At around 8:30 Monday morning - 9 days past my due date - I felt a
trickle down my leg. I thought it was strange but maybe I just peed my
pants. Even though I read COUNTLESS birth stories where someone's
water broke and they thought they were peeing. Anyway, it wasn't a
gush, just a trickle. It happened maybe 3 more times by lunch, but
again, just a trickle. DH convinced me to call my doctor who told me
to go to L&D whenever I could. No rush.
We got to L&D around 3:00 in the afternoon and the nurse took us to
triage to check the fluid. She put a little strip of yellow paper to
it and the paper turned bright blue. This meant it was amniotic fluid
and I was staying to have my baby.
After getting settled into our room and hooked up to the IV they
started pitocin at around 4:30. Contractions didn't really start for an
hour and they were VERY mild. I was nesting and on myspace and
emailing my friends. No PROBLEM.
By 8:00 they were getting pretty painful and I was definitely having to
breath through them. I asked for the epidural. The anesthesiologist
came in at around 8:30 to give me the epidural. It didn't take the
first time. He administered it and I felt shooting pains in my left
hip. He had to take it out and put it in somewhere else. It was
uncomfortable but not that bad AT ALL. Once the 2nd one took, my heart
rate dropped way down and I got the cold sweats and felt like I was
going to pass out. the baby's heart rate also slowed down and that was
scary. I have no idea what they did to help me recover, but it
passed. After that the contractions were barely noticeable and we
tried to get some rest.
By 1:00 Am I was 8 CM dilated and the contractions were coming on
pretty strong. And I was in an extreme amount of pain but only on my
right side. For whatever reason I could only feel them on the right
and it felt like someone was reaching in and ripping my insides out. I
was one of those crier/screamers that I *SO* did not want to be.
I started pushing around 1:30 and it was really difficult. I have to
say that I am extremely unhappy with my nurses and we plan to contact
the hospital about it. But that's another story. Through this time,
every time I had a bad contraction the baby's heart rate would drop WAY
down into the 60/70s. The doctor came in around 3:00 AM and after
about 15 more minutes of HARD pushing she decided it just wasn't going
to happen. The baby's head was too big and my pelvis was too small.
The cord was also wrapped around her shoulder so I was going to have a
C Section.
I was in the OR by 3:30 and they tried to give me more medicine through
the epidural as they started prepping me for surgery. The stuck pins -
or something - in my lower abdomen and I could feel everything! I was
afraid they were going to cut into me and I would be able to feel it.
I was barely able to talk at this point but did let them know I could
feel it. They took out the epidural and gave me a spinal and I was
good to go! DH came in and our little angel came into the world at
3:46 AM.
They whisked her off to an adjoining room immediately to clean her off
and check her. I sent DH with her even though he was really worried
about me and wanted to stay with me. When I heard her cry for the
first time it was the most amazing noise I've ever heard in my life!
DH took pictures of her getting cleaned off and he was finally able to
hold her at 4:15 when he brought her over to see me.
When we got back to our room I was shaking severely from the anesthesia
and didn't have much of a range of motion. I didn't get to hold
Addison until after 6:00 AM.
Here are her stats: Born on October 30, 2007 @ 3:46 AM
8 lb 1 oz
20.5" long
Re: Addison's Birth story - Unexpected C Section