep, but I couldn't stop watching the heart monitor to make sure he was fine. I'd been up for almost 24hrs at this point, so I did start to doze off. When I did, it seemed like his heart rate would drop off. They had to come into my room like 4 times, and the last time they were up on my bed, hauling me to my hands and knees to get him stimulated again.
The midwife on duty seemed nonplussed and even though my nurse was worried and was saying that she thought I would have a c-section if this kept up, the midwife ordered a pitocin drip to progress my labor, because by 7am, I was still only 6cm dilated. They also re-did my epidural around 8am. The pit drip started to kick in, and in doing so, caused the kid's heartrate to drop one last time from the 150s down to 73, where it didn't really recover. So they stopped the pit drip and told me they were going to do a c-section because they weren't sure how he would do for the rest of labor and of course, actual delivery.
So i got prepped, and my hubster got his scrubs on and they took me on down the hallway and gave me a BUNCH more drugs, and I couldn't stop shivering - but I wasn't cold! It was weird. They brought Brian in, and viola...the popped the kid out and everything was FINE!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was surreal. Brian brough Aiden over to me, and my first glimpse of him was Aiden sticking his tongue out at me. LOL.
So, I kind of had an ordeal. It was an ordeal to me, anyway. Not how I expected anything to go, and it was kinda scary. Now i'm just healing up, and trying to breastfeed, which has been a whole separate ordeal in and of itself for the past two weeks. But I haven't cried today, which is pretty much incredible. So many emotions and guilt about not feeling like I even want to take care of Aiden right now because of how shitty I feel from the surgery and sore boobs and knowing that in 8 weeks my hubster will be in Afghanistan for 15months. It's all overwhelming, but every day is getting better...and my mom is still here taking care of me. I never thought I'd depend on her so much ever again.