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| The birth story |
| Friday, June 03, 2011 |
Warning : Birth story, strictly R rated, read at your own risk. I am not going to bother explaining terms, google!
Baby SK is 2 weeks today, I think I am finally rid of postpartum blues. I expected it but it was difficult to comprehend what was going on. Mom made Kesari today, I can finally eat some good food albeit slowly, I have been eating tasteless pathiya saappaadu since Baby SK was born.
So I will write the birth story and keep it up for a few days. I have to pen it down so I can read it later when BSK becomes a big girl ;--).
So since my previous post all I was doing was browsing online reading about labour signs and wondering how my experience would be. I had heard birth stories of my friends, everyone had a different experience. When we went for my 38 week appointment, my cervix was still closed but very soft. And doc said most first babies are overdue. My main concern was what if the baby is too big.;-((, I regret that thought now, will explain later.
So that Sunday, I was at the church I prayed to God and hoped next Sunday I would have my little bundle in my hands. From all the browsing, I came across an interesting thought that most full term pregnant women go into labor or have babies close to full moon day, something to do with moon having effect on water bodies, and hence an effect on the fluid inside the uterus. May 17 was a full moon day my parents' wedding anniversary. I thought it would be awesome if BSK was born on May 17. I was born on a full moon day, I looked up, so somehow I felt something would happen on May 17. I was walking everyday, and my Dad was asking me to bend and do household chores!, as that was supposed to trigger labor. I was getting bored.
To the point, I was ready to believe anything. DH was ready to skip work.
So May 16 and 17 night I even looked at the moon and rubbed my belly in clockwise direction mumbling, "baby come out now, don't keep mommy waiting." DH had a good laugh of course.
Turns out May 17 things did get started. I had light bleeding in the night. Checking online, of course it was a symptom that things were moving but no guarantee that I might have the baby soon. I even called the hospital to get advice and they said it's normal and to come in only in case of excessive bleeding. The next day,without any baby, was branding the full moon concept to be BS, and prepared myself to have another boring day. We decided to make vadai in the evening and Mom soaked lentils. I was going on my walks alone, but this day DH forbade me to go alone, in case something happened.
I continued to have light bleeding during the day, and I was frantically browsing reading about it. Finally I decided to call my doctor and just get an opinion while they were still at office. She immediately asked me to come in at 3:30 for a 'labor check'. Now until then I hadn't told my parents about the bleeding because I didnt want to give them any false hopes or alarms. DH was at work. I called him and told him. First we thought just me and Mom can go, and DH can come with Dad later if need be. I kept telling my parents this may be nothing, they may just send me back home to wait for real labor to start. After some debate DH decided he might as well come home. Then we thought only DH and I will go, parents can be at home, but my parents didnt want to do that, since they will be worried at home anyway. So all four of us left to the hospital, I was feeling a little embarrassed, since I was pretty sure they were going to send me back home.
First I had the non stress test to monitor baby's heart rate and my contractions. I had been having mild Braxton Hicks for a week or so before then, nothing painful at all, very bearable. During the test we saw those contractions and to our shock realized they were 5 mins apart lasting a minute each. What the heck?! I assumed if the contractions were this close I must be active labor and hence in a lot of pain. But my contractions were very mild. I was very curious to find out what was happening. Baby was doing super awesome, moving about a lot. When I got up after the test was when I felt something. I went to the restroom and checked to see if I was bleeding more but this time something told me it was my amniotic fluid, I was leaking!! One of my fears of going into labor was leaking amniotic fluid, which I thought would be very difficult to notice. Contractions or water breaking was definite. Water leaking is so iffy, I was hoping that didnt happen to me, but that is what happened. There started the series of totally unexpected things that happened, everything against my hope for a natural birth experience.
Doc saw me, i was dilated 1 cm, but my cervix was still pretty thick. She tested the leak and confirmed it was amniotic fluid. I was elated. ( may be the full moon theory is true after all, ;--))) She asked me to get admitted right away. I was GBS positive, and didn't want to risk exposing the baby to unwanted stuff. And i had to get my penicilin shots before the baby came. Now that the water has broken, the baby is no longer in a sterile environment, so she was under risk of being infected, which meant I should deliver her within 24 hours or so. But my cervix was still thick.
I was having real contractions, but they were not as effective because of my thick cervix. In fact my contractions were not painful yet because of my thick cervix. That was the next unexpected turn.
So the course of action was to give cervadel a gel to thin the cervix. My heart sank. Any kind of medical intervention meant I would be tied to the bed. I decided to first be happy about the fact that BSK would be born in the next 24 hours!
So now since we came to the doctor expecting to be sent back home, we didn't bring our hospital bags. So after getting admitted in the hospital, DH went back home to get the bag. In the meantime, I got introduced to the nurse and the doctor for the night. It was around 6:30 when we got checked into the room.
Since my water had just broken, I wanted to see if I could get my labor to progress on it's own without cervadel. I told the doctor. And she gave me 3 hrs. Until about 10pm. I decided to walk the corridor. I had IV up with my first dose of penicillin, so walked clutching to the IV pole. First time I felt like a real patient. I had to come back to the room every 30 mins to get hooked to the External Fetal Monitor for 30 minutes to monitor the baby.
My blood pressure was checked every 30 mins too. All through my pregnancy I never had any high pressure issues. But I think because of the excitement or whatever, my pressure was a bit on the higher side that night. The doc feared PIH, Pregancy Induced Hypertension. I was confident I didn't have any issues but they decided to run some tests. They did a blood test which came out negative. I was getting irritated with the unwanted tests. Next they wanted to check for protein in my urine. But since my water had broken, they couldn't rely on the regular way to get the sample. They wanted to insert a catheter into my bladder! Ewwww! Most painful. Until then, of course. And the nurse couldn't do a good job of it and I was wiggling a lot. So she sent for another nurse and she was very nice to me and she did it quickly and left.
At around 11:30, after some brisk walking, the nurse checked. No change. Bummer. I had two nurses take care of me during my labor one was awesome and the other awful. Awesome nurse checked me in and left at 7pm. Awful nurse stayed from 7pm to 7am the next day, botched my catheter and didn't really make me feel at home that night. So awful nurse gave me the gel. After a lot of debate on whether parents should stay or go home they decided to sleep in the waiting room, while DH slept in the room. Well, not really slept, tried to sleep. The cervadel kicked in full force and my really mild contractions got stronger by 2am. The agonizing part was, my contractions were 5, 4, 3 mins or so apart so not much time to get a handle on myself in between. I don't know if they were really bad or if my pain threshold is really low. By morning, I was struggling to use the restroom, struggling to lie down. I sat on the ball through some contractions, I hung on to DH through some, I cried through some. And this was just the beginning. In the meantime my protein result was back, negative. I was so irritated having made to go through catheter pain for nothing.
7am awesome nurse was back. She was so sweet, she got some hot compresses for my back, since for sometime I was having back labor, intense back aches causing me to double down in pain. DH was great through the whole ordeal, remembered everything from the classes and helped me breathe through. Nurse asked me if I wanted epidural and kept saying I can have it anytime I want. Friend A asked me to have an open mind about epidural. And I did. DH kept asking me to take it. I was unsure. I had asked the awful nurse how much more painful will contractions be as I was having some and she said 10 times more. I hated her for it. Awesome nurse said 90% of deliveries in the hospital were with epidural. I wanted to check how much I was dilated before deciding. 3cm. This was at 9am, May 19. Darn! I was just moving to active labor! And I had the whole transition torture to get through. I succumbed.
The anesthesiologist came by, with his cart. I couldnt even handle the pain to get pain free. He poked me three times in my spine because he couldnt get the right space for the epidural, apparently I was all bones in my back. Oh the irony! Three pokes and several squeezes of DH's hands while having contractions and being poked, by 10:30 I was pain free. My legs were numb. Since I wasn't progressing fast enough, and since the baby had to be out soon, and since I was on epi and epi slows down contractions, and since I was anyway on lot of IV, what's new I was given Pitocin to speed up labor. I also had the catheter again to drain my bladder since I was senseless down from the hips. My emotional state was bad because everything I was hoping to avoid was happening, most unnatural labor I was having. Oh I also cried.
Nurse adviced us to have some sleep because she said we will have some work ahead with the pushing. We tried to sleep. I saw the contractions in the monitor, but felt nothing. I was pretty relieved. Oh I forgot to add, my water fully broke while I was in labor. Most embarrassing. But of course, once you have had a baby you throw all your maanam, rosham, soodu, sornai out the window.
2pm another cervix check, I was only 4cm! The 24hr window was about to end, since we confirmed water leaking the previous day around 4pm. I was getting antsy. I was disappointed. That my body was not doing what it was naturally supposed to do. I mentally prepared myself for a c section. I had to have my priorities right. Healthy baby, safe baby, however. Normal delivery or natural childbirth was secondary.
Nurse came every hour or so to turn me to the other side. She and the doc were monitoring me and the baby from their work place. Some time in the afternoon, suddenly they came in. Baby's heart rate had dropped. I was given the oxygen mask to increase oxygen supply to the baby. Again really felt like a patient. Baby was not taking the contractions due to pitocin well, so pitocin was stopped. The heart rate stabilized in a few minutes. But I got hooked to the Internal Fetal Monitor, so the doc can get a more accurate reading. External monitor is just a band on your tummy,while Internal monitor goes right into the uterus to the top of the baby's head. From then on I kept monitoring BSK's heart rate, praying she stay put and fine.
This was around 4pm and the doc did another check to see how far along I was, and to everyone's surprise I was 7cm dilated! I silently thanked god, for if not for this progress I am sure they would have wheeled me in to surgery.
By this time, contractions were so strong, I was starting to feel them! After being pain free for so long, I didnt want anymore pain. The anesthesiologist gave me one small dose on my neck. I was in painfree land, checking the monitors while DH was trying to get some sleep. I noticed my contractions really spacing out. Since I was so close to the end I didnt want my contractions to slow down now. I called the nurse and asked her about this. Anyway it was time for the docs shift change, so she did another cervix check and surprise surprise I was 10 cms dilated!! This was around 5:30pm. In the meantime I should add one more of the irritating things in the hospital. Pressure check. Almost every 30mins. And the tightening was so darn painful. I had marks on my arms for two days after delivery. So tight, so irritating.
(to be continued) |
posted by SK @ 12:40 AM  |
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| 6 Comments: |
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long time reader :)
Congratulations!
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oh wow, padam paakara maari! so happy for you SK! Pls put part 2 and papa pics fastly :D
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Porkodi, pottachu ;-))
Kiddo, thanks.
Chutney, every birth is a movie only ;--))
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Whats this limit of "few" days I say? I didn't get to read anything :-p. Anyways hearty congratulations on the arrival little BSK (BSK somehow reminds me of the cycle company in India :-\) and hope you are doing well (which is more important since the babies get what they want anyways ;-) :-D).
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Deepthi, posted again :--)) I am recovering MUCH better than two weeks ago.
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:)) pictures?