My Birth Story

Well I'm a first time mother, and I like to be prepared in any situation that I am thrown into. Including having a child. There are so many ways to mentally prepare yourself for a birth of a child, but you can never really be fully prepared until it happens. Like they say, motherhood comes naturally. I did find comfort in listening to some of my friends birth stores (some of them not so much), so I though I will share mine for the next expecting mother who like to do a little research like me.

First off, my due date was July 29, 2013. When I was 35 weeks a long in my pregnancy the doc took measurements of my baby and said he was 6lbs 12oz. Now that is a good size baby at 35 weeks. So for precaution the doc didn't let me go to 40 weeks, instead induced me 7 days early. That's not to much earlier but hey when we are talking baby the last few weeks is when they gain the most, and I sure as heck did not want to have a 10 pound baby!
The doc set my induction date for July 22, 2013 at 7:30. I had my bags back weeks before. (you never know when the baby will choose to come). When that Monday rolled around, I had my mother in law drive me to St. Francis South Hospital. before we went we had the great idea to go out to eat before hand. I called it the last supper. We went to a nice restaurant and had a good meal, it was going to be the last meal Josh(my baby daddy) and I would have without a child to think about. When we got to the hospital unfortunately they were not ready for me. I think being a full moon that night they just got over packed with moms having their babies. Lol but that's an old wife's tail. They nurse at check in actually asked us if we would come back at 9:00pm. So being that we had a big meal I was happy to go walk around Tulsa. We went to Academy and shopped for the next hour and a half. When 9 o clock rolled around we headed back for the hospital, but had to make a stop at DQ, had to have me something sweet!
Once we got to the hospital and checked into our room (Room number 2 on the 3rd floor of labor and delivery). First thing was first, I had to sign papers says yes you can treat me blah blah blah. Then I had to strip naked and get into one of the hospital's lovely open backed night gowns. The plan was to come in late on Monday and have a cervical ripening pill put in to get me ready to deliver. But being that it was my first time to ever stay in a hospital or have an IV I might have freaked a little. They hooked me up to the baby monitors strapping it around my belly they had to wait for Mr. Grant (my son) to not be so excited before they could do the pill. My heart rate was up so therefore his was too. After about an hour and a half of no luck they decided to start fluids. The nurse said sometimes that can help with the baby calming down.
YAY finally time for my first IV. I was so scared. Luckily I had a great nurse and great veins it only took one time and wasn't so bad. Except for the placement of the IV. In the movies the IV is always on top of the hand, so I was pretty surprised when they put it in my wrist, not a very comfortable spot. It burned for about 30 mins till I got used to it then I forgot all about it. Once they started the fluids I felt like I had to pee every five mins. Thank god Josh was there, he helped so much with unhooking me from the monitor and helping me push the IV machine to the bathroom.PS. Bring something for the baby daddy to do, other wise they will drive you crazy with their lack of patience. EI. Josh brought his Xbox. When he's calm I'm calm. Plus watching him kill people was way better than anything showing on the hospital cable lol.

 Around 11 nothing had happened with the baby, so the nurse gave up on trying the pill. She decided to just go ahead and start the pitocin, I was only dilated to a 1. She started me off with such a low dosage that I didn't feel any contractions. At around three in the morning they bumped it up a little. Oh you better get used to people being all up in your business, they will check for dilation like every two or three hours. By three I was at a two with just the pitocin. Slowly but surely we were making progress. By seven they bumped my dosage up again, and then I could feel the contractions. Nothing I couldn't handle though, they were still irregular but getting stronger over time. I was dilated to a three. By 11 am, my pitocin was bumped up again and man could you feel them now. I finally gave in and asked for some pain meds, I didn't do much research on them as I should have. They gave me a choice I could start my epidural or I could take some stadol. Some people have different opinions about stadol. So you choose what is best for you. I am a wimp and cannot handle pain so I went with the stadol. Now let me tell you some side effects of stadol. Its like being drunk. You get blurred vision, or see doubles and you feel off. It makes you very sleep which I liked. Being heavily medicated I had the great idea just to go to sleep, if I stayed up I might have done or said something and Josh would have made fun of me. I was having a hard time trying not to look drunk, but Josh could see past it by my slurred vision and problems concentrating. But other than the weird feeling you get with this drug it did take the pain away and it did help me rest. When I went to sleep I had weird dreams, and I felt like I was a sleep for three days. When I woke up it took me a min to remember where I was and why I was there. The drug only last for an hour or two so what felt like three days was only 45 mins. Once it wore off I tried to put my big girl panties on and work through he contractions. They were coming every three mins and lasted about 30 seconds. Doesn't seem long but when you are in pain it sucks. They checked me again at 2pm and I was at 4, and I was to the point that I needed more meds. She gave me another shot in the IV of stadol, it did make me sleepy again and it did dull the pain from the contractions but I could still feel them, and they were getting stronger. I couldn't take it anymore. with the stadol still in my system I asked the sure to help me again I needed something more powerful. She suggested the epidural. Now my impression of an epidural is you get it 2 or so hours before giving birth for the fear of it wearing off. So not true. I took my epidural because she explained what would happen, the doc would come in and ask me to lay on my left side. Some docs make you lean forward, but when your contracting like I was being able to lay on your side and pull your legs to your chest help with the contractions while there is a needle in your back. Just my opinion. They will put a needle in your back ( i was on stadol and didn't get to see the needle so the process of putting the epidural in wasn't so bad.). Once they have the needle in he asked me to tell him when I could feel pain and what size it was on, I felt it a little, but it wasn't too bad. Once it is in the right position they will insert a tiny catheter that will be attached to the drug, that is pushed through. So its a constant supply of the epidural. They also gave me a button, if the drip setting were not enough to take the pain away I could press the button and it would give me an instant dosage. I never had to do that the regular setting were enough. Once the epidural was in I was in heaven, I could see on the monitor my contractions and I could feel the top of my belly get really hard when I had one, but there was not any pain! I could wiggle my toes and barley move my legs size to size, but walking was no option. They checked me around 4pm and I was an 6 YAY, getting closer now. We were taking bets as to when I would start pushing, I said around 9pm but I was wrong. I was checked at 6 oclock and went from a 6 to an 8, it was almost time. The nurse wanted to try and help the process get here faster so she attemped to make me change positions and get up on all four doggy style to help the baby get lower into my pelvis. I had no feeling in my legs, and really couldn't control them, I got halfway there just on my side and couldn't lift myself up. Lol the epidural was a funny thing. Once I flipped back around they check me again and at 640 I went from a 8-10. It was time to push. The nurse had me push a few times till she could she some hair on the babies head, then called for the doc. Once he came in I was actively pushing, I pushed for 18mins and Mr. Grant arrived into the world at 6:52pm on July 23, 2013.

Once they sucked his nose and put a hat and weighed him( 8lbs 5oz) they gave him right to me.

 It was the most beautiful thing, I cried and Josh let out a tear(dont tell him I said that). Then I noticed the doc getting sewing stuff, looks like I tore a little. Nothing to worry about. But after 15 mins of him setting down there, I started to worry why it was taking so long. They took the baby away and informed me they were going to bottle feed him since it didn't look like I was going to be done anytime soon. The doc didn't tell us why. He started pushing on my belly and whispering to the nurse. Josh was getting worried to and asked what was happening, by then I started to feel a little strange, and the nurse gave me some oxygen. The doc finally said that I was passing clots, and he was trying to get the bleeding under control. It looks like I started hemorrhaging. Which I found out is very common when you are on pitocen for so long like I did. About 30mins after I gave birth they had slowed the bleeding, but I had lost so much blood that I had to have a blood transfusion.

Now I dont know if it was shock or what but I started hyperventilating. I hate IVs and they were talking about putting another one in. So I asked the nurse why she couldn't just use the one that was already in. I guess they use a different size needle for transfusions. Either way I didn't like the idea of getting stuck again. When I when into panic mode, I couldn't catch my breathe, and my breathing was shallow and I couldn't stop crying. To comfort me the nurse said they wouldn't stick me again they would just try to use the IV that was already in. They started the blood and to my luck after about ten mins my vein was about to rupture. It was very painful. They had to take the IV out and search for a new vein, one that could handle a bigger IV. Now I don't know if the lady that was doing my IV was new at it or if she just really sucked, but she stuck me like five time twice in my left arm and three times in my right. After exploding my vein in my right arm she had to bring in a different nurse, and she had to be supervised from then on.

 It was a terrible experience. Once they got me fixed up, all my family came in to hold baby Grant, I don't know if I was getting overwhelmed again but I had a second panic attack. Everyone then hurried and said there good byes and went home. Because I was not doing to good, my wish to breastfeed right away didn't happen, they took baby Grant to the nursery and bottle fed him. It was around 10 o'clock and Josh and I were finally alone, all our family had come and gone. I was feeling better with one bag of blood down, but the epidural was still in effect and I couldn't walk. The nurse came in and asked me what I wanted to do, either have a catheter put in or try to walk to the bathroom, since my bladder had not been drained since 6:20pm. I didn't want to go through that again, so I waited till I could walk. When they brought baby Grant back, I tried breastfeeding and holding him. But eventually I had the nurse take him back to the nursery, I wasn't able to walk to get him in and out of the bed so it would have been better for someone else to take care of him, plus one more night of sleep was needed.
The next morning they had me change rooms, we went to the other side of the hospital. From then on it was pretty easy I had the baby most of the day I could walk, I was very sore, especially in the sides of my back. I'm  guessing it was from my contractions, that i didn't feel. I got to take a shower eventually, which was amazing, but there is so much pressure still I couldn't stand for very long. After getting help with the lactation nurse I finally decided that breastfeeding wasn't for me, he wouldn't take to me and honestly it hurt really bad. We went to bottle feeding using Similac formula. That was a lot easier for me. His jaundice levels came back and were pretty high but nothing to bad to worry about at the moment. They released us the next morning, and told me I had to come back the next day to do the jaundice test again. Finally we were home bound. This little boy was all mine!