Jaxon's birth story
My brother is uploading our pictures to Facebook right now so I'm deciding it's a good time to write my birth story. I'm titling it "Baby Bermuda Triangle". CROSS POSTED to myspace, facebook (maybe), january2007, december2008, and my personal journal.
So as previously stated, I was unable to sleep the night before my surgery because of a combination of frequent painful contractions and nerves/anxiety. Instead I putted around until 5:30am when I woke up Jason. It had snowed the night before but thankfully not badly and we live right around the corner from the hospital anyway. We stopped and got Jason his coffee and off we went to Labor and Delivery!
The first bermuda triangle part is the fact that the hospital was supposed to have called me the night before to inform me when my surgery time was. They never called, so I had to call them instead. This didn't bother me much until we got to the hospital around 6:15am (surgery was at 7:55am and I was told to be there no later than 6:30am by the nurse I spoke to). We went to Labor and Delivery and they were surprised to see me! Kymberly (this is my new favorite nurse at Manchester Memorial, she's been there EVERY time we've been sent there) was on duty. It's sad when the nurse already knows your name, your place of birth, and your doctor's name. But they didn't have any surgeries listed on their schedule, though someone had mentioned there was supposed to be a c-section. Ok, odd but they were ready for me so no big deal! I'm off to my room to be prepped.
I climb into my hospital gown and Kym comes back with five million needles and other supplies. The first needle was some kind of bloodwork, I have no idea what. This needle went on the side of my right wrist. I hate that placement, but Kym is good, so it didn't hurt like it usually does. And then we hit bermuda triangle piece number two.
I'm lying in the bed, talking to Jason, and out of the corner of my eye I see Kym juggle something. I glance over just in time to hear her say shit and to watch in horror as she stabs herself through her pinky finger and into her ring finger with the needle that was supposed to be used for my IV. THROUGH her finger. It was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen. She was remarkably calm about it though, even as her glove filled with blood. She pulled the needle out, tossed it in the biohazard thing, ripped off her glove and tossed that, told me she was going to send someone else in to me. I just watched in horror and asked like a billion times if she was ok.
So two minutes later, I get not one, not two, but THREE nurses in my room. I'm freaked out as hell and squeezing the life out of Jason's hand and contracting every thirty seconds or so now lol. I have no idea why but that really scared me!! Plus, I liked Kym! So nurse #1 starts doing my paperwork and asking me the dumb questions like do you have any allergies and all that nonsense. Nurse #2, aka Wendy, starts doing my IV. Nurse #3 starts prepping me for surgery, shaving and getting ready to do the catheter and such.
So Wendy is the only one I remember for some reason. She stayed around for a while after the other two left so that's probably why. Well, she starts having issues getting my IV started. It doesn't help that while she's poking me with needles, Nurse #3 is shaving me. That was unnerving. Plus Nurse #1 keeps asking me to think about stuff like when I last ate (9pm the night before) and if I want a flu shot (I said yes because I couldn't think straight). So Wendy tries to get the IV on the inside of my forearm. She keeps saying how she swears she's in the vein but she's not getting any blood to come out. And then she moves the needle. Ow. No blood. Moves the needle. Fiften minutes of this later and I'm cutting off circulation to Jason's fingers and she finally tries another area for the IV. This time it goes on the top of my right hand. She had to use a smaller needle (a 20 instead of an 18? I dunno). It finally goes in but my blood flow still sucks. This IV is just for fluids anyway.
Nurses #1 and #3 finally leave and Wendy gives the IV ten minutes or so to get some fluids in me before they need to start taking blood in the normal inside of the elbow part. This sucks because yet again, I'm not giving blood well, but eventually she gets what she needs. Now it's catheter time! I freak out. I hate the catheter. I remember the catheter from Maddie's birth and the spinal. I fear those two things more than life. I make Jason practically crawl into the bed with me and hold on for dear life. It hurts like fucking hell, let me tell you. I managed not to cry though!! I was so proud.
Then Wendy left. And the catheter stayed. And then I cried. It hurt damnit and it was uncomfortable. I was actually grateful for the contractions because I guess my body could only concentrate on one pain at a time. Jason kept me mostly calm but I kept snipping at him because I was so miserable. By now, my only piece of comfort was knowing that it was 7:15 and I only had a little while left until they did the spinal and the pain would stop.
7:55 rolls around.. and past. 8:15 shows up and someone, I think Wendy again, comes in the tell us there's just a little delay with my surgery. Something about they're trying to get an anesthesiologist or someone to come in. They're missing people for my surgery. What the hell? I knew the missing scheduling issue was.. an issue. Plus now we've taken out a nurse on top of things (I was really missing Kym now, she was so nice!).
8:30 comes and goes.. 9am comes and goes.. 9:15ish my doctor comes in. She's wearing her scrubs so I feel happy (I've been completely miserable and in pain/ridiculously uncomfortable because of the catheter). Until she tells me that they're screwing with her and she has no idea what's going on but she promises to get to me as soon as possible. I'm first on her list. It wasn't good news, but I felt better knowing that she wasn't the one holding things up. I love my doctor. Really.
I called my mom and talked to her for a few minutes and complained. She thought I was calling to tell her about the baby being born, but sadly I was not. I was just about to start crying when I hung up with her around 10am and then the anesthesiologist came in with Wendy! They started talking to me about I knew what to expect (I did, I've done this before) and had I had any issues with anesthesia before (none at all) and so forth. Then they start talking about my hemo something or other. Not hemoglobin, but something like that. I have a really low iron basically. They ran it once before and it was a 17, and they ran it again and it was a 26. I don't know what any of that means but it seemed to concern the anesthesiologist. He seemed like a really nice guy though, so I was comfortable. My husband was given his scrubs (they didn't fit ha ha, he's too big)! Yay!
Then my doctor came in and said it was time! YAY!!! I had to walk myself to the operating room, which wasn't actually so bad. My little pee bag was kind of amusing to me for some unknown reason. I hated having to leave Jason though. They wouldn't let him in until I was all settled into position. I get why (in case I needed to be put under general, or something went wrong) but it scared me a little. I had to practically climb onto this table (I'm too damn short). Wendy was there and she was the one who I hung onto during the spinal.
I was so freaked out about the spinal. I remember with Madison it was the most painful experience ever. Jason heard me screaming/crying from the other room! I guess it was because it was such an emergency though. This time, I sat on the edge of the table and Wendy held my hands in my lap and I put my head on her shoulder. I was really determined to be strong about this because it meant the pain of the catheter would go away. So I decided to concentrate on breathing instead. The anesthesiologist cleaned my back three times. That was weird because it was cold. Then I felt something being stuck to my back. I assume it was like those things you see on TV with the hole where the needle goes/the part that gets cut (in my case, the needle thing). So then they tell me I'm going to feel a bee sting and that I really can't move or pull away. This is just the numbing stuff. It really did feel like just a bee sting, but there was this odd pressure sensation that kind of ran through my spine. It was more unnerving than anything so I let out a noise.
I felt brave so far. They told me I wouldn't really feel anything else and told me that I would have to lie on my side really quickly once the spinal was in because I'd lose feeling my legs. I felt what must have been the needle going in for the spinal but I just breathed through it. It didn't hurt, it was again the weird uncomfortable pressure in my spine. I was so happy! My legs were starting to tingle a little as they did the needle. I sat another minute afterward until it was starting to spread the numb feeling, then Wendy helped me lie down on my side and roll unto my back.
This is where weird bermuda triangle part number three begins. Someone notices that my IV isn't doing anything. It's not empty, and it's not clogged but for some reason, there's no fluids moving through it. It's all working fine except.. not working. It's not big deal, they try to flush it and I stop paying attention really.
As I'm lying there, I can still feel my legs, but they feel.. disconnected from me. The tingling/numbing starts working it's way higher and higher, and then it starts feeling like someone is sitting on my chest. I was having trouble breathing and feeling like I was going to pass out or die or something. It freaked me out but I knew enough to tell the doctors and that it was going to be fine. They gave me an oxygen mask and told me to keep breathing, my oxygen levels were fine. I think it was just anxiety... until...
I hear the anesthesiologist go Oh Damn and there's this rush of quick OMG energy. I felt something like.. pop on my IV. He starts freaking out and yelling to get a new IV in. I start feeling like I can breathe again and the feeling is coming back in my chest/ribcage. It was kind of a relief despite the sudden panic in the room. The doctor apologizes and tells me this might hurt and he puts a brand new IV in the top of my other hand. I thought it was all really odd but he was really freaked out. Cutting hadn't started or anything so I guess if it all wore off it just meant he would have to do the spinal all over again.
They gave me a wet cloth for my head, which felt really good, and I feel people prodding at my stomach. My doctor finally says something about when are we getting my husband in here lol. So in he comes. He sits with me and rubs my head and surgery begins.
The feeling of having my baby removed basically felt like they pulled twenty pounds out from under my ribs. I instantly felt like I'd lost a ton of weight and pressure. And he cried immediately! Which instantly I cried. My daughter.. Madison didn't cry and it was so scary until she did. There was so much relief that Jaxon just did it. I knew right away he was healthy and ok. I cried and just kept saying to Jason, we have a son, I did it, over and over. Then I made him go check on the baby.
At this point, bermuda triangle moment number four. My doctor yells for one of the nurses to suction. I guess she wasn't listening and was with the baby. Then it turns out.. there is no suction. Whatever they ended up doing I have no idea but the thing they were using just stopped working. Again, no clogs, no obvious issues, but no suction. The odd part is that my doctor announced she just had to close my skin with stitches and suddenly a nurse tells her that the suction is now working again! Nothing has changed!.. Very very weird.
Oh in the meantime, Jaxon cried like a duck lol. He really sounded like a duck was in the room. So he earned a new nickname, Ducky. Jason went to check on him. The nurses asked if he wanted to cut the cord, which he declined. They seemed surprised but my husband just isn't that kind of guy. We had already discussed the option. Jason came back to me and told me the shocking truth.. Jaxon had a full head of hair! lol. I guess the old wives tale was true. I had no heartburn with Maddie, and Maddie had no hair. Tons of heartburn with Jaxon.. lots of dark hair. Coincidence?
They cleaned little man off and brought him over to us. They put him on my chest (sort of) and I got to give him tons of kisses and cried all over him. He slept. And he had my chubby cheeks! His Apgars were 9 and 9. We found out later he weighed 8 lbs, 10 oz! He's 20.5 inches, though someone originally told us he was 22 inches.
Eventually, they took him off to the nursery. I was also having my tubes tied so my surgery wasn't quick. Jason and I talked a little bit and then I just felt exhausted. Which is understandable given my not sleeping the night before.
My battery is dying so I will finish the story later!
So as previously stated, I was unable to sleep the night before my surgery because of a combination of frequent painful contractions and nerves/anxiety. Instead I putted around until 5:30am when I woke up Jason. It had snowed the night before but thankfully not badly and we live right around the corner from the hospital anyway. We stopped and got Jason his coffee and off we went to Labor and Delivery!
The first bermuda triangle part is the fact that the hospital was supposed to have called me the night before to inform me when my surgery time was. They never called, so I had to call them instead. This didn't bother me much until we got to the hospital around 6:15am (surgery was at 7:55am and I was told to be there no later than 6:30am by the nurse I spoke to). We went to Labor and Delivery and they were surprised to see me! Kymberly (this is my new favorite nurse at Manchester Memorial, she's been there EVERY time we've been sent there) was on duty. It's sad when the nurse already knows your name, your place of birth, and your doctor's name. But they didn't have any surgeries listed on their schedule, though someone had mentioned there was supposed to be a c-section. Ok, odd but they were ready for me so no big deal! I'm off to my room to be prepped.
I climb into my hospital gown and Kym comes back with five million needles and other supplies. The first needle was some kind of bloodwork, I have no idea what. This needle went on the side of my right wrist. I hate that placement, but Kym is good, so it didn't hurt like it usually does. And then we hit bermuda triangle piece number two.
I'm lying in the bed, talking to Jason, and out of the corner of my eye I see Kym juggle something. I glance over just in time to hear her say shit and to watch in horror as she stabs herself through her pinky finger and into her ring finger with the needle that was supposed to be used for my IV. THROUGH her finger. It was the most disgusting thing I have ever seen. She was remarkably calm about it though, even as her glove filled with blood. She pulled the needle out, tossed it in the biohazard thing, ripped off her glove and tossed that, told me she was going to send someone else in to me. I just watched in horror and asked like a billion times if she was ok.
So two minutes later, I get not one, not two, but THREE nurses in my room. I'm freaked out as hell and squeezing the life out of Jason's hand and contracting every thirty seconds or so now lol. I have no idea why but that really scared me!! Plus, I liked Kym! So nurse #1 starts doing my paperwork and asking me the dumb questions like do you have any allergies and all that nonsense. Nurse #2, aka Wendy, starts doing my IV. Nurse #3 starts prepping me for surgery, shaving and getting ready to do the catheter and such.
So Wendy is the only one I remember for some reason. She stayed around for a while after the other two left so that's probably why. Well, she starts having issues getting my IV started. It doesn't help that while she's poking me with needles, Nurse #3 is shaving me. That was unnerving. Plus Nurse #1 keeps asking me to think about stuff like when I last ate (9pm the night before) and if I want a flu shot (I said yes because I couldn't think straight). So Wendy tries to get the IV on the inside of my forearm. She keeps saying how she swears she's in the vein but she's not getting any blood to come out. And then she moves the needle. Ow. No blood. Moves the needle. Fiften minutes of this later and I'm cutting off circulation to Jason's fingers and she finally tries another area for the IV. This time it goes on the top of my right hand. She had to use a smaller needle (a 20 instead of an 18? I dunno). It finally goes in but my blood flow still sucks. This IV is just for fluids anyway.
Nurses #1 and #3 finally leave and Wendy gives the IV ten minutes or so to get some fluids in me before they need to start taking blood in the normal inside of the elbow part. This sucks because yet again, I'm not giving blood well, but eventually she gets what she needs. Now it's catheter time! I freak out. I hate the catheter. I remember the catheter from Maddie's birth and the spinal. I fear those two things more than life. I make Jason practically crawl into the bed with me and hold on for dear life. It hurts like fucking hell, let me tell you. I managed not to cry though!! I was so proud.
Then Wendy left. And the catheter stayed. And then I cried. It hurt damnit and it was uncomfortable. I was actually grateful for the contractions because I guess my body could only concentrate on one pain at a time. Jason kept me mostly calm but I kept snipping at him because I was so miserable. By now, my only piece of comfort was knowing that it was 7:15 and I only had a little while left until they did the spinal and the pain would stop.
7:55 rolls around.. and past. 8:15 shows up and someone, I think Wendy again, comes in the tell us there's just a little delay with my surgery. Something about they're trying to get an anesthesiologist or someone to come in. They're missing people for my surgery. What the hell? I knew the missing scheduling issue was.. an issue. Plus now we've taken out a nurse on top of things (I was really missing Kym now, she was so nice!).
8:30 comes and goes.. 9am comes and goes.. 9:15ish my doctor comes in. She's wearing her scrubs so I feel happy (I've been completely miserable and in pain/ridiculously uncomfortable because of the catheter). Until she tells me that they're screwing with her and she has no idea what's going on but she promises to get to me as soon as possible. I'm first on her list. It wasn't good news, but I felt better knowing that she wasn't the one holding things up. I love my doctor. Really.
I called my mom and talked to her for a few minutes and complained. She thought I was calling to tell her about the baby being born, but sadly I was not. I was just about to start crying when I hung up with her around 10am and then the anesthesiologist came in with Wendy! They started talking to me about I knew what to expect (I did, I've done this before) and had I had any issues with anesthesia before (none at all) and so forth. Then they start talking about my hemo something or other. Not hemoglobin, but something like that. I have a really low iron basically. They ran it once before and it was a 17, and they ran it again and it was a 26. I don't know what any of that means but it seemed to concern the anesthesiologist. He seemed like a really nice guy though, so I was comfortable. My husband was given his scrubs (they didn't fit ha ha, he's too big)! Yay!
Then my doctor came in and said it was time! YAY!!! I had to walk myself to the operating room, which wasn't actually so bad. My little pee bag was kind of amusing to me for some unknown reason. I hated having to leave Jason though. They wouldn't let him in until I was all settled into position. I get why (in case I needed to be put under general, or something went wrong) but it scared me a little. I had to practically climb onto this table (I'm too damn short). Wendy was there and she was the one who I hung onto during the spinal.
I was so freaked out about the spinal. I remember with Madison it was the most painful experience ever. Jason heard me screaming/crying from the other room! I guess it was because it was such an emergency though. This time, I sat on the edge of the table and Wendy held my hands in my lap and I put my head on her shoulder. I was really determined to be strong about this because it meant the pain of the catheter would go away. So I decided to concentrate on breathing instead. The anesthesiologist cleaned my back three times. That was weird because it was cold. Then I felt something being stuck to my back. I assume it was like those things you see on TV with the hole where the needle goes/the part that gets cut (in my case, the needle thing). So then they tell me I'm going to feel a bee sting and that I really can't move or pull away. This is just the numbing stuff. It really did feel like just a bee sting, but there was this odd pressure sensation that kind of ran through my spine. It was more unnerving than anything so I let out a noise.
I felt brave so far. They told me I wouldn't really feel anything else and told me that I would have to lie on my side really quickly once the spinal was in because I'd lose feeling my legs. I felt what must have been the needle going in for the spinal but I just breathed through it. It didn't hurt, it was again the weird uncomfortable pressure in my spine. I was so happy! My legs were starting to tingle a little as they did the needle. I sat another minute afterward until it was starting to spread the numb feeling, then Wendy helped me lie down on my side and roll unto my back.
This is where weird bermuda triangle part number three begins. Someone notices that my IV isn't doing anything. It's not empty, and it's not clogged but for some reason, there's no fluids moving through it. It's all working fine except.. not working. It's not big deal, they try to flush it and I stop paying attention really.
As I'm lying there, I can still feel my legs, but they feel.. disconnected from me. The tingling/numbing starts working it's way higher and higher, and then it starts feeling like someone is sitting on my chest. I was having trouble breathing and feeling like I was going to pass out or die or something. It freaked me out but I knew enough to tell the doctors and that it was going to be fine. They gave me an oxygen mask and told me to keep breathing, my oxygen levels were fine. I think it was just anxiety... until...
I hear the anesthesiologist go Oh Damn and there's this rush of quick OMG energy. I felt something like.. pop on my IV. He starts freaking out and yelling to get a new IV in. I start feeling like I can breathe again and the feeling is coming back in my chest/ribcage. It was kind of a relief despite the sudden panic in the room. The doctor apologizes and tells me this might hurt and he puts a brand new IV in the top of my other hand. I thought it was all really odd but he was really freaked out. Cutting hadn't started or anything so I guess if it all wore off it just meant he would have to do the spinal all over again.
They gave me a wet cloth for my head, which felt really good, and I feel people prodding at my stomach. My doctor finally says something about when are we getting my husband in here lol. So in he comes. He sits with me and rubs my head and surgery begins.
The feeling of having my baby removed basically felt like they pulled twenty pounds out from under my ribs. I instantly felt like I'd lost a ton of weight and pressure. And he cried immediately! Which instantly I cried. My daughter.. Madison didn't cry and it was so scary until she did. There was so much relief that Jaxon just did it. I knew right away he was healthy and ok. I cried and just kept saying to Jason, we have a son, I did it, over and over. Then I made him go check on the baby.
At this point, bermuda triangle moment number four. My doctor yells for one of the nurses to suction. I guess she wasn't listening and was with the baby. Then it turns out.. there is no suction. Whatever they ended up doing I have no idea but the thing they were using just stopped working. Again, no clogs, no obvious issues, but no suction. The odd part is that my doctor announced she just had to close my skin with stitches and suddenly a nurse tells her that the suction is now working again! Nothing has changed!.. Very very weird.
Oh in the meantime, Jaxon cried like a duck lol. He really sounded like a duck was in the room. So he earned a new nickname, Ducky. Jason went to check on him. The nurses asked if he wanted to cut the cord, which he declined. They seemed surprised but my husband just isn't that kind of guy. We had already discussed the option. Jason came back to me and told me the shocking truth.. Jaxon had a full head of hair! lol. I guess the old wives tale was true. I had no heartburn with Maddie, and Maddie had no hair. Tons of heartburn with Jaxon.. lots of dark hair. Coincidence?
They cleaned little man off and brought him over to us. They put him on my chest (sort of) and I got to give him tons of kisses and cried all over him. He slept. And he had my chubby cheeks! His Apgars were 9 and 9. We found out later he weighed 8 lbs, 10 oz! He's 20.5 inches, though someone originally told us he was 22 inches.
Eventually, they took him off to the nursery. I was also having my tubes tied so my surgery wasn't quick. Jason and I talked a little bit and then I just felt exhausted. Which is understandable given my not sleeping the night before.
My battery is dying so I will finish the story later!