I can't believe it has been a year since Wyatt came into my world. He has made everyone he knows so happy. But I think his Mommy still loves him best! (Just don't tell Daddy, PaPaw or Grami!) He has had a wonderful Birthday and got to spend some great time with lots of people who love him. We are so blessed to have such great friends and family. I thought I'd be a little nostalgic today and post my birthstory that I wrote for the internet pregnancy board I live on. (Love all my internet friends too) So here it is:
Well it all started normally enough when I went in to get cervadil on Monday the 1st of August. After the cervadil was inserted I started having regular contractions that worsened all night long. At 4 in the morning my water broke on it’s own and we started some pretty good labor. I was 2 cm. dialated when they checked me at 4a.m. and the nurse decided to go ahead with the Pitocin. By 8:30 I couldn’t take the contractions anymore. I was dilated to a 3 and 90% effaced so they offered me narcotics. I had, up until that moment, been completely against the use of narcotics during my delivery but I was in such pain I decided to go ahead and try them out. Luckily I already had my hep lock in and was getting fluid with my pitocin so they gave me a shot of stadol and it worked wonderfully. It took the edge off and I could sleep for the minutes in between my contractions.
That relief lasted for about an hour but by 9:30 a.m. I couldn’t take it anymore. The nurses called for my epidural and the anesthesiologist came and began the procedure. It took him an hour and a half to find the right place in my back. 4 needles went in. All during this I was contracting. Luckily, he had the forethought to give me another dose of narcotic so I could concentrate and relax. I was lucky to even get my epidural because the Doctor who did it said he was the one they called when they couldn’t find the right spot in other patients. And boy did he have a rough time of it!! He told me then that I had a 50/50 chance of getting a spinal headache after delivery because of how messy my epidural had been. (That had been one of my biggest fears about getting an epidural so I wasn’t pleased)
After the epidural my contractions were very bearable and I sat around until about 4:30 when I had this overwhelming urge to push. I told the nurse this and she checked me but said I was at a 9 and to breath thru them. So for two hours I breathed thru contractions that were killing me and making me want to push. My doctor had come in and checked me about 5:30 and I was a 10 with a lip. So she wanted me to try and let the lip open. It never did. So around 6:20 or so she put her hand in and held the lip out of the way and I started pushing. I pushed the baby past the lip in about 30 minutes. After that I pushed and pushed and pushed until I couldn’t do it anymore. I was exhausted. My epidural had worn off and the boluses that the anesthesiologists were giving me to help weren’t touching my pain at all. I could tell the baby wasn’t moving and it was really discouraging. I knew I was making no progress. About 8:00 my doctor told me we were going to have to either deliver by forceps or by c-section because the baby couldn’t take it anymore and neither could I. I agreed to try the forceps. I was very scared. She put the forceps in and with some major pushing and pulling we got his head out and I pushed the rest of the way. Wyatt was born at 8:19 on August 2nd, 8 lbs 1oz and 19 ½ inches long. At that time I was so relieved to have him out of me I barely looked at him. He was perfect and scored well on his apgars. They gave him to me and I didn’t even notice the doctor was still working on me. I finally asked the doctor if I had torn and she said yes. Well I started blacking out and all I heard was I can’t find the other artery. I need more gauze. Then I don’t really remember much except that they took the baby from me and I couldn’t hear anything anymore. I found out later that I had 3 ruptured arteries and lost a liter of blood. My doctor sewed on me for 2 ½ hours and was still having trouble getting the bleeding to stop. My blood pressure dropped from 150 / 80 to 70 / 30 and they were trying to keep me alive. They did a good job of this and I came back around much later to witness the end of the doctor stitching me up. My hemoglobin level dropped from 12 to a 5 and they had to give me 2 units of blood that night. The next day my hemoglobin level was only at 8 so they decided to give me 2 more units of blood. I thought this would be the worst of it and that I’d get to go home on Friday. We did get to go home Friday but I hadn’t seen the end yet.
When we got home on Friday my legs became so swollen my ankles couldn’t even bend. So my Mom took me back to the emergency room. The doctor there (he must of have been 75) told me that I just had fluid from the delivery and gave me a lasix and told me to go home and keep my feet up. Well that night I developed some major pain and congestion in my chest. I couldn’t even lay down it hurt so badly. Plus I had the spinal headache that had developed the day after delivery and I was in major pain. By Monday morning I couldn’t take it anymore and after we took Wyatt to the pediatrician we went to my doctor. She was very concerned and sent me straight to the hospital. I went in by myself because I didn’t want Wyatt exposed to the hospital and risk him getting sick so I sent him home with my Mom. That was really scary. They checked me in at the hospital, did Chest x-rays and started breathing treatments and took some blood and vitals. (my blood pressure was really high). My doctor thought I might have developed pre-eclampsia after delivery, which is rare but happens so I was preparing myself for that. When she finally came in with all my lab and test results I was completely not prepared to here I was in heart failure. It’s called postpartum myocardial apathy. Basically my heart couldn’t pump the fluid out of my body anymore because there was so much put in. It just gave up and let it build up. I had fluid on my lungs, and fluid everywhere else. I had to take a major dose of lasix and I was so afraid I was going to have to stay in the hospital overnight again without my baby!! I cried and cried. You aren’t supposed to hear you have heart failure when you are 26 years old!! Well the lasix did the trick and I got most of the fluid off my lungs so the doctor let me go home late that night. So far my heart has kept the fluid off my lungs like a trooper!
But I know now the correct answer to forcep or csection (for me) will always be Csection!
Looking back I would do it over again everyday for my favorite person!! I never knew I could love somebody this much!! So here is a pic of my baby a year ago and then one from today! My how he has grown!
