Wednesday, July 31, 2013

Benaiah's Birth Story

It's been a while since I posted anything, and our baby is now here. This is how he came into the world. 
We went into the hospital to be induced at 5:30 am on Tuesday June 25. We checked in and got settled and they started me on pitocin. Not much happened between that and my doctor showing up to check on me. She checked my cervix (note: the whole time I labored my cervix didn't move forward so every check was pretty excruciating) and I was 50% effaced and at about 1 or 1 ½ dilated. I had been that since 27 weeks, despite all the contracting I had been doing. 

My doctor decided to give me a different drug to soften and help dilate my cervix instead of the pitocin. It was inserted in me instead of given through IV. And I was allowed to eat while on it, which I wouldn't have been with pitocin. I took full advantage of being able to eat, since I knew the time would come that they wouldn't let me. I was able to eat breakfast, lunch and dinner while that drug was administered. I got 3 doses of it 3 hours apart. My contractions got going pretty regularly, and were getting progressively stronger. By the time dinner came around, I didn't really feel like eating anymore, which I took as good sign that I was really getting into labor. A while after the last dose, they started me on pitocin again. I hadn't really dilated anymore, but I had softened and effaced. At this point things start to get a little more blended together in my memory. 

The contractions really got going and they were long. They would last 2-3 minutes sometimes, and they usually had very little time between them. I also began to have pretty bad back labor. My nurse tried helping me to get him to move by tilting me back in the bed. The tilting seemed to work, and he seemed to be in a much better position. I believe it was at this point my doctor came back to check me. At first she said I wasn't progressed enough to break my water, but then she changed her mind and went ahead. This was an incredibly painful experience. I was supposed to stay semi-reclined for half an hour so that the cord didn't prolapse. I did that, but by the time half an hour had elapsed I really had to pee, so I got up to do that. I think I may have gotten on the birth ball around this time. I noticed that my back labor had returned, and my nurse suggested side lunging on a chair to encourage him to move. I tried that, but it didn't seem to work. 

From there on the contractions were very difficult to get through because they were so long and had barely any time between. My mom and Ben were awesome about encouraging me and helping me breathe through the contractions. Eventually, I reached a point where I just couldn't stay on top of the contractions. The back labor was so painful. I tried a bunch of different positions and my mom even tried applying counter pressure, but nothing made them manageable. I got to the point where I was struggling to breathe through them because all I could do was whimper. I told my mom that I thought I wanted an epidural. She told the nurse, and I signed the form (I'm not sure how). My poor mother (she had such a hard time watching me go through pain) left for the epidural and Ben stayed to help me. The doctor showed up, and she was so sweet (I got to see her again later). I was still having to breathe through the contractions of course. I sat on the edge of the bed and tried to curve my back according to their instructions. She numbed my back and then started trying to get the epidural catheter in. I think she tried 3 times without being able to get it in. I started to worry I wasn't going to be able to have it. At that point she had me get in the fetal position to try that way. Going through contractions in that position was the most painful experience of my life. It was so hard, but I knew all I could do was just breathe through it. I heard the nurse and doctor comment on how controlled I was. Finally she got the catheter in and the epidural got going. I also had to have a urinary catheter. 

The relief was incredible. I could still feel some pressure and discomfort, but definitely manageable. We all tried to get some sleep at this point. I'm not sure how much rest I got before my nurse came in and looked at the monitor, followed by at least 3 other nurses. They all started doing different things and told me to flip over onto my hands and knees. They took of the belly monitors and put in internal monitors. I was really thankful for the epidural, because I felt the pressure of what they were doing but no pain. They had paged the on call doctor and she came in. They gave me something to relax my uterus so I wouldn't have contractions. By this time I was absolutely terrified because I had no idea what was going on. The doctor told me that the baby's heart rate had dropped very low, for a long time. She said that normally they give the baby a couple of times to have a problem before they do something, but my baby's heart rate drop was so drastic that if he did it again she was going to take me for a c-section. This was not what I had ever wanted to hear. At that moment though I had been so terrified by the thought of something going wrong with the baby that I decided I didn't care if it took a c-section to get him out safely. The baby being okay was all I cared about. 

At this point everybody left again and my nurse turned out the lights so we could all get some rest while we waited to start pitocin again. It was then I started crying. Ben came over to talk to me and see how I was. I told him that that had scared me so bad, and I didn't care if I had to have a c-section, I just wanted the baby to be safe. He was proud of me for the way I was handling the potential bad news. Eventually they started me on the pitocin again. I'm not sure how long I was on it before the second rush of nurses came in. My mom had just gone into the bathroom. By the time she came out Ben was suiting up in scrubs so he could come with me. They wheeled me to operating room. Again I was thankful to already have the epidural catheter so we didn't have to deal with that before they could get started. Ben had to wait outside while they prepped me. It felt like I was waiting forever him to come in, but the doctor who gave me the epidural was at my head talking to me and that helped me to not feel so bad. I was shaking hard and uncontrollably at this point. I was scared for the baby, but I was also really scared about having surgery. Finally Ben was allowed to come in. He came and sat behind me. I still felt so scared so I asked him to just put his hand on me somewhere. He touched my face I think, and they got going on my surgery. I couldn't feel pain, but I felt the pressure of what they were doing. During some of the tugging on my insides I was making really weird noises because it just felt so strange. 

They pulled the baby out, I heard him cry and felt such a rush of emotion started crying. It turned out that he had the cord around his neck and it had nearly prolapsed. That was why his heart rate dropped with the strong contractions. The doctor also told my doctor that she thought I would've had to have a c-section no matter what because of the way the baby was coming down. Ben went over to see the baby. Eventually he brought him over for me to see. I gave Benaiah a kiss and told him I was gonna be his mama. Then the Bens had to go up to nursery and I went to recovery. My nurse was taking care of me there. She was awesome, and it made me feel better to have her there. As I was laying there I felt true relief that it was all over. My heart rate was still really high so my nurse told me to think of something calming. I thought about how wonderful Ben had been during the whole process, and I thought about how I would get to hold my baby soon. That did the trick. I asked my nurse some questions about my recovery since I didn't know all that much about c-section recovery. And I also was able to get some sleep. I was there about an hour.
Then I was wheeled up to the mom/baby ward. My mom was waiting for me in hallway and she came in with me. I saw my Bens through the nursery window. I was wheeled to my room, scooched over into my bed. My baby was brought in and they handed to me. This was my first time to hold my baby. I kissed his perfect little face and fell in love.

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