Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Blake's Birth story


I think that I am going to make this story a one part-er.  Not that its not as exciting as Leigha's, but there really wasn't anything too terribly exciting LOL and at this rate, who knows if I would even be able to finish it in a decent time LOL.

At this point in my pregnancy I was just SO UNCOMFORTABLE.  I had bad sciatic pain, and couldn't hardly walk, couldn't breathe, I was SO tired because I couldn't sleep anymore because everything hurt.  I was SO ready to be done being pregnant.

On Wednesday October 30th, I went in for a regular doctor's appointment.  I was scheduled to have an ultrasound so Richard took the morning off work.  The plan was after I dropped Leigha off at his parents, I would meet him at the hospital and he would go to the ultrasound and appointment with me and then would go to work.  I wanted him at the ultrasound because I wanted him to see the baby before we met the baby.

I get to the hospital and Richard had beaten me there and as he comes up to me he realizes that he locked his keys in his work truck.  After several phone calls to his office we decide that he will go to the ultrasound first, then while I'm at my appointment alone, he would go to the office and look for a key to his truck and then come back and give me back my car.

The ultrasound went really well for the most part.  Blake was measuring right on schedule for once...he had been measuring 2 weeks ahead.  I never did get to see a good shot of his face.  The little booger was determined to make us wait until birth before we saw his face, but at least the tech confirmed what I had been suspecting for a while, that he was head down and ready to go.

I started noticing though when the tech was getting her measurements, that there wasn't that much fluid around the baby as I remember there being with Leigha.  I wasn't sure if it was normal or not, so I asked the tech about it.  It was also a fear of mine when the doc scheduled the ultrasound, that there wouldn't be enough fluid and they would have to induce, and she said that it looked low to her, but I needed to ask my doctor.

This makes me nervous, but I was determined to only hear good news.  Richard leaves me there to go in search of keys.   I get my BP, weight check, etc and finally the doctor comes in.  She checks me and there is no change since the previous week.  We discuss at what point she would induce and I told her that I didn't want to go past my due date.  I was miserable and just wanted to be done.  She told me that at my next appointment if I hadn't gone into labor that she would schedule an induction for me.

I ask her about the fluid and told her my thoughts.  She said that the fluid was really low.  That the lowest they like is 6 and mine was at 3.  She asked me if I've been drinking enough water and resting enough.  Of course the answer to both questions is probably not since I have Leigha all day long.  I had told her earlier in the appointment that I didn't want a baby on Halloween, but she tells me that with the fluid as low as it was, she should induce me right away and asks how I felt.  After hearing those words, my fear came true and I started crying, but at that point it was no longer about what I wanted, it was all about him and what he needed to be healthy.  The doctor tells me that she will call the hospital and schedule me for an induction the next morning. 

I text Richard and tell him I'm done with the appointment and that we needed to talk.  He calls and I tell him about the induction that they had scheduled it for 6am the next morning on Halloween due to low fluid.  He immediately calls in to work so that we can get things ready. 

The next morning I got to the hospital at 5am and into a room by 6am.  I was dilated on my own to 2 nearly 3 cm.  They started the IV and pitocin at about 6:15.  Contractions started nearly immediately and were very manageable and didn't hardly feel them at all, I even managed to get an hour nap in at about 8 am surprisingly.

Things were going really well.  They kept coming in to up the amount of pitocin I was getting and to move the fetal heart monitor because Blake kept moving like a crazy man and they kept loosing him.  At this point still the contractions were very manageable, I hardly even felt them.

I opted to get an epidural early because I wanted to have my water broken and I was scared that if they did that, things would go really fast and I didn't really want to experience the intense pain that I had with Leigha again, so I scheduled to get my epidural at 11 and have my water broken about noon.  After getting the epidural the nurses had me lay on my left side.  When they broke my water, I was dilated to a 3, almost a 4.
That's when I started freaking out.  I couldn't hardly feel the contractions before I got the epi and I was scared the induction was going to fail and I was going to have to have a c-section to get him out.  I was bawling my eyes out and just basically pissed at myself.  I felt like the day was being wasted and we had been there FOREVER and nothing was happening and there was nothing I could do about it.  I couldn't stop crying.  I felt helpless and horrible for putting my baby in that position.  And I feel like I failed myself because I couldn't go into labor on my own.  I think I even freaked out the nurse because she asked if I wanted her to call the 'entertainment team" (haha!  I imagine a bunch of clowns from the peds floor or something LOL)

About 1, My brother and his wife brought Leigha by in her Halloween costume which helped to raise my spirits.  They had come to our house that morning to watch Leigha while Richard and I went to the hospital, and since it was Halloween, they dressed her up and took her to Elizabeth's work so she could go trick-or-treating.  When she saw me, she was rather freaked out by the IV's and tubes and wouldn't come to me, but I was just so happy she was there, it was just what i needed to give myself a morale boost.

Anyways,  I laid on my left side till about 2 when the nurse came in to check me, I was at a good 4.  She asked me to roll over on my right side.  Within 15 minutes, the contractions started hurting so badly that I pushed for a booster dose of my epi, and called my nurse and asked why they were hurting so bad.  I was honestly scared that the epidural was wearing off and I was SCARED TO DEATH that I would have to have a natural birth. She checked me and I was at 7 cm.  She said that she could tell on the monitors that I was progressing quickly because of the way that the baby was reacting.   She stayed with me and pushed the booster on the epi again.  Still not really any relief.   At this point my brother (who is an EMT) was watching the contraction monitor and saw the numbers go from a steady 20-40 to sudden spikes of 98's and above.  He never said anything to me, just got Leigha and Elizabeth (his wife) and started to leave.  I never said goodbye because at this point I was hurting so badly that my nurse left the room to get the anesthiologist to increase the epi.

When she was gone they got crazy bad, she came back and because I was reacting so horribly she checked me again and I was complete.  She called someone over the intercom and demanded that they tell my doc to come NOW!!!  We knew that she was in the area, but she wasn't at the hospital yet, and was waiting till she got the call.  My nurse was yelling at the poor woman on the intercom, she wasn't nice about it and very demanding to the poor woman so I knew things were serious.

The anesthesia nurse upped my epi dose and gave me at least 2 doses of narcotics to help boost the epi faster.  (She may have given more, I didn't know) Richard was sitting next to me and told me that she would give me a dose of something and go talk to the nurse (who was still in the room) and tell her that she 'had given me this, this and so much of this, that she didn't want to give me anymore, but she really didn't want me to feel this'.  They finally started to take effect and could no longer feel the pain, but I could tell the contractions were still happening because of the pressure.  There was SO MUCH pressure.  Eventually I couldn't even feel the pressure in my stomach anymore because he was so low, everything that I was feeling was in my pelvis.  At this point I was still lying on my right side and I desperately wanted to roll over because I was facing the wall and monitors and I wanted to roll over to face Richard so that I could focus on him and not computers.  But they didn't even want me to move my legs at all because my nurse was scared that if I did, Blake would come flying out.

Doc showed up at 3:20, they put my feet in the stirrups and he started to crown without me pushing.  After she got her scrubs on I started to push at about 3:32.  Pushed 3 times during one contraction and he was out at 3:34pm.

During all this as Kevin was leaving with Elizabeth and Leigha, my mom was in the room with me and saw that I was progressing really quickly and called them when we kicked her and my mother in law out of the room to have them stay and go to the waiting room instead of taking Leigha back to our house, so the first person in our family to meet Blake (besides Richard and myself) was Leigha.  I had always wanted Leigha to be the first to meet him, so this was an extremely special moment to be only the 4 of us for a few minutes.  Especially since we weren't expecting her to be at the hospital until after I delivered and I called whoever to have them bring her to us.  Then we got the rest of the family to come in an meet him. 

Afterwards it turns out they had given me so many drugs in such large doses so that I wouldn't feel anything that it took about 4-5 hours for the epidural to completely wear off to where they would let me walk unassisted.  And they wouldn't let me move to the postpartum floor until after I could walk.  It had been an exhausting day and Richard and I just wanted to get into a room so I could sleep.  I had been been awake unable to sleep since midnight and I was exhausted.  However we never could get anyone to tell us when that would happen or why we couldn't be taken up in a wheelchair or gurney since I was beginning to get feeling back, I just couldn't walk.  We were finally taken up to a room after 5 hours (in a wheelchair no less) and just moving up 4 floors in the hospital took an hour.

This was a ridiculous hospital stay.  The service was so horrible from taking 2 hours to bring me my pain meds to getting yelled at for pressing the nurses call button to not getting supplies and medications that my doctor prescribed/ordered for me.  It was an infuriating stay and if you know of anyone who will be delivering at St. Thomas Midtown hospital in Nashville (formerly Baptist hospital) please tell them to find someplace else to deliver. 

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

I would like to introduce you to...

Blake Thomas

Blake was born on 10/31/2013 at 3:34 pm.  He weighed 8 lbs, 6 oz and he is 21 inches long. 
He has a HEADFULL of black hair that sticks straight up, and super chubby extremely kissable cheeks.

We are so in love.

Here is a picture of our little Halloween treat.





I will be posting my birth story and more and better pictures as soon as I get it all written and get some more sleep LOL.