The Birth Story

There are many things about my pregnancy and the birth that I absolutely don't want to forget...but then, there are a few moments that I really don't care to ever relive. Those events will be obvious as my story progresses.

Tuesday, October 13

My mom, upon hearing news of my scheduled induction, decided that she didn't want to miss the birth and booked a flight to Florida. The best flight was actually to Orlando, which is only an hour and a half from us here in St. Pete. Around 2:00 that afternoon I made the drive to Orlando (seriously, the baby wasn't showing any signs of coming out so it wasn't THAT risky). Mom and I were equally happy to see each other when she arrived...it just felt right that she would be there to witness the birth of my first child. We drove back home that night and settled mom in (not without making a slight detour to the Orlando outlets-we're great shopping pals). Mom made breakfast for dinner (one of our favorites) and we Skyped to my sister for a while...
Around 10:00, I took a final look around my house and thought, "This is it. The last time I'll see this place without a big 'ole belly--life was about to change, BIG."

We arrived at the hospital around 10:30 and checked in. The nurse gave me instructions to put on their icky gown--good thing I brought my own. A girl's gotta look good, right? Pink polka dots are much more flattering than blue-gray geometric print!

A little later, the nurse came in and inserted Cytotek, a pill smaller than a grain of rice, onto my cervix. The pill's purpose was to cause my cervix to thin and begin dialating. It was supposed to have done it's job in four hours--so at 5 in the morning, I was all set to be dialated to at least 4 cm!! But...to my dismay, I had only dialated to 1cm and wasn't even completly effaced! So, they inserted another Cytotek, hoping it was cause another cm of dialation in another 4 hours. 9 o'clock rolls around and I had such a good feeling about being at least 2 cm! Again...to my dismay, still only a 1. How can that be??? Dr. D (my OB) was a little puzzled too--but suggested another round of Cytotek, that is, until she looked at my contraction pattern! They were coming very close together and another pill would have made it worse--possibly stressing out the baby. Instead, she went ahead and started the Pitocin drip. Most of the time they don't do that until you're 2 cm, but she said we'd give it a shot and see what happened. After about an hour on Pit, my contractions were coming pretty strong, but they were tolerable. I was thinking positively about the whole "natural med-free birth plan". Then the nurse checked me and I was only a 2! Dr. D didn't like the way things were going and didn't want to increase the pit much more because my contractions were already strong. So she suggested a Foley bulb. Basically, they the same tube that is used for Foley catheters and insert it into the cervix. Then the blow up the bulb at the end and fill it with saline. Then they tug. Yep,..lots of fun. The bulb is supposed to simulate the baby's head pushing on my cervix, but instead of a natural push...I got an unnatural pull. That brought on the real humdinger contractions. I managed to deal with them for about an hour and a half--thinking the whole time that I must be dialating like crazy. The next check I got told me otherwise. Only a 2, still!! What the heck??? Upon the advice of Dr. D, my doula (Robyn), my mother, my husband, the nursing staff and just about any other person who walked in the room...I opted for an epidural. Had I not been strapped to a bed and tied to 3 different machines, perhaps I would have been able to have tolerated the contractions for 6 more hours--but that wasn't the case. Getting the epidural was hard--I had about 3 contractions while he was doing it, causing me to jerk and have to get stuck twice! Owee. But once it was in, life was good.

Shortly after the epidural, Dr. D came back to check me. I was at 3 cm--and the Foley bulb was about to fall out--so she pulled it and GUSH! My water broke! I was super happy about the fact that it was clear, no meconium! Dr. D decided to crank the Pitocin back on and hoped that I would finish dialating sometime before midnight. It was about 5:30 at this point and she had a dinner to go to. She left thinking she'd see me when she got back and check me again. I felt better that at least something was moving in the right direction--but was a little disappointed that my baby was probably not going to be born until much, much later. I was able to fall asleep for about an hour or so and something must have happened while I was sleeping. When I woke back up around 7:00, the nurse came in and decided to check me again. She had a really strange look on her face that I immediately interpreted as, "no progress, poor girl". Then she looked at me and said, "you're complete." Yahooooooooooooo! I suddenly felt this surge of energy, I was so excited! She called for another nurse to come in and instruct me on how to push. She said, "with the next contraction, push and just see what happens for practice." Well apparently I had done this before in another life, because those practice pushes really worked. The baby was moving down!!! They called Dr. D and told her she needed to come back ASAP. They told me that I would have to "not push" until Dr. D got back, it's called "laboring down". I wanted to tell them that I'd waited long enough and that doctor or no doctor I was pushing this baby out--but I didn't. I behaved.

Around 7:45, Dr. D arrived and checked me. She got herself ready and the pushing began around 8:00. Thirty-six minutes and a few good pushes later...Landon Pierce Jones made is appearance! Never in my life has there been a more amazing experience. They took him and placed him immediately on my chest, skin to skin. I'll never forget the look on his 3 second-old face when I first saw him...a total gift from God.

The rest of the story isn't pleasant...in fact, it's down right brutal. So...I won't go into many details. I'll give the short version and if you really care about the gory stuff, just call me.

10:00-repairs are done, nursing for the first time, 20 minutes on each side, great latch!
10:45-try to get me up to go to the bathroom, huge blood loss, pass out cold.
10:55-oxygen mask, everyone in the room panics just a little
11:00-wheeled to postpardum unit on stretcher instead of wheel chair
11:30-eating something from Tropical Smoothie, yum.
12:00-try to get up-huge blood loss-pass out in bathroom
12:05-pass out
12:08-pass out
12:10-in bed with oxygen
12:15-try to sleep
12:30-baby needs to be fed
1:00-feel pretty good, call nurse and attempt to get up again (by this time my bladder is exceptionally full and NEEDS to be emptied so my uterus can go back down and stop bleeding)
1:15-go to the bathroom, don't pass out, but not able to GO.
1:30-still can't GO.
1:45-nurse says, we have to put in a catheter because you can't have urine in you that long-and your uterus HAS to contract...
2:30-4 different nurse teams try to insert the catheter into my very irritated AREA. Writhing in pain, worse than any other part of the whole experience thus far. Josh's hands were almost squeezed off completely. HORRIBLE experience.
4:00-finally, the catheter is in (yes, an hour and a half later). Bladder feels better, Uterus is happier, I am still in pain.
4:30-we settle in and get ready for bed.
5:00-Josh is asleep, baby needs nursing
6:00-Baby finishes eating, I doze off to sleep
6:45-Good morning! Everyone starts flying in--blood people, cleaning people, dining people, new nurses, baby nurses, etc. etc. etc. No sleep for me! But, I did get put on 24 hrs Bedrest!

So by now, it's Thursday, the 15th. That day went by pretty fast--I was hoping to get to go home...but with my blood levels being what they were, they said no way.

So Friday am they come and check my blood again and the doctor says,"hey, you're really, really low on hemoglobin so you need a TRANSFUSION. Yikes. That sounded really scary to me, but Josh and I both thought it was probably a good idea. So...after a million different pokes and prods by 5 o'clock that afternoon I was finally getting my blood!
8:30 ish, we're discharged and start our journey home...

What an experience...
and worth every second.