Birth Story

Here goes my very long and late birth announcement.

My due date was June 17th from very early ultrasounds and those throughout the pregnancy. On November 30th I was diagnosed with a subchorionic hemorrhage, basically a blood clot, that was covering 3/4 the gestational sack and separating the placenta. I was told that the pregnancy most likely would not go far from there due to the amount of placenta that was detached. I was put on strict bed rest from that point, until it resolved about 6 weeks later and then I was on modified BR until the end of the pregnancy. I was given ultrasounds every 6-8 weeks until 32 weeks and then weekly AFI and monthly ultrasounds. I was also doing twice weekly NST's. Since the placenta had reattached everything was looking better but there were still many risks, including scar tissue from the clot on the placenta. My doctor and I agreed that going over my due date would not be in the best interests of either baby or I.

On June 15th we scheduled an induction for my due date, and she stripped my membranes again. I was crampy and not feeling well all day but nothing regular so I didn't think much of it. That night Carl and I were watching a movie and I just didn’t feel good so I went to bed. He came to bed later and within minutes of him coming to bed I got up to go to the bathroom. I was a little damp and felt a little funny so I just made a mental note of it and went back to bed. About 40 minutes later I rolled over and felt a huge rush of water and knew that I had either peed the bed or my water had broke. I told Carl and ran to the bathroom leaking the whole way there. When I finally go to the toilet it just kept coming and I was soaked and there was Carl cleaning up all the fluid that I had leaked throughout the house. I called the Dr and was told to head to L&D so I changed my clothes and within 10 minutes I had soaked through those too, so I just walked around to finish getting everything together with a towel between my legs and a pad. We got “D” up and ready. By this time it was about 2 AM. We got to L&D at about 3:40 and they confirmed that it had been my water (we all knew that anyways).

I had been planning on a natural birth so I started walking as soon as I could and got my hep lock put in. I walked and walked but my contractions would not get regular. They decided to check me at about 6:00 and I was only at 3 and 50%. I walked some more and when the new Dr came on she decided that we had gone long enough and started the Pitocin at about 9:30. It was okay because I could still walk with the telemetric monitors on. They stopped working and I was forced back into the bed due to the Pitocin. They thought that they had fixed the monitors and started the bath. I was at 5 now and 80%. The monitors were not fixed and I was in excruciating pain so I broke down and got a half dose of narcotics and that did NOTHING for me so I got an epidural. I was so heartbroken from not being able to get into the water. I had some issues with the epi and at one point had it turned off because I couldn’t feel my neck and got scared. At about 7:00 I asked to be checked and I was at 9.5cm 100% and she was at a +2. The Dr had to go back and see one more patient but would be right back. I had the epi turned off again so that I could push without it. I began pushing at around 7:50 and the doctor told me to stop pushing so that she could finish getting ready. That was the hardest part because I was burning and felt that I had to push but I waited. She was born at 7:59pm. She weighed 8lb 9oz and was 19in long, her head was 14.5 in. She was absolutely beautiful. She had no cone head like my DS because she went from being +2 to out in so little time.

After the labor was when things got super crazy. I ended up hemorrhaging and having to get 4 pints of blood. At the lowest point my hematocrit was at 17, normal is anything above 35. I got there and it was 34 so I was still low but nothing like that. At one point the Dr had to reach inside me and pull out clots and she filled a small bucket up with blood. They were changing my pad every 20 minutes and the sheets were getting changed every hour or so due to the blood. It was the scariest thing of my life! I was getting pumped full of narcotics because I was in excruciating pain from all the Pitocin and them trying to help my uterus contract manually but nothing was helping. After the Dr pulled out all the clots everything seemed to get a little better and I was able to get 2 bags of blood that night.

After everything else “A” was diagnose as being Jaundice and was taken to the special care nursery to be put under the lights and I was forced to supplement BM with formula because my milk was not in, and didn’t fully come in until around a week PP. We came home after almost 6 days in the hospital.