I think it's pretty safe to say that I usually have no idea what is going on with my body pregnancy-wise. Remember the time I thought I
miscarried the twins and then found out six weeks later that they were
just fine? Or how I didn't realize I was pregnant with Derrick until I was
12 weeks along? Or how I managed to get pregnant a
third time even though I had an IUD?
Well after yesterday's events those stories are now merely footnotes in my pregnancy portfolio. Get ready, this is one crazy story.
Here I am on Sunday. This is the last picture of me pregnant, because it's also the last time I wore makeup or did my hair. All Sunday long I was hoping to go into labor. Charlotte, Lydia, and Derrick were all born on Sunday's so I was thinking that Veronica would follow the trend.
I even started having regular contractions again. I called Lindsey up and we discussed having her come up again, but we decided that the contractions just weren't close enough together to make it worth a trip to the hospital. Instead I just texted my neighbors and told them to be on standby. I went to bed and didn't have a single contraction the rest of the night.
Monday was my doctor's appointment. I was disappointed to find out that I was still only dilated to a 3.5. The doctor said he was pretty certain that I would just need a touch of pitocin to get things going. We set up an appointment to induce labor on Friday. I wasn't wild about the idea of needing pitocin, but nothing else had worked. So if that was the way to get the baby out, then so be it.
Home:
On Tuesday I started to have contractions again. They were they same Braxton-Hicks type contractions I'd had a week before when I went to the hospital for the false alarm. They were mildly uncomfortable and I had trouble breathing during them, but they were irregular and I just ignored them.
Brandon got off work early to come home and help me out with the kids (I was 41 weeks along after all). I took advantage of that and cut out fabric for the girls' Halloween costumes.
I finished cutting out pieces at 3:00. Brandon and the kids were doing fine so I decided to go in my room and take a nap.
At 3:10 I had a different type of contraction. This one felt like a deep crampy feeling. It hurt, but I didn't want to put too much thought into it. Ten minutes later I had another one, and then another one 10 minutes after that. Each contraction hurt, but afterward I'd think nothing of them.
At 3:40 I decided that I was probably in labor, but I'd take a shower just to be sure. If the contractions went away in the shower I'd know that it was nothing. I had several contractions during the shower, but the girls had wandered off with the bathroom clock so I had no idea how close together the contractions were coming. I took my time in the shower and even shaved my legs so they wouldn't be hairy when I went to the hospital.
At 4:00 I got dressed. While I was picking out my clothes I had one really bad contraction where I said "gah" and held on tight to my dresser. "It's probably time to get ready to go to the hospital" I thought. I made sure to pick out a cute outfit to wear for the traditional "pre-leaving for hospital picture."
I went out into the living room and told Brandon, "I have good news and bad news - I'm in labor!" Then I sent him into the bathroom to take a shower and change into civilian clothes.
At 4:10 I called my sister Lindsey and told her I was in labor. She was running an errand in downtown Houston which meant she was at least 4 hours away. I told her we wouldn't wait for her, but we'd send the kids to one of the neighbor's.
At 4:20 I texted my neighbor Arika to ask her if she could watch the kids until Lindsey could get to Fort Hood. I was about to write "we'll send the kids over in about an hour" when I had a contraction. I changed the text to say "soon." Then I hurried and ran around the house and put last minute things into the overnight bags. As I got those things together I kept having contractions. They seemed close together, but I didn't have time to look at the clock and see how close they were. Brandon made it out of the bathroom and changed the kids diapers and made sure they were dressed.
The kids were ready to go around 4:30. Right as Brandon was about to walk out the door I felt like I needed to throw up. I ran into the bathroom and threw up in the toilet - with Charlotte watching the whole time. She was worried about me, but I told her to go with Daddy to the neighbors.
I felt fine after I threw up so I got up and turned off some lights in the bedrooms. I wanted to go into my bathroom and grab my glasses and a hair tie, but before I could do that I suddenly felt like a water balloon popped in my pants.
"My water just broke!" I said to myself. I had two thoughts almost simultaneously. One was that I'd have to wear my second most favorite pants to the hospital. The other was of my sister Lindsey's birth story for her son Knoxx. He'd been born very quickly after her water broke.
"We're not going to have time to get to the hospital," I thought. I had no idea where my phone was or else I would have called 911 right then.
As soon as I had that thought I felt an undeniable need to poop. I remembered from Derrick's birth that this meant it was time to push! And I was home alone!
I sat on the toilet in case I really did just need to poop. I pushed and screamed. I was in pain, alone, possibly about to have a baby, and SCARED. I was afraid that if the baby was coming I was possibly pushing too soon and I'd hurt my cervix. But there was really no denying the need to push.
The need to push went away for a minute and I stopped screaming. Brandon came back home and grabbed our bags and took them out to the car. Right then I had a second big pain and yelled, "BRANDON" and screamed some more. Brandon dropped the bags and ran back into the house.
"I THINK I'M HAVING THE BABY! CALL 911!" I screamed as I pushed. Brandon took one look at me and said something like, "HOLY CRAP YOU ARE!" He helped me move from sitting on the toilet to sitting on the side of the tub. I reached down and could feel the baby's head crowning. It felt as big as half an orange.
Brandon was on the phone with 911 and was trying to spell our ridiculous street name for them. Our neighbor Ange had heard my screaming and was at the door asking if we needed help. I yelled yes and she came in and started grabbing towels. She and Brandon moved me to the hall. As soon as I was in the hall I felt a need to push and suddenly there was a baby in Brandon's hands. My first thought was that the baby looked like Derrick.
Somewhere in there our next door neighbor Linda had joined us. She had been an EMT. She wrapped Veronica in a towel and put her on my chest. Veronica was crying, but she also had gunk up her nose that needed to be sucked out. Brandon found a bulb syringe in our first aid stuff and Linda sucked out Veronica's nose.
Then Brandon, Ange, and Linda started to try to find things to tie off the umbilical cord with. They ended up with two bandannas and someone's shoelace. Once the cord was tied off Brandon cut it with some first aid scissors.
I kept repeating, "I can't believe I had a baby in my hallway." I also kept thinking about how Veronica's gunk was getting on one of my favorite shirts. And I made sure Brandon took pictures - cause I knew this was going to be the greatest blog story ever.*
Linda stayed with me and kept asking me if I felt any cramping or need to push out the placenta. I didn't. We figured out that Veronica had been born at 4:40 pm. Only an hour and a half after the cramping contractions had started.
I could hear lots of people in my living room, but I was facing away from them so I couldn't see them. Soon I heard the ambulance sirens, and then there were even more people in my house. I was so glad the kids were at Arika's.
The EMT's took Veronica and checked her out. (You can see the pink bandanna that was used to tie off her cord.)
Brandon got to cut the umbilical cord again.
The EMT's put me on a backboard and then moved me to a stretcher in my living room. Then they wheeled me out. I couldn't believe how many people were in my house and yard.
Ambulance:
They put me in the ambulance and put an IV in my arm. Brandon climbed in the ambulance and the EMT let him hold Veronica while we rode to the hospital.
Up until this point I was feeling fine. Labor had been painful, but it hadn't been unbearable. I could totally understand why people are able to handle un-medicated childbirth and have home births.
But then I started cramping again. I told the EMT that I felt crampy and she told me to "go ahead and push." I tried, but I was flat on my back with my legs straight. I knew it wasn't an effective way to push. The cramping started to get more and more painful. By the time we got to the hospital I was loudly moaning/screaming. I didn't care how loud I was, I was determined to get some sympathy.
I had my eyes shut as they wheeled me from the ambulance into the hospital. At first they put me in the emergency room, but then they were told that Labor and Delivery was ready for me so they wheeled me there. I had know idea who "they" were. I just knew there were tons of people around me. Brandon would grab my hand when he could.
Labor and Delivery:
When we got to Labor and Delivery a nurse told me to open my eyes and look at her. She introduced herself and said she'd take care of me. There were tons of other people who all introduced themselves, but the nurse was the one I focused on. I kept moaning and screaming.
They moved me from my ambulance stretcher (or maybe I was on the Emergency room bed - I can't remember). Someone tried to hand Veronica to me, but I pushed her away and said through gritted teeth, "GET THE PLACENTA OUT!" Someone ordered pitocin for my IV and someone else started talking me through pushing the placenta out. I pushed, the placenta came out, and the unbearable pain was GONE!
At least for a minute or two. Some doctors inspected me and determined that I had a level 2 tear. So they started injecting me to numb me up so they could sew me up. The injections hurt, but they were nothing compared to what was next. The placenta was pretty shredded so a doctor started reaching up inside of me to check for placenta pieces. There were a lot of pieces. Every time she grabbed one she made a fist and then pulled it out. That closed fist hurt like hell every time she pulled it out of me. I grabbed the bar on the bed and screamed with pain as she cleaned out my uterus. All the while she kept telling me I was the toughest women she knew.
Despite all the pain there was still a piece that the doctor couldn't reach. It had to come out or else I would continue bleeding. The only option was to do a Dilation and Curettage (D&C) in the operating room. The doctor said she'd be nice and sew up my tear in the OR when I'd be all the way numb.
At this point things calmed down and I wanted Veronica. She'd been getting weighed and measured in the same room as all my placenta drama had been going on. I was able to take my shirt off and put on a hospital gown. Then I was able to cuddle and nurse her. I was a little worried that nursing wouldn't go very well considering it had been over an hour since she'd been born. But she latched on right away and started sucking.
People asked us all sorts of questions to get us registered and IDed. We also signed a bunch of paperwork. I felt like we were doing everything in reverse order. One of our neighbors showed up with the bags that Brandon had left on the lawn. He'd driven the jeep to the hospital so Brandon could have it.
Veronica was done nursing by the time everything was ready to for me to go to the Operating Room. Brandon stayed with Veronica and I was wheeled away. The anesthesiologist injected something into my IV and I started feeling REALLY GOOD. Everyone involved with the OR seemed really happy and really nice - or maybe that's just how I felt.
They sat me on the operating table and a tech held my shoulders while the anesthesiologist did the spinal block. I'd had one of these when the twins were delivered through C-section so I knew exactly what to expect. This was actually easier because I didn't have to worry about having a contraction while he inserted the needle. The tech joked, "If we see each other at the PX we are going to act like this never happened."
They laid me down and got me all set up and then started the procedure. I was numb from basically my belly button down. It felt so nice! I had a screen in front of my face so I just shut my eyes and relaxed. At one point I got a little nauseous but the anesthesiologist took care of it before I threw up.
The doctor remarked that I had a lot off tissue inside of me and I lost over 400 ccs of blood during the D&C. She also took care of getting me sewn up.
ICU:
Then they wheeled me over to the ICU. If I'd been there during the day I would have gone somewhere else, but since it was now 8:00 pm I went to the ICU. A Captain named Ed and another doctor who reminded me of Mash's Hawkeye kept an eye on me. I was shaking horribly from a combination of the loss of blood, the spinal block, and just general shock. I also had low blood pressure for those same reasons. They gave me warm blankets and medicine. Once everything stabilized I just laid there and enjoyed the quiet.
When I got there I was still completely numb. I had the weirdest sensation that my feet were still up in the stirrups like they'd been when the spinal block had taken effect in the OR. As time went on I could move my feet and gradually my legs felt like they were laying on the bed again.
Postpartum:
After an hour of observation Ed took me over to the postpartum area of the hospital and I was reunited with Brandon and a hungry baby Veronica.
I spent the next several hours, nursing Veronica, eating snacks, talking on the phone to my parents, posting to the blog, and talking to Lindsey. Lindsey reported that the kids were fine. She also told me that our neighbors had cleaned our whole house. They'd even brought over a wet-dry vacuum and taken care of the spot where the blood had soaked through a towel onto our hall carpet.
Around 12:00 I decided it was about time to try to sleep. I needed to go to the bathroom so I had Brandon call the nurse so she could come help. This would be my first time out of bed since I'd had the baby.
Brandon and the nurse kept telling me to stand slowly, but I kept trying to stand fast. And then I'd have to sit back on the bed. Eventually we made it to the bathroom. The nurse left and I took care of everything.
My memory of what happened next is a little fuzzy. This is what I remember. I was sitting on the toilet and I suddenly I was at a county fair riding a ferris wheel. Brandon says I started leaning over and shaking really bad. I came back to reality, and told Brandon that I felt really weird and he should pull the cord for assistance. So he did that and instantly there was a nurse in the bathroom. I kept going in and out of lucidness and she kept bringing me back by making me smell ammonia.
More people showed up in my room. Brandon helped me into a wheel chair and they moved me over to my bed. My vision was blurry with # shapes. Somehow everyone got me back onto my bed. Once I was laying flat on my back my vision cleared up.
A doctor was in the room and he was ordering more saline to be added quickly to my IV. He also needed my blood drawn. Someone was trying to draw my blood from a vein in my hand. I was crying from that pain, and Brandon was trying to tell them that I am really sensitive about the veins in my hands anyway and to please do it somewhere else.
They stopped trying to get that vein and started prodding me other places to find a vein, but my blood volume was so low they couldn't get a vein to pop up.
Things calmed down for a second for some reason and the doctor started waving his hands around and asking about my vision. Then he started explaining what he was doing to me. He told me all about the pituitary gland behind my eyes and how it reacted to blood loss. Somehow his medical explanations focused my attention enough that whoever was trying to poke me was able to draw blood from the vein in my hand without it hurting me.
The IV fluid helped get me stabilized and so we were able to avoid doing a blood transfusion. The doctor explained all about blood transfusions anyway because it helped keep me calm. Once I was back to normal everyone left and we finally turned off the lights and tried to sleep.
I kept reliving parts of the night as I lay in bed so I turned on the TV to keep my mind occupied. I also nursed and snuggled with Veronica. The nurses checked on me through the night and kept the IV fluids coming. They also helped me to the bathroom twice. By morning I was feeling much better. The doctor came in and said I had color in my face again.
The rest of our hospital stay has been pretty uneventful so I'll save it for another post. I'll just say that we are all doing much better and have enjoyed resting.
Brandon and I have decided we experienced just about every birth situation. We never thought that we'd have personal experience with a C-Section, two V-BACs, a home birth, an epidural, two spinal blocks, a D&C, an ambulance ride, and so on. We were pretty certain we were done with having kids, but now we KNOW we are done. We don't want to know what would be next on our list of things to experience while in labor.
*By the way, I swear I don't do these things to increase my blog traffic. But I don't mind if readership increases as a result of crazy things that happen to me. So feel free to share this with your friends.
