Mom: Cheryl
Baby: Alison
Born: Tuesday, April 7th, 1998
8 lbs. 3 oz.
Length: 21 inches
Birth: Induction, labor, epidural and then hemorraging.
Our second induction was a success! Actually, I started going into labor after the OB put more prostaglandin gel on my cervix Monday night. We went home and I couldn't sleep because of the contractions. They were coming every 3-4 minutes for most of the night. Finally, at 5:00 we went to the hospital. When I arrived, the OB on call broke my water (he told me when I left the night before that he would break my water as soon as I showed up--he was kidding then, but I had dilated to 3 and he decided to do it--I was glad, since I knew then there was no turning back). He told me I could have an epidural whenever I wanted. Well, it only took about 45 minutes and I decided that I would rather shoot myself than continue without an epidural.
We got the epidural and everything was pleasant until around noon. Suddenly, it wore off. The anesthesiologist came and reinjected about four times, but it wouldn't take effect. I had contractions about 2 minutes apart for an hour and a half until the doctor decided to do another epidural (with my blessing!) The second epidural was done lower on my spine. This one made it until 5:00. The doctors seemed puzzled about why it kept wearing off. I explained my situation and any drugs related to pregnancy--they don't seem to work! The doctor reinjected at 5:00 and it wasn't making a difference. I told the nurse I did not want to have any more if it would effect my pushing. She checked me and I was at 9 cm. I decided to hold off. At six, I was 10 cm. and we started pushing. My OB told me that I would push for probably two hours and we would see if Alison would move down (she was at -2 station at 5:00). If she didn't move down, they would do a c-section. I pushed for 30 minutes and there was her head! The nurses paged my doctor who took 15 minutes to get there--the longest 15 minutes of my life! I kept telling the nurses if she didn't make it in 5 minutes, I was giving them permission to deliver my baby. She finally walked in, looked at me and said, "Damn, Cheryl, you're amazing, girl!" We all yelled at her to hurry and get dressed. She cut a small episiotomy and two contractions later Alison was here. Everyone yelled and cheered and they put her on my chest and I got to look at her for about 3 minutes before all hell broke loose.
The doctor said I was bleeding and all of a sudden they took Al off me and all these people came in the room. One person would take turns "massaging" my stomach. DH said it looked like they were mashing bread dough on my stomach. I could see the doctor twisting her shoulder and reaching. I could feel everything because I had no epidural at this point. DH later told me that her arm was in me up to her elbow. I have never been in so much pain. I was screaming and crying. They rolled Al over to me and tried to distract me. They told Mark to stay by me and talk to me. They shot me three times with medicine to stop the bleeding. All this contined for 30 minutes. Let me tell you, contractions are a piece of cake compared to what they did to me. After I stopped bleeding the doctor sewed me up (no local used--at this point stitches in the vagina were nothing--pain is relative). All in all I lost a liter of blood.
So, I haven't posted because I've been restricted to lying down and taking iron. The breastfeeding was torture and three consultants were unable to help me. My nipples were cracked and bleeding and Al swallowed blood. DH went out and rented a hospital grade pump and I'm pumping right now. I'm going to try one more time with a different consultant before I give up. My blood pressure is still about 170/100 and I know it soared every time I fed Alison. The consultants tell me they need to train her how to suck and it could take 2-4 weeks.
Everything until the hemorraging was wonderful and DH and I are still mystefied that we made such a beautiful little girl (only 8 lb. 3 oz, 21 inches by the way :). I wish the bad stuff hadn't happened and the breastfeeding were a complete success, but we're doing what's right for our family right now. I had a hard time dealing with the failure of pumping, but DH told me that Al would love me anyway, no matter how she got fed.
I'll be trying to post, but it all depends on how I feel. I wear out pretty easily and I try to save my energy for Alison.
So glad to see all these babies being born! Was there life before this?
Cheryl and Alison