Well, after an excrutiatingly loooong 6 days in the hospital, we are healthy and home. Some people have heard the story from the beginning, but most of you have not, so I'm going to start there. This is a long story, so if you have to pee, do it now ;-)
Monday, we were informed by the doctor that he would be inducing me Tuesday morning at 9am. He said we were going to start slowly because my body wasn't even close to being ready yet. So, Tony and I tried to make Monday go by as quickly as possible and went to sleep praying for a quick night. The following morning we headed to the hospital.
Once at the hospital, we were taken to our room and I was admitted. At about 10 or 10:30 one of my doctors came in and administered Cervadil - a gel that gets applied to the cervix to start softening it. Let me tell you: that HURT, but it wasn't too bad.
Well, you have to sit in bed for 2 hours without getting up to let the gel sit on your cervix or else it'll all just come back out. And then, it's supposed to work for a total of 6 hours. I felt nothing but maybe some minor cramps towards the end of the sixth hour. Oh, and I couldn't eat the entire time I had this medication in me and I hadn't eaten since 5:30 that morning.
After this medication, they were planning on trying one called Prevadil. This one is like a coffee stirrer stick (that's how it was explained to me) that is inserted and must touch the opening of the cervix. The doctor who administered this one was an older woman who apparently felt it was necessary to insert her ENTIRE hand inside me to check my cervix and then AGAIN to insert the medication that happened to feel like a very sharp knife. I haven't cried like that in a long time - that's how badly it hurt. She apologized repeatedly that she didn't mean to hurt me, and I figured that wasn't part of the plan, but I couldn't stop the tears. At least they told me that I could eat once this was inserted.
Well, shortly thereafter I started cramping up - nothing too bad, just like bad period cramps. Thankfully, because I was allowed to eat, Tony was nice enough to go and get me a pizza for dinner. Since my body had made NO progress past like a finger-tip's worth of dialation, the word c-section had already been uttered and I wanted my last meal to be good.
While this was going on, they also had to start administering antibiotics to me because I am positive for GBS - a bacteria commonly found in 25% of women that can cause illness/complications in newborns. Well, I'm already a big baby when it comes to needles and I wasn't happy that they had started the IV shortly after I had arrived. It was in the top of my right hand and hurt. I was retaining so much fluid that it was a little on the difficult side to find my veins. Well, when the nurse started allowing the antibiotic and saline solution to flow in my IV, the back of my hand started to burn really bad and get puffy. Turns out, the IV wasn't in my vein at all and the medication was just going under my skin on my hand. They turned off the IV and called for someone else to come and start a new IV on my other hand - this time on the side of my wrist.
Well, the crampy contractions continued through the entire night - I could feel my entire abdomen tighten and release every 2-3 minutes but it wasn't crazy painful, however it did make sleeping pretty much impossible. I think I slept for like half hour increments. The medication was to stay in for 12 hours and that block of time was up at like 5 in the morning. The nurse was nice enough to take it out right on time and that was much less painful than the insertion.
My doctor who was out skiing all day Tuesday, came in Wednesday morning to check and see if I had made any progress after 18 hours of induction medications. Nope, I was still about 1 cm dialated. He decided to start the pitocin drip at about 8:00 am with the intentions of checking me again at lunch time to see if it was helping at all.
This was the part I dreaded the most. I have heard NOTHING good about pit drips and the contractions that they cause. Well, they started the IV drip and within maybe half an hour or so my contractions got a little stronger, but still nothing serious. They just became a little more regular and lasted a little longer. There were even times when I didn't feel them at all. I figured that couldn't be good - how could they be dialating my cervix if I couldn't even feel them??
Well, we had an AMAZING nurse who had actually taught our childbirth education classes and she started talking to me about what she thought our options were going to be when the doctor came back in to check me. She said that he was contemplating 1) having me go through the cycle again: Cervadil, Prevadil and Pitocin and seeing where that left us the next day. 2) if I was making progress, continuing the Pitocin drip, but increasing the dosage more frequently than the every 30 min they had been using or 3) Calling it quits and having a C-section. Needless to say, I was PRAYING that I had made leaps and bounds since that morning, but I wasn't holding my breath. By the time the doctor would be in to check me, I would have been in labor for about 18 hours and was exhausted. The idea of doing it for another day truly scared me. I mean, what if I did progress and then was too tired to push her out? Then I would need an emergency C-section which is even worse than a planned one. Both of our sets of parents had taken off work to come and wait in the hospital because we weren't going to know what was going on until the doctor came in at lunch time.
Well, the long-awaited moment came and in walked the doctor. He checked me, and I had made no progress. I was still 1cm dialated and 60% effaced. We started talking about the two options - restarting the cycle of medication or scheduling a c-section. I asked him what was to say that we wouldn't be in the same situation the following day or worse, that I would be too tired to push? He said that he was afraid of that too, but there was no way of telling. We completely understood that and knew he was just being truthful with us and we appreciated it. So, Tony asked him if we could have a minute to talk about it and he left us alone. Tony told me that he couldn't make this decision for me, but he supported me either way. The idea of a section scared me, but I was more scared of an emergency one or for Anna to go into distress after another 24 hours of contractions - that would have been 32 hours of labor. We decided to go for the C-Section to be safe and have everything over with. Tony went out and told the doctor and he told us that it could be as soon as 2:30 (it was currently 1:30ish) or as late as after 5. We said we didn't care, just let us know where and when to be ready! Tony went to the waiting room and told our parents to come to our room so we could give them an update. Then I told them we were going in for the section. My mom started to cry but we all kinda knew it was the lesser of evils. While we were all talking, the nurse came in and said "They're ready for us NOW, let's go!" Apparently there was a gap in the schedule and they were going to take advantage of it.
I was kinda glad - the thought of sitting there thinking about it for another 4 hours was intimidating. So I signed the consent forms: having surgery by my doctor, allowing Tony in the OR and the formality of accepting blood if I were to need it. We went up to pre-op and talked with the doctor who would be administering my Spinal Block and he told us that if it didn't work properly they would have to put me out completely. Ok.. I can handle this.
They found a pair of scrubs for Tony to wear - let me tell you, Kodak moment and I totally wish I had had a camera up there, he was adorable! They then wheeled me back to the OR. I was trying to not get nervous and I really didn't have time to think. They slid me over onto the table and had me sit up and lean forward with my gown open. The spinal didn't really hurt at all, but let me tell you, it was the weirdest feeling ever when he was pushing the catheter into my back. They had me lie down on the table and my legs immediately started to get warm and tingly. They started swabbing my belly which was also going numb, but I could still feel it. Next thing I knew, the doctor was asking me if I could feel him pinching me - ha, I didn't feel ANYTHING! Then they brought Tony in and started the surgery.
At 2:45pm on Wednesday, March 4, 2009 our little girl came into the world. The words out of the doctor's mouth before he lifted her out were "Well kids, you made a good choice, this kid's a horse!" And all I could think as they took her to the warming table was "Oh, my God, she's huge!" Her cry was the most wonderful thing to hear and Tony was actually able to stand up and watch her be pulled out. After they had Anna wiped off, they brought her over and laid her next to my face so I could see her and give her a kiss. She promptly pulled out my oxygen tube from my nose. :)
At that time, the nurse, Tony, the pediatrician and Anna were ushered out of the room and went down to the nursery to take care of Anna. Once they were gone, I remember hearing the doctor telling someone to order some blood incase I would need it and saying that I had a boggy uterus - it wasn't contracting back down, it was staying squishy and was bleeding. I could feel the tugging and pounding on my insides and the doctor actually asked for one of the othe OB's to come into the OR to give his opinion of what to do. I remember watching my blood pressure drop to about 53/37 and thinking, "Wow, didn't realize that bloodpressure went down that low" and thinking that I still felt fine. They kept asking if I was ok, and I kept telling them yes. Then my doctor leaned over the drape and told me that my uterus wasn't clamping down and that they might have to do a hysterectomy to stop the bleeding. All I said was "OK". I really didn't comprehend just how serious the situation was at the time. All I remember thinking was "Anna will be an only child, the only grandchild, crazy spoiled and I don't have to worry about birth control anymore" But I was still calm. I remember also asking if my husband was aware of what was going on. I was told that my doctor had actually gone downstairs and told him.
About an hour after Anna was born, they finally got the bleeding to stop and were able to staple me closed. (Grossest thing ever: To hear a staple gun and feel the tugging in your abdomen where you KNOW they are stapling you)
I was then wheeled into recovery and was told that I was going to be receiving blood to replace some of what was lost. After about 15 more minutes, Tony, the nurse and Anna were by my side and it was a little emotional. Tony had been downstairs rocking with Anna praying that he wouldn't lose me. Thankfully, God listened. Anna is beautiful and perfect in every way and we couldn't be more blessed. I still don't think I will ever understand JUST how serious it all got. We have thanked our doctors repeatedly for saving my life, but Thank You is only so much.
My doctor has since told me that while they were trying to stop the bleeding they had to do some funky things and my fallopian tubes may have been made smaller which makes me a higher risk for ectopic pregnancy the next time around and they may have even accidentally closed them. But in the doctor's words, I still have the house to hold the baby, we'd just have to get pregnant in a less-traditional way. I'm not sure what we'll do... but I do know that we have an angel and couldn't be happier.
