After such a traumatic first pregnancy (see previous blogs if you want to read more about that), I welcomed an easy pregnancy. My first 36 weeks were awesome with no complications and I felt great and excited to be having a little boy. He was very very active and it was so fun to see my belly move all over and think about what he would be like after he was born. At 36 weeks I was diagnosed with gestational hypertension and put on bed rest for a week. After that I was put on blood pressure medication and told to rest as much as possible. I was also scheduled for an induction at 39 weeks due to my high blood pressure as they were afraid it would develop into pre-eclampsia. I loved my doctors and especially my nurse practitioner who took such great care of me and went out of their way to make sure I was feeling good about everything.
I was so excited but very nervous about my induction and honestly never thought I would make it all the way to 39 weeks. I began having contractions around 34 weeks and thought surely this little man would come early like my first baby did. But he was snug and happy in my tummy and waited till my scheduled date.
On August 25th, Hubby and I went to the hospital early at 7am. They started me on some creams and I already was having contractions but they were not strong or frequent enough. Twelve hours later I was having more contractions but had not progressed much so they started me on another induction form called cervadil. Within the first hour my contractions became harder and more regular and continued through the night. It was a long night but in the morning when they checked me I had only progressed to a 3 and 80% effaced (I came in at a 1 and 70%) but the nurses and doctors kept mentioning how high the babies head was and it did not seem to be coming down. The next step was patocin. Soon after the patocin my contractions increased greatly and the pain was pretty bad. Around noon I got my epidural and was at a 4-5 and was feeling like things might go quickly. The nurses started getting things ready for delivery and I called my mom and sister who came right away. I was feeling excited that it might be getting close. They had me on oxygen as my hard contractions were causing the babies heart beat to go down which was making me nervous so I was anxious to give birth. They checked me a couple hours later but I had not progressed at all. Another couple hours went by and I still had not progressed. The babies heart beat was worrying the nurses so they stopped the patocin and let the baby rest. During this time my epidural began wearing off. I got some more medicine but again a few hours later it wore off. I got some more. Then it wore off. Around 10pm they checked me and I was dilated to a 6 but again the baby's head was very high up. I was getting tired as my epidural again began to wear off and I began to have extremely painful back labor. The pain was the worse pain I have ever had in my life.I was crying and yelling (something I had rarely done with all the medical experiences I have had). Soon they came and gave me more epidural medicine. Then the shakes began. I was shaking uncontrollably and my jaw was chattering. I had these shakes during labor with Sofie but they did not last too long. With this labor they did not let up. For about an hour I fought the shakes trying to breath rhythmically to calm my jaw as my jaw, neck, and shoulders were getting sore from shaking so much. I could not get rid of them for more than a minute here and there. At midnight the doctor came in and I told her I did not know how much more I could take. I had not progressed and the baby's head was still high and it had been 40 hour of labor! The doctor said that due to my physical state and that I was not progressing and the babies heart rate was not handling contractions, they wanted to do a c-section. I agreed and within minutes they were wheeling me into the operating room.
As they laid me down for surgery I was still shaking and became very nauseated. I began vomiting violently for several minutes. Soon after I was done and they had cleaned me up they began surgery. I don't remember much after this except at the end where I could tell that something was urgent as there was a lot of things happening quickly and I could hear heartbeats slowing. Within seconds I saw them hold up my baby boy and heard his sweet cry. I saw him for a quick second here and there but was so physically exhausted and still shaking that I could not keep my body awake. I was sad and still am that I have very few memories of those first minutes of my baby boy's life but luckily Hubby was there and can fill in the blanks for me.
My baby is beautiful and worth every second of my labor and delivery. He is my new love. Later that day I began realizing the pain that comes with a c-section but had my hubby by my side all day and night. The doctor was afraid that she had nicked my ureter so I had a couple extra tests which were painful and uncomfortable but luckily everything came back ok. Unfortunately, my placenta came back testing postive for strep B so my little man had to have antibiotics and was also hypoglycemic. Thank goodness for good medicine and good healthcare professionals.
On Friday morning we received a very sad call that my Hubby's grandfather had passed away in Mexico. It was very emotional for him and me and we decided that it was important for him to go to Mexico for the funeral. It was heartbreaking to say goodbye to him that morning as I knew that meant several days of me and baby alone as my mom had Sofie and my sister was out of town. It was also hard to know he was going to the funeral and that I would not be able to go and be with him during that hard time. After lots of tears my Hubby left. The next couple days were more difficult than I would have liked but I had lots of good nurses and was blessed with lots of special moments with my baby Sam that I will never forget. My mom spent some time with me and one of my good friends came and kept me company (which I was SO grateful for). I was so happy to come home on Sunday evening with my baby boy and soon after Hubby came back from Mexico.
I am so grateful for my family and for great medical professionals. I am recovering well and love spending time with my baby boy and little girl. I am so blessed and am reminded again what a miracle babies are. They bring with them the light of Heaven and I have truly felt it in those quiet moments as I look into my babies face.
