Like I said, Christmas came and went, the 28th(my due date) came and went. Even New Years came and went! I was getting very anxious and was pretty happy when my doctor decided to induce me on Jan. 5th if nothing happened before then. I had some contractions in the week or 2 before, but nothing major, and they were never regular or strong enough. I was admitted to the hospital the night of January 4th, and my doctor used cervidoux to help soften my cervix, in hopes that it would make the induction progress better in the morning! Well, Chuck and Kyle had dropped me off and Chuck was to come back at 7:30 the next morning! And we were all ready to have our baby, expecting things to be pretty easy!
After not getting much sleep at all, around 2 am I started having contractions on my own and they were getting pretty strong(at least I thought so at the time) I called the nurse in to hook me back up to the monitors and I continued having contractions until my doc arrived a bit early at a little after 6:30 am. I was dilated between 1 and 2 cm. They got me stated on Pitossin through my IV to induce my labor. By the time Chuck arrived back at the hospital, I was having some great contractions, and really hoping that they were productive ones! About an hour and a half after he was there, my contrations were SOOOO intense and SOOOOO painful, I was in tears and I was thinking how they had never felt this bad when I had Kyle, but then again, I wasn't induced with him either! I asked Chuck to go get the nurse so I could ask for something for pain! She checked to see how far I had progressed and we were all quite suprised to find I was at 8 cm after being 1-2 cm about an hour and a half before!!! My doctor rushed back to the hospital from his office, and when he got there I was fully dilated and ready to push! I remember thinking, well, I don't mind having the contractions as strong and painful as they are if it's going to go this quick!
So I began to push. Well after only about 5 or 10 minutes of pushing, they were suddenly attaching the internal monitor to the babys scalp. They said they would let me try to push again and if nothing happened they may have to do a c-section because the babys heartrate was getting dangerously low when I pushed. At this point I wasn't even scared, I just wanted to have my baby come to into this world, safely! A cesarean had never crossed my mind before, I guess I assumed everything would go as well as it did with my 1st son! Our last efforts didn't do anything, they determined the baby was too big a c section was needed.
At this point, things began to happen very fast! I was being introduced to different doctors, the anesteasiologist, and my doctor was yelling at the people prepping me for surgery, they didn't seem to be moving fast enough I guess! :) I didn't really notice much because my contractions just seemed to flow together, when one ended, another was already starting! So I was just trying to breathe through them and I was in so much pain, I really couldn't focus on anything else! The hardest part seemed to be moving from my bed to the gurney to take me to the OR. Every time we tried to scoot me over, I had another contraction and had to stop and breathe through it before I could move again! Well, once we got there, they gave me a spinal. They told me to sit forward and arch my back like a cat, this also took a while because I had to keep stopping for my contractions again! Finally it was done and I can't even describe the COMPLETE relief I felt! I was numb from the ribcage down, but fully awake(and very talkative I might add!)I was so happy and relaxed, knowing that in a very short time I would be seeing my baby for the first time! :)
I didn't even realize they had started to make the incision, I didn't feel a thing! I had been busy talking to Chuck who was right there by my side, holding my hand. There was a drape at about shoulder level so we couldn't really see much. They said I may feel some tugging and pushing, but no pain. They were right. And they said when they took the baby out I would probably feel a lot of pressure, like someone was sitting on my chest. They were right again, that's exactly how it felt! My doctor said "It's a boy!" We already knew this from an ultrasound, but it was still wonderfull to hear! Before they cut the cord, they lifted him as far as he would reach, and I got a glimpse of my baby's tiny little foot! :) Then they took him over to check him out and clean him up. I could hear him crying, the most wonderful sound! He was very healthy-9 lbs 6 oz!! wow!
Once they had him cleaned up, they brought him over to where I could get a full look at him:)*sigh* my baby was beautiful! Then the nurse took him to the nursery and Chuck went with them. Meanwhile, the doctors were finishing up with me. No sooner had Chuck left, than I could hear the docs talking kinda quietly. And you know how you can just sense when something is wrong? Well I was getting that feeling! I asked if something was wrong, nobody answered me! I can't describe how scary THAT was! Then I heard a doc say "go get Dr. Peralta NOW!!!!!" By now people were moving very fast around the room and after asking two more times what was wrong, and still getting no reply from ANYONE, I was really scared and quite ticked off! I said "Look! I have a right to know what's going on!" Finally my doctor answered me. He said, you have some bleeding and we are trying to control it. That's the last thing I remember because they had given me something to knock me out! Almost 3 hrs later, I woke up in the recovery room.
I later find out that if they had not stopped the bleeding of my uterus, they would have done a hysterectomy. Yikes! I am only 26! It turns out that I have an abnormally shaped uterus. It is shaped like a heart with 2 "chambers"at the top which come down to a "point" so there is a partial wall down the middle of my uterus. I guess this would not have been detectable by an ultrasound while I was pregant, and since I've never had an ultrasound at any other time, we never knew about this problem. Anyway, on a uterus shaped like mine, there are lots of extra blood vessels that are not there in a "normal" uterus. When Cody was born, some of these blood vessels ruptured, causing the bleeding.
At this point I'm not sure if I want to have any more children or not. But I was glad to hear that I still can if I want to. They just say that I am at a higher risk for a miscarriage(which I've had 2 before) because if the pregnancy implants too close to the "point" of my uterus, the placenta will not be able to attach well. This is most likely what caused the miscarriages I've already had. If it implants up into either side or "chamber" then the baby should grow normally with no problems. I've proven this twice with my 2 healthy beautiful boys!
The recovery from my c-section was much different than that of the natural birth I had with my 1st son. I think it was even worse because of the complications I had. It affected me pretty hard emotionally, everything that had happened was A LOT to absorb! I was in the hospital for almost a week, which was very hard on me! Even though the new LDRP(labor delivery recovery postpartum)suites at my hospital are very nice and have all the so called comforts of home(even a jacuzzi!) I just wanted to come home!
I'm doing great now, 10 weeks later, it's still kind of hard to believe the way things happened. But most important is the way everything turned out. Me and baby were both ok! It doesn't matter how they come into this world, as long as they're healthy we should just be very thankful!
I am glad that I have been able to experience both ways of giving birth, 1st natural, then a c-section. As far as next time, if there is a next time :) we will just have to wait and see!!
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