I’m a mother of five now & before I got pregnant with my youngest I really had easy pregnancies & births. This little guy introduced me to a world I never knew I would be in. I ended up being put on blood pressure medication and iron just to regulate my body so I could heal for six months postpartum.
During my pregnancy I was feeling aches I never felt with my other babies. At one point my left leg swelled & was cold to the touch & we really thought I had a blood clot…nope. It was just my big baby boy cutting off some nerves/veins in my left hip area. I got a lovely stomach bug that went through our whole house (but caused me to contract more) at 37 weeks so I was sent in for some IV fluids & medication. I went to what was supposed to be a normal non stress test but my OB heard decelerations with the baby (one of the worst things I have heard during a pregnancy)…but thankfully he was fine. While at the hospital I was 38 weeks & 5 days pregnant so we decided on an elective induction the following Saturday.
Well…I show up Saturday & I’m actually dilating on my own so they have me labor on my own in hopes of my water breaking. My water didn’t break so my OB broke it for me & started my Pitocin. For some reason I developed a massive headache on Saturday before I went in, so that was my primary pain. My labor nurse (Susan!!) was seriously amazing & made sure I was looked after. She helped maintain my headache & was such a wonderful person to have by my side, along with my husband & my Mom.
—- Can you believe this was my Mom’s 8th grand baby, my fifth, but she had never seen one be born?!? So…she got to see our baby boy’s birth!! —-
Anyway…this little boy decided he wanted to be face up, so my OB & nurses tried turning him face down by moving me & him. He ended up facing sideways (pretty sure he just wanted to say hi to his Daddy while he came out!) & we decided to give it a try to get him out. My wonderful nurses & OB (Dr. Haley) helped me push him out & we were able to avoid a C-section or any other interventions (pretty much the only thing I put in my birth plan).
They put him on my chest (yay for skin to skin!) & I was just amazed at how many rolls this baby had. We kept looking at him & I kept counting the rolls. He barely cried & I was so happy to have him in my arms. This is where my memory gets a little fuzzy…
My nurse asked if I thought I was ready to go to the bathroom…I was showering within an hour of other babies so of course I said yes! I walked in with her & all of a sudden everyone was in a tunnel. I told my nurse I was going down & next thing I knew she had me hugged to her & while still keeping me talking she got reinforcements. My husband watched nurse after nurse put gloves on & saw the lovely ammonia (worst smell everrrrr) while he was cradling our baby…and the nurses just kept telling him everything was fine.
FYI – telling a first responder everything is fine while he is watching people all rush into a tiny bathroom didn’t fool him any!
So…I remember getting back into my bed, getting a shot in my left thigh (found out my bleeding was getting out of hand), and I had to be on Pitocin for 12 hours after giving birth. Dad had to do baby time until my stats came back up so I was to just lay in bed. During this time our munchkin was weighed – he was 10 lbs 4 oz at 39 weeks!! Here’s a little perspective…I was 155ish pounds when I got pregnant, had surgery where I gained a little while recovering, and then was 202 lbs when I went in for his birth. I am 5’2″ on my tall days.
Our little guy had to pass his glucose tests & let me tell you how helpless you feel when he fails them. You don’t want your baby in the NiCU & you think the bigger the better but that wasn’t the case. Thankfully once I was on the mend we were able to do skin to skin again & I nursed on demand which helped him pass his next three tests!! But…my problems weren’t over.
Apparently I have valves in my veins so getting IV’s has been difficult. My Pitocin infiltrated (aka I looked like Popeye) so that IV had to be taken out. Six or seven nurses later & two young, confident nurses came up from the ER & got an IV restarted in my arm. By this time it was around 2am & I was exhausted. My baby wanted to nurse…and I was in pain from all of the missed pokes. I had been without the Pitocin for about 2 hours so it had to be run quicker for some time…which caused me a pain I wasn’t ready for. I had handled everything in stride but man…after nursing my baby & giving him back to Dad I just laid there & cried. I couldn’t talk. My nurse came in to check on me & she right away slowed the drip & got me medicine to help me relax. I still tear up thinking about how she just knew how much pain I was in & helped me. This is why I loved my nurses…even the ones who couldn’t start my IV.
Thankfully the Pitocin was stopped a few hours later & we were on track to go home on time! I was put on Iron thanks to my blood levels but that was tolerable…and my headaches were bad but I figured they’d only get better.
Stay tuned for Part 2… (Here’s where I realized I posted Part 2 but never Part 1!!)
Mess Hall Mom 