Little E (My birth story)

Well, hello blog land! I apologize for such a long absence. I don't have a real excuse - things just got busy with preparing for the baby, having the baby, and life thereafter. But now things are starting to get in to a LITTLE bit of a pattern where I have a few moments to write again. So, here we are!

The end of my pregnancy

I had an amazingly smooth pregnancy. All 9 months. Sure I fell once and there was a concern over a skipped heartbeat with the baby but aside from that, it was smooth sailing. Then my due date came. And went. Without a baby in my arms. I had a non-stress test done and I failed it, the baby wasn't moving around too much. So I ended up in Labor and Delivery's Triage to do a three hour test. I barely passed. But I passed nonetheless. Since I was at 40 weeks anyway, they directed me to stay off my feet and relax until he decided to come.

Induction

I made it to 41 weeks. Still didn't have a baby in hand. I was 3 cm dilated (had been since 38 weeks) and his head was literally RIGHT there but no dilation, no contractions, nothing. So that Friday night (the 21st) Jake and I headed in to the hospital to be induced. We checked in, got comfy, and they started the first medicine. "Miso" (Meezo) is what they called it. A small pill placed under the cervix to soften it and cause contractions. I had two rounds of this and started to show signs of contractions. 

Saturday, because I was contracting a little, they started Pitocin. When they put you on Pitocin, you can't eat anything but clear liquids because you might have a reaction or go in to labor or even need surgery. After an entire day on and off Pitocin, (they stopped the Pitocin in the afternoon and did another round of Miso followed by more Pitocin again) it was determined it was not working and they needed to try something else. So Saturday evening they put me on Cervadil, a medicine that is a tampon-like contraption. It was a very long piece of gauze tape thing, so once it was put under my cervix (yes - ALL the way up and under there), there was a tail that hung out. I was told to lay with my feet up for two hours but then I could get up and go to the bathroom, etc. So after my two hours, I had to potty. And I did. The Resident doctor (a 1st yr Resident) hadn't placed the Cervadil correctly and when I went to the bathroom, it almost fell out entirely and was mostly in the toilet. (Gross, I know, sorry.) By that point, my lady parts were agitated and sore thanks to all the checking, poking, medicines, etc that were going on. When the Cervadil fell out, they didn't give me a new one (even though I had peed on it and the string was in the toilet) and re-inserted the soaked string back up inside. It was soooo painful, I cried. Having it in the entire 12 hours (the required dosage) needless to say my insides were just raw. The Cervil did nothing. When they removed the Cervadil, they decided to try one more round of Miso since it was the only medicine I had responded to.

Sunday. My doctor came in to pay me a visit. I was in tears. I was so uncomfortable and in so much pain from the poking and prodding... And still wasn't going in to labor. Then the tears weren't just from pain but from my doctor telling me that since the baby wasn't under duress they wouldn't be able to do a c-section. He had mentioned that some people have had inductions fail and they were sent home. After being in the hospital for three days trying to start my labor, and being a week overdue, the possibility of going home was absolutely devastating. I felt defeated. I didn't know what was wrong. Everyone told me the baby was RIGHT there. They could feel his head. But my cervix wasn't opening. Seeing my agony and knowing how long I had been in the hospital and how overdue I already was, he was sympathetic and went to find an OB specialist. He came back with a 4th yr OB specialist resident. I swear my guardian angel was present with her because after this doctor checked me, she found that my uterus was tilted to the left and my cervix was tilted a little to the right. Therefore, no matter how far down the baby's head was, it wouldn't put pressure on the cervix to cause it to dilate and the baby would never come out. She was crafty though and said we should try to use something called "folley balls" to try and bring the uterus and cervix in alignment so he would come out. They successfully inserted the contraption (if you really want the details on how this thing works, let me know and I can explain it.) and within a few hours, my water broke. The first sign that labor was going to start!! I was SO relieved. (I was also relieved that I was in the hospital when my water broke cause let me tell you, that would have been MESSY! Haha eww...)

Labor (Sunday night/Monday morning)

Once my water broke, labor was officially beginning so the order was in - more Pitocin! I was hooked up once again and they were increasing the dosage every half hour. I started feeling the contractions. They came on immediately and they came on strong. I tried breathing. I tried thinking of something else, something happy. But the contractions were causing me to pass out and talk nonsense and loose strength. I have a very high pain tolerance and I never in my life imagined I would ever BEG for an epidural. But beg I did. I told the nurse I didn't want an epidural but I needed it. That if I didn't get one I wouldn't have the strength to push him out when the time came. I was so desperate for relief that I was even asking what was taking the anesthesiologist so long to get there. (In reality I guess it only took him 45 mins to get to me and get the epidural in. But it felt like a lifetime, my contractions were less than a minute apart, I didn't have a break.) Anyway, he came and the worst part was the burning feeling from the initial numbing agent. Once that was over, I never felt the actual epidural going in. Another hard part though was that he had to work fast - I was contracting so frequently and that was causing me to falter/not sit still. Not to mention the baby's head was very low and I now had a catheter inserted and the foley balls were still in place. It all made sitting upright feel weird. The relief was almost instant and it was amazing. But even this came with complications - the epidural was suppose to make me numb from my ribs down to my toes. I was numb from by jaw to my hips. Even though I didn't feel the contractions anymore, I still felt every. single. thing 'down there' and I could move my legs just fine. The other thing that happened once I got the epidural: My blood pressure seriously plummeted. I had to receive two doses of an 'upper' via IV and one in my thigh to get my blood pressure back in a safe range. ...Which caused the baby's heartbeat to go well above 200 bpm and put him in distress. Thankfully within a few moments his heartbeat started to come back down so they didn't have to intervene. I was told to lay down and rest and since I had the epidural, they decided to up the Pitocin every 15 mins until the contractions got in a good pattern.

Several times after they inserted the epidural, the external contraction monitor stopped finding the contractions. So what the heck, let's add in a third item to my lady parts. I had a catheter, the foley balls, and now an internal contraction monitor. I was dilating very quickly - went from 3cm to 6cm in less than an hour. I was told though that I had plenty of time until I was fully dilated and was told to get some sleep. 

Delivery

I swear 15 minutes after I was checked and the nurse went away, I felt the urge to push. There is nothing quite like that feeling. You feel like you have to go to the bathroom. REALLY REALLY BAD. There is no controlling it. The feeling takes hold and all you can do to make the feeling go away is push. I called her back and the nurse said I was likely feeling the baby's head pressing down and that I wasn't ready to push. She checked me and said I was 8 cm dilated and to stop bearing down or I'd hurt myself. I told her I couldn't stop. So she decided to call in my doctor. He arrived at some point and confirmed that there was a piece of my cervix that was still crooked but that he thought my pushing would cause it to correct itself and he was ok with me pushing. Since there were so many things hooked up down there, the only thing I asked for was to be free of the monitor and free of the foley balls. The nurses fought me, but they were uncomfortable and I could feel them and they were distracting me. I never yelled, or screamed, or hollered as I pushed... I just calmly asked, over and over again, for everything but the catheter to be removed. Finally they obliged and once they did I think I pushed a total of 6 times over a total of 25 minutes and he was here. I became a Mom.

Birth, complications

He came out fast and was sunny side up (which is not the preferred way), AND he pooped. The doctor said he would have to be taken right away to be checked over by the NICU staff to make sure his lungs were ok. Once his head was out and they helped his shoulders out, the relief was amazing. I was able to BREATHE and the pressures and pains were gone. The baby was in the other room getting looked over and I was left to deliver the placenta (which was huge and disgusting looking) and to get stitched up. I didn't tear but had lots of internal tearing from how fast and hard he came out. I didn't feel too comfortable when my doctor was having the first year resident stitch me up but he was there, supervising. The baby had a nice V-shaped stork bite on his forehead from coming out the wrong way and despite all the problems, he was perfect.

Ethan Oliver Aschebrook

9lbs 0oz, 22", arrived at 3:06 am

Monday, September 24th, 2012

I can't believe I'm finally a Mommy! :)