joshua's birth story: part three

Click here to read Part One and Part Two.

Again, if reading a birth story isn't your jam, here's a video to watch instead.

“9 pounds, 14 ounces! You’re a legend!” I remember hearing Brett exclaim after the nurses weighed Joshua, except I wasn’t paying much attention. I was SO tired I could hardly keep my eyes open. But I can’t fall asleep now! The hard part is just beginning! There’s a BABY I have to take care of now!

One of the nurses asked me how I felt, and I think I remember saying “I’m really tired… and I kind of feel like I’m going to throw up again.” Now, I REALLY couldn’t keep my eyes open, and everything started to feel very far away.

At this point, Brett started to get concerned. I was apparently VERY pale, almost green. He tried to keep my attention by asking me questions, but I hardly had the energy to respond.

I guess my blood pressure started to crash (again, I can’t remember the numbers but it was LOW) so the nurses sprung into action. I was pretty “out of it” here, so forgive me for the lack of details. I know I was given a shot of Ephedrin to keep my blood pressure up. (How ironic, considering all day we were trying to keep it from getting too high.) After awhile, I started to feel a little better, so I asked to hold Joshua. I wanted to nurse as soon as possible, and it had already been about an hour since he was born. They raised the head of my bed, propped me up on some pillows, and handed me that sweet baby boy I had worked so hard for. He was beautiful.

Unfortunately, I started to feel very woozy once again; I was pretty sure I was about to faint. Or throw up. Or both. Joshua was whisked away so they could focus on me for awhile. I remember hearing one of the nurses say they were taking him to the nursery for the night… I so badly wanted him to stay with me, but I wasn’t able to get the words out. And, of course in hind sight, I realize I was in absolutely no position to care for him.

I ended up getting one or two more shots of Ephedrin and I was put on oxygen for the night. They told me to get some sleep, but with the high level of anxiety in my body, the blood pressure cuff going off every few minutes, and multiple visits from the nurses, it was not easy.

The next morning around 6am, I asked Brett to go see Joshua in the nursery. I was still flat on my back and on oxygen so I wasn’t sure if we could have him in the room, but I at least wanted one of us near him. Brett came back a few minutes later wheeling the bassinet into our room!

Since I still wasn’t able to sit up, Brett just held Joshua on the bed next to my head so I could see him. So precious.

The doctor came in and said that an early-morning blood draw (I guess one of the visits from the nurse was to draw blood!) revealed I had lost quite a bit of blood the day before and it seemed like the best course of action was to give me a blood transfusion.

(Actually, the first thing she said to me was that I was a “trooper” the night before since Joshua was such a big baby… which I took as an apology for thinking I wasn’t pushing hard enough and turning off the epidural.)

So they hooked up the first unit of blood (at this point, I had at least three IVs in each arm). Over the course of the morning, I tried to eat breakfast while lying flat on my back (unsuccessful) and a lactation consultant came to try and help me breastfeed while lying flat on my back (somewhat successful).

After each unit of blood (in total I was given three), I was able to sit up slightly more. By the early afternoon, I had finally eaten a meal (for the first time in over 24 hours) and was able to hold my baby.

Finally able to hold him!

We were discharged from the hospital the next day. It wasn’t exactly how I had pictured my labor and delivery (is it ever how anyone pictures it??) and I’m still not sure why my body reacted so strangely, but I’d say it was worth it.

Here are photos of some of our visitors in the hospital:

Joshua William Wendle

Sunday, October 7, 2012

9:26pm

9lbs, 14oz.

22”

Photo credit: Heather McKittrick

joshua's birth story: part two

Click here to read Part One.

Same disclaimer as last time, but here's a different video to watch instead. This one is of Joshua.

After an uneventful ride to the hospital, we arrived around 9:00am and were taken straight to a room. One of the best things about the hospital where I delivered is that you are in one room for your whole stay – labor, delivery (unless it’s a C-Section), recovery, and post-partum. Also, this wing of the hospital was just built (I think it opened less than a year before I had Joshua) so the rooms were beautiful and HUGE. We probably could have fit 15 people in there… not that I ever would have wanted that many people there, but it was nice to have the option, I guess.

My first nurse was wonderful – really sweet, very calm and helpful. I wish I could remember her name! I got into a gown and she asked me about a million questions. She was so nice, though, that I wasn’t even annoyed. She said we just needed to get some information and take my vitals, and then they would send me to walk the halls. I was so glad to hear that, since I was hoping to spend a lot of my labor out of the bed – I knew that walking would help my labor progress and I knew that as my contractions got worse I would want to be in different positions to manage them. I was going to try my hardest to avoid an epidural or pain medication. (Everyone says that, right?)

When the nurse took my blood pressure, the reading came back pretty high. I can’t remember the exact numbers, but it was HIGH. My blood pressure was almost perfect throughout my whole pregnancy (seriously, 120/80 at almost every reading) and never even approached the high range, so this was pretty weird.

After a long time of re-checking my blood pressure every 5-10 minutes and taking a urine sample, they diagnosed me with pre-eclampsia. 

Boo. With that diagnosis, many of my “plans” for labor and delivery went out the window. I would have to be hooked up to an IV in bed, which meant no walking the halls or managing contractions through movement. I would likely be given Pitocin and my doctor wanted to break my water to speed up the labor, which meant contractions would be AWFUL. (Pre-eclampsia isn’t too dangerous, provided it doesn’t turn into Eclampsia. So the doctors typically just want the baby out FAST in this case.) And I would be given Magnesium, which just all around makes you feel like crap.

But the ultimate goal, of course, was a healthy baby and a healthy mommy. So when plans have to get thrown out the window in order for that to happen, it’s an easy decision.

Things are kind of blurry in my memory after this point (I can probably blame the Magnesium for that). But after I got hooked up to the Pitocin and Magnesium, the doctor broke my water. I tried to tough it out for a little while, but ended up asking for the epidural. (Seriously, that Anesthesiologist was like an angel). This was around 2:00pm.

The epidural did bring some relief, except I had to keep shifting sides. (You’re not allowed to lie flat on your back with the epidural-you know, because of the massive needle in your spine-so the medicine seemed to kind of favor one side of my body.) I think we tried to watch a little TV (the first season of The West Wing, for anyone wondering), but I couldn’t focus much.

At 6:00pm the nurse said I was fully dilated and ready to push. She was going to call the doctor and we could get started. I remember one of the nurses saying that their goal for a first-time mom’s labor was about one hour of pushing. I couldn’t believe they thought that was encouraging… one whole hour?? I’ll collapse by then!

So I pushed. And pushed. And pushed. The doctor kept telling me that I needed to push harder, since they weren’t seeing much movement. I wanted to kick her, but I didn’t. I pushed some more. She assumed I wasn’t pushing hard enough since I wasn’t able to feel the contractions with the epidural. They turned off the epidural. I, again, kept from kicking anyone. I kept pushing. I cried. I told Brett I was never going to do this again. I think I threw up once or twice. But kept pushing.

Finally, at 9:26pm Joshua William Wendle was born.

Click here to read Part Three.

baby pool

Last week, Joshua decided to transition to one nap a day. (He also decided to start weaning and push a few teeth through so, needless to say, last week was not my favorite). While I think I'll enjoy the change overall (see previous post on naptime jail), the initial transition is a bit of a challenge. Not only are there larger chunks of time during the day to keep Joshua entertained, but since he's still used to napping in the morning, he can get pretty cranky leading up to his nap.

In a moment of desperation and to save my sanity, I forked over $11 for a small baby pool.

And it has worked wonders.

While it hasn't been super helpful for the mornings (it's pretty sunny back there in the morning), the deck is nice and shaded in the afternoons. So after his nap we can head out there for a little while. It's small enough for him to crawl in and out of, so he's entertained for quite a while. He'll splash around in there for a few minutes.

Then he'll throw a toy onto the deck and crawl out to retrieve it.

Then he'll spot some chickens and get excited.

Repeat.

Yesterday, we were out there for 45 minutes before he started to get bored... which, in the life of a 13-month-old, is an eternity. 

I just wish I had gotten one big enough for me to sit in...