Reece James was born on Wednesday, May 4, at 1:11 p.m. in Racine. Our little peanut was 6 lbs. 2 oz. and 20 inches long.
Neither labor nor delivery went at ALL like we had hoped. While it was all going on, I was totally fine with everything, but looking back, I wish it could have been different. But I don't know if it could have ... anyways, here's the story. I'm still emotionally coming to terms with it all.
On my due date, about 5:25 p.m., as I was getting up to go to a friend's for dinner, my water broke. Out of the blue. No labor before, no contractions yet. Since I had had it in my mind from the beginning that when my water breaks I go to the hospital, I called the hospital. Of course, they said to come on in. Then, and I laugh looking back on this, I went to the computer and typed in "water breaking before labor"!! I wanted to see how normal it was to have water break first, and what to do. I had it in my mind that I'd start contractions continue on with my day until labor started, but I was afraid to do that because I knew about the risk of infection and didn't want to jeopardize either me or the baby.
We got there about 6 p.m. and my contractions started at 6:15. They were not painful. Fast forward about two hours and boy, they were coming on stronger! They checked me once at 6 p.m. and I was 1 cm dilated. I hadn't been dilated before this. I gave them my plan, they were OK with everything, but the tub went out the window, and the doctor on-call came in and said that I may not walk around because of the chance of prolapsed cord happening. I was so mad. So I sat legs apart on the bed and moved around as much as I could, changing my position in bed as much as I could. They put me on the fetal monitor (external) and the contraction monitor. They were not going to vaginally check me because of the risk of infection, so they checked the contraction monitor instead. Thankfully, they did not give me an IV at that time.
I went naturally through the night, with very sporadic contractions. And they were strong! I was not ready for them... I thought I would be but I wasn't. I listened to music, I breathed, I relaxed (or tried to). At one point in the middle of the night, I stood up at the edge of the bed, I used a ball, I leaned forward to be like being on all fours. It was hard to stand at one point, the contractions just wiped me out. So after 14 hours, at 8 a.m. on the 4th, they checked me and I was at 2 cm. I was so beat!! They said, sleep between contractions. Well, I didn't know how long I would have between, because some came 30 seconds apart, some came 10 minutes apart. I had 3 piggy-back contractions at one point. If this is normal, Id' love to know.
I decided, with increasing risk of infection as time went on, that I would get an Epidural since I was beat (they said the intensity of my contractions was around 4-5, while I felt the pain was a 7-8 and the intensity would get a 10), and then they would use Pitocin to speed things up. After 4 or 5 shots of Lidocaine and 2 attempts at getting the Epidural in, I had the Epidural and was numb. I hated being numb. I don't know which was worse, the contractions or not being able to move my legs. I was pretty stressed at that point. Partially because when I was turned on my left side, I would become increasingly uncomfortable in that position and want to be turned over, and then that would happen again. At one point, I asked my poor husband to rotate my foot about 10 degrees towards my other foot (HAHA!). Also, partially because while on my left side, I had a horrible pain that started at my middle back and spread around to my abdomen, above where the baby was. Back labor? My Mom thought it was, but I thought it was more near the Epidural site, too high to be that.
Then the "fun" began. I say this sarcastically.
As I moved back and forth from one side to another for comfort purposes, Reece kept getting lost on the fetal monitor. So they would come in and re-adjust it. They did that so many times, that they decided to put an internal monitor on his head. They did one, it didn't work, they took it out. They did another one. It didn't work. Trey took it out. They put he external monitor on again and told me I couldn't keep moving. Then they checked my dilation--4.5 cm.
Then Reece started to not bounce back after contractions. They gave me oxygen, they reassured me that he was going to be OK. At that point, I whispered to Jason that I just wanted him out and I wanted a C-section.
Well, my OB came in later and said, "I think it's time we start considering other options." I appreciated that she didn't just make the decision for me. She allowed me to say it. At least I could have some sort of control, since I felt like I had lost all other control.
At that point, I developed a fever. Infection? Probably. I went in for a C-section and had the chills so bad I couldn't talk, my teeth were violently chattering. I even remember hearing one of the doctors saying, "She's still seizing." I do remember them telling us the time Reece was born (turned out he was face up), and I remember smiling at Jason and I remember Jason bringing Reece over after they cleaned him off, but it was quite hazy for me. My arms were flopping soon after he was born, so he didn't need to be taken to NICU like they thought he might. They ran a few tests on him while they were finishing me off, but he was in the room with us when I was wheeled back. They gave him to me and had me start breastfeeding, and praise the Lord, he latched on and was GREAT at breastfeeding! I am thankful, because with all those drugs, of course I was worried he would be so drugged up, but he was fine!
The one complaint I had about the whole thing in the end was that in the operating room, I heard three different conversations going on, the anesthesiologists were laughing and giggling about something, the nurses in the corner were talking about the Will and Kate wedding, and the doctors were shooting the breeze about something else, and I think also chipped in on the Will and Kate wedding. I was unhappy that they didn't follow our plan that said to keep other talk to a minimum so we could enjoy the birth of our child. Since everything else on the list was basically thrown out the window, how about giving us one??? But then again, I was such a wreck, how much did I really ENJOY all that ??? LOL
Rachel & Jason, Racine
No comments:
Post a Comment