Well...
Mama M. has started a blog hop on birth stories. You can link up over
here if you want to.
Ok, on to my munchkin's birth story...
To start off with, I had a rough pregnancy. I was sick every day from 6 weeks until AFTER monkey was born. I was borderline pre-eclamptic (had elevated blood pressure even ON blood pressure meds) and put on bedrest at 33 weeks. At 35 weeks I spent a night in the hospital on terbutaline and mag sulfate trying to stop early labor. At nearly 37 weeks I went in and the doctor decided to induce me. I never wanted to be induced, I wanted things to happen naturally -- but when monkey was in trouble I said go for it.
So on that Monday (3/24/08) Daddy and I loaded up in the car and headed to the hospital. We got there around 3:30, got checked in and hooked up and they started the pitocin about 6:00. I was having contractions, but I had been for like a month (this was trip number SIX to the hossy... I told the doc that if I wasn't going home with a baby this time, I wasn't going to the d*$# hospital)... so I didn't notice much of a difference at first. Watched TV with Bill and my mom, rested some, had a visit from big brother, and generally waited. The doc came in and broke my water around 12:30 and I remember the nurses and doctor saying "Holy crap, its like a flood" and it was. Literally.
I was ok after that for about an hour, then with the upped pitocin and lack of water my contractions got pretty bad (I'm a wimp.... so don't take my word for it. They were probably normal) At that point I asked for an epidural. I was at like 5cm, and I didn't think I could take it much longer. I still hate myself for asking for it. But I'll get to that in a minute. Back to the epidural... it worked great on my right side. Only partially on my left. Lovely. Anyhow, after that (at about 3 AM) I was able to get a little sleep....
Until about 7:30, when the new nurse on the shift came in, literally laid my bed down to where my head was as low as it could go and shoved (and I mean SHOVED) me onto my left side. The ONLY thing she said to me when she was in there was "don't move". The b$*&% didn't even tell me WHY I wasn't supposed to move. That royally p&*(#$# off my husband, who went to the nurses station and demanded an explanation. Apparently my blood pressure was "very high" and they needed to get it down.
So I spent from 7:30 until 10:00 when they finally let me push stuck on my left side. Not normally an issue, but they wouldn't let me take my acid reflux medicine. I have horrible acid reflux when I am not pregnant - so you can imagine how it is at 9 months pregnant with the baby taking up my whole abdomen. So I was MISERABLE.
I finally made it to 10cm at about 10:00 and started pushing. I wish I had thought to ask them to turn off the epidural, because I couldn't feel anything, so I don't know if I ever pushed correctly. At about 12:00 the doctor rushed in and I got an episiotomy so they could get monkey out quickly. (His heart rate was apparently dropping EVERY time I pushed and had been the entire time -- Wish I had known that then -- but that goes back to the b$*(& of a nurse. I still don't know her name -- she never once introduced herself) Once he did the episiotomy we saw the problem. The cord was around his neck THREE TIMES. So every time I tried to push him out he was being strangled. Talk about scary. But with the episiotomy the doc was able to get the cord untangled so he could come out.
I only got to hold him for a second before they started sewing me up -- they must have turned off the epidural at some point, because I felt every bit of that. Once everything was done and I was able to sit up I started throwing up and couldn't stop, so I was given some phenergan. This of course knocked me out for like four hours, and Daddy had to give monkey a bottle while I was knocked out. I am certain this is why he wouldn't breastfeed no matter what we tried.
When I finally woke up, the nurse was packing all of my stuff up and they were rushing me up to the postpartum ward. On the way up they almost ripped my IV out because they didn't get the cord out of the way of the wheel chair. My dad was walking up with us at that point and I could see him getting more and more angry with the blunders that they were making.
Fast forward to the next day, when I couldn't even lay down because my back hurt so bad, and I couldn't sit up because of the episiotomy... and everyone thought I was a total wimp. Until Bill looked at my back -- and was like "s*$& Dana, your back is burned"... at which point he called the nurse in and she looked. Sure enough I am allergic to something that they sprayed on my back to glue down the epidural and I had chemical burns on my back. The night nurse apologized profusely for not believing me when she finally saw it.
Needless to say I had a really crappy pregnancy and delivery, but I have the most wonderful little monkey laying in his newly converted toddler bed upstairs to show for all of the crap. I do know that I will never use the OB's office that I was using, nor will I go back to that hospital again. But I will have another little one someday.
If you made it all of the way through that post you deserve a reward -- so here's a couple of pictures
