Post by statlerwaldorf on Jul 18, 2014 20:12:32 GMT -5
Thanks everyone for all of your support. We are home from the hospital and doing great. I thought I would share my birth story.
Last Thursday at 41 weeks, I had an appointment and was not dilated at all. Since I had a previous c-section, I could not be induced and scheduled a RCS for the longest they would let me go which was 41w4d. My doctor told me that I had a less than 10% chance of going into labor over the weekend and to prepare myself in case I still needed the RCS. She also recommended a few things to try to get labor started.
So I spent all of Friday and Saturday walking, bouncing on a birthing ball, stimulating my nipples, etc. By Sunday, I accepted my fate and spent the day relaxing and spending time with dd.
I woke up to use the bathroom at 3:30am and couldn't get back to sleep. I noticed some very mild contractions every 5 minutes, but since I had been having regular BHs that were more painful for weeks I didn't think much about it. I also felt bubbles in my stomach and had a lot of gas.
I got out of bed a little before 5am to start getting ready to go to the hospital for my RCS. After my shower, I bent over to do my hair and my water broke. There was a lot of fluid. The fluid was dark red, so I started freaking out. I called my doctor and we rushed to the hospital.
I tried putting on an overnight pad, but there was so much fluid still coming that it didn't really help. Once I got to L&D, several nurses started poking and prodding me while another asked a lot of questions for registration. The contractions started becoming painful immediately after my water broke. About an hour after it broke, they were 2 minutes apart.
I was continuing to leak, but it finally slowed down and the fluid became more watery. They kept monitoring the baby and he didn't show any signs of distress. We decided to keep trying for a VBAC. After laboring in triage for a few hours, I was finally getting moved to a private room. When I stood up, I started gushing dark red fluid again. The look on the doctor's face said it all. I was quickly prepped for an emergency c-section.
DH had to wait outside of the OR while they prepped me. The OR always makes me weirdly emotional and I kept tearing up. Getting the spinal was scary. I was worried I was going to move because I was having contraction after contraction. Once I got the spinal, they brought DH in and I felt a lot better. I noticed that they played music in the OR which I thought was odd. I started shaking and my teeth were chattering from the anesthesia.
They finally got ready to remove the baby, but he was stuck. The doctor called for a vacuum and the pediatric unit. We couldn't see anything, but we could hear that the doctor was really struggling even one she got the vacuum. Finally she got him out, but he was blue and wasn't crying. All of the people in the room were shocked by his size. There were a lot of people from the pediatric unit and they were rushed around him trying to stabilize him. I found out later that his APGAR score was a 3.
I was trying really hard not to freak out, but I was crying and started having trouble breathing. The anesthesiologist kept telling me to close my eyes and remind me to breathe. Finally they got ds breathing and I heard his cry. He was still struggling and his 5 minute APGAR was still only a 5. He swallowed a lot of the amniotic fluid and blood. They let dh hold him for a minute so I could see him before they took him to the NICU.
They finished my surgery and I went to a recovery room. The nurse was really great and kept calling the NICU for updates. We found out that he weighed 11 lbs 6 oz and was 24 inches long. The nurse said he was the biggest baby she's helped deliver. Eventually he was able to be taken off of the oxygen and his chest xrays came back clear and he was able to join us in the recovery room.
I had a reaction to the anesthesia and my face itched like crazy afterward. They gave me Benadryl via IV which I regretted. It didn't do much for the itching and made me feel really drowsy and weird. I don't usually get drowsy with Benedryl.
After that, it was pretty uneventful. I lost a lot of blood, but I was able to avoid a transfusion and my hemoglobin levels were slowly coming back up. I was able to get my catheter removed and get out of bed about 14 hours after surgery. I was able to take a shower and eat real food 24 hours after surgery.
DS has been doing great. Breastfeeding has been hard, but so much easier than it was with my first child. The nurses and lactation consultants have been really helpful. Because of his size and my gestational diabetes, his blood sugars were monitored for the first day and all of those were normal.
I have a PICO dressing for my incision. I didn't have one with my first c-section, so I'm really excited about it. I'm hoping it will help with the healing. My first incision opened about a week after surgery, so anything that could possibly help that not happen again is awesome.
Post by luv2rn4fun on Jul 18, 2014 20:22:31 GMT -5
So sorry you had such a rough L&D but so happy your adorable little boy is healthy and doing well! Praying you both continue to recover well and things go smoothly from here on out! Congratulations- he's so precious!
Post by badtzmaru22 on Jul 18, 2014 20:36:49 GMT -5
That must have been scary, but I'm so glad everythinh ended up just fine. He is super cute!!! I'm glad BFing is off to a good start as well. Congrats!!
That's a crazy story, I'm glad everyone is doing well. He's very cute Did your doctors suspect he would be that big?
He was measuring ahead on his growth scans. He was in the 75th to 90th percentile depending on the scan. We knew he'd be big, but no one guessed that big. I remember everyone telling me that he hadn't dropped after he dropped because my bump was still so high. I felt huge and my belly button turned into an outie when it didn't with my first pregnancy. DD was only 7 lbs 3 oz, so it's a little unusual to have that big of a difference in birth weights between fullterm siblings. It also explains why I could barely walk by the end. I'm short waisted too.