Birth Stories
NatureLovers
member
Positive preterm labor, induction, Pre-e,(long)
NatureLovers
member
On Sunday Nov 30th, at 35 wks 3 days I got to L&D after having painful contractions all day. My pregnancy up to that point had been very miserable. I'd had hyperemesis gravidarum starting at 4 weeks, that eventually required a PICC line and the services of a home health nurse. I was put on bed rest from weeks 15-34 due to an irritable uterus, plus during the pregnancy I went through a host of unpleasant illnesses like the flu, degenerating fibroids, sciatica, shingles, and walking pneumonia. Suffice it to say, I was 1000% over being pregnant, but despite that I was still nervous and didn't want to have my baby any earlier than necessary. After being examined, it was found I was 3cm dilated, 100% effaced, and contracting every 3-4 minutes. The on call OB (with rotten bedside manner) decided we needed to stop my labor since I wasn't 37 weeks, so he ordered me put on magnesium sulfate for 24 hrs. Anyone that's been on mag will tell you how awful it is, and they're not lying. It's Satan in an IV.
12 hours into the 24 hrs of mag, the new on call OB came on, who was also my favorite doctor, and she ordered the mag to be stopped. She apologized for having put me through that, because at 35+ weeks, I should have been allowed to deliver since my labor had begun spontaneously. However, at this point my blood pressure had become concerning, and I was having a terrible headache. I was kept in the hospital while they began a preeclampsia workup.
By the morning of Tuesday Dec 2nd it was determined that I had severe preeclampsia, necessitating an induction of labor. Yes, I recognized the irony of being induced a day after they stopped my labor.
It took all day for a room to open up for us to start the induction, but by 5:30pm we were ready. My water was broken (very weird feeling!), pitocin was started, and I was put back on the hated magnesium to help ward off the risk of stroke or seizures.
I was handling everything pretty well, but by around 9pm I decided I wanted the epidural, which was ordered straight away. If they could have promised me that the pain wasn't going to get worse I could have toughed it out, but since the pitocin was still being increased regularly, I knew it was going to get more painful so I opted for the relief. Getting the epi was frightening in terms of the thought of having a needle in my spine. A few things did hurt, like the lidocaine, and feeling the injection of fluid into the epidural space made me jump, but the whole procedure was over quite quickly, and I settled into numbness, which also felt strange TBH.
Around 10pm I was checked again, and was still only 3cm, which was disappointing after having labored for 4ish hours, but we moved on. My hubby and I were just hanging out, watching movies, and playing Scrabble. Around 2am, I started having intense low back and abdominal pain. Anesthesia was called again, and this time a different doctor showed up. Apparently my spinal catheter had migrated, so he jiggled it back into place, and then gave me a bolus of epi meds - an overly aggressive bolus.
Within 5 minutes my blood pressure bottomed out to 55/35. Of what I can remember, it was the worst feeling ever, like I was dying. When they finally got my pressure back up, I came to with my husband standing next to me, holding my hand and crying. Apparently I had passed in and out of consciousness for several minutes. They'd had to roll me onto my side because I had been gagging and vomiting. Thankfully I had an empty stomach or I could have aspirated. That's why you shouldn't eat when you're in labor!
My poor nurses and the doctor were all ashen faced. It took about a half hour to get my BP stabilized and for me to feel normal again.
As we were all a little shaken by this, I asked to get checked to see if I had progressed. I was found to be 6-7cm, which cheered us all up. This was really going to happen! An hour later, around 3pm I felt some pressure, and was found to be complete at 10cm! Less than 10 hours to get from 3-10cm. However, the baby was a smidgen high, plus the overly aggressive epidural had me so numb I couldn't even feel my boobs, so I wasn't able to push. We agreed to rest up for the main event and let me labor down for awhile, and to turn down my epi.
Somehow, despite being excited, my husband and I managed to nap. By 5am on Dec. 3rd I was ready to start pushing. Because we were a month early, a couple of people from the NICU team were going to be there to evaluate the baby after she was born.
I started to push, but even though they turned my epidural down 50%, I still couldn't feel a thing. After a couple cycles of pushing, (consisting of take a deep breath, count to ten and push, repeat 3 times) I requested the mirror so I could see what I was doing to help me be more effective. I also asked to have the epi turned off completely, which they did. I remember thinking how peaceful it was in the room, so quiet. My nurse was quietly encouraging without yelling, and my doctor actually stayed the entire time I pushed, hanging out in the rocking chair and keeping us entertained with chit chat in between pushes.
I pushed for about 90 minutes, which is good for a FTM. My epi was turned off for the last 60 minutes of pushing, and I still couldn't feel a thing, that's how strong it was. It was surreal watching in the mirror as she came out of me, but not feeling a tiny bit of pain. I remember thinking how beautiful she was as the doctor finished pulling her out and laid her on my chest. She was a bit blue, so the NICU team took her to the warmer to work on her, and her apgars were 8 and 9. Laurel Olivia was born at 6:32am weighing 6lbs 9oz, and was 20 inches long - great stats for being just shy of 36 weeks! She was perfectly healthy, had zero breathing issues and did not need any NICU time.
As Laurel was being worked on, my doctor was sewing me up. I tore upwards on my inner labia. The doctor said functionally it would be fine if left alone, but cosmetically it was not going to look good, so he put in 3 stitches to put everything back into place. I couldn't believe I hadn't torn downwards, as a FTM I was pretty happy about that! After that, he started working on delivering my placenta, which came out looking healthy. But then I felt blood just keep coming out, with lots of clots. They quickly gave me injections of some meds (can't remember the names) to stop the bleeding, and were aggressively kneading my uterus and manually scooping out blood clots. It probably took about 30 minutes to get the bleeding to slow down. There was talk that I might need a blood transfusion, as I was completely grayed out, weak, and shaky, but my labs came back as being just above the threshold for a transfusion.
I have to stay on the magnesium for at least 24 hours after delivery, which is making recovery challenging. When combined with the effects of the PPH I'm feeling quite ill, woozy, and miserable, but I know once they discontinue the mag I'll start to feel better.
Overall, I'd say my L&D experience was a good one, other than the epidural/BP issue and PPH. I was very lucky in that labor and delivery progressed quickly through the induction, and I was very relieved not to have had a bad tear. But I would do it a million times over for my precious baby! Here's a photo of my little angel.
12 hours into the 24 hrs of mag, the new on call OB came on, who was also my favorite doctor, and she ordered the mag to be stopped. She apologized for having put me through that, because at 35+ weeks, I should have been allowed to deliver since my labor had begun spontaneously. However, at this point my blood pressure had become concerning, and I was having a terrible headache. I was kept in the hospital while they began a preeclampsia workup.
By the morning of Tuesday Dec 2nd it was determined that I had severe preeclampsia, necessitating an induction of labor. Yes, I recognized the irony of being induced a day after they stopped my labor.
It took all day for a room to open up for us to start the induction, but by 5:30pm we were ready. My water was broken (very weird feeling!), pitocin was started, and I was put back on the hated magnesium to help ward off the risk of stroke or seizures.I was handling everything pretty well, but by around 9pm I decided I wanted the epidural, which was ordered straight away. If they could have promised me that the pain wasn't going to get worse I could have toughed it out, but since the pitocin was still being increased regularly, I knew it was going to get more painful so I opted for the relief. Getting the epi was frightening in terms of the thought of having a needle in my spine. A few things did hurt, like the lidocaine, and feeling the injection of fluid into the epidural space made me jump, but the whole procedure was over quite quickly, and I settled into numbness, which also felt strange TBH.
Around 10pm I was checked again, and was still only 3cm, which was disappointing after having labored for 4ish hours, but we moved on. My hubby and I were just hanging out, watching movies, and playing Scrabble. Around 2am, I started having intense low back and abdominal pain. Anesthesia was called again, and this time a different doctor showed up. Apparently my spinal catheter had migrated, so he jiggled it back into place, and then gave me a bolus of epi meds - an overly aggressive bolus.
Within 5 minutes my blood pressure bottomed out to 55/35. Of what I can remember, it was the worst feeling ever, like I was dying. When they finally got my pressure back up, I came to with my husband standing next to me, holding my hand and crying. Apparently I had passed in and out of consciousness for several minutes. They'd had to roll me onto my side because I had been gagging and vomiting. Thankfully I had an empty stomach or I could have aspirated. That's why you shouldn't eat when you're in labor!
My poor nurses and the doctor were all ashen faced. It took about a half hour to get my BP stabilized and for me to feel normal again.As we were all a little shaken by this, I asked to get checked to see if I had progressed. I was found to be 6-7cm, which cheered us all up. This was really going to happen! An hour later, around 3pm I felt some pressure, and was found to be complete at 10cm! Less than 10 hours to get from 3-10cm. However, the baby was a smidgen high, plus the overly aggressive epidural had me so numb I couldn't even feel my boobs, so I wasn't able to push. We agreed to rest up for the main event and let me labor down for awhile, and to turn down my epi.
Somehow, despite being excited, my husband and I managed to nap. By 5am on Dec. 3rd I was ready to start pushing. Because we were a month early, a couple of people from the NICU team were going to be there to evaluate the baby after she was born.
I started to push, but even though they turned my epidural down 50%, I still couldn't feel a thing. After a couple cycles of pushing, (consisting of take a deep breath, count to ten and push, repeat 3 times) I requested the mirror so I could see what I was doing to help me be more effective. I also asked to have the epi turned off completely, which they did. I remember thinking how peaceful it was in the room, so quiet. My nurse was quietly encouraging without yelling, and my doctor actually stayed the entire time I pushed, hanging out in the rocking chair and keeping us entertained with chit chat in between pushes.
I pushed for about 90 minutes, which is good for a FTM. My epi was turned off for the last 60 minutes of pushing, and I still couldn't feel a thing, that's how strong it was. It was surreal watching in the mirror as she came out of me, but not feeling a tiny bit of pain. I remember thinking how beautiful she was as the doctor finished pulling her out and laid her on my chest. She was a bit blue, so the NICU team took her to the warmer to work on her, and her apgars were 8 and 9. Laurel Olivia was born at 6:32am weighing 6lbs 9oz, and was 20 inches long - great stats for being just shy of 36 weeks! She was perfectly healthy, had zero breathing issues and did not need any NICU time.
As Laurel was being worked on, my doctor was sewing me up. I tore upwards on my inner labia. The doctor said functionally it would be fine if left alone, but cosmetically it was not going to look good, so he put in 3 stitches to put everything back into place. I couldn't believe I hadn't torn downwards, as a FTM I was pretty happy about that! After that, he started working on delivering my placenta, which came out looking healthy. But then I felt blood just keep coming out, with lots of clots. They quickly gave me injections of some meds (can't remember the names) to stop the bleeding, and were aggressively kneading my uterus and manually scooping out blood clots. It probably took about 30 minutes to get the bleeding to slow down. There was talk that I might need a blood transfusion, as I was completely grayed out, weak, and shaky, but my labs came back as being just above the threshold for a transfusion.
I have to stay on the magnesium for at least 24 hours after delivery, which is making recovery challenging. When combined with the effects of the PPH I'm feeling quite ill, woozy, and miserable, but I know once they discontinue the mag I'll start to feel better.
Overall, I'd say my L&D experience was a good one, other than the epidural/BP issue and PPH. I was very lucky in that labor and delivery progressed quickly through the induction, and I was very relieved not to have had a bad tear. But I would do it a million times over for my precious baby! Here's a photo of my little angel.
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Positive preterm labor, induction, Pre-e,(long)
She did NOT describe "normal post partum bleeding". You have no more credibility in my opinion on ANYTHING medical. I have more than a decade of nursing experience, and I get irritated everytime you start up. Please stop.
@NatureLovers, I really hoped it would go so much easier for you! I am so glad for the happy ending with a healthy beautiful Laurel in your arms. You may still feel weak and yucky without the transfusion for a while (120 days for making new red blood cells).
Congrats to you and your husband!
And remember, every pregnancy is different- just in case you are thinking about more down the road. :-) Good job!