Henry's horrific and long birth story.

LI444

Please do not read if you avoid birth stories that are not positive.  I believe I came close to losing my baby the second night, and the next night right before he was born.  It was not a high-risk pregnancy at all, but I don't want to terrify anyone.  I just want to write this down and get it out of my head so that I can get over the horror of the week and enjoy my baby.

I FINALLY had my baby on Tuesday 8:21 via emergency c-section.  We went in Sunday night for an induction, had Cyrtotec placed in my cervix every four to six hours until Monday afternoon, when I was FINALLY at 3cm, still no contractions.  (was woken all night by blood pressure checks, uncomfortable bed, and constant discomfort from the monitors on my belly to detect contractions and Henry's heartbeat).

They started the pitocin Monday afternoon, after I had been checked over and over again and was feeling weepy from very slow progress.  I began to worry I would be sent home without a baby.  I felt pitocin was a move in the right direction, as I started having contractions, and they gave me an epidural.  We watched a movie or two, went to sleep, and I woke up feeling shaky and awful at 11:50 p.m. on Monday.  A nurse rushed in, told me the baby didn't like the side I was lying on, and to get on the other side.  I did.  She said he didn't like that either, and to get on my hands and knees and hold on to the bed.  My husband had been asleep in the chair, and hurriedly threw on his socks.  Three other nurses rushed in, and started running down the hall with my bed.  I had my head down because I was shaking and realized Henry's heart had been slowing way down from the monitor's alarm (was still groggy from just waking up).  My husband later told me my gown was open so everyone in the hall saw everything, but frankly, I didn't much care because I was so worried. 

We were pushed into the O.R. and I was shaking from terror.  There were about four doctors, an anethesiologist, and several nurses rushing around me, plugging things in, etc.  I heard "You will feel a lot of pressure" as someone flipped me on my back, and broke my water.   I felt the water break and was starting to breathe deeply, still not crying because I was so out of it.  They put an internal monitor on his head, still in my uterus, and said he didn't react well to the pitocin being up so high, so they would be keeping it low as there was no way to know what exactly happened.  I asked if they would deliver him by midnight on Tuesday to avoid the risk of infection, and they said they probably would.  We tried to go back to sleep, but were very terrified, and I was uncomfortable because every time I turned I felt water gushing out, and I was so scared. 

My mom works on the second floor as a pediatric recovery nurse, so she came to visit Tuesday morning after my husband called her with the scary news about Monday night.  She was obviously worried about us, and asked her friend who works with her, who I babysat for for years, to come make sure we were okay.  Mom's friend was awesome.  They had turned up the pit and given me an epi bollost  (not sure how to spell it, was injection into epidural IV), but it was taking a while to kick in, I thought.  I was moaning and breathing through the contractions, clenching my husband's hand while mom's friend draped wet cold washclothes on my face and rubbed my back and feet.  I was beyond dignity and didn't care that my gown kept riding up, because the pain was so bad. 

The pain was getting worse as they slowly upped the pit and gave me another epi bollost because I was crying so hard I couldn't breathe through the contractions.  At that point my mom decided she wasn't going to work upstairs while I was going nuts, so she came down and helped her friend and my husband try to help me get through it.  Finally, the anethesiologist came back, realized my epidural had apparently stopped working in the morning, and re-did it.  I had a contraction in the middle of it, but didn't move because I was scared it would paralyze me.  This one worked, and I realized I had been laboring for four hours with a big increase of pitocin and absolutely no epidural.  I was pretty mad, but I was so exhausted from weeping and wailing and trying to breathe away the pain that I slept for an hour. 

When I woke, a doctor was there to check me, said I was at a 10, and that I needed to lie on my side until MY doctor, a family doctor who was doing this as a special favor because she is a friend of my mother's (delivered my youngest brother), and was with us through a lot of our early miscarriage woes, was able to get there.  She made it in at about five, and I began pushing. 

The epidural started to wear off and I began to get frustrated after about forty minutes, because I could feel that nothing was really happening except pain.  They upped the pitocin, which I was not aware of, until the first hour of pushing had passed and I began to shake with the moaning and breathing.  The contractions did not give me a break, and there was extra massive pain in my left lower side.  My eyes began to roll back in my head after an hour and a half because I had slept maybe five hours total since Sunday, and I was now pushing with contractions that felt like they were right on top of each other.  I begged for a c-section, despite my mom, husband, a nurse, a resident, my doctor, and a med student all cheering me on, saying I could do it, etc.

I started asking for someone to slit my throat, and finally my doctor promised that if I would push for another half hour, she would go speak to a doctor that could do a c-section.  After a few more weak attempts at pushing, where I clawed at my husband and the med student and asked them to kill me, she went to get the other doctor.  He suggested a vacuum, which I didn't want, but which also required "90 percent" from me, which I obviously didn't have.  So I begged for a c-section. (Later, my mom told me my doctor was arguing quietly with him in the back of the room where I couldn't hear that she wouldn't let him try the vacuum if I could only get the head out, because you need both the head and shoulders or there was the risk of decapitating the baby.  Thank God I didn't have to hear that at the time).

About forty minutes later, 8:21 p.m. on Tuesday the 22nd of September, Henry was born via c-section.  He had been vacuum packed in, so they had to cut farther than normal in a c-section, so I was told I will never be able to have a vaginal birth (but should be able to have c-sections from now on.) He was 8 pounds, 4 oz, and 21 inches long, and apparently had gotten stuck in the birth canal (which is why I couldn't push him out, despite the exhausting efforts.)  The stress of it caused him to produce meconium, which went into his mouth right before he was born, but thankfully not down his lungs.  It was why I didn't hear him crying right away.

He's absolutely beautiful, with my button nose, chubby cheeks, and his dad's long fingers, toes, and legs.  Thankfully he's healthy, and was worth the agony, although before I was told I would only be able to have c-section births, I decided I would not have any more children if I was unable to have a c-section again.  My mom and husband told me later they were taking turns going to the back of the room to cry because neither of them could stand the way I was obviously wracked with pain.  I'm still sort of in shock that my induction turned into such a nightmare, but then I look at my baby and I'm just thankful he's here, he's healthy, and I'm here with him.

whidbeymomma

WOW! And THIS is exactly why I did not want to try to deliver vaginally after my OB told me that my tail bone did not curve properly to allow a baby to decend. This will be my second c-section and I am so grateful!

LiebeMama

Thank you for your story. I bet your glad its overwith though!

esposa38

I'm sorry you went through that and I am so glad that it ended well with a healthy beautiful baby.  I also had a very negative experience w/ my older son, and it took me quite a while to process and reconcile it all.  I hope you come to peace with your emotions soon, but take all the time you need to process them.  GL

magdusia

Congrats!

so sorry you had to go through all of that!

I no longer fear a c-section like i did before reading this -i was literally petrified b/c due to my GD and the large baby I'm caring, there is a high chance of a c-section and i have been moaning about it for months.. i feel so much more calmer if it does end up happening.

So happy you and your baby are happy and healthy! congrats!

 

blushingbrideoct07

Congrats on the healthy baby boy! ?Sorry that you did not have an easy birth experience but glad that in the end mom and baby are doing well.?

Damians09

Owwwwie! I'm sorry you had to go through all that pain and horror.I am just happy that you and your baby both came out healthy and stong.

MissLinz

Thank you for posting this. I am glad everything turned out in the end and you have a beautiful baby!

bim38106

Congrats on your healthy baby boy!

I'm so sorry you had to go through that experience. I can't imagine how scary it must have been for you.

WildHorseFeathers

Wow this is awful. I was kind of close to this, (long labor, inducment and horribly uncomfortable with back labor) but thank God was able to pull through with some luck and delivered vaginally. I'm so sorry your labor was so difficult!

ToledoDeux

I'm sorry - that sounds absolutely awful.     Why were you induced?  It does sound like that was the source of the problems, not your anatomy.

smilelari

ToledoDeux:

I'm sorry - that sounds absolutely awful.     Why were you induced?  It does sound like that was the source of the problems, not your anatomy.