Friday, January 31, 2014

Jeanette's Birth Story - Part 2


When the on call resident came in to break my water, she said that I was dilating from a 4 to a 5 pretty much before her eyes.  I assumed this was good news and meant that things would move along quickly.  I was feeling pretty relaxed, we turned on the TV in the room and watched our Wednesday night TV shows.  I continued to have contractions that were around 2 minutes apart and I couldn't really feel much of anything.  As the evening continued, I felt like the epidural was wearing off and my tailbone started to hurt really bad.  Anesthesia was called back in to give me some more drugs to help with the lower back pain and to refill the pain medicine in the IV.
  
My dad left to head home and get some sleep since he had jury duty in the morning and my mom stayed to help me through the rest of the labor.  I had some fantastic nurses during my time in labor and delivery and I was so thankful for the amazing care that I received.  All of my questions were answered in a timely manner and when I needed extra help, they were there advocating for me.  Andrew and my mom continued to be a great support for me and I was so thankful to have them both by my side.  

Around 10:45pm the nurse wanted to check me again to see if I had progressed and I was at 7cm!  Things were really starting to move along and we all wondered if I would deliver by midnight.  While the nurse was checking on things, she touched the babies head to see how she was positioned.  At that moment, the heart rate dropped and before I could even figure out what was going on people were rushing into the room and Andrew was off in the distance watching everything happen.  An oxygen mask was strapped on my face, I was told to lie in several different positions and then finally get up on my hands and knees (this was not easy to do since I had the epidural) and I swear about five different people were poking and proding down there and trying to get babies heart rate to increase.  

I heard the words "emergency c section" a few times, but finally after a few attempts and the insertion of a scalp monitor on the baby to measure her heart rate and an internal contraction monitor, all was well again.

Around midnight I was checked again and I was at 10cm and totally effaced.  I couldn't believe that it was really time to start to push.  The midwife was on her way so the nurse, my mom and Andrew all helped me get into the position to start to push.  By this point the epidural had worn off again a little.  I was pretty much on my own and bearing down through the pain was not easy.  When the midwife arrived she continued to help me to push.  I would push through one contraction and then rest at the next.  The baby's heart rate would drop sometimes after I would push and this went on for several hours.  I also had to put on the oxygen mask between pushing, which was so annoying and made me feel like I couldn't catch my breath.  I hated having that thing on my face and it was by far the most annoying part of the pushing. 

The on call OB from my midwife's office was then called in to assess me because of the baby's heart rate dropping and the slow progress of my pushing.  She wanted to watch me push at least once to see how things were going. When the next contraction started she had me push and I could tell she was not pleased with my progress.  "This just isn't going to work, we need to do a c-section" she said and I could just feel the disappointment come over me.  I looked at my mom and Andrew and they didn't really have much to say, but looked just as disappointed as I was.

More people came into the room to help me get ready to move to the OR.  I watched Andrew struggle into the lovely white suit he had to wear along with his mask and hair net.  Everything was happening so quickly that I felt like I didn't have time to process what was about to happen.  I was wheeled out of the room with Andrew following behind me, my mom was taken to a special waiting area as only one person was able to come into the OR.

The prep for the c-section started as soon as they got me on the operating table.  It seemed like there were so many people in the room and they made Andrew wait in the hallway until they had me fully prepped.  The anesthesiologist started putting the stronger drugs into my epidural catheter and suddenly I was completely numb from the chest down, which I might add is a very strange sensation.  When Andrew came back into the room and sat down behind me, he looked like he was going to pass out and I got even more worried but thankfully he got it together just in time for them to get the baby out.  I don't really remember her crying, it was more like a little noise that a mouse would make.  One of the nurses commented that she was a "big girl" and that she had hair, dark hair at that!  They walked her past me on the way to the warming table and all I could think about was how bad I wanted to hold her.

As they were stitching me up, they were working on our little girl.  Apparently one of her lungs was not working and they had to stick a tube in her lung to suck out whatever was blocking the airway.  Finally I heard her let out a big cry and she was given to Andrew to hold.  I wanted to cry so bad but it was as if I couldn't make the tears come out.  There was just too much going on in the room.  At 4:24am on January 23, 2014 I became a mom and I know my life will never be the same.

Coming soon.....the story of our 4 day hospital stay!  

I finally got to hold her around 8am when I was moved to my room

Such a beautiful little girl!!!

Waking up for a feeding


3 comments:

Carol said...

Such a beautiful baby! I see both you and Andrew in her!

Laura said...

what a beautiful beautiful little girl! Wow, you are so strong and wonderful! I know that it wasn't how you wanted your labor to go, but you did so great, and all that matters now is your healthy and beautiful little one!

Erin said...

Oh she is so cute and chubby!!! Love! Congrats again! And so sorry you had to have a C-section, what a bummer! Hope you are recovery well!