Gosh…where to begin. I wish I would have had the means to do this when I was in the hospital.
With each passing day things become more of a blur. As you know, we had some complications with Rowan’s delivery. Many of you wonder why I was induced again, after how hard Arwen’s process was. (the delivery of Arwen was cake…it was the process prior to that was a challenge.)
I chose to do it for a few reasons. The first is that if I were able to have him over that specific weekend…my family from North Carolina would be able to come up and visit for a couple of days. I have not seen my mama in over a year, so of course I wanted that! Not to mention I wanted them to see Arwen and all the other kids as well. My kids have all changed so much. The second reason was that it is always good to have a plan. Getting Arwen ready to go places etc. is quite a production…so in being prepared we could have everything packed and ready in advance. We had it all planned out. The third reason was that I was in a great deal of discomfort. Pressure, contractions, loss of sleep, majorly hormonal and emotional….I had been pretty sick as well.
So the day arrived, I had Tim drop me off at the hospital because I knew it might take awhile to get registered and settled in a room
before anything even began. He was going to take her to play at Chuck E. Cheese for a bit while all this was going on.
Much to my surprise the hospital was lightning fast and I was in a room. I texted him the ok…and he said he had just pulled in to Chuck E. Cheese! LOL
So he decided to come back. Not to be with me….because the process of induction can be long, but to setup Arwen’s stuff so that later we would be ready when the time came. We took the pack and play…etc…so she would have a place to go while I was delivering…and he could be part of it.
They didn’t even start anything for quite awhile later…..and with the first drug (Cervadil: it is what is used to thin the cervix) it has to sit for 12 hours….and after that they administer Pitocin which jumpstarts the contractions. All was well…..the next day things followed as planned. Mila decided to come and stay with me that night. ((She wound up staying with me at the hospital till I left.)) I waited as long as possible and the contractions were a couple of minutes apart when I finally decided …I couldn’t take it. So they gave me a low dose of pain meds. I was dilating etc…so they decided since I was handling that well, they would crank up the contractions even more. It didn’t take long and then they decided it was time for the epidural. I notified Tim
that it would likely be happening within the hour. The nurse said not to be concerned because we could delay pushing as long as we needed. She cranked up the Pitocin again. I was constantly contracting….back to back to back…with no time in between. The brought it a liquid food plate…..and I thought I was thirsty. I was feeling a little bit nauseated and short of breath…but during the pregnancy this happened to me quite a bit. I sat up to take a drink…and felt pretty sick and light headed so I laid back down.
Shortly after the nurse came in to check something….and suddenly I was surrounded by like 6 panicky people. My monitors were turned down so I never heard anything. I guess my blood pressure had dropped……and the baby’s heart rate had dropped to dangerous levels. (They had to pry the cell phone out of my hand!)
They started shifting me to several positions….because if the cord was pinched …that might alleviate that and things go back to normal. Nothing did…..I guess they gave me the equivalent of a spinal or something because I was dead weight from the chest down. They were prepping me for an emergency C section. They had me in an oxygen mask…..and I started to cry…….Tim was not there yet! He had no idea what was happening. I tried to choke out a shout to Mila (who was watching the whole thing in terror ((poor kid!)) Call Tim!) One of the nurses or doctor went over to explain to her what was happening and that they were taking me away. They started wheeling the bed toward the door…..and everything stabilized. (THANK YOU GOD!!!!) Right after all that Tim arrived. Noone approached him to explain what was going on….I was very woozy and on the verge of passing out during all this. He went about setting up Arwen’s things….and finally came over. The doctor arrived and said the delivery would be very soon, and he would be back in. I was just breathing oxygen at the time. They had already broken my water during the first episode….I needed to dilate maybe only one or two cm more.
The nurse decided (on her own) that she would shift me to maybe get the baby going. The second she turned me….his heart dropped again. This was no easy task considering I was dead weight. It took several people to move me around each time. After much more …of this …it turned out that he liked me on my back. The doctor decided to slow my contractions and add more fluid to take the pressure off the cord. There were internal monitors and all kinds of devices being used. So of course I was given more drugs to slow the contractions. After a short few minutes….I was fully dilated and time to push. Because of the “spinal”, he decided to use the vacuum because it is unpredictable if the pushes will be adequate when you are totally numb. ( I couldn’t even sit up) Of course, I was so drugged and having blood pressure issues….that I was on the verge of passing out or what I said was “sleepy” during delivery! Tim said my eyes were rolling back in my head. 3 or so pushes and my son entered the world. I still felt pretty “sleepy” for awhile…and nauseated.
Rowan was perfectly healthy and looked great. I am so glad my doctor is such a good one. Those hospital people….perhaps made some poor choices for my circumstance…but in the end…..look what I have! No C section involved. I asked the nurse to tell Tim what happened. The only explanations that I remember are that I had too many drugs too fast and it affected my blood pressure, and that Rowan’s cord was getting pinched and slowing his heart rate.
WEIRD COINCIDENCE, wouldn’t you say? It took several hours for me to get feeling back…so I couldn’t get up to change diapers etc. That was ok….we all did ok. Mila got to witness her brother’s birth….which was very scary. I hope it didn’t change her thought on someday becoming a mother.
She was a great help in the hospital! She also helped with Arwen during the delivery…..who by the way…..did great! No crying that I heard!
I hope I have remembered everything of significance.
We have been blessed again.
Everyone is doing great.
I am just having your usual recovery issues, back pain, abdominal cramps, bleeding and tiredness.
Other than that …just dandy.