It all started on Friday, July 13, 2012. At that point, I was 39w4d. I woke up and noticed that I was having contractions... actual contractions! None of this lame Braxton-Hicks stuff. They were just barely a step up from BH's though, and very irregular, so I thought I had a few more days left, since a lot of women have irregular contractions for even a few weeks before they deliver. So needless to say, I wasn't timing them and just went about my day since they weren't very painful and I was feeling pretty good. I even went to Walmart, and later on that night, to a friends' house to play some games... although by that point, they were just a bit stronger. Still irregular and far apart though.
DH & I got back and watched a movie, and went to bed at about 2:30am. As soon as I layed down, WHAM! Painful contractions, and they were right on top of each other. It took me by surprise because all day and all night, they were never less than 10 minutes apart, and all of a sudden, they were 3-4 minutes apart. I tried to sleep, but by 3am, it was apparent that they weren't subsiding and that perhaps I should get up and start timing them. My hospital goes by the 5-1-1 rule... 5 minutes apart, lasting 1 minute, for 1 hour. So from 3-4am, I timed so I could fulfill that requirement. The only thing was, my contractions generally weren't lasting a minute. A few were, but for the most part, they were only 30-45 seconds long. By 4am, I decided it was time to wake DH and get ready to go to the hospital. But first, DH called labor & delivery to ask if we needed to come in. Since I wasn't having contractions that were a minute long, they thought it was just false labor, but since they were so close together, they wanted me to come in and be monitored, just to be sure.
We arrived at the hospital at about 4:45am and they put me in an observation room right away and strapped some monitors on me (which really hurts while you're having a contraction BTW). They left me alone for 10 minutes to gauge where I was, and after the 10 minutes were over, the nurse came back in and said that when DH called, she initially didn't believe that I was having short contractions that close together, but after watching the monitors, she became a believer. Then she checked my cervix. Yeah, I was 6cm dilated. So the nurse told me that I got to stay! Yay! They then moved me into one of the sweet birthing suites and we settled in (aka DH layed down on the couch and tried to take a nap).
The things that happened over the next 4 or so hours went by like a flash. It seemed as though everything that happened, happened in just an hour. First, with almost every single contraction, I felt the overwhelming urge to pee. I was told this was normal because the baby was all up on top of my bladder and constricting things. This, along with the steadily intensifying contractions and my starting to hyperventilate, made me so uncomfortable that I requested an epidural. I have no regrets over this decision, as once I got it, things seemed to calm down for me. My epidural hadn't had time to fully set up though when my doctor appeared to check my cervix. But this point, it was probably about 7am, although I can't be sure because I wasn't looking at a clock. I was just about at 10cm... just a little bit of cervix was left. So she went back to wherever doctors go when they're waiting, and about 10 minutes later, a nurse came in and had me do a few practice pushes to see if I could get that last little bit. I did.
Now the fun part. The nurse left with instructions to let her know when I had the urge to push or if I felt like I needed to poo. Well, I never got either urge, although the urge to pee was still going strong. And before I go further, I must mention that my epidural had not yet completely set up. This will play a factor in what would happen later.
Anyway, about 20 or so minutes after the epidural, the nurse comes barreling into my room, telling me it's time to push. Apparently they can tell by the baby's heart rate when that is. So while my doctor is on her way to my room, the nurse has me start pushing. Then my doctor shows up while I'm still pushing and not getting anywhere. All the while, I'm watching the monitor that showed my baby's heart rate to be plummeting during each contraction. Almost every time, it dropped drastically... down to 50 bpm a few times. I knew that that was bad. Then they put an oxygen mask on me. Yeah, it was bad. Then after about 5 minutes (I think... like I said, it seemed to go super fast), my doctor utters the word "c-section". But she knew I didn't want one unless needed, so as a last resort, she had me try pushing a few times on each side and then on my hands & knees, just hoping that the baby's heart rate would come back up. Nope. So while I'm still on my hands and knees, she tells me that she strongly urges me to consent to a c-section since the baby was in trouble. I immediately agree, a consent form was slapped in front of me, and DH does his job and questions whether it was really needed or not. He knew my feelings as well and was just making sure that the doctor wasn't pushing an unnecessary c-section on me. But I assured him that it was okay, because I knew the baby was in trouble. So I signed.
But this is where it got scary for me. Because the baby needed to come out now, and since my epidural hadn't fully set up yet, they told me that they were going to put me out since they didn't have time for the epi to kick in fully, or time to set up a spinal. That meant that DH wouldn't be allowed in the OR. That scared the crap out of me. I needed and wanted him with me. But by some miracle, the on-call surgeon got held up trying to get to the hospital, and that gave them the 5 extra minutes they needed to set up the spinal. So DH did get to be there for me and the baby's birth. And another scary part was that while the nurses were getting me all set up in the OR, one of them had a doppler continuously on my belly... and I couldn't hear the heart beating. That was scary shit. So needless to say, by the time DH got in the OR and the surgeon was cutting me open, I was crying from fear. DH was talking to me, trying to distract me, and the anesthesiologist was doing the same. Within minutes, I feel a sudden emptiness, a suction, a cry and someone saying "it's a boy!" He was born at 9:49 am.
DH then goes over to the baby (because I told him to) and after they clean him off a bit, they bring him over to me so I could say hi. Then they take him back to the nursery while I got stitched up. I didn't feel them packing my uterus back in or the stitching/stapling back up. But when I was transferred onto the gurney, my stomach definitely felt that. Within seconds, I was telling them that I felt like I was going to puke, and a few seconds later, I was. Can I just say that those little dishes they put by your head to puke in are completely useless? Like I can aim when I'm laying flat on my back and can only turn my head to the side. I ended up puking all over myself, the gurney, the floor, and I'm pretty sure I got a nurse or two. Then I spent about a half hour in a recovery room near the OR where I proceeded to get the severe shakes. If it weren't for the fact that I was told that it was normal, I would have thought I was having a seizure. And then on the elevator ride back up to labor & delivery, my stomach decided to rebel again, though by that point they had given me something bigger to puke in, so I managed to keep it contained. I did feel bad for the laboring couple that witnessed this though. But there was nothing I could do besides look embarrassed.
Since I had a c-section, they moved us from the birthing suite I was originally put in, to a post-op room. It was still pretty nice though. DH was there with the baby when they rolled me in, and once they got me situated, I got to hold my son for the first time.
And we (I) had a few names to consider, but wanted to meet the baby first. He is totally a Matthew, so that's what we named him. I actually call him Bubba though... I think he likes it. His middle name... well, we still were debating that well into the second day. That story will be continued in another post. As will my hospital recovery and home recovery.
Anyway, it turns out that the baby wasn't moving down like he should and heart rate was dropping because the cord was wrapped around his neck AND his body. Must have been all those flip turns I did while swimming. I'm glad my doctor was on top of things because it could have turned out devastating. But he was screaming and pink when he made his appearance, and got the clean bill of health from the doctor.
So that's how Matthew came into the world. A little too exciting for my taste, but it turned out good, so I can't complain.
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