At the urging of my friend Heather and with another birth looming I am writing my children's birth stories. Unfortunately Colin's birth was a traumatic experience for all involved and for a long time had me convinced that he would be an only child. But time passes, perspectives change, and not only did I agree to have another child, I am weeks if not days from having our third. So here goes, gory details and all- Beware!
The night of October 7th: I came home from work feeling miserable beyond compare. I decided popcorn sounded good and made myself a bowl. I was sitting watching tv with my feet up when Dustin came around the corner, in a rare moment, I asked him to rub my feet that were aching and swollen. He took one look at my legs and told me to call the doctor and my Mom or he was going to. I protested and said I was fine. The next thing I knew he had made both calls and was waiting to hear back from the dr office. Within a few minutes my Mom was at our house and the dr had called back. She wanted to check me out at the hospital immediately. I complained the whole way about having to leave my popcorn behind at the house. The had me suit on arrival to the labor floor and checked my blood pressure, urine, and cervix- I was 38 weeks. My blood pressure was terribly high, 185/130. I was already 2 cm dilated and 70% effaced. The said that I was not leaving the hospital until I delivered the baby and they wheeled me, bed and all, to one of the delivery suites. I was hooked up to have my blood pressure checked every 15 minutes and they started magnesium sulfate to help lower it. After a few hours they also added pitocin to the iv line. We spent a long and painful night in the hospital. At one point they told Dustin that had he not called and just let me go to bed, I would have woken him up with my seizures and they would have been performing an emergency c-section. Guess its a good thing that he stuck to his guns.
October 8th: The next morning my regular dr came to check on me and said that I was only dilated to 3 cm and was now 80% effaced. He opted to break my water, which felt like I had peed the bed- gross! From there on out things got pretty intense. I was having horrible back pains and begged my Mom and husband to push on my lower back as hard as they could. I eventually had an epidural but it only worked to numb half of my lower body. The dr came back and did another epidural and I rested for awhile. I woke up feeling a tremendous amount of pressure and buzzed the nurse. When they checked me again I was 10 cm and ready to push. Too bad that I was still so drugged, I couldn't feel a thing! After 2 hours of pushing, I told the dr "that I didn't care if he called a tow truck- get this baby out of me now!" He calmly asked me if I wanted help- DUH! He got the vacuum pump setup and Colin was born shortly after. It was 9:11pm and he was 7lbs 9 1/2oz and 21" long. He had a horrible mushroom bruise from the vacuum and was bald as a cue ball. He wailed and wailed and all I could think was I'm glad that is over. They stitched me up and tried to get him to nurse, which was unsuccessful. Dustin later walked him around the delivery suite to calm him down, all the while talking about what he saw and saying how glad he was to get his hunting partner. We managed to give our newborn the cold that we had been fighting for days and it also turned out that one of the valves in his heart hadn't closed completely. We ended up staying at the hospital for 5 days until he was eating better, breathing without distress, and my blood pressure and swollen legs were well on their way back to normal. As they say, all is well that ends well! It's hard to believe that was 5 years ago. He is perfectly healthy and amazes us at every turn with his new achievements.
The night of October 7th: I came home from work feeling miserable beyond compare. I decided popcorn sounded good and made myself a bowl. I was sitting watching tv with my feet up when Dustin came around the corner, in a rare moment, I asked him to rub my feet that were aching and swollen. He took one look at my legs and told me to call the doctor and my Mom or he was going to. I protested and said I was fine. The next thing I knew he had made both calls and was waiting to hear back from the dr office. Within a few minutes my Mom was at our house and the dr had called back. She wanted to check me out at the hospital immediately. I complained the whole way about having to leave my popcorn behind at the house. The had me suit on arrival to the labor floor and checked my blood pressure, urine, and cervix- I was 38 weeks. My blood pressure was terribly high, 185/130. I was already 2 cm dilated and 70% effaced. The said that I was not leaving the hospital until I delivered the baby and they wheeled me, bed and all, to one of the delivery suites. I was hooked up to have my blood pressure checked every 15 minutes and they started magnesium sulfate to help lower it. After a few hours they also added pitocin to the iv line. We spent a long and painful night in the hospital. At one point they told Dustin that had he not called and just let me go to bed, I would have woken him up with my seizures and they would have been performing an emergency c-section. Guess its a good thing that he stuck to his guns.
October 8th: The next morning my regular dr came to check on me and said that I was only dilated to 3 cm and was now 80% effaced. He opted to break my water, which felt like I had peed the bed- gross! From there on out things got pretty intense. I was having horrible back pains and begged my Mom and husband to push on my lower back as hard as they could. I eventually had an epidural but it only worked to numb half of my lower body. The dr came back and did another epidural and I rested for awhile. I woke up feeling a tremendous amount of pressure and buzzed the nurse. When they checked me again I was 10 cm and ready to push. Too bad that I was still so drugged, I couldn't feel a thing! After 2 hours of pushing, I told the dr "that I didn't care if he called a tow truck- get this baby out of me now!" He calmly asked me if I wanted help- DUH! He got the vacuum pump setup and Colin was born shortly after. It was 9:11pm and he was 7lbs 9 1/2oz and 21" long. He had a horrible mushroom bruise from the vacuum and was bald as a cue ball. He wailed and wailed and all I could think was I'm glad that is over. They stitched me up and tried to get him to nurse, which was unsuccessful. Dustin later walked him around the delivery suite to calm him down, all the while talking about what he saw and saying how glad he was to get his hunting partner. We managed to give our newborn the cold that we had been fighting for days and it also turned out that one of the valves in his heart hadn't closed completely. We ended up staying at the hospital for 5 days until he was eating better, breathing without distress, and my blood pressure and swollen legs were well on their way back to normal. As they say, all is well that ends well! It's hard to believe that was 5 years ago. He is perfectly healthy and amazes us at every turn with his new achievements.
1 comments:
Wow!
Grandpa Ron
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