Well we didn't have to go out to 41 weeks on the pregnancy posts :-)
Things started at about 6am on Monday the 27th of April when I woke up to my water breaking. I was not expecting this since I had read that only something like 8% of women start labor with their water breaking but nevertheless that's what happened. I called my OB b/c I wasn't having contractions yet but they said to come to L&D anyway. B and I got up and showered and he got another pharmacist to trade shifts with him so he could still go to work in the afternoon if it was a false alarm. We grabbed our bags and the carseat and headed out. In the car on the way there I started having contractions about 8 minutes apart.
We got to L&D around 8am where they confirmed that my water had broken but I was only 1cm. In order to get things going they gave me a medication to help speed things up since pitocin isn't effective until at least 3-4cm. So with that B and I prepared for a long day.
My contractions got stronger with the medication and I was having back labor which is not something I would wish on anyone. I had planned on getting an epidural but even if I hadn't been, the back labor would have changed my mind. Around 11:30am the contractions started to get really bad and I employed all the breathing and coping techniques I had learned in birthing class. By the time they came in to check me around 1:30pm I was definitely suffering so I was glad to hear I was 4cm and I could start pitocin and get the epidural. That all occurred over the next 45 minutes or so and aside from the fact that they made B leave during the epidural placement, everything went as expected. After the epidural the OB broke my water the rest of the way and they started the pitocin and B and I settled in to wait some more.
I labored with very minimal pain/discomfort for the rest of the afternoon and evening but by the time they came in to check me around 9pm I had only progressed to 5.5cm and the baby was not showing signs of coming easily -- the OB said he was pretty sure he was posterior and we knew from the 36w ultrasound that he was likely quite large. At that point the discussion began about continuing to wait and see if I progressed or whether to just go for a c-section. As contributing factors, my epidural was no longer controlling the pain from the contractions and my BP was becoming more elevated despite the epidural (which typically lowers the BP by around 20mmHg). After discussing with B and our OB we decided it was best to just go for the c-section rather than wait for things to become emergent. I remained pretty calm about the whole thing until the anesthesiologist came in and started talking about things -- it all suddenly got very real and, as familiar as I am with surgery in general, the idea that someone was going to cut into me to retrieve my baby was a bit terrifying. B was really good and kept telling me everything would be fine and that I was doing great and all the right things.
The doctors got the OR ready and B put on his OR outfit and they told us he would walk down with us but then would have to wait outside until they had me prepped. Queue panic mode. I did not like that he had to leave me again. That said, I maintained composure (minus the extreme shivering I was doing) and in we went.
I won't go into detail too much on the time in the OR but suffice it to say it was not super fun. I know the epidural made it so I couldn't feel pain, per se, but the sensation was not pleasant. That said, when they got our little boy out and I heard him cry I immediately burst into tears and told B to go see him and take pictures. I saw our baby for the first time on B's iPhone but once they got him checked out by the peds folks (meconium stained fluid and high birth weight) they brought him over for me to kiss him and then let B hold him while they finished closing my incision. The closing process was not fun and I really wanted to hold my baby and I know at some point the anesthesiologist brought out some anxiolytic medications because I was really uncomfortable and very anxious. B tells me that it took about an hour after our boy was born to finish things - I don't remember it feeling like an hour but I think I lost some time secondary to the medications I was getting.
After they finished they had to get me back onto a hospital bed and I was finally able to hold my baby boy while they wheeled me back to L&D. While there I was having a lot of bleeding and my BP was elevated so I bought myself an overnight stay in L&D rather than moving to the mother/baby unit. I got a couple doses of a medication to slow the bleeding along with the pitocin and then because my blood pressure was still elevated I got to experience 24 hours of a magnesium sulfate drip. Let me tell you - that was a blast. Not. Basically it gives you a headache and makes you feel like you have the flu. Not my best moments. The next 24 hours were less than ideal as I was stuck in bed and not allowed to eat until dinner on Tuesday but I had a beautiful baby boy and my wonderful husband to keep me company so it wasn't all bad.
The rest of our stay was relatively uneventful - because of the c-section I ended up staying until Friday morning and I was very ready to get out of the hospital at that point. We got home around noon on Friday and thankfully have had both our moms here to help us cook, clean, and do laundry so despite only sleeping about 4 hours a night I am doing pretty well. Overall it was not what I expected but I think everything turned out for the best.
So, if you made it this far - go you and here are some stats and photos as a reward :-)
Baby Boy (henceforth known as Buddy in blog world)
Born 4/27 at 10:17pm
10 lbs even and 21.5 inches long
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| just a few hours after his birth |
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| bored in the hospital :-) |
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| finding his fingers |
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| contemplating the mysteries of life |
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| father-son bonding |
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| sleepy but so happy |
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| eyes open and the rare unfurrowed brow |
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| my little model |
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| sleeping on mommy |
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| baby's first chair |
