Our Family

Our Family

Sunday, July 11, 2010

Birth Stories

WARNING!! This post is VERY long and you may fall asleep while reading :-)

As I get farther along with this pregnancy I am getting more nervous for the labor and delivery part. I know its too late too turn back now :-) My other 2 werent the greatest experiences (Not that having a baby is all joy and no pain right) Anyways the doctor I had was not good at all and I really have no idea why I went back to her after I had Jaydan. She was so good and sweet through my pregnancies and I guess I just got comfortable with her but at the end of my pregnancies and when it was time to have my babies she was AWFUL!! I have now switched doctors and have full confidence that this one will be a whole new experience. I have told him everything I have went through and he even was amazed at her actions. Im so excited to see how this one differs from the other 2. Like I said its not gonna be without pain and all that but I believe in my doctor and know he has mine and Kamdyns best interest at heart so I feel so much better about it. I didnt have a blog when I had my other 2 kids and I use my blog as a journal too not just as a way to update my family and friends on our lives so I wanted to write about my other 2 birth stories before this little guy makes his appearance.



Jaydan- With Jaydan I was obviously very clueless when it came to knowing what was normal and what wasnt with pregnancy. I had to have my contractions stopped a few times with him starting when I was 6 1/2 to 7 months along. I also had to get a steroid shot to mature his lungs in case he did come early. I was due on June 30, 2006 and around the middle of May I started blowing up like a balloon. Not just your normal pregnancy weight gain but I was gaining 5 to 10 pounds every week! I was so swollen everywhere and just flat out miserable. Before I was pregnant with him I was a tooth pick. In fact I was way too skinny. I remember everyone telling me that I looked so unhealthy because I was too thin. Anyways so to add all this weight that fast was pretty overwhelming but I thought it just came with the territory. At the beginning of June I started having other weird symptoms that I thought were just normal for being pregnant and ready to pop. I started getting horrible headaches all the time and nothing would even ease them at all. I got light headed so easy and it took forever to feel normal again. I started talking to my doctor at that point and she just brushed it off as I was getting up too quickly. Towards the middle of June my headaches were constant. I would wake up with one and I would fall asleep with one. They just kept getting more and more intense by the day also. Every morning when I woke up my mom would tell me that I really needed to call my doctor because my face was so swollen and pale. She kept on me about it because she was so worried. I went to the doctor on June 20th and my blood pressure was pretty high so she tested me for preclamsia and sure enough thats what was causing all my problems. She called the hospital to get me induced and she still waited to get me in til June 22nd in the night time. So on June 22nd I went to Red Robin for my "last meal" at 1130 am since you cant eat after a certain time when you are being induced. I started calling the hospital to see what time they wanted me to come in around 6pm and they just kept telling me to call back in a while. Finally they let me go in at 9pm to start getting hooked up to all the ivs and monitors. It was a LONG and HORRIBLE night. My first nurse was AWFUL! They were pretty busy so I was the least important patient I guess. I called for her so I could go to the bathroom and 1 1/2 later she finally came!! After that she didnt wanna bother with me so she put a catheter in me so she wouldnt have to come back to help me go to the bathroom again. Well it was the most painful catheter I had in my entire life. No catheter feels good but this one HURT! I was in tear because it hurt so bad. A while after she put it in I felt liquid running all down my legs and I told my mom I think my water had just broke. She called the nurse and it of course took her FOREVER to come in and he tested the liquid to see if my water did break and surprise surprise it wasnt. It was pee. She had put the catheter in wrong which explained why it hurt so bad and now the stupid nurse had made me pee on myself just lovely! So she tried again and this time I guess actually took time to make sure it was in right cause it didnt hurt as bad and I didnt pee on myself anymore. The medicine was working for sure and making the contractions very consistent. I was SO thankful when my morning nurse walked in to check on me. She asked me a bunch of questions and checked me out and I was still only a 1 after being on the medicine all night. She looked at the dose the nurse was giving me and said it was no wonder it wasnt making much progress because she put me on the lowest dose possible so she didnt have to keep coming to check on me. So my new nurse cranked it up and made me feel so much better after the HORRIBLE night I had just went through. Around 2pm my doctor came in to check on me and try to break my water. I was still only a 1 at this point! She attempted to break my water and it wouldnt even break. She told them to go ahead and order my epidural even though I was only a 1 to try and get my body to relax so maybe I would actually dilate and that she would have better success breaking my water. I always knew I am not strong enough to not have an epidural. Im such a wuss and I have 0 pain tolerance. I was so scared to get one though. You always hear all the horror stories about epidurals. When the guy came in to give me mine I was so out of it from all the pain and lack of sleep. The second it started working I was SO relaxed and in heaven at that point. Right after they were getting it all set up and gave me my pump that gives me more medicine when I started tingling I fell right to sleep. I was out cold until I suddenly got this gush of liquid all over my bed. I opened my eyes huge and told my mom to call the nurse. This time when she tested it wasnt pee thankfully :-) She checked me and I was still only a 1! I was getting very discouraged and now that my water broke we were on a time limit to get him out or it would have to be a c section. Not much changed for the next few hours. Around 11pm the nurse checked me and I thought she was lying when she told me I was a 5! Finally some progress!! At that point my sister had decided it would still be a while so she would go home to get some sleep. Just before midnight I got this powerful pressure feeling and told my mom something was happening and I needed a nurse now. The nurse came in and in a nice way basically told me she checked me only an hour ago so its probably just normal labor pressure. She checked me just to make sure and she looked at me and said "Wow you are ready to push you are a 10! So I went almost 24 hours with staying a 1 and a couple hours after that to only get to a 5 and I went for a 5 to a 10 in 1 hour!!! My mom hurried and called my sister as she was just getting into bed to hurry and come back. I started pushing just after midnight. I pushed and pushed and still no baby. I remember thinking to myself "Okay if he doesnt come on this push I give up" Ha ha ha too bad it doesnt work that way. Jaydan FINALLY made his appearance at 156am after almost 2 hours of pushing. I was so out of it after he was born. I remember bits and pieces but not everything. I remember towards the end my doctor told me to stop pushing because the cord was wrapped around his neck. It was actually wrapped around it twice! My sister told me he was only 5 pounds 5 ounces and I honestly didnt believe her. There was no way he was that small when I was that huge but sure enough he was just tiny as can be. They took him to the nursery to get him checked out because of how small he was. I finally got to my room around 5am and the first thing I wanted was FOOD! It was now June 24th around 5am and the last time I had anything to eat was June 22nd around noon! I was STARVING!! They brought me a turkey sandwich which I inhaled and then fell asleep immediately til they brought Jaydan in to try to get him to nurse. The next day was just a normal day at the hospital after just having a baby. Lots of visitors and trying to rest every chance I got. Sunday morning the pediatrician came to check him out and he had to stay in the nursery most of the day because his temperature was all over the place. I went to the nursery to see him and the doctor called and the nurse said he needed to talk to me. I got on the phone and he told me Jaydan and developed an infection in his belly button and needed to be transferred to the NICU. It broke my heart and scared me so bad! I went and gave him a big kiss and walked back to me room. There were quite a few people in my room waiting for me and I cant even tell you who was all there. I looked at my mom and told her he was being moved to the NICU and I lost it. I cried so hard and just fell into my moms arms. I have never felt that helpless in my life. I was a mess the rest of that night. I was supposed to be released Monday but they werent sure if I would be able to because I was still having problems with high blood pressure. Usually with preclamsia once the baby is born it cures itself but for some reason it was still giving me alot of problems. Monday morning they said I needed to stay due to my blood pressure and I was actually very relieved because Jaydan had to stay in the NICU until he was done getting all the iv antibiotics for his infection. It was so hard having him in there and they only let me go down every once in a while because I had to lay down alot to try and control my blood pressure. I would pump and my mom was my angel and went and fed him it for me so he had someone there with him that loved him and not just a nurse which I was so thankful for. I wanted him to feel all the love possible. Tuesday night I had pumped and I went to go walk it down to the NICU before Kamrin had got there with my food (I HATED the food there) and the CNA stopped me half way down the hall and told me she needed my vitals before I went down. I went back and sat on my bed and she had a very worried look on her face and told me to lay down immediately and ran out and grabbed my nurse. She ran in with some needs and hurry and put it in my iv and kept taking my blood pressure every minute or so. She then got panicked and laid my bed flat and called the doctor on call. They then told me I needed to go back down to labor and delivery for a 24 hour iv that would help me not have a seizure because even with the shots they were giving me which is supposed to bring my blood pressure down instantly and it just kept going up. It was almost at seizure high when they took me down to get me on the iv. Luckily Kamrin showed up right before they were going to wheel me down. I was so scared at that point so it was such a comfort to have him there. They took me down and got everything hooked up and put a catheter in because I had to be flat on my back for 24 hours straight. When they told me that I started crying so hard because I knew that meant I couldnt go see Jaydan and he was still in the NICU and couldnt come to me. When I started getting upset my nurse asked what was wrong because the more I cried the more my blood pressure was going up so she needed me to calm down fast. When I told her she calmed me down by saying she would call his nurse and tell her what was going on with me and to see if there was any way they could bring him to me even just for a little while. I calmed down when she told me that. The next morning I had some visitors and half way through the day I had the best visitor I could have ever asked for! A nurse wheeling a little crib came in and they had brought my little boy to me! It made my whole miserable night and day seem okay just to have him next to me for a while. Finally that night I was able to go back up to my regular room. The next day was actually my birthday. Despite it wasnt my ideal way to spend my birthday I did get a great gift that day. They told me Jaydan was doing so well he could be transferred to the regular nursery so he could spent alot of the time in my room with me! YAY!! My family and friends tried to make my birthday as special as possible and even brought me up a cake. The next morning it was Friday and they said I could go home with a bunch of medication. I was so excited to go home yet very heart broken because Jaydan had to stay there 1 more night to finish the antibiotics. The nurse could tell I was having a hard time with leaving without him so she told me about a room they have for parents to stay 1 or 2 nights until their babies can be released too. Of course I would have a nurse check on me or anything like that but I could be close to him and they would bring him to me. I went home to take a real shower at my own house and relax there for a bit then I would head back up to stay the night in the parent room. I walked in my room and lost it. I felt so empty not having my baby with me and looking at his empty crib crushed me. I rushed my shower and told my mom I had to get back to the hospital asap because it was too hard. The next morning I got the best news ever that my baby was FINALLY able to go home!! I was so happy and so relieved to know he was healthy enough to go home with me! We loaded him up and we headed for HOME SWEET HOME! The next month or 2 I had a hard time getting my blood pressure to stay down and would get headaches quite often but all in all Im so thankful we both ended up being okay after some time to heal. My doctor was way wrong as far as me being in the early stages of preclamsia when I was actually at a very dangerous stage that it was affecting me and my baby. Luckily it ended good in the end.



Madyson- With Maddie the pregnancy went fairly well. I did need my contractions stopped a couple times like i did with Jaydan. Towards the end of the pregnancy I started noticing my stomach not growing and I had what seemed like to me was some amniotic fluid leaking. My doc once again just kept brushing my concerns off. About 2 weeks before my due date and she was measuring my belly and she commented how not only was my belly not growing but it was actually shrinking. She had me go get an ultrasound the next day. After the tech did the ultrasound she went and got the main ultrasound lady that watches in the other room and they both came in and told me that I was losing alot of amniotic fluid and also my baby had stopped grow. They went and talked to my doctor and she came in and told me it was time to schedule me to get induced. It was SO hard not to look and my doctor and say "I told you I was leaking fluid. You should have listened to me!!" Even after that she made me wait 2 days to be induced. I went in bright and early on Friday December 21st to get all hooked up. They had to start me on a low dose of the pitocin because I had tested positive for the strep b virus so before she was born I had to have 2 bags of iv antibiotics. It took a couple hours to get both bags done so around noon was when I got my pitocin turned up and the real labor begun. I really dont remember much with Maddies labor for some reason. I dont remember how far dilated I was when I got my epidural. All I remember was my doctor came in around the time they were starting the full dose of pitocin and said she was heading to the other hospital and would be back around 2pm to try and break my water. 2pm came and no doc. 3pm and still no doc. 4pm and still no doc! Finally around 5pm my nurse felt so bad for me that she asked me if I was okay having another doc come and break it for me. OF COURSE I said yes!! In walks Dr Park and he had heard how late my doc was and he was so nice about it all. He broke my water for me and I was so very thankful to him. Around 9:30pm I started feeling like big changes were happening. I told them it was time so they called in my nurse to check me. Sure enough I was a 10 and ready to push. On the room with me was Kamrin, my mom , my sister Kim and Kamrins mom. I looked at the clock as I pushed the first time and it was 9:52pm. After only 3 pushes Madyson made her appearance at exactly 10:00pm. She was 6 pounds and 2 ounces. Even though she was almost a whole pound bigger then Jaydan was she was still so tiny. The first time I got to really hold her she was very wide eyed and searching for food. Her little tongue was going crazy. It was so funny. Maddies birth was a whole new experience for many reasons. It wasnt so long, hard and it was more of a normal birth where a little while after daddy got to go give her, her first bath while they moved me to my room and I was able to eat. My sister brought Jaydan to meet his new baby sister the day after she was born and he really didnt want anything to do with her. He gave her a kiss then realized mommys bed had lots of buttons to play with :-) With Maddie we both were able to leave after the normal 2 days.

Im really hoping this one goes alot smoother now that I have a new and wonderful doctor!!

1 comment:

brigette said...

Good idea to write it all down! Then you never forget! Great stories!