Magnificent Mamas (Closed Group)

Hello everyone! I apologize in advance for what I'm certain will be a long post, and to those on the other board who already suffered through it! :laugh: I swear I've gotten on here a dozen times to write this - and then had something pop up! But ok, here goes!

I'd like to title my story - "Birth plan, what's a birth plan??"

My Dr called on Monday at 5pm and said she wanted me at the hospital within an hour and they were going to induce me due to the beginning of preeclampsia. I assumed induction meant they'd start me on pitocin and that'd be it! Yea, not at all.....

The first thing they did was start me on magnesium sulfate for my blood pressure. They explained the side effects like the same you would feel from a hangover - so we weren't allowed to have any bright lights on, no tv, or anything that was "overly stimulating". Ok, no big deal. Next came an IV of saline to keep me from getting dehydrated from the mag - ok. And then she brought out the catheter The mag makes you feel like your limbs weigh a ton, makes it hard for you to walk, and so it is hospital policy that anyone on mag has a catheter. I pitched a fit about this one....I suggested they give me a bedside commode or bedpan. The nurse said they needed to monitor my urine output and because a bedpan could spill it was out of the question, and it was "too risky" to assist me to a commode, so alas I had to have the cath. This was probably the most painful/uncomfortable thing I experienced through my whole hospital stay - it sucked. So this is about 7:30 Monday night, now I'm in bed for good, nothing but ice chips. At 9 pm they gave me cytotec - a pill they put in my cervix to thin it out. They gave me another one at 1 am, and they started the pitocin at 5 am. Hubby and my mom were both there.

At the 7am shift change I met my new nurse for the day - and she was THE BEST! I started having contractions right around now, so about 2 hours after they started the pit. My Dr came around 8 and did a check, I was 3cm and 100%. She gave instructions to keep increasing the pit, and said she would be back around noon to break my water. She didn't have to - my water broke on it's own at 10 a.m., and after that the contractions starting increasing and getting stronger. They were tolerable though - like period cramps that came in waves. They decided it was time to start my antibiotic for the strep, so I now had 4 things through IV - mag, pit, saline, and vanco - and a catheter. My Dr. still came around 1:00 and checked me, I was 4 cm, and she wanted an internal contraction monitor put in, and instructed them to keep up with the pit. I was tolerating everything really well - considering the fact that it took an army of people to help me roll over in bed, which is something I wanted to do frequently. Hubby was great, my mom is an RN and her and the nurses worked so well together. This is when things really started rolling. I was having lots of contractions, strong ones, about 8 every 10 mins, and I was doing fine. Breathing helped, mental images helped, and another weird thing I started doing helped too. For some reason, I started thinking of a song in my head, and as the words went through my head I pictured myself typing them on a keyboard - weird right? Don't know where that came from but it really helped me focus so - I ran with it!

The nurse felt that my uterus and the baby needed at least a min in between contractions to relax, so she backed off on the pit a bit at around 4pm. At that point my body had taken over and I was having contractions on my own. I was really proud of myself for how well I was doing, I was so confident - I could do this. They checked me again and I was at 5 cm. And then things started getting crazy.....I started having the worst pains ever in my back - no way to describe it. Hubby started doing some massages and bless his heart - they didn't help at all. Then I started puking, which really sucked. Oh - and when you're on mag they have to draw your blood every 4 hrs to check your mag levels, so mid-puke here comes some broad to draw my blood - um I'm a little busy I just threw my arm over and let her at it....

At around 6 one of the nurses check my cath bag and it was the craziest thing I've ever seen, it might as well have been full of nothing but blood. At the same time they checked me and I was still at a 5. My Dr told em to hit me again with the pit. And this is where I lost it... I was still puking, peeing blood, and all I could do was roll from side to side. As much as I wanted a natural birth, I asked for an epidural, and cried at the same time. I felt like such a failure, but I knew it was the right thing to do.

My Dr showed up a bit later and did some checking, and figured out that the reason I was peeing blood and my dilating had stalled, was that baby had my bladder pinned up into my pelvis. His head couldn't get up in there, but my bladder was. She sat down on the edge of my bed, and said I know you don't want to hear this, but we need to do a c-section. I really don't want to risk rupturing your bladder if we let you continue to labor. I really felt like she was being sincere - that she was really doing it because it was the best thing to do, not because she wanted it to be over, or because she was tired of me being in labor. So, we went from plan a to plan b. I cried, it was the last thing I wanted. My nurse came over and hugged me and told me I did everything I could and that it wasn't my fault. My hubby held me and reassured me that I did great, and that it was what had to happen.

Next thing I knew we were getting wheeled into the c-section room. They had me on the table and increased my epi just enough for the c-section. I started to panic a little bit in my head but I knew better than to say anything or they would have knocked me out, so I kept my cool. And they started...it was the craziest thing. I could tell they were having a hard time - I didn't know until afterwards that it was because my son is huge lol. As soon as he came out he cried - loud and healthy cry! Hubby and I started crying instantly, and he got up and followed them in to check him out. They weighed and measured him, swaddled him up,and brought him to show me, instant love like I never knew was possible. They let hubby hold him and sit next to me while they finished me up. I went in to the recovery room and hubby and baby were right behind me. He was breastfeeding within 45 minutes of he start of my c-section. And by the way - the boy is a natural! The Dr. told me in recovery that if I would have somehow dilated and had him naturally, he would have ripped my bladder and my lady bits into a million pieces.

I had to stay on the mag for the next 24 hrs to keep my blood pressure down, so that meant another 24 hrs in bed and on the catheter. None of that mattered now though - I had my baby. I finally got out of bed at 8:30 pm on Wednesday night and hubby helped me take a shower, which is something that brought us really close together.

We got discharged to come home on Friday morning, and have been enjoying every sweet second together. He sleeps good, eats great, and poops a lot :laugh:

I have a bit of the baby blues :sad: :sad: I could ask someone what color the grass is and cry when they tell me green. I'm sure it's hormonal and normal and will pass. I go tomorrow for my follow up and to have my stitches taken out, and Joshua has his appointment on Wednesday with the pediatrician.

Whew....I knew that was going to be long and I'm sorry :flowerforyou:

I love you all, and I hope you are doing well!