For those of you who've been wanting the details...
We went to the hospital around 9:00 a.m. Monday morning (the 22nd) and I slowly but surely dilated about a centimeter every two hours. Around 1:00 the doctor broke my water, at which point the contractions definitely started coming on stronger. By 3:00 I was ready for the epidural, thank goodness for modern medicine. :) Unfortunately, the side effect of the epidural was nausea... not fun, but luckily I was only on liquids!! At 11:30, after over 14 hours of labor, I was finally completely dilated and fully effaced and we were ready to bring this baby here!! Unfortunately, Jacob was posterior and the doctor was unable to get him turned. He could have been delivered this way, but then as I continued pushing, his heart rate started dropping with each contraction. After 2 hours of pushing and not much progress, the doctor advised our little boy was under too much stress and that a c-section was probably the best option. We decided to try pushing for another half hour, and he only seemed to get worse, so after lots of tears, we decided we needed to do the c-section.
My amazing support, all suited up for the c-section
Vaka went with Jacob when they took him down to the nursery, but I was in the operating room another 30 minutes by myself. My family had come to the hospital about the time I started pushing, so luckily my mom was able to be with me once they took me to recovery for another hour while Vaka was with Jacob. I don't think I would have made it without her there!! For some reason, due to either a lapse in communication or preparation, after the c-section the anesthesiologist stopped the epidural before the morphine had been prepared. So basically, I had just had my abdomen cut open and was left without pain medication for an hour until it was ready. AWESOME. After that kind of pain, I think a normal, vaginal delivery without an epidural would have been a piece of cake.
They wouldn't move me down to my room until my pain was under control, and I couldn't see my baby until I was out of labor and delivery and down in my room. 2 hours after my baby boy was born, I was finally able to be moved to where I could hold him and love him... and then he wasn't there. I immediately demanded that Vaka go and get him because they had had more than enough time to take care of him in the nursery. Vaka thinks I was drugged and loopy, I think I would have been just as demanding if I hadn't been, and I'm sure any other mom can relate!!
Our little family finally together
4 comments:
Glad he arrived safe and sound through all of that. You can thank Eve for all the fun you got to have during pregnancy and birth. :-) Aubrey was posterior as well - I think it's an indicator that Jacob will have a mind of his own starting with day one!
We hope to see him SOON!
Sorry to hear you had such a hard time with the labor and delivery. But glad you and the baby are both doing well and hope the recovery comes quickly also! He's a cutie!
I had to have an emergency c-section, too, and yes, there were a lot of tears in my case too! And I can completely relate to not getting to hold your child for so long because I didn't get to hold my son until three hrs after he was born. Not fun! Congrats again!
Congratulations, congratulations, congratulations. Few things in this world make me feel more inadequate as a human being than witnessing the sweet sacrifice of a new mother. Everything a man does in an entire lifetime seems to pale in comparison to what women accomplish in just a few short (okay, not so short) hours of labor. His entire life, Jacob will dream of you and wonder about the sacrifices you have made for him, and wonder about the miraculous power of moms. Congratulations again.
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