XP: My Birth Story & PIPs (Long!)

lissah23 · November 2009

My due date was November 6th, but baby wasn't showing any signs of wanting to join us. My doctor sent me for a BPP & NST on November 9th to check on the little guy - thank God we brought our hospital bags because they didn't let us leave.

My NST was fine, but my BPP showed low amniotic fluid (I scored 0/2) and my blood pressure was 157/107 so they sent me up to L&D for more monitoring. Everything looked good with baby but my BP wasn't going down and they were concerned about my fluid level so they decided to keep me and try an induction.

I started Cervadil around 2:30pm. At 2:30am I took it out and noticed my underwear were soaked. I let my nurse know that I thought my water (what little I had left) might have broken. She checked me and said that it wasn't fluid, it was probably just gel from the Cervadil that had turned liquidy.

At 8:00am my doctor came to check my progress. The Cervadil had done absolutely nothing. She decided to try another round of it, so at 8:45am I got started on that. DH and I were getting pretty stir crazy just sitting around the hospital waiting for things to happen. 12 hours later that string of Cervadil came out and at about 2:00am a doctor came to check my progress again. I was only 1cm and 25% effaced after 24 hours of Cervadil. The doctor told me I was 2nd on the list for an L&D room in the morning.

My own doctor came back in the morning to see me and was told that I'd been bumped from the list because there weren't enough L&D rooms available for me. The hospital was too busy, but they'd get to me later in the day. We waited all day and all night and well into the next morning and still no one came to move me and get things started.

My doctor came back once again hoping to meet our baby but was told there were still no rooms for me. She was pretty pissed that I'd been bumped so many times and made the decision to try to have me transferred to a different hospital that could accomodate me. Within a couple of hours they found another hospital and we packed up and left.

We got there at about noon and a nurse admitted us and took us to the room. She started my IV and then told us that the doctor that I had been transferred to wanted to do a C-section and that she didn't really agree with it, but he'd be coming in to talk to me about it. That kind of worried me, but I thought I'd hear him out. He told me that the baby's head was still floating, I still hadn't dilated any more, he was worried about my BP and low fluid and didn't want me or the baby to end up in trouble if we tried a vaginal delivery. He was pretty abrupt and didn't make me feel like I had much of a choice (even though he said "the ball is in your court" - yea right), so I agreed to it because I figured he probably knew best.

Just after 1pm I headed to the OR. They prepped me and did the spinal (it totally didn't hurt - I was shocked!) and then brought DH in. Almost right away I felt them start cutting me open - it didn't hurt, but I could feel them making the incision - weirdest feeling ever! I could feel everything that they were doing, and it was making me feel sick - I thought I was going to puke into my oxygen mask, but they gave me something for the nausea and it went away in seconds.

At 1:58pm I felt a big tug (later I learned that my little guy was kind of stuck and they had to pull him out with forceps) and heard my little man scream. He has the strongest lungs I've ever heard - it was the most beautiful sound ever! DH and I both burst into tears!

They brought him around the curtain so we could see him and then asked DH to come over and watch while they tested and weighed him. Kieran Francis came into the world weighing 6lb 6oz and was 20 inches long, and he scored 9/9 on his APGARS. We were a little shocked at his weight because we'd been told during my BPP that he'd probably be over 8lbs.

The next morning the delivering doctor came in and said that I'd made the right decision on the C-section. I didn't have a single drop of fluid left, so if the baby had passed meconium during a vaginal delivery he would have been in serious trouble. He also said that he was pretty sure my placenta was failing and that the blood flow to the baby was really poor. That was enough to convince me that I'd done the right thing.

I was up moving around the next morning, and even though it hurt it felt great to get out of bed. My pain pump was my best friend for a day and a half and since then I've just been managing the pain with tylenol and ibuprofen.

We spent 2 more days in the hospital, and after 5 days total we were finally able to go home! I wanted my bed, real food, and to spend some real time with my new family without being interrupted by a nurse or doctor every 5 minutes.

I'm totally loving being a mommy - Kieran is amazing and such an easy baby. Breastfeeding has been a breeze (he eats like a champ and even though he'd lost 8oz before we left the hospital, as of yesterday he's surpassed his birth weight by 2oz!) Recovery is nowhere near as bad as I thought it would be, the only problem has been a small UTI from the catheter. Otherwise I feel great and am pretty much just going about things normally.

Even though it was a long and frustrating process, it was worth every second to have my little guy here safe and healthy!

Jen&Joe06 · November 2009

Wow what a story! I too had a fear of CMH not having a room for us when we went in for our induction. I was at 42w so if we did get bumped I knew it would mean that we would have to go to GRH and our MW doesn't practice there.

I can't believe how long you were at CMH on the Cervadil. That is crazy. Do you know why they didn't just try oxytocin?

It is weird that you felt the c/s. I didn't feel anything other than a tiny bit of pressure when they pulled B out. If I had felt everything i think my reaction would have been the same as yours!

Your LO is such a cutie!