At my last couple of appointments with the doctor I was having some issues with my blood pressure. It was getting high and my doctor was wanting to watch it closely. The Friday before I was able to get it down again so he allowed me to continue working, but to let them know if I started not feeling good. Well everything was fine until the next Tuesday. I was at school and just didn't feel very good so I went down to the nurse during my break to check it. It was high again so I called the Dr.'s office and they had me come in after school. I was expecting a "stay home from work for the rest of the week" type conversation, but instead I was told we were going to go ahead and induce. I was at 39 1/2 weeks into my pregnancy so he reassured me the baby was fine, but for my own health it would be best. So I called Erin at practice and told him we were having a baby on Wednesday. I was induced with Lukas as well and had a good experience so I wasn't too worried about that.
We woke up early Wednesday morning and took Lukas to my parents' house. We had to be at the hospital by 6:30 to get all checked in. By 7:30 they had my in the bed being monitored. I had actually woke up a couple times through the night with contractions so we knew they had already started. They started me on a slow pitocin drip to move it along. I was dialated to a little past a 2. I was feeling the contractions, but doing fine with them. I had been disappointed in myself with Lukas because I kind of freaked out with the pain of the first one after they broke my water, so I wanted to do better this time. Everyone kept warning me that once I wanted the epidural it would take about 45 minutes to get it so to try and plan ahead. I have never been the woman who wanted to do it naturally to say that I did. I am amazed at those woman actually, but the only issue I have is I'm not a big fan of needles. I hate getting shots of any kind so the thought of a long, thick one in my spine doesn't sound real great.
After a couple of hours, my blood pressure was still very high and so we thought maybe the epidural medicine would help bring that down. At 10:45 the anesthesiologist came to do the shot. After being poked on 5 or 6 times with the numbing needle and the epidural itself, he thought he got it. I did not handle this well. I just kept telling myself it would be fine once he was done, but I couldn't hold back the tears. I'm not sure if it was really the pain from the needles or just the thought and fear of him continuously putting needles in my spine. The poor guy felt awful, but we thought we had it. My legs started numbing and I was feeling a little relief.
The relief lasted about 30 minutes, then the contractions started getting stronger. I knew that once they broke my water they would get worse. I asked if there was anything we could do to take the edge off a little, like increase the medicine. My nurse called the anesthesiologist to check and he recommended getting it redone. I WANTED NO PART OF THAT!
At noon my doctor came to break my water. He said I was at a 4. I was starting to worry a little about how I was going to handle the pain for 6 more centimeters. Like I expected the contractions grew and were coming quickly. I needed something different. I just wanted to get up, but of course since I had the epidual (kind of) I could not walk around. My legs were numb, but everything in my midsection and uterus was being felt full force. They called someone to come and fix my epidural. When she got there she wanted to try a couple things first. They checked me again and in the 15 mintutes that had passed I was at a 7. Since I was starting to dialate so quickly, that was probably causing the sudden increase of pain. I was trying to focus on anything but the contractions. My husband was doing an amazing job of trying to just keep me calm and getting through it. I can not imagine going through all of this without him.
They called the doctor and told him I was moving quickly so he came back over to the hospital. He came in and checked on me and then went to get changed. I was about at my breaking point and just wanted it all to stop. Luckily when the doctor came back in the room he said I was fully dialated and we were ready to have this baby. I had to get through one more contraction while they got the bed ready. It took one push and our beautiful healthy baby boy was here! His official birth time of 12:40 p.m. Seeing him made all of the pain worth it. It all disappeared and nothing mattered anymore other than holding our precious little man and looking into his eyes.
I thank God for the blessing that Lawson is. He gave me the strength to get through it and the support from Erin to help. It was an amazing experience even though it didn't go as I had expected, but I'm sure they never do.
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