Charlotte's belated birth story

Jerry77

Adjusting to mommyhood and sleep deprivation has made this post late. Better late than never...wait for this wild ride!! LOL

So around 2:15pm on 3/7/13 I got a phone call from my OB stating that my protein levels were creeping up more from my 24 hour urine and that he felt it necessary to induce me and "get this baby delivered". He asked what time I could be there at the office. So I got off the phone and yelled to DH, I said, "looks like we're having a baby". So I showered, got my things together and we went to the hospital to meet with the OB. He saw me in the office at 4pm and checked my cervical progress. And in the meanwhile, stripped my membranes. As I was going to sit up he said he had "stirred things up in there to get things going and that I could very well bleed like the dickens from it". Yup, I sat up and it looked like a blood bath! I was given a phone number to call at 9pm (L&D) and was told to head home for now...the bleeding let up and there really wasn't much after the dr's visit.

It was snowing pretty good here and I decided to call L&D at 8:45pm to see if we could head back in since we have about an hour's drive. They had us come in. In the midst of all the excitement I forgot to take my Pepcid and was having some pretty killer heartburn on the way to the hospital. By the time we got there I was super nauseous and ended up getting sick in the parking lot of the ER. We got in, got registered (which seemed to take FOREVER).

One thing after another. I am a difficult IV stick so they had to have the IV nurse come and start my line. Once in, they started low dose Pitocin over night. Ultimately having to turn it lower than originally planned because my uterus was responding too well to it. I wasn't really feeling the contractions though...they were more like BH than anything so that wasn't bothering me. What was bothering me though was my killer hemorrhoids and my deadly heartburn. I was starting to get nauseous again and asked for a bucket. It was fairly dim in the room when I got sick and all I could think was that I was tasting/smelling iron...I had my mom turn the light on and low and behold I was vomiting brown blood , They finally got me some Pepcid but it didn't really do much for the heartburn at that point and every time I'd lay flat I'd get sick. This continued for the duration of my labor and delivery.

At 8am my OB came in and broke my water. It was the most painful and awful thing ever. With the position of the baby's head, where my cervix was and my hemorrhoids being squashed as he was reaching in there to find everything (sorry TMI) I was in tears, bawling once it was done. They had to have an extra person come in to help me hold my legs up like they needed them to be. Oh yeah, and mind you, I had to lay flat for this (puke!).

Ctx's really started picking up after my water was broken...I was doing a really great job of keeping my body relaxed and trying to let the ctx's work and dilate/efface me more. I had gone from 2cm, 40% effaced to 3-4cm still 40% effaced in 3 hours. At the point where I couldn't handle the pain anymore from the ctx's, the hemorrhoids and the heartburn, I asked for the epi. I got my epi at 1145am, puking while it was being put in . At that point I was about 5cm dilated, 80% effaced. They had given me some IV Zofran which did seem to help with the nausea...thank goodness!

I was checked again around somewhere around 2-4pm (I was delirious at this point from lack of sleep and also my epi was not really working on my right side). 8cm, 100% effaced. Around 5pm, the epi was still not behaving as it should and the OB came in to check me to see if we had time. I was told I was 10cm and 100%, time to PUSH! I bawled! I said that I was terrified and that I couldn't do it! I ended up pushing for about an hour and our Team Green baby turned Team Pink @ 614pm on 3/8/13. Charlotte Ruby weighed 7# 2ozs, 20 in long. I had a first degree tear and my hemorrhoids blew up even bigger after pushing for that time.

Recovery has been tough but I'm doing well. And honestly have had more pain overall from the hemis than from my tear. Emotionally I've been a wreck, crying almost every day but it seems to be getting better now that we've had newborn pics taken of our little lady. Charlotte on the other hand is a rockstar and we love her to pieces!! She sleeps fairly well and breastfeeds like a champ!

Best of luck to all the other momma's who've yet to deliver out there! As hard as my experience was, I wouldn't go back and change it. You're in for some serious mindblowing!!

CBomback

Congrats! What a sweet name. Sorry it was a bit difficult (understatement, I know), but at least you forget the pain very quickly once the delivery is over!

Jerry77

Thank you CBomback ) yes, as the days go on I am forgetting about the pain! Hope you are well!

CBomback

I am well!  Feeling very thankful that my bum is almost healed and that baby loves to sleep.

guilletskichuk

Sorry that you had such a difficult delivery...but congratulations on the birth of your daughter!

lilbit255

Congrats on your daughter!!

Elocin

Congratulations! I'm sorry your delivery wasn't a great experience, but yay that little Charlotte is here! We also named our DD Charlotte. Good choice.