David's birth story.

 

I had a very detailed birth plan written and signed off by my doctor. With the disclaimer from my doctor, that if the situation changed, I needed to be open & flexible to the "plan". Well I did get the calm & peaceful birth I desired, even though the outcome was not what we had "planned".  I guess you can say I had to let go & let god be in control.

 

On Wednesday, January 21, 2015 , we left for the hospital at 5:45 am. My husband had called a sedan service to take us there. The day before we had to leave my car at the hospital. It had kind of been a joke the last 2 months of pregnancy, that I might have to take a taxi/sedan to the hospital, if my husband was out snow plowing.

 

It was actually nice to be able to both be relaxed & let someone else drive the 45 minutes to the hospital. When we got to the hospital, we grabbed our bag out of the car, and headed into registration.

I lost it when the registration lady... asked if I knew if I was having a boy or girl. ..

 

We headed up to the second floor, to L&D. Our intention was to get there right at change of shift. 7am. So we would start off with a fresh nurse & hopefully be with the same person all day.  They were expecting us, as we were at the specialist at the hospital the day before. On Tuesday, when we found out we needed to deliver, I asked to go home. I said, I wanted one last night at home as a family. I knew an induction was going to be a long process & wanted a fresh new day to begin it. The doctor from my practice on call Tuesday, made me promise, that "if" my water broke, I come back in right away.

 

When we arrived in L&D we asked for a room out of the way, nurse Nancy, took us to  room 226, but the computer didn't work, so we moved to 225 ( we also delivered Andrew in 225 ) .  225 & 226 are LDR rooms. Which they only use for "specific" births. or to house mom's of twins, ( it's a larger room ). 225 was nice, quiet & peaceful. We also had a room with 2 windows, so we could see when the snow started falling.  Kinda like it is today:

 

 

So once we got settled in the room & got the lovely teal gown on. I ditched the cute birth gown, that I had ordered, just wasn't feeling the "special " gown by this point. I had it in the bag. So yes, I never left the room after this, as the teal beauty, exposed everything!  Since we hadn't seen a doctor yet, I told hubs he should go get some breakfast, so he would be fueled & ready for the day. I had brought some healthy treats, that I could sneak in between nurse visits, like cheese sticks, yogurt & goldfish. Hubs came back with the best smelling bacon & bagel..

 

About 8:30 the on-call doctor from our practice showed up to see us, he had just finished with the morning c-sections. He wanted to get in touch( speak in person) with the specialist, nurse we had been assigned to Linda who would be with us all day, and our doctor G; before he started the induction. He came back around 10am, saying he had just put in ALL the orders for lab work, he wanted those drawn, before we started pitocin. So the game plan was, labs ( 12 vials ) testing all sorts of things, to make sure I don't have any infections, any mysterious things like lupus, RA, etc. He explained that they would do placenta testing after birth, and encourages us to get an autopsy, to see if that further explains anything.  He checked me, I was 2 cm, before he left for the office ( across the street ) he would check back later with the nurse & the nurse would update him during the day.

 

Around 11am I got a saline lock inserted into my right arm. They started an IV drip & slowly started the pitocin drip. I also had a monitor placed on my belly to monitor my contractions. Linda would watch from the nurses station, and pretty much left us alone.. she would slowly increase the pitocin every 30-45 minutes.. The doctor checked me about 1pm at his lunch break, and I was 3cm.. he decided to break my water then. He & the nurse, kept pestering me to get an epidural or accept pain meds. I said  NO!  They couldn't imagine how I was so calm. I explained we took Hypnobirthing & were prepared for any outcome.

 

I really thought they were going to call the psych dept on me. They had the nurse manager come down & talk to me, & explain that my son was dead & that taking pain meds, would help ease the pain.. I politely explained, that I know he does not have a heartbeat, and that I still want to have the birth that I planned on, no medications, I was not in any physical pain, and would just wish, they would respect that.  So finally after explaining this to 4 people, they finally left us alone & let us birth in peace. I sat my nurse down & said, I know I am higher risk & my doctor, and I had a wonderful conversation around week 10.. .. That it was going to be a  long road to week 40; he could not promise us week 40 and a healthy baby, but as long as we did everything they asked, some might not be as easy as others, that we would have no regrets, no matter the outcome.  She still wasn't sold on this thinking..

 

My other reason for not wanting any drugs during birth; I knew our time with David would be counted in minutes & hours, not weeks, months & years. So I wanted to be 100% present during our short time with him. As long as I could bear a short amount of pain, it was all worth it. I credit Hypnobirthing to allowing me to manage my pain & be present also, so if you are pregnant, I highly recommend looking into it.. It's not what you might think it is.  

 

We had the tv on, but no volume, we watched the snow, my husband would fill my water up, I snuck a cheese stick in the afternoon for some energy.. My husband would slip out if he had to talk to his employees.

 

Some time between 3 & 4 pm I had been using the bathroom a LOT, it felt comfortable to sit on the toilet thru contractions. I eventually came back out to the bed and decided to stay standing and sway & lean over a chair during contractions. It helped David move with the gravity. The contractions by now, because of the pitocin, were a minute & half long and I had a 30 second break in between.

 

Shortly after 5pm the nurse was in, adjusting my monitors & I said the 'key' word, I need to have a BM. She let me go sit in the bathroom again, but when nothing happened, I came out & asked her to check me. The last time I was checked I was 3cm. So before she checked me, they switched out the bed I was in, to a L&D bed. ( not as comfortable as the recovery bed ).  So about 5:45 they checked me & she announced that I was 9cm. ( honestly I was probably a 10 ) but the doctor wasn't there, she quickly called out, find out when Dr. D is going to be back. He wasn't going to be back til 6:30pm. She told the other nurse, tell him don't delay. She kept telling me don't push, even if you want to. I just kept breathing thru all the contractions & she turned down the pitocin, so I wasn't having them every 30  seconds.

 

At 6:30pm they were hunting down Dr. D. he arrived in the hospital around 6:36.  So he quietly came in, to check me, and announced I was a 10. He told the nurses ( now Linda & Marty ) to let me start pushing & call him when I crowned. ( my husbands job, was to push the call button ) So we did a practice push, then another practice push to get how they wanted it done.  The first real pushing exercise, Hubs was told to push the call button. We breathed thru the next couple of contractions, while we waited for the doctor to show up. . So when he arrived, he said let me watch you push for a contraction.  He then said, this may sting, he gave me a shot to numb the perinium; and then started cutting. I guess I was getting an episiotomy. He then let me push one more time.. did a little more cutting, and then next push is when david started emerging. I do remember the doctor telling the nurses, who were both holding my knees, to watch the cord, he wanted everyone to watch the cord, for any abnormalities. David was out very quickly.. and then in another 3 minutes the placenta was delivered & then Dr. D started stitching me up. My husband was holding  David during this time.

The only part of the birth I don't remember, is that they had my bed jacked up to a level so the doctor did not have to lean down.. so apparently I was like 5' up in the air.. my hubs, said one nurse was on a step stool & hubs was almost on tip toes.

 

David was born at 7:06pm

 

Once I was able to sit up after stitching hubs passed David to me to hold.

 

We took pictures, with David, we held him, rocked him, weighed him, measured him, took his foot prints. Kissed him, loved on him, held him, and held him. The night nurse Liz picked out an outfit that was handmade to dress him in, got him a hat, that fit his head better.  The nurses brought him a big teddy bear as a gift. She then got the "baptism" kit & brought it in & we baptized him. 

 

We kept David with us in room til 11:30pm. They took him to his cold bed. She said if we woke up & wanted to hold him, she would get him, or we could get him back in the morning. If he stayed out all night with us, he would have started smelling.

 

We slept for about 6 hours that night, and first thing in the morning we asked for David back. Liz went and got him before her shift ended. 

The new doctor saw us about 8am. and asked if we wanted to stay or go home.  We wanted to go home.. She didn't ask me anything else & left.. (she's not a favorite of mine in the practice).

 

The nurse told us to spend as much time with David as we wanted, and she would get my discharge paperwork.  We left about 11am... after spending the rest of the morning with David, just loving on him.. It's the hardest thing to do, but leaving your child.. is not easy...