10 lb 2.1 oz, 22 1/4 inches, 1:53 PM, May 5, 2009:
When I went to my appointment on Monday (40 weeks, 1 day), the doctor mentioned that they wanted to put me on the induction list for the next week if I didn’t have the baby during that week. OK, I’m cool with that. They said, “we don’t have any induction openings until at least next Tuesday” so I figured I would have the baby before then anyway. UNTIL… they did a size check, and estimated him to be 10lb 6oz. Boy howdy did the doctors/nurses start burning up the phone lines to the hospital then! They wanted me on the “cancellation list” NOW for an induction. We made it home after the appointment, and sat down to eat… and the phone rang telling me that we would go in the next morning for induction! The hospital was supposed to call between 6 and 8 AM. So, on Tuesday morning at 5:30 AM, our phone rang, and the hospital asked us to be there at 6:45 AM for induction. We had gone to bed at about 12:30…
My parents had come up the night before so they could be with the J-man during the day. They got him dressed and to school while we were at the hospital. They seemed OK with our incredibly specific instructions, although Grammy is often determined to do things the “Grammy way!”
So we got to the hospital, and our awesome doula Elly got there, and they started the saline bag… and we waited… and waited… and finally about 8 AM, the doctor came in and ordered the pitocin and the penicillin (GBS +). (This is the part where I had complained for an hour – I could have SLEPT LONGER!) They hooked up the 2 monitors on my belly, and they kept moving! All this technology, and nobody can come up with monitors better than these?
I started having reasonably painful contractions from the beginning, but they were about 15 minutes apart. They felt weird, though. Instead of coming from back to front, then going down into my pelvis, these were starting in the front, going to the back, and then going down my butt. It was SO WEIRD! When I was induced with the J-man (41 weeks, 2 days) the contractions really didn’t hurt for a couple hours, and even when they did hurt, changing my position to standing completely helped.
I mentioned this to the nurse, and she decided to check positioning – of course while I was having an unpleasant contraction. She looked concerned… (nurses: NEVER do the concerned look on a laboring woman!) and went to get the doctor. The doctor came in with the ultrasound machine… and E had shifted to completely transverse (sideways), from the day before when he was head down!
The doctor called everything right then… she said they simply couldn’t let me labor like that with very little chance of a good outcome. I was all, “Can we cut the pitocin right NOW then?!”
The doctor told Tim to RUN to the car to take all our labor stuff back, and to get my contacts case and glasses… that we would be in the OR at 10:30 AM. It was 9:45 then.
This… was untrue. Our doula stayed with us to the part where they took me to the OR. She talked me down from being so angry/unhappy with my body for not being able to have this baby “the old fashioned way.” I love her…
There were SEVERAL emergencies, and a couple of deliveries… and I finally made it to the OR at about 1:30 PM (more complaining about how I could have slept!). They were very busy, and when I came in, I heard someone say they had 2 more “add-ons” after me, one of which was twins, and everyone groaned.
The anesthesiologist came in and tried the spinal, but must have gotten it wrong because he had to re-poke me. (This will be important later.) They laid me back, and started the process, and I immediately got sick. Always fun to throw up flat on your back. Got some Zofran in my IV, and was OK. Tim came in and sat with me. After major pulling and tugging, they got E out. The doctor said that not only was he transverse, but the cord was wrapped around his neck, so I was the kind of patient that c-sections are really made for. I got to see E just barely as they went by to the anteroom for clean-up and weighing, and Tim went with him. About that time, I got REALLY sick and couldn’t stop throwing up. They gave me Reglan and finally got me stopped. During all this of course, the doctors were still putting me back together. Tim and E came back and we did a little cheek to cheek, then they took E to recovery.
E had low blood sugar (30!) and was given a bottle of formula in the nursery, but really soon after I got to my room from recovery, they brought him (and Tim) in. He was so adorable! And huge! They didn’t even bother with the Newborn sized diapers, and put him into a size 6 months shirt! It was surprising the difference in being on the actual maternity ward, and being in the “overflow patient tower” where we were when the J-man was born. In the OPT, the staff essentially figured we knew what we were doing (they were wrong), and left us alone unless we called… several times. In the maternity “pod” the nurses were always up on everything, and seriously babied us! Us, the parents! It was like they couldn’t do enough for us, and that’s not a bad thing when Mama can’t stand up.
We’re doing pretty well. The second day I ended up having an epidural blood patch because I had a “spinal headache” (because I had that extra hole in the derma mater). Those headaches are AWFUL. I mean, other than that I was recovering so well, but if I sat up, I was almost blinded with the pain. Luckily, the patch went well, and I felt better almost immediately.
My milk came in on that Thursday, and I was so engorged I was having to use a manual pump to be able to pull out my nipple so E could latch. This surprised the heck out of the nurses, who assumed the milk wouldn’t come in for several more days. Now, though, we seem to be in a good rhythm with the nursing. By that I mean, E eats constantly, and I make enough milk for that. The reason I’m pretty sure about that? At our doctor’s appointment on Tuesday for reflux (where E was 2 weeks old) his weight was actually 10lb 9oz!
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Great (if slightly harrowing) story. Thanks for sharing!