I went to my 33week appointment and had increased blood pressure, which was extremely strange for me, so the Doctor sent me over to L&D for some monitoring and lab work. Once hooked up to the monitors, my blood pressure soon dropped into normal range and the baby looked excellent, they were getting ready to let me go when the lab work came back reporting that my potassium levels were low. I asked the nurse what that meant and she told me to just "google it" when I got home...okayyyy. I was discharged with instructions to be on temporary bed rest, do a 24 hour urine collection and return the next afternoon for follow up lab work. Like a good little (obv that's a figurative term) pregnantt lady I did as I was told, returning the next day with my now full jugs, and completed another round of labs, I asked if I should stay but was told "Nah! Head home, just call your doctor Monday!". Pshhh. I wasn't home ten minutes and I got a call from the doctor saying I needed to head BACK to the hospital for a bag of potassium (K rider). Let me just tell you, if you EVER need potassium intravenously ask them to mix Lidocane in the bag because that stuff burns SO badly. I finally left the hospital around 2am Sunday morning and was told to stay on bed rest and see my doctor Monday. I was diagnosed with Pre-E and told that we would likely be delivering at 37 weeks....whaaaat?! That was a short 3 weeks away! I will spare you the specifics, but I spent almost every other day in the hospital on the L&D floor receiving K riders and having my blood pressure and labs monitored. The last week of my pregnancy was hell, I was incredibly swollen, I was itchy all over my body due to increased liver enzymes, my blood pressure was still high despite the maximum dose of pregnancy safe blood pressure medication. On the bright side, I got to know the nursing staff at my hospital very well and developed a great repor with them (which I didn't realize how useful that would be during labor!).
On Thursday August 5th I went to the doctor trying to hold back tears of pure exhaustion. When the nurse took my blood pressure her eyes almost popped out of her head... 115/167...uh oh. The doctor came in and talked with me about my labs that had declined dramatically, did a cervical check (OUCH!...it's never good when the doctor says, "Man, your where is your cervix?! China?! Your throat?!") and told me that "Today is the day!". I was excited....and terrified. I was 36 weeks 3 days, and I couldn't help but wonder if everything would be okay. I think my biggest fear was that the hospital I was delivering had a nursery but no NICU, so if anything was wrong they would med flight him to a larger hospital about 40 minutes away. Nervous as I was, I calmly called my husband and told him to meet me at home, it was time to go to the hospital! We grabbed our bags and stopped for a sandwich before heading in (good choice), and I was greeted at the door to the floor by a nurse that I had gotten to know, telling me she already had my room set up...and she gave me the best room on the floor!
The Induction begins....
At 12:00pm the nurse got my IV started, which was easier said than done due to the fact that my veins were pathetic from the high blood pressure. Cytotec was placed and I was told not to expect anything for the next several hours, just to rest up. Leave it to me to be difficult...I began contracting immediately, one right after another with no break between. The contractions weren't unbearable, just exhausting as they went on for hours with out so much as a 30 second break between them, but at least I would start dilating quickly right? Wrong. The Cytotec lasted 4 hours...except they gave me 3 more doses. Hello 4am, no sleep, and I was dilated a finger tip...less than 1 cm. Perfect. The doctor explained that my uterus wasn't contracting in a nice even pattern but rather was having crazy spasms. They decided to give me a 30 minute break (Thank you Lord!) and then began the Pitocin. At first the Pit was almost better than the Cytotec, I was having much stronger contractions however there was a 2-3 minute break between them so I could at least collect myself and be ready for the next one. My husband was fantastic at helping me breathe through each contraction. I had fully planned on using the Bradley Method and not using pain meds, however because of the pitocin and high blood pressure I had to remain on the monitors and in bed. NOT ideal. I was so tired at this point I accepted Stadol (IV drug) around 2 pm. This did nothing but make me feel like I had too much to drink. Around 4pm my blood pressure began to rise and the doctor asked that I go ahead with the epidural to help reduce my blood pressure, at that point I was just fine with that decision. The first epidural was administered, and the anesthesiologist did a wonderful job. They laid me flat and I felt amazing...for about 45 minutes. The pain came back despite rolling me from one side to the other, so the Dr was called back in to see what was going on. He gave me two boluses to no avail, so he inspected the epidural site and discovered that it must have slipped out of place. Another epidural was preformed, again with no problems, and I had pain relief for about an hour. At that time the pain came back so strong it was hard to breathe. The nurse checked me around 8pm and I was at 8.5cm, woo hoo!! I had a pretty full room, my dad, his girlfriend (I hate that term, she is my sons GiGi), my aunt, my cousin and my husband, oh and my sister was on skype the whole time! That is obviously way too many people as I was allowed 3 maximum, but that's where knowing the nurses came in mighty handy! I decided I could get through the pain and just keep going. Around 11pm I was at 8 cm...that's right...less! The pain was completely out of control and it was then we realized the baby was stuck. It was C-section time, and I have to say, I was ready to beg for it if they hadn't offered it. Everything moved very quickly my husband was brought in and my family actually got to watch through a window, they were unable to numb me (epidural still wasn't working properly...obviously), so I was given a drug that made me so out of it I probably couldn't have told you my name, but despite all of that....
At 11:33 pm....
After 35 hours of labor....
Our son was born! Jackson Eric Hageman....6lbs 5.5oz and 18.75 inches!
Obviously that is just the beginning of the story...but I will have to post more tomorrow!
1 comment:
and SO worth all hard labor and exhaustion!
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