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March 2014 Moms
SassyFlats
member
SassyFlats' L&D adventure
SassyFlats
member
And I thought I'd made it all the way through pregnancy without any crazy L&D story to tell. Ha. This will be soooooooo long. I've had a hell of a day and I can't sleep until I get it all out.
Of course, I hit 40 weeks while my regular OB is out of town. NBD. I expected to go past my due date and this pregnancy has been so freaking NORMAL it's not even funny. My OB has not done cervix checks because I asked if we could skip them until there was a reason to do one. She told me that this week, since she was out, I'd see the nurse practitioner for my regular appointment and that she wouldn't check me either. I'd get a BPP and see the LPN and then I'd see my OB for an appointment early next week to discuss our post-due-date game plan at which point she WOULD check me just to see where we were.
I was like, cool. Sucks she's out, but I'll just kick up my feet and relax and chances are I'm not having a baby until after my due date anyway so whatevs.
I went to work this morning and then ate a little snack on the way to my appointment-- not really lunch, but I figured I'd hit up Subway on the way out. Went to do my BPP, and the tech just didn't seem to be paying any attention to anything I said. I told her we don't know baby's sex. She still asked me twice during the course of measuring baby if we knew the sex. NO. So don't say anything, lady! Then she asked me three times what baby's weight estimate was a couple weeks ago (she was our tech for the 37w u/s, too btw). I told her all three times-- 7lbs, 5oz. So now she said baby looks like MAYBE 7lbs 8oz, but that's probably not right because she couldn't see very well. I didn't say anything, but I don't put much stock in those estimates-- sounds like a normal-sized kid.
Then she says I have "barely any" amniotic fluid left and asks if I've been leaking fluid. No, I haven't noticed any leaking... so now I get a little concerned but I'm still chill. And THEN she says "this baby just isn't cooperating, I need to see them do some fetal breathing and it's totally going to make me sit here the full 30 minutes watching." She has me flip over to my left side and uses a crazy little buzzer thing to try and wake the kid up... asks me when I ate "lunch" and said the baby should be active after I have eaten. Well, I had only eaten a snack and besides that, my kid sleeps at lunchtime. She just kept sighing and poking and buzzing at LO and saying "Ugh, 15 more minutes," and so on. I suggested I flip to my right side since LO HATES my right side and would probably wake up. She said "Fine, if you think that would help." Flipped sides, and a few more minutes go by... DH says something like "This is so funny because they hiccup ALL THE TIME in the evenings," and BAM! LO hiccups a few times and the BPP is done. (WTG, dad!)
Then the tech leaves to get the packet and busts back in the room, door wide open, while DH and I are trying to clean all the goo off my belly... thanks for knocking, lady. She was apparently in a rush to eat lunch. I get it... I get hungry, too... but wait, there's more!
I go upstairs for my "routine" appointment with the LPN. Her nurse puts DH and I in an exam room, and is taking my BP and says "So, you're getting a cervical check today... when was your last one?" I tell her never, and that my doctor said I wouldn't need one while she was out because she'd do it at my appointment next week. Woman is FLABBERGASTED and starts digging through my chart. "You've NEVER been checked? Oh honey, the nurse is gonna check you today." I said "Umm, no.... I haven't and my OB wasn't worried about it for this appointment since she'll be back and will check me herself next week." This lady just rolls her eyes and says "No no, honey. You're 40 weeks. They're gonna check you. They HAVE to check you. And Nurse so-and-so is better than some of the doctors around here, so just relax."
I'm surprised my BP was still good. I was getting really freaking pissed off.
So, LPN comes in and she's very nice and all, and starts explaining that LO scored an 8 out of 8 on the BPP and amniotic fluid is on the low side of normal but its fine.... BUUUUUUUT.... the tech noticed a deceleration in the heart rate so she was going to get in touch with the OB on-call and see what he wanted to do because they might be inducing me today... so she needed to check my cervix so she could give him that info to help decide.
WHAT.
WHAT.
I was so floored. I wasn't totally against getting a cervix check (I was annoyed that there didn't seem to be a reason for it at first other than "Oh, honey... you're 40 weeks."), but here I was thinking I have low amniotic fluid maybe but everything else fine... and she starts throwing around words like deceleration and induction and c-section.
So I get my cervical check, and I'm totally closed and thick (I know you wanted to know). So, she says she has to call the on-call OB and see what he wants to do... whether it'll be send me for monitoring or send me to L&D for induction.
I was so shocked that I just started crying as soon as she left the room. Poor DH sat with me and handed me tissues and got me to stop hyperventilating eventually. We waited, and waited, and then she comes back and says he's in surgery and she'll let us know what she hears... then sees I'm crying and asks me what's wrong and I tell her I'm upset because my OB is on vacation and this is the first time ANYTHING hasn't just been normal this whole pregnancy and I do NOT want to be induced if it can be avoided and I'm not sure if baby is in danger or if I might just be induced because I'm 40 weeks and I don't want that. She said it's all going to be fine and she understands why I'm upset and she'll let me know what she hears.
A few minutes later, another nurse comes in and says she's going to do some monitoring so can we follow her to another exam room. She's got a little cart and hooks me up and finds LO's heartbeat... and for a bit we're listening and everything sounds perfect. Then the LPN comes in and says I need to go to L&D. She said she was going to call and have someone come get me... and this nice nurse who had seen how upset I was and saw I was about to cry again at the mention of L&D says she will take me over-- and says "I just have to go get a wheelchair."
Wheelchair?! Okay. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry about that. I know it's policy but if you'd told me this morning that my pregnant ass would be carted around in a wheelchair I'd never have believed it. Usually I try to walk MORE, not less.
We get to L&D and we're just standing in the room... unsure whether I'm supposed to undress, if we're just strapping a monitor to my belly for a bit, if they're going to want to hook me up to an IV.... we knew NOTHING because we'd just been bounced around so quickly and the LPN was just doing what the OB told her and didn't seem to have any additional info, either. So a couple of L&D nurses come in and say "Oh, yeah... we need you to get undressed..." and DH says "Hang on, nobody has even really explained to us what's happening and why we're here."
They assumed I was in labor. LOLNOPE.
One of them goes and gets my chart and calls back over to the LPN to find out WHAT is HAPPENING. I heard her explaining things to my DH as I was dressing... and then when I came out she hooked up the monitors and explained to ME what the u/s tech saw and what it could MAYBE mean... and pointed out that at the moment I was having a contraction that I didn't even notice and that baby tolerated it fine, so they were just going to watch and see what happened. The on-call OB came in just when she was explaining, and he said that right now they would just monitor for a couple of hours and see if they saw the same deceleration... because during the BPP it happened three times so it was a little bit of a concern. THEN he said he had called MFM and they had suggested putting me on some pitocin to make me contract and see what baby's heart rate did (and I was like WHAT THE HELL?!) but he didn't think there was any reason to jump straight to that (no.... there isn't!).
I'm going to try and cut down the next 5 hours as best I can: baby had ONE deceleration... when I had gotten up to pee and came back and was getting situated in the bed. That was it. So DH asks the nurse is it possible the other decels were because I had been flipping from back to side to side and that it was just the cord getting squished or something in the process. She said it's POSSIBLE. The rest of my strip looked textbook perfect. I was having really super mild contractions that I could hardly even feel (you know, 40w pregnant and my uterus is like "Oh, hey, should I start doing something maybe?") and everything was FINE.
The whole day, I think in my gut I was feeling like "I know my baby is fine. I know I don't need to have a baby today." Not because I would try to argue if there was an emergency... but my instincts were telling me there was no emergency. There was nothing anyone else had seen to cause concern.
The L&D nurse was AWESOME. I was her only patient and she sat and chatted with me for an hour about my birth plan (which was in the car...), what I WANTED to happen, what my fears were, etc. We talked about the biology of labor and so on... and then we even just shared cat pictures with each other. I am a terrible person when it comes to laying still without getting super stressed, but she really helped pass the time and ease my anxiety.
When the OB finally came back 5 hours later (7pm... I never did get lunch although they let me have some vegetable broth), he said exactly what I felt in my gut-- LO looks just fine, the decels seem really isolated and never happened again, and I could go home. I'm supposed to do kick counts this weekend and call my OB FIRST THING Monday and get in to see her ASAP. Otherwise, we're good. I am going over my due date (it's 4am so I already have I guess), as is normal and as my OB and I expected.
The L&D nurse was AWESOME. I was her only patient and she sat and chatted with me for an hour about my birth plan (which was in the car...), what I WANTED to happen, what my fears were, etc. We talked about the biology of labor and so on... and then we even just shared cat pictures with each other. I am a terrible person when it comes to laying still without getting super stressed, but she really helped pass the time and ease my anxiety.
When the OB finally came back 5 hours later (7pm... I never did get lunch although they let me have some vegetable broth), he said exactly what I felt in my gut-- LO looks just fine, the decels seem really isolated and never happened again, and I could go home. I'm supposed to do kick counts this weekend and call my OB FIRST THING Monday and get in to see her ASAP. Otherwise, we're good. I am going over my due date (it's 4am so I already have I guess), as is normal and as my OB and I expected.
I might hug my OB when I see her. The hardest part of today was being shuffled around with no information... and if she'd been there maybe I still would have been monitored in L&D for 5 hours, but she would have explained why and what plans A, B and C would be. I wouldn't have been left wondering so much.
I had so many Wendy's french fries for dinner... and then DH and I laid down in bed and he talked to me until I finally fell asleep... and then I woke up to pee at 1am and have not been able to settle back down. I'm hoping that getting all this out of my head will help me get back to sleep again. Oh, and LO is kicking around, just like I knew the little night owl would be.
I had so many Wendy's french fries for dinner... and then DH and I laid down in bed and he talked to me until I finally fell asleep... and then I woke up to pee at 1am and have not been able to settle back down. I'm hoping that getting all this out of my head will help me get back to sleep again. Oh, and LO is kicking around, just like I knew the little night owl would be.
GREEN to PINK on 3.14.14
This discussion has been closed.
Re: SassyFlats' L&D adventure
I would have been very frustrated too! At least that L&D nurse was able to calm you down a little otherwise who knows where you'd be!
Hopefully you can tell your OB monday what her collegues did and how they made you feel!
I think stressful labor/pregnancy moments are made so much worse by confusion and not knowing what's going on. My entire pregnancy was the exact opposite of normal and the worst parts were always when I had no idea what was going on.
Emma Rose
Born 3.11.14
8lbs 14oz, 21.5 in
Happy that baby's doing good and that baby will wait a little bit more for you
RIP Dr. Irving Fishman - 10/1/19-7/25/10 - thank you for holding on for me.
You made my wedding day complete.
Mama knows best and I can't wait to hear when LO arrives on her own!!
Life. Saver. I felt way too emotional and scared to really do that. He had it under control.
I will tell my OB everything, but I don't really intend to frame it as a "complaint." I understand why things went the way they did. None of these people had ever seen me. They likely didn't have the time to really look at my history a whole lot before trying to make the best decisions they could about how to care for me and LO. They felt that they needed to see if the decelerations were ongoing or caused by contractions or what... and that overrode anything I WANTED to happen. I get that. And because the LPN didn't know me at all, she had no idea how to effectively communicate with me without freaking me out. She was telling me what she thought might happen (induction/c-section) and when I told her I was hoping to start labor naturally and go med-free, she did throw in that maybe I'd just be sent for monitoring. I don't know what she told the on-call OB but I am so glad he did decide just to watch and NOT to start pitocin like the MFM suggested (and I still think to myself what the fuuuuuuuuuuck on that).
@babylimas I can't even IMAGINE how dealing with the unknown when there really IS something to worry about would feel. And knowing in your gut that there WAS something wrong and no one else acting like your instinct is valid... ugh! This experience definitely taught me that I DO have a mother's intuition already.
@laura8388 I will be requesting that L&D nurse if I go into labor during the day. FO SHO.
Sebastian 3-11-14
Simon 5-2-15
Baby #3 Due 9-29-16
RIP Dr. Irving Fishman - 10/1/19-7/25/10 - thank you for holding on for me.
You made my wedding day complete.