Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Owen's birth story, 9 1/2 months later...

I was scheduled to go into the hospital to be induced the morning of December 18th, 2013.  I was 39 weeks pregnant.

I was more than ready to not be pregnant anymore, and since Owen is our last baby, have one last labor and delivery.

I forgot to pre-register, so we had to do that first. By the time I got all registered and set up and pitocin in, it was 7:30 am.  I didn't expect not to get to hold him for another 12 hours.

The first 11 hours of my labor were long and slow and drawn out.  I read, watched TV, dozed and chatted online with a few really good friends.  There were some very disheartening moments, when the nurse considered me further progressed than my doctor did.  Either way, I made it to about 5cm by noon, and pretty much stayed there all afternoon.  I broke down into tears at one point, too.  It felt like the never ending labor.

I got an epidural around 2:30 in the afternoon, and for the first time in my 5 experiences, my blood pressure started really dipping.  I had the anesthesiologist in my room monitoring me and adjusting things for over an hour.  It was actually fairly scary for me, as I could feel my brain going fuzzy and see the concern in the faces of my medical staff.  Owen's heart rate started dipping at that point, too, and they put me on an oxygen mask.  I don't know if it's this way for anyone else, but it was SO claustrophobic for me to wear it, which started my downward emotional spiral, I think.  They also put an oxygen sensor on Owen's head, and took off the external heart rate monitor.  Which meant that I could no longer hear his heart beat.  Even though I felt him moving, and was able to reassure me that way, it was really emotionally difficult for me to be laboring without that sound.  It took a lot of effort for me to try to calm my mind and body.  My baby was okay, and would remain that way, but it was just too close to my first labor, which of course had no fetal heart beat to hear.

By 6:30, I was progressed to 7 centimeters, and it had been 11 hours of labor.  At that point, I started feeling really uncomfortable.  I was having hot flashes and waves of nausea, and intense downward pressure.  The pain was coming through the epidural.  I think it was at this point that my stop chatting online.  The contractions were accompanied by a searing pain in my round ligaments.  It was a burning/tearing sensation, and I wanted nothing more than to be in any position other than on my back.  Of course, between the fact that I had an epidural in and could not support myself on my legs, and Owen's heart rate really dipped when I sat up, I had no choice but to lay back.  But I wasn't the most rational person at that point (pain does that to a person), and the nurses kept having to push me back down.

At 7:20, my doctor determined it was go time, after telling me she'd do "one last check and then maybe it's C time."  I was so ready to just be done and hold my baby.  My body was doing it's own thing, too.  Since I could feel the pressure and contractions, I got to tell the nurses when I was pushing instead of them telling me to.  It was nice to get to boss them around a bit.

He was born, screaming, at 7:47pm.  Finally.  7lbs5oz and 20 inches, making him my 2nd heaviest baby, but my 2nd shortest.

And we are so in love.


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