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Etta Josephine's Birth Story (crazy long)
A little background info ? After 2 and ? years fighting a So Cal mega developer who was illegally attempting to deny our lease on our restaurant we decided to settle. In August we agreed to move. The judge decided our last day at the old location would be 11/15. I nearly fell out of my chair in the courtroom. My due date was 11/13. We had a restaurant to shut down, a new location to remodel and a new restaurant to open. DH talked to LO over and over asking her to wait until after 11/8. The goal was to open the new place on 11/6. DH was working 14 hour days for two weeks in a row with an hour commute in either direction and was exhausted. To make matters more interesting the new location was broken in to and robbed (mainly tools and the supplies we need to finish the remodel) 2 nights before we opened. In the end, Etta listened to her daddy and was born on 11/9. The restaurant is open, our employees are taken care of and we handed back the keys on the old place today. Phew.
*DH = Darling Husband
Water Breaking ? I did not feel well on 11/7. DH was gone almost all the time at the restaurant and I was getting pretty lonely. I hung out at my parent?s house Saturday night. When DH got home he and I sat on the ground with our big dog. The dog decided to rest his big head on my belly for the evening. I told DH I was in a lot of pain ? especially on the pubic bone. DH joked that I might be in labor but that would be OK. The restaurant was open and all was well.
At 4 am I woke up not feeling well. At 4:30 I moved to get out of bed and my water broke. I went to the bathroom and when I was done there was another gush. I showered and woke up DH. I checked twice to make sure I hadn?t just peed myself. (This becomes an issue later.)s
We made pb and j sandwiches, finished packing and left. Nurses in l and d tested the fluid w/ paper and it was negative for amniotic fluid. They tried with a slide. Negative (they read the slide after 10 minutes and I later heard it wasn?t truly accurate until after an hour). The nurses admitted me anyways as they saw all the fluid when they did the physical exam. Several more splooshes later (vernix, blood and everything) the ob checked me. He said I had peed myself because the test came back negative for amniotic fluid. I still want to kick him. No Way! If that was coming from my kidneys we had much bigger issues. They sent us home a few hours later.
Labor ? We were devastated at being sent home. My mom and dad came by and my mom told me this was pay back for doing the exact same thing to her (we can joke that way). I fell asleep on the floor with the big dog who had been really really clingy for a week or two prior. Later we watched some TV in bed and I thought ?Hm. I wonder if DH should time these pains. Wouldn?t that be embarrassing if we were timing intestinal cramps....? We started timing with ?Contraction Master? on DH?s I Phone. I love this application. Within an hour they were between 3 and 5 minutes apart and over a minute long. The reason I still doubted they were contractions was because they were only in the front and only below the belly button. Everyone had always told me they would involve the back and be the whole belly. In the end, after 42 hours in labor, I only ever had them in my lower abdomen.
We headed back to the hospital at 10:30pm ? only 8 or so hours after we left. We started walking the halls and the contractions intensified but I was only 1 centimeter. Some time in the early morning I was only 2 centimeters and I decided that, if I was going to make it through the next day, I was going to need some sleep. They gave me something to stop the puking and something to take the edge off the pain. I still was awake and doing my breathing with almost every contraction but at least DH and I could lay together on the pull out double bed. Before that I tried a ton of positions. My favorite was the ?Junior High Dance Hold? which was the two of us standing up like silly junior high students at a dance, my arms hooked up around the back of his neck and my head pushed in to his chest. Then we would sway. (BTW ? they weren?t picking up the contractions very well because the monitor was on the top of my stomach, not the lower half so they didn?t think the contractions were that bad or steady).
Getting Down to Business - At 7am the contractions nearly stopped. At this point I was freaked because I KNEW my water had broken over 24 hours ago. We went for the ?pit?. One of the nurses asked where all my amniotic fluid was. I nearly screamed at her to ask the OB. You could see the outline of the baby on my stomach like she was in a deflated balloon. That was scary. I did at one point ask the OB and he said the amniotic fluid went in to my uterus. What? Does that even make sense? Ugh.
Things get a little crazy here and the timing of things I am not sure of from this point on. The baby?s heart started to decel because, guess what! There was no amniotic fluid. They put a tube in to fill my uterus with fluid and cushion her. I asked for an epidural. DH went to get the nurse and at the same time the lady next door who was also delivering had a medical emergency. No epi for a while. I was puking and doing my breathing for about 30 seconds of each contraction before I started moaning ?Owwww?. Yes. I actually was sayjng ?Owwww?. Who does that?
The epi guy came in and introduced himself as Joe. That should have been a sign. He did the epi. I felt better and I slept. The nurses were laughing when I woke up as I had a urine catheter, a monitor on the baby?s head and a tube delivering more fluid to the space around my baby (3 tubes down low), one tube into the vein on my hand and another tube in my back. 5 tubes total. I really didn?t notice.
The OB walked in and DH was asleep on the pull out bed. OB says ?Men!? and shakes his head. I was 9 centimeters! OB says ?Good News!? DH bolts up with his hair all a mess and says ?What? What?? We got a good laugh. I went back to sleep.
An hour later the nurse checks me and I am 10 centimeters. She tells me at 3pm to take a practice push. Let me tell you, touching your legs when they are dead is seriously gross. The epi had started to wear off so I could push with the contractions. She explained that it may take up to 3 hours of pushing as this was my first baby and I had the epi. She had me do another practice push and immediately told me to stop. She could see the head, we were having this baby and she needed to get the OB. I had to use the ?blowing out candles? technique to not push on the next couple. I think I needed 20 minutes and 5 or 6 contractions and I swear LO kicked hard and pushed her own self out like a swimmer pushing off the wall. The cord was around her neck but the OB handled it and she was on my chest. She screamed bloody murder and pinked up right away.
Things Get A Little Hairy ? My placenta didn?t deliver. It was stuck. The OB pulled and scraped and tried to get it out. He gave me 30 minutes from the time of delivery until he was going to take me to surgery. I swear you would have thought my belly was pizza dough the way he was kneading it and trying to jar that thing loose. I was loaded up with muscle relaxant and some other drugs. The OR was prepped and, with 5 minutes to spare, he managed to loosen it and get it out. (Major risks of bleeding complications with this problem so it was pretty serious and scary for me.)
We had a wonderful evening with our darling daughter. We didn?t decide on a name until the next day. We had lots of company. Totally healthy and happy at 6lbs 7oz.
The next issue came with the epidural. They over-shot and I lost spinal fluid. I have had 7 days of insane pain in my skull. It is like a migraine but worse. The up sides are they recommend caffeine and chocolate to help with the pain. Woo Hoo. Also, there is relief if you stay laying down. Not easy to do when BFing but it is something. I also pulled a bunch of muscles in my shoulder which felt like I was being stabbed in the back between the shoulder blade and spine. My back was so tight trying to keep my painful head from exploding that it turned in to a wicked cycle. I am still on massive pain meds just to function and it sucks.
We tried 2 blood patches to fix the fluid leak (they draw a large amount of blood into a large gauge needle super quick and insert it in to your spine to try and create a clot). Both were a bust. I am tall and apparently that makes things worse. The first blood patch was one of the most awful hospital experiences I have ever had. I won?t go in to details but I am sure they heard me screaming in the other wing of the hospital?
Things I loved ? Ice Diapers (nurses fill a newborn diaper w/ ice for you to sit on in bed),
having the nurse take the baby for a few hours at night so I didn?t just sit staring at her, some of the nurses were fabulous/kind and the fact that I got the wonderful newly remodeled birthing suite that looked like the Hyatt.
Thing I didn?t like ? I am still angry about the amniotic fluid issue, some of the nurses were awful and seemed to be on a power trip, one of the nurses left my baby in its isolet by ITSELF in the reception area in the middle of the night, the same nurse gave the baby a pacifier with out asking if that was something I was OK with and I caught a freaking cold while there.
In the end, we have a fabulous little girl and life is good! I am glad to be home. We are so blessed.
*DH = Darling Husband
Water Breaking ? I did not feel well on 11/7. DH was gone almost all the time at the restaurant and I was getting pretty lonely. I hung out at my parent?s house Saturday night. When DH got home he and I sat on the ground with our big dog. The dog decided to rest his big head on my belly for the evening. I told DH I was in a lot of pain ? especially on the pubic bone. DH joked that I might be in labor but that would be OK. The restaurant was open and all was well.
At 4 am I woke up not feeling well. At 4:30 I moved to get out of bed and my water broke. I went to the bathroom and when I was done there was another gush. I showered and woke up DH. I checked twice to make sure I hadn?t just peed myself. (This becomes an issue later.)s
We made pb and j sandwiches, finished packing and left. Nurses in l and d tested the fluid w/ paper and it was negative for amniotic fluid. They tried with a slide. Negative (they read the slide after 10 minutes and I later heard it wasn?t truly accurate until after an hour). The nurses admitted me anyways as they saw all the fluid when they did the physical exam. Several more splooshes later (vernix, blood and everything) the ob checked me. He said I had peed myself because the test came back negative for amniotic fluid. I still want to kick him. No Way! If that was coming from my kidneys we had much bigger issues. They sent us home a few hours later.
Labor ? We were devastated at being sent home. My mom and dad came by and my mom told me this was pay back for doing the exact same thing to her (we can joke that way). I fell asleep on the floor with the big dog who had been really really clingy for a week or two prior. Later we watched some TV in bed and I thought ?Hm. I wonder if DH should time these pains. Wouldn?t that be embarrassing if we were timing intestinal cramps....? We started timing with ?Contraction Master? on DH?s I Phone. I love this application. Within an hour they were between 3 and 5 minutes apart and over a minute long. The reason I still doubted they were contractions was because they were only in the front and only below the belly button. Everyone had always told me they would involve the back and be the whole belly. In the end, after 42 hours in labor, I only ever had them in my lower abdomen.
We headed back to the hospital at 10:30pm ? only 8 or so hours after we left. We started walking the halls and the contractions intensified but I was only 1 centimeter. Some time in the early morning I was only 2 centimeters and I decided that, if I was going to make it through the next day, I was going to need some sleep. They gave me something to stop the puking and something to take the edge off the pain. I still was awake and doing my breathing with almost every contraction but at least DH and I could lay together on the pull out double bed. Before that I tried a ton of positions. My favorite was the ?Junior High Dance Hold? which was the two of us standing up like silly junior high students at a dance, my arms hooked up around the back of his neck and my head pushed in to his chest. Then we would sway. (BTW ? they weren?t picking up the contractions very well because the monitor was on the top of my stomach, not the lower half so they didn?t think the contractions were that bad or steady).
Getting Down to Business - At 7am the contractions nearly stopped. At this point I was freaked because I KNEW my water had broken over 24 hours ago. We went for the ?pit?. One of the nurses asked where all my amniotic fluid was. I nearly screamed at her to ask the OB. You could see the outline of the baby on my stomach like she was in a deflated balloon. That was scary. I did at one point ask the OB and he said the amniotic fluid went in to my uterus. What? Does that even make sense? Ugh.
Things get a little crazy here and the timing of things I am not sure of from this point on. The baby?s heart started to decel because, guess what! There was no amniotic fluid. They put a tube in to fill my uterus with fluid and cushion her. I asked for an epidural. DH went to get the nurse and at the same time the lady next door who was also delivering had a medical emergency. No epi for a while. I was puking and doing my breathing for about 30 seconds of each contraction before I started moaning ?Owwww?. Yes. I actually was sayjng ?Owwww?. Who does that?
The epi guy came in and introduced himself as Joe. That should have been a sign. He did the epi. I felt better and I slept. The nurses were laughing when I woke up as I had a urine catheter, a monitor on the baby?s head and a tube delivering more fluid to the space around my baby (3 tubes down low), one tube into the vein on my hand and another tube in my back. 5 tubes total. I really didn?t notice.
The OB walked in and DH was asleep on the pull out bed. OB says ?Men!? and shakes his head. I was 9 centimeters! OB says ?Good News!? DH bolts up with his hair all a mess and says ?What? What?? We got a good laugh. I went back to sleep.
An hour later the nurse checks me and I am 10 centimeters. She tells me at 3pm to take a practice push. Let me tell you, touching your legs when they are dead is seriously gross. The epi had started to wear off so I could push with the contractions. She explained that it may take up to 3 hours of pushing as this was my first baby and I had the epi. She had me do another practice push and immediately told me to stop. She could see the head, we were having this baby and she needed to get the OB. I had to use the ?blowing out candles? technique to not push on the next couple. I think I needed 20 minutes and 5 or 6 contractions and I swear LO kicked hard and pushed her own self out like a swimmer pushing off the wall. The cord was around her neck but the OB handled it and she was on my chest. She screamed bloody murder and pinked up right away.
Things Get A Little Hairy ? My placenta didn?t deliver. It was stuck. The OB pulled and scraped and tried to get it out. He gave me 30 minutes from the time of delivery until he was going to take me to surgery. I swear you would have thought my belly was pizza dough the way he was kneading it and trying to jar that thing loose. I was loaded up with muscle relaxant and some other drugs. The OR was prepped and, with 5 minutes to spare, he managed to loosen it and get it out. (Major risks of bleeding complications with this problem so it was pretty serious and scary for me.)
We had a wonderful evening with our darling daughter. We didn?t decide on a name until the next day. We had lots of company. Totally healthy and happy at 6lbs 7oz.
The next issue came with the epidural. They over-shot and I lost spinal fluid. I have had 7 days of insane pain in my skull. It is like a migraine but worse. The up sides are they recommend caffeine and chocolate to help with the pain. Woo Hoo. Also, there is relief if you stay laying down. Not easy to do when BFing but it is something. I also pulled a bunch of muscles in my shoulder which felt like I was being stabbed in the back between the shoulder blade and spine. My back was so tight trying to keep my painful head from exploding that it turned in to a wicked cycle. I am still on massive pain meds just to function and it sucks.
We tried 2 blood patches to fix the fluid leak (they draw a large amount of blood into a large gauge needle super quick and insert it in to your spine to try and create a clot). Both were a bust. I am tall and apparently that makes things worse. The first blood patch was one of the most awful hospital experiences I have ever had. I won?t go in to details but I am sure they heard me screaming in the other wing of the hospital?
Things I loved ? Ice Diapers (nurses fill a newborn diaper w/ ice for you to sit on in bed),
having the nurse take the baby for a few hours at night so I didn?t just sit staring at her, some of the nurses were fabulous/kind and the fact that I got the wonderful newly remodeled birthing suite that looked like the Hyatt.
Thing I didn?t like ? I am still angry about the amniotic fluid issue, some of the nurses were awful and seemed to be on a power trip, one of the nurses left my baby in its isolet by ITSELF in the reception area in the middle of the night, the same nurse gave the baby a pacifier with out asking if that was something I was OK with and I caught a freaking cold while there.
In the end, we have a fabulous little girl and life is good! I am glad to be home. We are so blessed.
Life is either a daring adventure or it is nothing at all.
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