My son is 2-weeks old! (Long - belated birth story - PsIP)

hammysmommy · March 2014

Garrett Andrew was born at 3:14pm on March 10, 2014.

I've been hibernating a bit since Garrett was born, trying to get used to this new little person. :-)

On Wednesday 3/5 (40w5d), I went to my appointment after having been awake for >24hrs and having had 30-45s contractions every 8minutes for >12 hrs. I was still at 0cm, so we talked induction. Unfortunately, I'd thought we'd be getting in by the weekend, but they couldn't schedule me until Sunday. Wed-Sunday I had terrible back pains and slept less than 1h per night in 1-4m stretches. Sunday I called to confirm our induction, and after being told to call back later, we were confirmed and planned to head to the hospital for the night. They told us to take our time and have dinner on the way.

We checked into the hospital around 9:30/10pm, only to be told that I was 3cm and therefore couldn't get the cervadil and insurance wouldn't cover the night so we should go home. :-( It turns out that the 4 days of back pains were actual contractions (back labor) but they just weren't following a timetable. H and I decided to stay anyhow (they wanted us back at 6am and that just wouldn't happen where we live an hour away from the hospital). They brought me an Ambien (the plan was to sleep through the cervadil and in my deprived state that part was still valid), and we settled in for the night. I went to the bathroom only to have my water break - let the fun begin!

After a few hours, I had sterile water injections in my back for the back labor, which were ah-maze-ing! I was falling asleep standing up in between contractions and but the pain was manageable so we didn't go for an epidural. My midwives came in around 8am (I think) at which point I was 9/9.5cm. I never quite made it to 10 cm though... There was one little section of my cervix which wasn't getting out of the way... They tried moving it during contractions, and while pushing but it never moved. We pushed, in so many different positions, for 5 hours and they brought in an OB/Gyn for a consult. They weren't seeing the progression that they wanted and his head wasn't getting through. She suggested that we consider vacuum assistance and/or going for a c-section. She said they could only try the vacuum once, if it was going to work it would work otherwise... So we pushed for another 45min or so, just to be certain we'd given it our all, and then the room was full of what seemed like a million people for the vacuum attempt. They lost suction on the first contraction, so they gave it one more contraction to see if it would work. It didn't.

Everyone cleared out, and they brought H some scrubs. I asked H if he thought we should tell our folks that we were going for a c-section, and he got really flustered (headed to the bathroom with tears in his eyes). We decided not to and I was wheeled over to the OR for prep - H to come in shortly. The anesthesiologist started to put my spinal in - well he tried. And tried. And tried. 16 attempts later, he was flummoxed and said I'd have to go under general :-( I was so worried about H having to sit in another room waiting without any idea what was going on. They helped me lay down, and then I woke up in post-op care. After sleeping off the drugs a bit, they took me back upstairs and to my room - no one was there. I was scared having no idea where my family was... H just hadn't come down from the nursery yet (gabbing and showing Garrett off to the nurses).

It wasn't our ideal birth experience, but our only "plan" had been to have Garrett delivered safely, so it was still a success :-)

Since then we've been dealing with some supply issues (apparently I have tubular breasts which aren't as good at making milk) jaundice and too much weight loss (>10.5%). We've been trying to adjust at home since we were discharged the Friday after Garrett was born. H is getting over a nasty cold which has wiped him out for the past week+ so it hasn't been exactly as we'd hoped...

I'm struggling with feelings of inadequacy over the milk issue, as well as the general I just had a baby issues (exhaustion, pain, emotions etc), but I love my son and I wouldn't trade a minute of it.

Thanks for reading!