the birth story





at my 38 week appointment, dr. l got us all set up to go in and get induced on the eighteenth.

we were instructed to call at about 5:30 am to make sure we were still good to come in that morning at 6.  the mister called and they told us we could come in at 6:30.

 

we arrived at the hospital around 6:30, went up to l&d and the front desk lady got us to our room.  she got me the gown to get changed into, i got changed and then we waited.

and waited some more.

finally the nurse came in - with another nurse that was training to be in l&d.

so we got to listen to our nurse train the new nurse.

 

around 8 am, dr. c came in to break my water.  i had never met him before as he was fairly new to the practice.  dr. c was having a hard time breaking my water, so he asked if little man had been head down.  little man had been, but dr. c was still having a hard time breaking my water, so he got the ultrasound machine to check where little man's head was.  it was really cool to be able to see little man on the ultrasound machine one last time before finally meeting him in person.

 

well, little man decided to be rotten and was breech.

dr. c had managed to get my water broken, so the next course of action was to do an ecv (external cephalic version).  it's where they manually turn baby by pressing and pushing on your stomach to get baby back to head down position.  dr. c spent a good ten minutes trying to get little man to turn.  you could literally see this grown man's hands shaking trying to get him to turn.  he wasn't having much luck, so he checked little man to make sure this wasn't stressing him and got dr. m to come in and help do the ecv.

 

they gave me a drug to help relax my uterus so they could have a better chance at being successful turning little man.  when dr. m came in to help with the ecv, i swear he brought in an army with him.  at this point, there were two doctors, two nurses and two student nurses in the room.  they started attempting to do the ecv again - they got him turned about halfway (so he was laying across my stomach), but couldn't get him to turn any farther.  this procedure usually takes only a couple minutes and isn't supposed to be painful, just uncomfortable.

 

at this point--another ten minutes in--i have two doctors pushing on my stomach (which by the way is super painful by now) with all their might.  both doctors sets of hands are shaking because of how hard they are pushing.  my sweet nurse is letting me practically break her fingers holding her hand.  finally, after another five/ten minutes, the doctors decide that if little man was going to turn, he would have already.  he wasn't even born yet and this guy was being stubborn.

 

since little man was still doing just fine, my next options were to either deliver him breech or have a c section.  after being told the risks with delivering breech (the mortality rate and the chance of still having to have a c section) we chose to proceed with a c section.  the doctors scheduled the OR for as soon as it was available and kept monitoring little man in the meantime to make sure he was still okay.

then, everyone left.  my nurse kept checking on baby and i, but other than that, it was quiet in our room until showtime.  when showtime came, dr. c came and checked one last time to make sure little man hadn't decided to turn at the last minute (which he hadn't.)  my OR nurses came and wheeled me down to the OR.  the mister stopped and got on all his gear while they took me in to give me the anesthesia for the c section.

it was freezing in the OR.  they scooted me onto the table, sat me up and gave me the anesthesia.  i could feel the anesthesia clear up into my chest and into my fingers.  then they started on the c section.  the most annoying part of it for me was the drape between my face and belly - it was right up against my face and kept making my nose itch - and i couldn't scratch it because of my hands being strapped down.  i could feel them pulling on my stomach, but that was about all.
 

while dr. c & dr. m were in getting little man out, they were (again) having a hard time. they discovered not only had he been breech, he was posterior too. then they discovered he had the cord wrapped around his neck. little man was going to give us as much trouble as possible. when they got him out, his color was a little off and he didn't cry right away. they scooped him away to take care of him while they stitched me back up.  

 

after they got him to cry and got him cleaned up a little, they brought him back into me so i could meet him for the very first time.

 

the original plan had been to induce me so that we could start blood thinners and be preventative about having a blood clot again.  now since i had to have a c section, it was definately the best course of action for me since i spent the next 18 hours in bed.  during those 18 hours (and the next night as well) they made me wear these leg cuffs that massage your legs to keep the blood moving.  they were horrible.  i'd wear them again if i had to, but wouldn't like it.  they went from my ankles up to mid thigh and were hot to wear.  on top of that, when the anesthesia wore off, i had part of the "itching" side effect from it, but i couldn't scratch my legs because of the cuffs.  it made for an interesting night.

 

the next morning, when they finally let me/made me get out of bed, was quite painful - between the incision and the massive bruises on my stomach from the doctors trying to turn little man, i was/am incredibly grateful for pain medicine.

little man is such a good baby. like the girls, he started out going 3-4 hours between eating and sleeps really well. the nurses loved him and kept saying how cute he was. i tend to agree (although i am his mom)

 

we are happy to be home now. we're grateful that things happened the way they did - i hate to think what would have happened had little man been head down. the girls love having a baby brother and the mister and i certainly can't get enough of him either.