My Birth Stories Cont.

So the birth of my second son is still fresh (I was only 3 months ago). Originally I wanted to try for a VBAC. During one of the sonograms we discovered that the baby could potentially weigh 9 lbs! Both the doctor and myself felt that a 9 lb baby was larger than my petite frame could deliver. So we planned a repeat C-Section 6 days before his due date. This experience was completely different than my first. I tried to keep myself distracted from the fear of another c-section. Still the idea of being cut open while awake is terrifying! My mom had planned to fly out a couple of days before the surgery so she could help out with Aaron. 

My first, I had very few Braxton-Hicks contractions, but with this one I had them constantly the last month. They were even regular often, but never more than 8 minutes apart. A few times I was convinced that today was going to be the day. With my first I also never had that famous "nesting" experience. With this one I did. I cleaned the entire house in just a couple hours. This included changing sheets on beds. I think this was about a week before Ewan was born. The day before Ewan was born I started to just feel "off" for a lack of a better word. Going into labor was on my mind. I tried to relax and do as little as I could because I really wanted my mom to get here before he came. I started having some good contractions around 9 am, but still they were irregular so I knew I was no yet in labor. Then around 10 am I lost my mucus plug. Now let me tell you...I new deep down that he was going to be coming in the next 24 hours. I sent a text to my husband and my mom saying I was pretty sure he was going to be arriving soon. I told my hubs to be ready to get me if need be. He came home early from work that day (just in case). At 3 pm I got so hungry, like I had never eaten before! I ate and ate and ate. And if you don't believe me... I ate 2 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, pasta that could have easily fed 3 people, an apple, yogurt, and a bowl of cereal! I was still hungry but decided against eating more as I had consumed more than any sane person would have in a day. 

I continued to have Braxton-Hicks for the entire day. They were coming regularly, but not changing in intensity. I decided to go to bed. Around midnight my contractions started to really become painful. I had called the hospital earlier in the day and they told me to labor at home for as long as possible (not sure the nurse understood I was having a c-section). So anyways, I toughed it out. Around 2 am things were really progressing. My contractions were went from 7 minutes to 3 minutes apart. I woke my husband and we got our son ready to go. It was still 4 days before my mom would arrive. We made that trip to the hospital. 

When I got to the hospital they set me up in a triage room and hooked me up to the monitors and checked how dilated I was. I was already 8 cm! Baby was on his way into this world. The nurse tried to get an IV in me. She missed. She missed again, and still again. She then called in another nurse who also missed 3 more times. Then they called in the anesthesiologist. He was a brute (to put it nicely). He ordered for the biggest gage needle and proceeded to shove it into the bend of my wrist (twice) then into my hand. He finally got it into my hand and I was taken into the surgery room. My contractions were coming less than a minute apart and I still needed to find the strength to hold still for the spinal. And as luck would have it, between the triage room and the surgery room my IV came out of my vein so when I got to the surgery room that brute stuck me another 3 times!

Anyways, the surgery happened so quickly once my spinal was in. I do remember that brute testing to see if it was working by poking me with a needle all down the length of my body. The surgeon and the brute talked about their college age boys playing sports during most of it. Then I heard it...I heard the first little cries of my new son! The nurses cleaned him up and brought him to me to see. Of course I didn't get to touch him. But he was beautiful and looked so much like my first son did when he was born. And good thing I decided to have that c-section...baby's face was completely bruised from being lodged in my pelvis!

I was wheeled into the recovery area and monitored by a nurse for 2 hours. They did bring my baby in to nurse and my husband and son came in to check on me. Hubs couldn't be in the surgery room with me because he had to stay outside and watch our little Aaron. I could not wait to get into my room and really start bonding with our family. Finally, I was moved to my room and baby was brought in for me. He was perfect (of course!). We spent the day nursing and bonding and introducing Aaron to his new brother. That night I went on my first walk (and those of you who have had a c-section know what an accomplishment this is). And I walked! They said to just try to walk to the end of the hall and back, screw that! I walked for a good half hour. It was not an easy walk, but it felt good to be moving again. I could not wait to take that shower the next morning and remove that 4 inch thick bandage. I also learned my lesson from my previous surgery and brought my own pads so I didn't have to use those massive ones the hospital provides and I also brought my own underwear so the mesh ones never touched my body. And that was a saving grace, let me tell you!

I was discharged a day early as I was recovering so well. Part of me wanted to stay when they asked if I wanted to just because I was not ready to begin my duties of housekeeping and cooking when I got home. But the hospital stay was getting to be too much for my restless 2 year old that just wanted to play and our poor dogs who were stuck outside all day and night. 

So we came home. And we napped! My poor husband rushed around to clean the house a little before my mom arrived and I just spent time bonding and relaxing and trying to recover. This recovery was so much better than my previous. With my first I experienced the pains in the chest caused by the air that got into my body cavity. I experienced the WORST constipation of my life that of course I had to deal with while my mother-in-law was there and had to hear me complain about how bad I felt like I needed to go! This time I had no chest pains and was so paranoid about that constipation that I loaded up on fiber pills, stool softeners, and even milk of magnesia. No way was I going to spend hours on the toilet trying to find relief from the worst poop of my life again!

The terrified feeling I had after the birth of my first was no longer there. I guess it is true what they say about the first being the hardest and scariest. Now its all a breeze....ha!

My Birth Stories

So I guess the most natural place to go have my long hi-etas from this blog is to the stories of my birth experiences. I know many of my readers are very close to labor. So maybe I should get this out there before.

My first son was due  April 1st, 2010. (yeah we had the potential for some April Fools jokes). I went to the doctor for my weekly check up on Wednesday, March 23. At my appointment I was told I was a centimeter dilated and to go to the labor and delivery unit on Friday to have my membranes stripped. So, by the time Friday came I was very excited thinking about the baby coming within the next day. But, labor and delivery told me that his head was not yet engaged so they could not strip my membranes and sent me home. So I was bummed. But I thought, well there are better odds of me going past my due date than being early, so I waited. On Sunday, March 27th I decided I was going to help baby move down. I spent the ENTIRE day bouncing on an exercise ball. I ate on the thing even. Only left it to go to the bathroom. I went to bed a little discouraged that I hadn't even had a Braxton-Hicks contraction! Little did I know...Right after 4 am on Monday, March 28th I had my first real contraction. At first I just thought I dreamed the extra pain and rolled over and fell back to sleep, but then I had another only 10 minutes after I had the first. I had them every 10 minutes for about an hour and decided I was going to get out of bed and take a relaxing bath. It was not relaxing. By the time I got the bath filled and got in, my contractions were coming every 7 minutes. My plan was to labor at home until my contractions were about 5 minutes apart. I also figured that since it was my first term delivery that I would be laboring for a good long while. Once again, I was proved wrong. I had been in the bath for 10 minutes before they started coming every 5 minutes. I figured it was a good time to wake my husband. It would give him a little time to get ready and have some coffee. I woke him and told him to take his time that contractions were coming every 5 minutes. Then they weren't! I had intense pressure that I thought was because I   had not yet peed. So I went to the bathroom and found lots of blood. Scared, I ran out and told my husband we had to go now! My contractions went from 5 minutes to 3 minutes within a 10 minute period. I knew the baby would be here soon. We got into the car and headed for the hospital that was the longest 20 minutes away. And of course we hit every single red light.

We got to the hospital just before 6 am and as my husband parked the car and got my paperwork from my OBGYN I walked up 3 flights of stairs to Labor & Delivery (not sure why I decided to take the stairs and not the elevator other than for some kind of internal pride I guess). My contractions were not coming every minute. Triage decided I was 8 cm and everyone was talking about how fast baby was going to come. I then was told I needed to decide if I was going to have an epidural.   Something inside told me to get it (and that something ended up being a saving grace later on) . I am not sure why, I was very set on having a natural birth. The nurses said that I needed to be given 2 bags of liquids before I could get the epidural. I didn't think I would make it that long before the baby got there. But finally the 2 bags of liquid were empty and the epidural was put into place. The pain was gone.

And now it was the waiting game. I was already 8 cm by the time I reached the hospital. So I knew there wasn't that much more time. Soon I was 9cm. Then I heard a rubber bad snap...boy was I wrong, it was my water. The anesthesiologist came in to check that I was no longer in pain and I informed him that my water had just broke (my husband even heard it from across the room!). A nurse came in quickly and checked. Sure enough it had broke and it was time to push. Suddenly there was a doctor and 3 other nurses in the room and the bed was transformed and my feet were up in the stir-ups. It was time to push! So I did, and I did, and I did (and I told my husband not to look down there, I didn't want him to see that!) One of the nurses left the room and quickly came back with another doctor. Weird right? Well, this doctor informs me that the baby's head was visible but that  he had not moved further down my birth canal in a while and his heart beat was quickening. She said they were going o try the vacuum  to get him out. They tried 4 times and nothing happened. They then decided baby needed to come out right away and that my only option was a c-section. My worst fear were coming true. I was terrified. I could not fathom being cut open while I was still conscious! I was even more scared that my baby was in distress.  I was quickly prepped for surgery. This is when I realized what a saving grace my epidural had been. Had I not had it, I would have had to get a spinal when the baby was in the birth canal. But, since I had it they just changed the medication that was in it as they were wheeling me into the surgery room. This happened so quickly and I barely remember anything. I remember being so cold and they put a tube that blew warm air down my gown to help keep my shivering body warm. I remember hearing the nurses do the APGAR test, and then them showing him to me briefly for the first time. I remember hearing the doctor asking for a tool count then the worst 2 words to hear..."staple gun."

                                                     notice my gown all puffed up with the air!

I was finally wheeled back into the recovery room where my husband was waiting and holding our son. I was finally going to be able to hold him! He was finally handed to me and I nursed him. Soon we were taken to our room and spent the rest of the day nursing and bonding. I was in the hospital for 2 days. During which time I had a nurse helping me go to the bathroom and putting huge pads in my hospital mesh under ware (talk about humiliating!). When it was time to go home I was so excited! We got baby all strapped in his car seat and I was helped into the car. Then the fear sunk in...oh my gosh, they       were sending us home with this beautiful little baby. I don't know how to be a mom! Where is the instruction book? What do I do when....? And of course my husband driving a little under the speed limit was still too fast for this precious cargo we had inside. We made it home, after a pit-stop to get breakfast...I was starving after only eating crappy hospital food. The dogs were so excited to see us and I had to keep them from excitedly jumping up onto my fresh wound. They each sniffed baby, gave him a little lick and that was it. They displayed no jealousy and we were lucky.  Then we settled in and adjusted to being a new family. We made it through our first night at home and our first bath and then our first doctor's visit and our first week.