Labor Story

Sunday 12/25/11 I started cramping I would say about mid day. I've had Braxton Hicks before so I thought maybe it was just that. Blake had to leave at 5:30pm to go to work so I told him stay by the phone in case anything happens. So shortly after that I could actually start timing the contractions. Which with Braxton Hicks they were just kind of random and you can't time them. These started at about 15-20 minutes apart. I would say maybe around 8pm they started to be around 5-7 minutes apart. They were kind of strong and almost took my breathe away a little. Around 10pm I called Blake and told him maybe he should come home so I could go get checked since I've never really had this happen before. I took a shower and got some things ready. He was home in no time and we were off to the hospital.
I went to the labor and delivery ER. They took me to a little room and hooked me up to the monitor. Of course their equipment wasn't working right and the lady tried telling me that I wasn't having that many contractions. So she found a different monitor so she could pick it up better. By this time they were super uncomfortable. It was more in my right hip and lower back than anywhere else. We thought we had a new doctor because he said he would take us on as a patient. This visit I saw a completely different doctor. He said he talked to the other doctor and he acted like he didn't know who I was, only because I never had time to make an appointment to see him since we were just at the ER the day before for the whole diabetes incident. So this new doctor. Dr. D sat down and talked to us and wanted to understand everything that went on and why we really were looking for someone to deliver other than or original OB. We gladly told him about everything that's gone on. Just like anyone else. He was a little shocked.
They checked my cervix and said it still felt hard and closed. Which I don't understand that because I have 2 stitches holding it shut so even if it wanted to open it couldn't. So I'm not sure how it would have been dilated?! Because I was having contractions they admitted me and took me upstairs. They told me I wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything until they knew what was going on. Needless to say I did not sleep that night. They wouldn't even give me any pain medicine. The nurse said all I could take was Tylenol which did nothing. Not even Ambien helped!
All day Monday 12/26/11 I was in pain. Still couldn't eat or drink anything. They kept saying I was having contractions but that they were going to try to stop them. I got an IV because I was dehydrated. Which took sticking me twice without them numbing it like they did the last time. Ouch! All day long I begged for pain medicine and they still wouldn't give me any. By night time I was miserable! Every contraction which was about 3 minutes apart would wake me up. So I slept for 3 minutes at a time. They gave me 2 shots in the back of my arms to try to stop the contractions and of course it didn't work but for maybe 30 minutes. I guess maybe the nurse didn't believe me on how bad I was really hurting. Like I said by night time it was almost unbearable! I had to cling to the bed and cry and moan it hurt so bad. You know how you see it on tv. Yup that really happens! The new new doctor Dr. D came in that night and told me that since I was going to be 35 weeks 4 days the next day that he was just going to take my stitches out in the morning so he could actually see what was going on. Because obviously he couldn't tell if I was dilating with them being in there. I was so glad when he told me that! Again I barely slept that night. Still no food and not water. And no pain medicine.

Tuesday 12/27/11 at 8am he took me up to surgery and did a spinal block to take the stitches out. After this everything was kind of a blur the rest of the day so I'm not exact on the times things happened. I would say maybe a few hours later he checked me and I was dilated to 3-4cm. I still don't think they gave me anything for pain at this point. Or if they did it certainly did not help! The entire time they said they wouldn't induce labor but that if I was in fact in labor they wouldn't stop it. So to hear them say I was dilated I was thinking thank god this is almost over! The Anesthesia lady came in to talk to me about an epidural and wanted to know when I wanted it. Told her I had no clue and was waiting for the doctor to check me again. A few more hours went by and he rechecked me and I was at 8cm! No wonder I was in so much pain. If you start contracting do NOT wait until you are dilated to 8 to get an epidural because it is the worst pain I've ever felt!  They came back right away and started the epidural. Which didn't hurt all that bad since I've had a spinal block a million times. It kicked in right away thank god. I had no clue that it was hooked to a button that you could push every 15 minutes if needed. And you better bet I pushed that sucker every 15 minutes because I did not want to feel what was about to happen! They took me to Labor and Delivery and got everything set up. Waited a few more hours and got rechecked and I was finally at 9cm. He put the stirrup things up and had me lay there so he could see what was going on. All of my family went out of the room except for Blake. Not to long after that he had me push a few times to see if he could get things moving. Which worked because now I was ready to go. I would say it was around 5:30pm at this time. My mom came in the room so she got to watch the entire thing. Blake wasn't sure if he would pass out or not so he stayed by my head. And of course here's my mom with a camera in my face trying to take a picture! LOL So I started pushing which I wasn't even sure if I was doing it right because I had never tried to push anything out of my vagina before. And that pushing business is not fun! At first it was okay but then I started getting heart burn which made me barely able to even breathe. She tells you to push and count to ten. I'm already at 5 and she just starts counting! Didn't make it to ten a few times! And she told me every time I felt pressure towards my butt to let her know so I could push. I wasn't sure what I was feeling but every minute or so I would push. Mean while the doctor is down there making jokes. He literally used extra virgin olive oil and poured it down there to help stretch out the skin so he could slide out. Is that normal?? So after about 20 minutes of pushing they could see the top of his head which was full of hair! The doctor said he would need a haircut asap! I said well he's in luck because that's what I do. He laughed! So after a total of about 40 minutes of pushing he finally came out! He weighed 6 pounds 5 ounces and was 19 inches long! And had a head full of dark hair! There was only 3 nurses and 1 doctor in the room. ( That I can remember) They took him over to the heater to check him out. They still weren't sure if he was going to need the Nicu or not so I didn't see him until the doctor was done fixing me up. I felt the after birth plop or roll out I guess you could say. After that I asked if I ripped and he said a little. I should have hit that epidural button one extra time because I could almost feel him stitching me up. Then I finally got to hold Levi! He had some chubby cheeks! And wasn't as little as I thought he would be.
Not sure how much time passed by but they got me a wheel chair and took me down to the after delivery floor. Blake got to hold Levi and took him down to the nursery. Surprisingly I didn't cry once! I figured I would  ball like a baby. The nurse finally brought him in so we could see him. She asked if we wanted him to sleep in our room but the theme of my pregnancy is to scare the crap out of me apparently. So she told us how sometimes they can choke at night and if he was in the room with us we wouldn't know it because they don't do it out loud. So we let him sleep in the nursery at night.
Wednesday 12/28/11-Levi stayed in our room all day. We had a bunch of family come in and out. I was trying to get the hang out breast feeding and he finally figured out how to latch on. He still has some trouble with the whole sucking thing. He puts it in his mouth and then just leaves it sit there. Which is one of the reasons they don't want babies to come early. Everyone kept saying he was really mature for a 35 weeker. The last visitor of the day was Blake's sister. The reason him and I met in the first place! Blake had to leave for work around 8:30 so he missed her by a few minutes. After she left I was laying on the bed with Levi curled up next to me. The same nurse I've had every night came in and sat down on the couch next to the bed and looks like she's about to say something serious. She tells me that his labs came back and that his Bilirubin was really high. Which I had no clue at the time what that was. She starts out with saying if it's to high and they don't treat it it can cause brain damage. So I'm freaking out and about to cry so I couldn't even talk to ask her questions. She takes him back to the nursery and tells me he has to stay under lights to fix the problem. So mean while I google it and find out it's jaundice. Not sure why she approached the topic like she did but I cried all night because Blake wasn't there to talk to and I felt like I did something to harm Levi. Of course being the mom I should feel like I could fix everything. Which I know isn't the case. I didn't fall asleep until 4:15am. They woke me up at 5:30am to feed him. Which at this point because they need him to eat more they were bottle feeding him as much formula as he could drink which was normally 20ml at a time. So starting this morning every 3 hours they would bring him down for 30 minutes just to eat. So I went from holding him and seeing him all day to now I barely see him at all. Blake got off work at 6am so when he got here I told him what the nurse told me. So of course he freaks out and calls her in the room to find out what was going on. I fell back asleep until maybe 9am. The next round of nurses came in. Because I had barely slept I guess maybe they thought I was stupid and needed to repeat everything 10 times. They were getting on my nerves to say the least but they're okay now. Today when they bring him he's still on the pad that glows blue and makes him look like a glow worm. Or at least that's what Blake calls him. I went and looked in the nursery last night and saw him laying there under the light by himself which was really hard to see hence the reason I cried all night. My  mom and her best friend came to visit around 11:30am. They brought Levi down shortly after that to eat. As we're sitting there the hospitals pediatrician came in and tells us they got some labs back and begins to tell us her thoughts on a certain subject that needed some testing. Which I won't discuss until we actually get the results back so don't ask! Kind of a scary topic but the way this lady was talking I'm starting to wonder if she even knows what she's talking about!
After that lovely discussion my mom, Blake and I walked to the cafeteria to eat lunch which is like a mile away somewhere in the building. Longest I've walked in awhile! But I had the biggest pile of nachos I've ever seen! We've been feeding Levi like normal every few hours. They check his Bilirubin level twice a day which is for the Jaundice. From what I know it started at 12.5 and went down to 12.4 which is good and they just now said it's still at 12.4 which even though it's the same it isn't bad because he's growing so as long as the number stays the same it's fine. Although they want it to go down obviously.
I just got discharged but they're letting us stay tonight so we don't have to go home and drive back. They'll reassess it tomorrow to let us know if we have to leave or not. It would make it a lot easier to go home and get the last minute things done but at the same time who wants to leave the hospital without their child.
I'm still debating about the whole breast feeding thing. I may try to pump and just feed him breast milk with a bottle since I already have the stuff. Not sure I can handle that latching on because the boobs hurt enough as it is! She just left with Levi and they leaked the entire time I was holding him. Kinda crazy! He's so tiny to hold. I feel like I'm going to break him or something. I still feel like it was all a dream and that I really don't have my own baby. I'm sure it will sink in when we finally get to go home.

That's all I got for now. I'll update if I forgot anything.

Oh and by the way. Still don't have any stretch marks! Woohoo! But my feet are swelling which is weird cuz they didn't swell while I was pregnant. I'll take that over stretch marks and the gigantic post baby bellies I've been seeing around here. Mine still sticks out but not like some of these women thank god! lol

~Christine