Sunday, April 13, 2008
New look
I wanted something a little lighter so I thought I would try my hand at a redesign. You like?
seven+1
Seven weeks and 1 day ago I was in a hospital asking a nurse to take me to go see my son.
It all started seven weeks and 3 days ago. I was just about 36 weeks pregnant and had been having an interesting week. 3 weeks prior I had started having contractions and been put on bed rest for 2 weeks. So it was my first week off bed rest and I was uncomfortable. Yes, I was 36 weeks pregnant so that was to be expected, but it was more than that. I had gained about 10 lbs in two days - my hands were so swollen I couldn't make a fist. I called the Dr and they wanted me to come in and have some blood work done. On Thursday that week I went in to see if the blood work they had ordered turned anything up. My regular OB was gone that afternoon and so I was seeing someone else in the practice. She did a quick exam, asked me why I was in and looked at my chart.
Then she looked up at me and said "Huh, these numbers aren't good. We need to send you to Labor and Delivery right now. I think you'll be having a baby today."
Um, what? I asked if I could go home and you know, make arrangements for Will, get my labor bag, get my husband stuff like that. No no, I had to go over right away and I was lucky she was letting me walk and not sending me in a wheelchair. Apparently, my liver and kidney's had stopped functioning properly and I had developed HELLP syndrome. (which is a little like pre-eclampsia gone bad) I wasn't sure what that meant and didn't have access to a computer to find out. In retrospect I'm glad I didn't because it's some scary shit and I think I would have been a lot less calm if I had more details. So I called Dan, told him they were going to induce me in the morning and could he take Will to his parents and pack up my bag for me? I had a list of all the stuff that I wanted to have there but none of it was really together. He was a rock star though and brought me everything I wanted.
So there I was Thursday night. I knew something was wrong but didn't really understand what. And, I knew I was going to be having a baby in the morning.
They gave me an Ambien to help me sleep - I think that was the last time I've slept more than 4 hours.
Friday morning rolled around and they started me with Pitocin in an IV to get labor started. They also started me on and IV of Magnesium Sulfate that they told me was due to the HELLP syndrome and was supposed to prevent me from having the seizures that can sometimes be associated with this. The told me it was going to make me feel like shit (and WOW did it ever) but you know, better than seizures, right?
My contractions got pretty strong with the Pitocin right away. They gave me an IV of something for the pain that was delightfully fuzzy. But then they decided that the contractions weren't productive enough and they broke my water. That made the delightfully fuzzy go away and my contractions started coming really fast - sometimes starting before the last one had really ended.
I know it's not the choice for everyone, but I was all about the epidural. I knew I was going to want one coming into this whole process so I thought now seemed like a good time. Ahh, it was bliss. However, it made my blood pressure drop dangerously fast and there was a good hour in there that I don't really remember where they were bringing it back up. But then, blood pressure up, no more pain...time for a nap!
I woke up about an hour later and was in pain. The last time they had checked me I was only about 5 cm dilated so I still had 5 to go. And it had taken me a while to get to those 5 so everyone was thinking this was going to take a while. But when I woke up from my nap I howdy there was the pain and I felt a lot of pressure, like I had to push. Dan went and got someone because my epidural was no longer working...at all. Well, that's not totally true. The outside of my thighs were numb. We all went back and forth on this point for a while with them trying to convince me that I just needed to adjust how I was sitting. Nope, pretty sure this is not how it was supposed to feel having done this once already with Will. So I made them check me and low and behold everyone was surprised (but me at this point) that the baby was crowning and he was coming. Now. Without the epidural. Without any other assistance, he was ready to come.
Dan tells me they didn't even finish getting everything ready before he came. The doctor made it down and we didn't have to push for too long. I had totally natural childbirth and was a little unprepared for that - but honestly, felt a little bad-ass having done it. He was here, our little Henry John.
And then, things started to get interesting and the next part of our adventure began. I'll try and post part 2 soon.
It all started seven weeks and 3 days ago. I was just about 36 weeks pregnant and had been having an interesting week. 3 weeks prior I had started having contractions and been put on bed rest for 2 weeks. So it was my first week off bed rest and I was uncomfortable. Yes, I was 36 weeks pregnant so that was to be expected, but it was more than that. I had gained about 10 lbs in two days - my hands were so swollen I couldn't make a fist. I called the Dr and they wanted me to come in and have some blood work done. On Thursday that week I went in to see if the blood work they had ordered turned anything up. My regular OB was gone that afternoon and so I was seeing someone else in the practice. She did a quick exam, asked me why I was in and looked at my chart.
Then she looked up at me and said "Huh, these numbers aren't good. We need to send you to Labor and Delivery right now. I think you'll be having a baby today."
Um, what? I asked if I could go home and you know, make arrangements for Will, get my labor bag, get my husband stuff like that. No no, I had to go over right away and I was lucky she was letting me walk and not sending me in a wheelchair. Apparently, my liver and kidney's had stopped functioning properly and I had developed HELLP syndrome. (which is a little like pre-eclampsia gone bad) I wasn't sure what that meant and didn't have access to a computer to find out. In retrospect I'm glad I didn't because it's some scary shit and I think I would have been a lot less calm if I had more details. So I called Dan, told him they were going to induce me in the morning and could he take Will to his parents and pack up my bag for me? I had a list of all the stuff that I wanted to have there but none of it was really together. He was a rock star though and brought me everything I wanted.
So there I was Thursday night. I knew something was wrong but didn't really understand what. And, I knew I was going to be having a baby in the morning.
They gave me an Ambien to help me sleep - I think that was the last time I've slept more than 4 hours.
Friday morning rolled around and they started me with Pitocin in an IV to get labor started. They also started me on and IV of Magnesium Sulfate that they told me was due to the HELLP syndrome and was supposed to prevent me from having the seizures that can sometimes be associated with this. The told me it was going to make me feel like shit (and WOW did it ever) but you know, better than seizures, right?
My contractions got pretty strong with the Pitocin right away. They gave me an IV of something for the pain that was delightfully fuzzy. But then they decided that the contractions weren't productive enough and they broke my water. That made the delightfully fuzzy go away and my contractions started coming really fast - sometimes starting before the last one had really ended.
I know it's not the choice for everyone, but I was all about the epidural. I knew I was going to want one coming into this whole process so I thought now seemed like a good time. Ahh, it was bliss. However, it made my blood pressure drop dangerously fast and there was a good hour in there that I don't really remember where they were bringing it back up. But then, blood pressure up, no more pain...time for a nap!
I woke up about an hour later and was in pain. The last time they had checked me I was only about 5 cm dilated so I still had 5 to go. And it had taken me a while to get to those 5 so everyone was thinking this was going to take a while. But when I woke up from my nap I howdy there was the pain and I felt a lot of pressure, like I had to push. Dan went and got someone because my epidural was no longer working...at all. Well, that's not totally true. The outside of my thighs were numb. We all went back and forth on this point for a while with them trying to convince me that I just needed to adjust how I was sitting. Nope, pretty sure this is not how it was supposed to feel having done this once already with Will. So I made them check me and low and behold everyone was surprised (but me at this point) that the baby was crowning and he was coming. Now. Without the epidural. Without any other assistance, he was ready to come.
Dan tells me they didn't even finish getting everything ready before he came. The doctor made it down and we didn't have to push for too long. I had totally natural childbirth and was a little unprepared for that - but honestly, felt a little bad-ass having done it. He was here, our little Henry John.
And then, things started to get interesting and the next part of our adventure began. I'll try and post part 2 soon.
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