Labor and Delivery

Here is my story...

Saturday (9/29) I had been studying ALL day because I had an exam on Monday. I had been at the library at school, but went home at about 5:00 p.m. because the library closed at 6. All day long I hadn't really felt well, but couldn't really place my finger on why. After a few hours of studying at home I started to get this really annoying lower back pain. (it was about 8:00) I remembered that my mom told me that's how her labor felt with my sister so I started to pat closer attention to the pain and time it. Sure enough the pain arrived pretty reliably every 15 minutes and lasted about a minute or two. I went to the bathroom and had a little bit of bloody show. I told Jason that I thought we would be having a baby sometime soon, but I didn't think it would be during the weekend. He told me we couldn't have the baby yet because he wasn't ready. He immediately went and got the baby name book and started trying to figure out what we were going to name our son. We made a list and then narrowed it down to 3 names. By the time we finished that, my contractions were about every 10 minutes apart and were now more in the front than the back. We went up to the 14th floor of our apartment building for a birthday party we had been invited to. We only stayed about 45 minutes. When we got home we cleaned the apartment and made sure we had everything we needed for the hospital. I was still not sure that this was the real deal, but Jason seemed more and more convinced as my contractions became closer together and more intense. Finally around 11:00 p.m. I decided to call the doctor on call (my doctor was off that weekend). He didn't call me back so I called a second time at 11:45. Finally at about midnight we just decided to go to the hospital. By the time I got to the hospital my contractions were about every 3 to 4 minutes and I had a pretty hard time talking through them. They sent me to an observation room and put the fetal monitor on me. I was only dilated about a fingertip - not even a centimeter. They observed me for 2 more hours and re-checked me. I was MAYBE a centimeter - it was a stretch. They told me that they would observe me for 2 more hours and if there wasn't any change I would be sent home with some pain medication for the contractions - I was QUITE uncomfortable at this point. Jason and I decided we would spend that 2 hours walking the halls to try and move things along. At 4:00 a.m. they rechecked me and I wasn't quite 2 centimeters, but the nurse kind of stretched me out to get me there - ouch. They finally decided to admit me.

After I got to my room, they asked if I wanted to have an epidural. Because I had already been in labor for 8 hours and had only dilated less than 2 centimeters I said I wanted the epidural and I would take it as soon as they would give it to me. I didn't want to be too tired and worn out when it came time to push and it seemed as if it would be a long, long time before I reached that point. They came and first gave me my IV. They had to try twice before they got it because I was so swollen. Then they came to give me the epidural. I was really scared that it was going to hurt and almost changed my mind about getting one, but it actually hurt less than the IV did. They gave me some litocane so I really didn't feel a thing. I felt way better after getting the epidural and was very glad I decided to get one. It's a strange feeling, but I was glad I wasn't in pain anymore.

The doctor on call come in to check me after the epidural took effect. According to him I wasn't really even a centimeter dilated (it's very subjective). Because of that, he broke my water and gave me some pitocin to speed up my labor. There was meconium (poop) in my amniotic fluid - a sign of possible fetal distress. That really worried me, but the doctor said that the baby's vital signs looked good and not to worry. They placed a monitor directly on the baby to monitor his heart rate. They also placed an IV type thing to clean out the amniotic fluid with meconium in it and replace it with saline. I became a little more concerned because the fetal monitor was showing that the baby had a heart arryhthmia that we had not known about previously. The doctor said that it was nothing to worry about yet and that the baby looked fine. NICU would be in the room when the baby was delivered so if it was something that needed attention, there would be a team there to take care of it.

I called my parents at about 6:00 a.m. and they arrived from Houston at about 10:00 a.m. I called my mother-in-law at about 8:00 a.m. and she had a few things to do so she didn't arrive until about 11:00 a.m.

I was re-checked about an hour after the pitocin was started and had dilated to 3 centimeters. An hour after that I was at 5 centimeters. Even though I was 5 centimeters, my baby still had not dropped down in to the birth canal. If the baby doesn't drop, then it cannot be delivered vaginally.

I am not sure when this next part started because I was in a lot of pain and things got quite crazy. I started to feel my contractions again even though I had an epidural. So I let the nurse know and they sent in the CRNA to give me more medication through my epidural. When she gave me the extra meds, my legs and lower body felt like they were on fire and my back started hurting so bad I thought I would cry. Getting that medication was actually more painful to me than the contractions had been. My legs went even more numb, but I could still feel my contractions. I waited about an hour to make sure and then told the nurse again that the medication didn't work. The CRNA gave me another extra dose and the same thing happened again - lots of pain, lots of burning, and no relief. I let her know that it still didn't work and they gave me a different medication. This time it still hurt, but not quite as bad. I didn't care though cause the medication worked - for about an hour. The next time I started feeling in pain again they gave me more the "new" medication and I had the same problem as with the first medication and I started to get really sick. I was shaking uncontrollably and started vomiting. I actually vomited ALL over Jason - poor guy. They were giving me anti-nausea drugs, pain medications, and saline. There was all this movement going on around me and all I could do was lie there and try to breath through the pain. They placed an oxygen mask on me and finally got me stabilized. I found out that while all of that was happening with me, the baby's heart rate had dropped to about 60 beats per minutes (normal is 120 - 160 bpm) which was really scary. He was doing ok now that I was stable, but he still was starting to show signs of distress. It was about 12:00 or 1:00 p.m.

The doctor came in to check me. It was a new doctor this time because the doctor on call had to leave for some reason. This new doctor was a D.O. (like me) which I thought was cool. She checked me and I was still only 5 centimeters and the baby's head was starting to swell in the birth canal, AND he still had not dropped down in to the birth canal. Because it had been more than 4 hours with me on pitocin and nothing had changed the doctor started talking about going ahead with a c-section. She said that with the meconium, the arrhythmia, the heart rate dropping, me not progressing, and the baby still high in the uterus, it was probably just best to go ahead and get the c-section. Because I had mentally prepared myself ahead of time for the possibility of a c-section I decided to go ahead and get the surgery.

They took me back to the OR to prep me and told Jason they would come get him when they were ready.

While I was in the OR they began giving me more medication through my epidural which was hurting me again quite badly. I tried to just bear it so that we could get on with things and have this baby. I also wanted Jason with me. This was the first time in my life to ever have surgery. After the mediation was administered, they began pricking my stomach with a needle to make sure I was numb. There was this one line on the left side of my belly button that I could still feel even though everything around it was numb. They gave me more meds and re-tested. I could still feel it. More meds (more pain). No change. The rest all becomes quite blurry in my memory, but here is what I do remember. I think that they decided to give me general anesthesia since the epidural wasn't working, but nobody told me what was going on - they just started doing stuff to me. They placed this mask over my mouth and nose with Nitrous Oxide in it and told me to breath deeply. I felt like I was suffocating and kept trying to ask for Jason ( like I said - I didn't know I was going under and that Jason couldn't be in the room). Nobody could hear me asking for Jason and I started crying. The doctor asked me what was wrong and I said I didn't know I was just crying and then I lost it and was bawling my eyes out. I was crying uncontrollably and every part of my body that wasn't numb was convulsing with my crying. They brought Jason in to try and clam me down, but the next thing I know they are taking him away from me again. I knew I was going to be ok and I knew I needed to calm down, but I just couldn't make myself do it.

The next thing I know I wake up in the recovery room alone without a baby and clueless as to what just happened to me. My throat hurt, my stomach hurt, I was tired, and I wanted to know what happened to my baby. I wanted my husband. They wouldn't let anyone come see me and they didn't know what had happened either. Finally after a long hour in recovery I was allowed to go back to my room where I got to see my husband and my family. The first thing that Jason said to me was that our baby was beautiful. The first thing I wanted to know was when I would get to see him. They said that there was something wrong with his heart and that he had to stay in the nursery until they could figure out what was wrong.They filled me in on his birth details and told me that I had to go under general anesthesia since my epidural wasn't working properly. Nobody got to see my baby born but the doctors and nurses. That was sad for me. it was sad that Jason didn't get to cut the cord. It was sad that I didn't get to experience that miracle of life that most other moms get to experience and now even worse I couldn't even see my baby.

They finally did bring him to my room for maybe 5 minutes. He was already almost 4 hours old when I got to hold him for the first time.

They told me that the soonest I could take out my IV was at 2:00 a.m. - 12 hours after surgery. I told them I wanted it out as soon as possible so I could go to the nursery to see my baby. At 2:00 a.m. they came in and took out my IV and I was wheeled to the nursery in a wheel chair by Jason. I got to breast feed him and hold him for about an hour. I also listened to his heart and was very, very concerned for my very new son. His heart sounded so bad. There was no regular rhythm and a very loud murmur. We still didn't have any answers.

The next day they finally let him come stay in my room with me in the afternoon and he didn't have to go back to the nursery.

We found out later that he has 3 holes in his heart. A patent foramen ovale, a patent ductus artereosus, and a muscular ventriculoseptal defect. He also has atrial hypertension, a narrowed aorta, and an ectopic beat. They think most of the holes will close on their own, but it is still something that has to be monitored very closely.

The baby and I were both released from the hospital on Wednesday afternoon (10/3).