charon54
My two boys!
Member since 5/05 7279 total posts
Name:
Rebecca
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My birth story, 11/25, induction at Winthrop, C-Section
While Aaron sleeps, I figured I would get this done. My birth story was not an easy one, so I will warn the faint of heart, be prepared and it is long.
As many of you know, I was due November 12, but I never progressed beyond 1 cm despite regular contractions and we decided to induce on November 24, when he was almost 2 weeks late. I arrived at Winthrop at 9pm and got set up in one of the labor and delivery rooms. They hooked me up to the monitor and we waited for them to get the Cervidil from the pharmacy. In the meantime, Aaron’s heartbeat did a quick dip and the nurses came running in and propped me up on my side. They monitored it for a while and it went back to normal, so they inserted the Cervidil at 12 midnight. I immediately started having more regular contractions (I was already having contractions, but they weren’t regular), and about 1am Wednesday morning, they gave me Stadidol (sp??) to sleep. I fell right asleep (that stuff makes you feel drunk, LOL). I slept for a few hours. At that point, it was basically a waiting game. The pain was definitely there, but it wasn’t horrible and I just tried to breathe through it. Finally at 12 noon, they did an internal to check the progress. I was up to 2 cm, 50% effaced and the baby had dropped to -1. My doctor decided to break my water rather than do another round of Cervadil. They removed the Cervadil and broke my water. That hurt a LOT. I immediately started having strong contractions and after an hour and another check, I was at 3 cm. They started me on Pitocin. They ordered my Epidural which was a scary experience, but well worth it so I wasn’t in so much pain. Once again, we played the waiting game. As the afternoon progressed, I started to feel really hot. They took my temperature and I had a fever of 100.5. They immediately started me on antibiotics and told me that Aaron was going to have to go straight to the NICU when he was born for antibiotics. About 8pm, I started to feel really bad. I developed the chills, I was shaking uncontrollably, and my teeth were chattering. I developed a horrible shooting pain in my neck and left shoulder. They said the chills were normal, but not the neck pain. DH was watching the baby’s heartbeat on the monitor and later told me that the heartbeat was really high. He asked the nurses about it and they said the baby did appear to be in distress and might have developed an infection. At 10:30pm, my doctor examined me again. I was at 4 cm. She asked me what I wanted to do and I said let’s do the C-section. At that point, I was obviously very sick, still running a fever, Aaron’s heartbeat was too high, and the contractions were really strong, but weren’t working quick enough. DH and I cried together, because neither of us wanted it to end that way, but we knew it was the best thing.
They prepped me for surgery, gave me a spinal through the epi line. It was freezing in the operating room and my arms were shaking like crazy still. They gave me a warm towel for my neck to help with that pain, said it was probably because of the fever. They brought in a chair and my DH sat with me. In about 10 minutes, I heard the cry of my son. Aaron Scott was born at 11:37pm, almost 24 hours after we started the induction. DH got to hold him and they placed him by my head quickly so I could see him, but then they whisked him off to NICU. It took until about 12:15pm to get me all stitched up. At one point, I started feeling the stitches, so they had to give me more pain killer.
I went to recovery and DH walked back and forth between the NICU and the recovery room. At about 3am, they took me to the NICU and I got to hold his hand through the incubator window. By 4am, I was in my own room (I got a private room, so worth it).
The next day, they made me get out of bed by like 9am. I was so tired, but I wanted to hold my son. I was feeling dizzy though, so I had to lay down again. I finally got to hold him at 2pm that day. Our families couldn’t meet him though, because NICU is closed for visitors, they could see him through a window.
I thank the nurses and doctors at Winthrop for forcing me out of bed. I feel pretty good already and I think it’s because they didn’t let me lay around. Aaron got out of NICU on Friday at 3pm and we were able to have him in our room and have him meet family and friends. We came home Sunday morning (I could have left Saturday, but on all your advice stayed the extra day-a move I highly recommend).
It’s been an adventure and there have been a lot of tears, but I can tell you it is 100% worth it. This journey started when we started TTC in July 2008 and ended over 18 months later! We are totally in love with our baby boy and I can’t imagine a better ending to this story. May you all feel this joy in your lives.
Message edited 11/30/2009 10:29:14 AM.
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