Sunday, April 19, 2009
6 pm
Jon and I arrived at St. Mary Medical Center so I could be admitted. I was scheduled to be induced. They didn’t have a room available right away, so I went to triage. I got a Hep-lock IV and hooked up to fetal and contraction monitors.
7:30 pm
They got me in the room and started on Cervidil and the IV. I was still dilated to 2. The nurse came in the room around 8 and told me she talked to my doctor and he said I could eat whatever I wanted, but the hospital’s cafeteria had already closed. Jon went to KFC and got us chicken strips, but they didn’t include any barbecue sauce. All I wanted was chicken strips with barbecue sauce. Oh well....
Monday, April 20th
Around midnight/1:30 am
I finally started having some contractions. The monitor showed they were 4-7 minutes apart. I was dilated to 3 at this point and could not sleep for anything. Jon stayed the night, but wasn’t getting much sleep either.
7 am-ish
Nurse gives me Staydol for pain. Contractions were a bit closer, still dilated to 3. Staydol really didn’t do much except for make me feel a bit loopy for half an hour.
Sometime around 8-9am
The nurse who would stay with me for most of the day, Sheila, came in. She asked if I wanted an epidural because the anesthesiologist was on the floor. Sure, why not. That friggin hurt. It took at least 15-20 minutes. Once it was in, it was fine, but dang.
Soon after lunch, my doctor came in and said no more fluids/food except for water, ice chips and maybe a popsicle. They had brought me beef broth for lunch and I had already drank some of it. A bit later, I drank a bit too much cold water too fast and threw up the beef broth. I made it the whole pregnancy without getting sick, until the last day.
Throughout the day, I had my blood pressure and temperature checked by numerous nurses. I ended up with marks on my arm from the blood pressure cuff. That cuff was so strong, I thought it was going to pop my arm off.
Sheila kept coming in and having me switch positions. I’d lay on my right side, my left side, sit up. At one point, she had me scoot to the part of the bed that drops down about a foot and had me lean over the meal tray to try to get gravity to bring him down. That didn’t work. The only thing that did was switch all the epidural to the left side. I could feel most of my right side and part of the contractions again.
A different anesthesiologist (the one I would have the rest of the day/night) came in and gave me a second dose. He checked the IV bag for it and found it had run out. He fixed it and that made me more comfortable.
5:30 pm
I had finally dialted to 8 (10 is where you start pushing), but he wasn’t moving down much. As a last ditch effort, Sheila had me move to the drop down part of the bed again. This time. I had to flip over so my knees were on the drop down part and put most of my weight on my arms to try to move him down somewhat. That probably doesn’t make much sense, it didn’t to me at the time. Especially since I couldn’t feel much of anything from my ribs down. Let alone MOVE my legs! Jon and Sheila had to do most of the work for me. She tried something where when I’d have a contraction, they’d push on my hips, one on each side, to open my pelvis. Wasn’t working. I had to pull myself back up to the top of the bed, not easy at all, considering my arms were asleep by this point! But I made it.
6:30 pm
Sheila left to call my doctor. She checked me and I had regressed to 6. She came back in and said we were going to have to take him c-section and I had to be in the OR in 15 minutes.
I really didn’t have time to panic or think about it. I had said all along that I didn’t want a c-section, but if we had to, then we did. I was so exhausted by that point, I was just trying to stay awake.
Once we got into the OR, the nice anesthesiologist gave me a double dose of the epidural. One thing about the epidural... it made my arms and jaw shake uncontrollably. Good thing I was strapped to the table, I felt like I was going to bounce off I was shaking so much. Jon was finally allowed in and he held my left hand which was shaking the most.
When they got started, I could just feel the deep pressure and pulling. It didn’t hurt per say, but not comfortable and not pleasant. To the point that I was wincing and trying not to tense up and make it worse.
7:03 pm
Then I heard my doctor say “Hi Stargazer” and I was very confused. A few minutes later, I heard Connor cry. My doctor held him up over the curtain for a second and then he was gone. When we saw him again, he was cleaned up and in a blanket. I was able to give him a kiss, then they took him and Jon to the nursery and left me there to be put back together.
More pressure and pulling. This time it was a bit too much. Especially when the anesthesiologist said “They’re putting your uterus back in.” He then offered me more drugs, and I gladly accepted. Whatever it was, it knocked me out. The next thing I knew, I was in recovery and no clue how I had gotten there.
9:30 pm
I was finally with it enough to go back to my room. Jon was waiting in there with baby Connor. He had made phone calls already. Once I felt up to it, I had Jon get one of the nurses to watch us try nursing for the first time. He latched on and she left. No offer of help or advice or anything. He nursed for about 45 minutes total and did great.
Jon had talked to my doctor and found out what “Hi Stargazer” meant. Connor was face up and stuck between my pelvic bones at an angle. He wasn’t going to come out on his own.
11:30 pm
Jon took Connor back to the nursery. I wasn’t allowed to keep him in the room with me because of the c-section. I could not get out of bed to pick him up or put him back in the bassinet. Jon came home, fed the horses and slept.
I didn’t get any sleep. I think I had the noisiest IV on the floor. I also had something on my ankles/lower legs that made sure blood was circulating. Also very noisy.
They brought him to me twice that night to nurse and he did fine both times.
Tuesday, April 21
My mom came to visit in the morning. I was cleared to eat regular food again, thank goodness. I was absolutely famished by that point.
The nurses who checked my incision said they knew who my doctor was due to how it looked. Apparently he does a great job, which was wonderful to hear!
Later in the afternoon, Uncle Roy and Grandma J came to meet Connor. Before they let, it was time to nurse him, and he wasn’t having any of it. They left soon after and the nursery nurse came in to check on him. She said that if he didn’t nurse soon, they’d have to give him a cup of formula. We had told them over and over, breast milk only. No formula, no bottle, no pacifier, no nothing. He even had a card in his bassinet saying so.
He finally nursed around 5 pm. Jon and I took him to the nursery at 6 so Jon could go feed the horses and take Madison out. While we were in there, I asked if there was a lactation consultant on staff and was told no. We told her that he had nursed and she wrote it down.
Jon got back around 7 and we walked to the nursery to get him. The nurses kept saying how well I was doing. When we were leaving, we ran into the woman who taught the baby care class we took with her new Lamaze class. We told them our story and she was amazed that I was up and moving around so well.
Around 8, I tried nursing him again. Nope. The overnight nurse came in to check him and told me that he was given a cup of formula around 6:30! I was livid. Of course he won’t want to nurse then. He’s not hungry. Jon went and talked to the head nurse and she said she’d make sure it wouldn’t happen again. How are we supposed to get going on nursing when he won’t nurse because he was given formula??
Sherry and Uncle Rick also stopped by this night to see him. Sherry kept saying how pretty he was :) I agree fully, but I’m a bit biased.
Jon slept at the hospital with me and they brought Connor to me to nurse twice. He did ok. I finally got a bit more sleep since I wasn’t hooked up to numerous machines.
Wednesday, April 22
My doctor came in to check on me and said that since I was up and moving around, I could be released that night. Yay!
Connor was circumcised that morning. We tried (mostly unsuccessfully) to nurse again. He had his PKU test at 7 pm so we could leave. Jon found out that he had been given a full bottle while in the nursery. No point in saying anything, we were already leaving.
That first night was horrible. We got home around 7:45 pm. He woke up around 8”30 pm and would not nurse. He started screaming and would not stop. Finally we made up a formula bottle and that worked for a short time. Jon called the pediatrician at 5 am Thursday morning. He said to give him some infant Tylenol. Of course, we did not have any on hand. So we drove around to find somewhere open (Walmart was the only place) and got some. That helped put him to sleep and let us get some sleep.
Having a screaming 2 day old is not fun. Especially when it sounds like he's saying "Ma Ma Ma" and then "mean mean mean".
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Ok, that's all I have done so far. Words cannot even express the feeling of seeing my child for the first time. Let alone holding him. Or the feeling of him refusing to nurse thanks to the hospital staff. But we have one more thing we're going to try. More updates later.
