Ok so back up to last weekend where this whole story gets juicy. I vented that my doctor wouldn’t see me because I was late to my routine appointment on Friday (30 July); I really felt like I needed to be seen since I had a headache and had been having contractions since Thursday night. I toughed it out Friday. I went to get my blood pressure checked at a pharmacy just to be sure, it was up a little but nothing too bad. By Saturday afternoon my headache was much worse, to the point I couldn’t stand it, so I went to Labor & Delivery to be monitored. They confirmed the contractions, my BP was up to 145/90 ish, and my headache hadn’t responded to any medicine. My BP ended up leveling out safely, and all the labs came back that I didn’t have pre-eclampsia so they sent me home. Monday (2 Aug) I had a routine appointment at the OB clinic, but while we were on our way there, a doctor from L&D called and asked me to come to the hospital instead to follow up so we went at 9:15AM. I STILL had the headache at this point, and my BPs were up to 150/90 and very irregular. They repeated labs and after a couple hours ended up releasing me with a med to try for my headache. Shortly after releasing me, they called back and said the attending OB on call reviewed my case and wanted to monitor me some more. I went to the pharmacy to get the med, took them, and waited… head still pounding. I asked if we could go grab some lunch and they said yes but be back it in an hour. We got back, no change in headache. I was frustrated and wanted to go home, but after about another hour they came and said they were admitting me, going to repeat my labs AGAIN and start the induction process. I was a little shocked because they said just 3 days earlier that I didn’t have pre-e. Well the last labs confirmed I did. They wanted to start me on magnesium before it got any worse and wanted Jaydon delivered in 24 hours. So around 3:30PM Monday, I was admitted and started on IV mag. Within 30 minutes my entire bed was soaking with sweat. My reflexes were going nuts, so they had a bunch of doctors monitoring me closely for other pre-e signs. They were going to start me on an internal med, but they checked me and I was already 90% effaced and 1cm dilated on my own, so they ended up just starting Pitocin to regulate my contractions and put in a type of catheter to progress my cervix. It came out at about 5:00PM and I was at 4cm. I labored all night with no epidural while they upped my Pitocin, and they broke my water at 4:00AM. I really wanted to try without the epi, but I couldn’t get any rest between contractions, and I kept having these mini hallucinations that I was home in my comfy bed and was getting really frustrated that I was in the hospital. I couldn’t get up to labor at all or to use the bathroom because the magnesium made my legs absolute jello… so by 5:00AM I asked for the epi after about 13 hours of labor on my own. The first epi didn’t take on the left side of my body, so I was still shaking through the contractions. They came and fixed it, so by about 7:00AM I had some relief. A new nurse came in then also, and put me into a position on my side with one leg up on a table (I probably looked like a circus act). I kept switching sides. This helped progress me, and by 10:00AM I was 10cm and ready to push. By this point the epi was helping the contractions, but it still felt like my hips were getting split like firewood down the middle. Brandon was great during all this, he rubbed my back and hips nonstop. Pushing was awful. My hips were killing me, and I was on oxygen because little man’s heart rate kept going down. I pushed for 2 hours, until 12:00PM and had only made centimeters in progress. The doctor explained my 3 options- labor some more to see if he would descend, try the vacuum assist, or go for a cesarean. I was delirious from the last 20 hours, and asked them to help me decide. The doctor said due to the way Jaydon’s head was positioned, laboring could take more hours and they’d have to manually turn him, the vacuum meant that I’d most likely have some pretty bad tearing and he could have slight damage to his head, and the cesarean well we all know the risks there. Due to my pain and his heart rate instability, I opted for the c section, and was back in the OR within an hour. They did a spinal block, and it’s the most relief I’d felt all day. I was so nervous, but everyone assured me it was a good choice for both me and baby. The OR team was great, especially Brandon who said a prayer for me right before they started. Jaydon was out at 1:35PM, August 3. I’ll never forget that first little cry I heard. Due to me being on magnesium he was very quiet after birth, they had him on a CPAP for a couple minutes, but his heartrate, respirations, and color were all great. Brandon got to cut the cord. They showed him to me, then took him and Brandon to recovery. It took an hour for them to get me put back into one piece then I joined them and finally got to hold J. He is 7lb 9.7 oz, 18.5 inches long, and has just a bit of dirty blonde hair. He’s going to be the spitting image of his daddy. I stayed in recovery on mag for 12 more hours, just to make sure my BP was stable, then transferred to the mother-baby unit at around 4:00AM Wednesday morning. I had a pretty good recovery there and we were discharged Thursday afternoon. Due to the 18 hours of labor and 2 of pushing I still have some of the after effects of a normal delivery, very swollen and sore, and I obviously also have my incision and some bruising. My back feels like I did too many sit ups on a gym floor because of the 3 shots I had in my spine. My arms look like hamburger from multiple IVs and labs, but they’re getting better. Walking is getting a little easier though, and I can hold J standing up without help. I hope and pray I continue to recover quickly. I am not taking the oxycodone they gave me, because I want to breastfeed, so I also pray the Motrin continues to help me some. I am so shocked at how everything went down, but I am a mommy now and that’s the most important thing. Jaydon is such a little blessing, and Brandon has been incredible at taking care of both him and me during all this. Maybe one of the coolest parts, is that my grandfather passed away August 3, 2005…and 5 years later I was able to welcome my son, who I can only hope to raise to be half the man his great-grandpa was. 28 February 2011
3 August 2010 - a flashback to J's birth!
He's coming up on 7 months but I wanted to share Jaydon's birth story with those that may not have heard it...
Ok so back up to last weekend where this whole story gets juicy. I vented that my doctor wouldn’t see me because I was late to my routine appointment on Friday (30 July); I really felt like I needed to be seen since I had a headache and had been having contractions since Thursday night. I toughed it out Friday. I went to get my blood pressure checked at a pharmacy just to be sure, it was up a little but nothing too bad. By Saturday afternoon my headache was much worse, to the point I couldn’t stand it, so I went to Labor & Delivery to be monitored. They confirmed the contractions, my BP was up to 145/90 ish, and my headache hadn’t responded to any medicine. My BP ended up leveling out safely, and all the labs came back that I didn’t have pre-eclampsia so they sent me home. Monday (2 Aug) I had a routine appointment at the OB clinic, but while we were on our way there, a doctor from L&D called and asked me to come to the hospital instead to follow up so we went at 9:15AM. I STILL had the headache at this point, and my BPs were up to 150/90 and very irregular. They repeated labs and after a couple hours ended up releasing me with a med to try for my headache. Shortly after releasing me, they called back and said the attending OB on call reviewed my case and wanted to monitor me some more. I went to the pharmacy to get the med, took them, and waited… head still pounding. I asked if we could go grab some lunch and they said yes but be back it in an hour. We got back, no change in headache. I was frustrated and wanted to go home, but after about another hour they came and said they were admitting me, going to repeat my labs AGAIN and start the induction process. I was a little shocked because they said just 3 days earlier that I didn’t have pre-e. Well the last labs confirmed I did. They wanted to start me on magnesium before it got any worse and wanted Jaydon delivered in 24 hours. So around 3:30PM Monday, I was admitted and started on IV mag. Within 30 minutes my entire bed was soaking with sweat. My reflexes were going nuts, so they had a bunch of doctors monitoring me closely for other pre-e signs. They were going to start me on an internal med, but they checked me and I was already 90% effaced and 1cm dilated on my own, so they ended up just starting Pitocin to regulate my contractions and put in a type of catheter to progress my cervix. It came out at about 5:00PM and I was at 4cm. I labored all night with no epidural while they upped my Pitocin, and they broke my water at 4:00AM. I really wanted to try without the epi, but I couldn’t get any rest between contractions, and I kept having these mini hallucinations that I was home in my comfy bed and was getting really frustrated that I was in the hospital. I couldn’t get up to labor at all or to use the bathroom because the magnesium made my legs absolute jello… so by 5:00AM I asked for the epi after about 13 hours of labor on my own. The first epi didn’t take on the left side of my body, so I was still shaking through the contractions. They came and fixed it, so by about 7:00AM I had some relief. A new nurse came in then also, and put me into a position on my side with one leg up on a table (I probably looked like a circus act). I kept switching sides. This helped progress me, and by 10:00AM I was 10cm and ready to push. By this point the epi was helping the contractions, but it still felt like my hips were getting split like firewood down the middle. Brandon was great during all this, he rubbed my back and hips nonstop. Pushing was awful. My hips were killing me, and I was on oxygen because little man’s heart rate kept going down. I pushed for 2 hours, until 12:00PM and had only made centimeters in progress. The doctor explained my 3 options- labor some more to see if he would descend, try the vacuum assist, or go for a cesarean. I was delirious from the last 20 hours, and asked them to help me decide. The doctor said due to the way Jaydon’s head was positioned, laboring could take more hours and they’d have to manually turn him, the vacuum meant that I’d most likely have some pretty bad tearing and he could have slight damage to his head, and the cesarean well we all know the risks there. Due to my pain and his heart rate instability, I opted for the c section, and was back in the OR within an hour. They did a spinal block, and it’s the most relief I’d felt all day. I was so nervous, but everyone assured me it was a good choice for both me and baby. The OR team was great, especially Brandon who said a prayer for me right before they started. Jaydon was out at 1:35PM, August 3. I’ll never forget that first little cry I heard. Due to me being on magnesium he was very quiet after birth, they had him on a CPAP for a couple minutes, but his heartrate, respirations, and color were all great. Brandon got to cut the cord. They showed him to me, then took him and Brandon to recovery. It took an hour for them to get me put back into one piece then I joined them and finally got to hold J. He is 7lb 9.7 oz, 18.5 inches long, and has just a bit of dirty blonde hair. He’s going to be the spitting image of his daddy. I stayed in recovery on mag for 12 more hours, just to make sure my BP was stable, then transferred to the mother-baby unit at around 4:00AM Wednesday morning. I had a pretty good recovery there and we were discharged Thursday afternoon. Due to the 18 hours of labor and 2 of pushing I still have some of the after effects of a normal delivery, very swollen and sore, and I obviously also have my incision and some bruising. My back feels like I did too many sit ups on a gym floor because of the 3 shots I had in my spine. My arms look like hamburger from multiple IVs and labs, but they’re getting better. Walking is getting a little easier though, and I can hold J standing up without help. I hope and pray I continue to recover quickly. I am not taking the oxycodone they gave me, because I want to breastfeed, so I also pray the Motrin continues to help me some. I am so shocked at how everything went down, but I am a mommy now and that’s the most important thing. Jaydon is such a little blessing, and Brandon has been incredible at taking care of both him and me during all this. Maybe one of the coolest parts, is that my grandfather passed away August 3, 2005…and 5 years later I was able to welcome my son, who I can only hope to raise to be half the man his great-grandpa was.
Ok so back up to last weekend where this whole story gets juicy. I vented that my doctor wouldn’t see me because I was late to my routine appointment on Friday (30 July); I really felt like I needed to be seen since I had a headache and had been having contractions since Thursday night. I toughed it out Friday. I went to get my blood pressure checked at a pharmacy just to be sure, it was up a little but nothing too bad. By Saturday afternoon my headache was much worse, to the point I couldn’t stand it, so I went to Labor & Delivery to be monitored. They confirmed the contractions, my BP was up to 145/90 ish, and my headache hadn’t responded to any medicine. My BP ended up leveling out safely, and all the labs came back that I didn’t have pre-eclampsia so they sent me home. Monday (2 Aug) I had a routine appointment at the OB clinic, but while we were on our way there, a doctor from L&D called and asked me to come to the hospital instead to follow up so we went at 9:15AM. I STILL had the headache at this point, and my BPs were up to 150/90 and very irregular. They repeated labs and after a couple hours ended up releasing me with a med to try for my headache. Shortly after releasing me, they called back and said the attending OB on call reviewed my case and wanted to monitor me some more. I went to the pharmacy to get the med, took them, and waited… head still pounding. I asked if we could go grab some lunch and they said yes but be back it in an hour. We got back, no change in headache. I was frustrated and wanted to go home, but after about another hour they came and said they were admitting me, going to repeat my labs AGAIN and start the induction process. I was a little shocked because they said just 3 days earlier that I didn’t have pre-e. Well the last labs confirmed I did. They wanted to start me on magnesium before it got any worse and wanted Jaydon delivered in 24 hours. So around 3:30PM Monday, I was admitted and started on IV mag. Within 30 minutes my entire bed was soaking with sweat. My reflexes were going nuts, so they had a bunch of doctors monitoring me closely for other pre-e signs. They were going to start me on an internal med, but they checked me and I was already 90% effaced and 1cm dilated on my own, so they ended up just starting Pitocin to regulate my contractions and put in a type of catheter to progress my cervix. It came out at about 5:00PM and I was at 4cm. I labored all night with no epidural while they upped my Pitocin, and they broke my water at 4:00AM. I really wanted to try without the epi, but I couldn’t get any rest between contractions, and I kept having these mini hallucinations that I was home in my comfy bed and was getting really frustrated that I was in the hospital. I couldn’t get up to labor at all or to use the bathroom because the magnesium made my legs absolute jello… so by 5:00AM I asked for the epi after about 13 hours of labor on my own. The first epi didn’t take on the left side of my body, so I was still shaking through the contractions. They came and fixed it, so by about 7:00AM I had some relief. A new nurse came in then also, and put me into a position on my side with one leg up on a table (I probably looked like a circus act). I kept switching sides. This helped progress me, and by 10:00AM I was 10cm and ready to push. By this point the epi was helping the contractions, but it still felt like my hips were getting split like firewood down the middle. Brandon was great during all this, he rubbed my back and hips nonstop. Pushing was awful. My hips were killing me, and I was on oxygen because little man’s heart rate kept going down. I pushed for 2 hours, until 12:00PM and had only made centimeters in progress. The doctor explained my 3 options- labor some more to see if he would descend, try the vacuum assist, or go for a cesarean. I was delirious from the last 20 hours, and asked them to help me decide. The doctor said due to the way Jaydon’s head was positioned, laboring could take more hours and they’d have to manually turn him, the vacuum meant that I’d most likely have some pretty bad tearing and he could have slight damage to his head, and the cesarean well we all know the risks there. Due to my pain and his heart rate instability, I opted for the c section, and was back in the OR within an hour. They did a spinal block, and it’s the most relief I’d felt all day. I was so nervous, but everyone assured me it was a good choice for both me and baby. The OR team was great, especially Brandon who said a prayer for me right before they started. Jaydon was out at 1:35PM, August 3. I’ll never forget that first little cry I heard. Due to me being on magnesium he was very quiet after birth, they had him on a CPAP for a couple minutes, but his heartrate, respirations, and color were all great. Brandon got to cut the cord. They showed him to me, then took him and Brandon to recovery. It took an hour for them to get me put back into one piece then I joined them and finally got to hold J. He is 7lb 9.7 oz, 18.5 inches long, and has just a bit of dirty blonde hair. He’s going to be the spitting image of his daddy. I stayed in recovery on mag for 12 more hours, just to make sure my BP was stable, then transferred to the mother-baby unit at around 4:00AM Wednesday morning. I had a pretty good recovery there and we were discharged Thursday afternoon. Due to the 18 hours of labor and 2 of pushing I still have some of the after effects of a normal delivery, very swollen and sore, and I obviously also have my incision and some bruising. My back feels like I did too many sit ups on a gym floor because of the 3 shots I had in my spine. My arms look like hamburger from multiple IVs and labs, but they’re getting better. Walking is getting a little easier though, and I can hold J standing up without help. I hope and pray I continue to recover quickly. I am not taking the oxycodone they gave me, because I want to breastfeed, so I also pray the Motrin continues to help me some. I am so shocked at how everything went down, but I am a mommy now and that’s the most important thing. Jaydon is such a little blessing, and Brandon has been incredible at taking care of both him and me during all this. Maybe one of the coolest parts, is that my grandfather passed away August 3, 2005…and 5 years later I was able to welcome my son, who I can only hope to raise to be half the man his great-grandpa was.
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