I figured I would make a post to let everyone know the real birth story. Erin's recount, like most expectant fathers who do not fully comprehend the agony of childbirth, was written from a bed of roses. Not to down play Erin's role, she did labor for at least thirty minutes... over her feet that she was filing with my ped egg that she made me bring because she did give me the only pedicure appointment the salon had available. I wish I had a picture to post of her scraping away at her feet, while I am laying in pain waiting for my epid,ural. Listening to that sound was almost as bad as the labor, almost.
Finally it was time for my epid.ural, my OB had come and ruptured my water, and I was starting to hurt. It took about a hour for anesthesia to get to my room, as Erin posted they had just started a c-section. In Erin's original post she wrote that the CNA was placing my epid.ural, those of you in the medical field (and some not in the medical field) know that a CNA is a nurses aid. So to clarify things, no I did not let an aid place the epid.ural, although I was about at the point I would have allowed anyone, including housekeeping, to do it. She has now changed her post to say CRNA, which was a skilled nurse anesthetists. Within fifteen minutes of the epid.ural placement I was feeling no pain. I did have a complication with the epid.ural, in which my blood pressure dropped to 80's over 30's, which is quite a drop for a girl on blood pressure medications to control elevated blood pressure, necessitating a dose of epinephrine. I should have just suggested Erin get back out the ped egg because I am sure that made my pressures hit the roof.
By this time my mom had arrived and she and Erin decided to leave me alone to rest in my drugged up stupor. My nurse, Pam came to my room to check my progress and reported a 5 cm dilatation. I got on my phone and tracked down Erin and my mom to give them the update, they were in the cafeteria. I guess with all the foot filing Erin did she had worked up an appetite. Next I placed a call to Trevor and Greg letting them know to come on in, although I expected 2-3 more hours of labor. Within the next hour I began to have decels which are drops in the heart rate of the baby. The decels were happening with every contraction, which I had to let my mom know I was still having as she was on the phone with her sister reporting the contractions had stopped because she could not see them on the monitor.
Next thing I knew in walks the nurse and my OB. I immediately got nervous because from my past two labors I knew they didn't call the OB until right before the baby's debut. I thought great I am getting a c-section. Instead as Erin posted the plan was to insert an internal monitor and infuse fluids to get the baby off her cord, which was compressing with the contractions causing the heart rate to drop. The plan changed as OB checked my cervix finding me complete and ready to push.
Trevor had not made it to the hospital yet, but they began placing me in the stirrups. Trevor arrives and is guided in by a nurse because he is refusing to open his eyes, afraid to receive an unsolicited eyeful. Trevor was place in a chair at the head of the bed, looking more than a little queasy, and the pushing began. Both of my boys were delivered with one or two pushes because I was able to labor down, which means when the pushing started they were low and ready to come out. With Audrey, I started pushing with her in a much higher position. Later that night as I recounted my pushing with my mother/baby coworkers at the nurses desk, I was telling them how hard I pushed and how it was much more difficult than delivering my boys. I told them it was only about 30 minutes but it was intense. I had my nurse Keisha look up in the chart how long I pushed and she looks up at me and says, Angie it was only 7 minutes. Everyone got a good laugh at that, but I told them it was a hard 7 minutes.
Next Audrey was here and the deliberation over who would cut the cord began. My OB offered it to Erin first, she declined, next Trevor declined, I began to think I was going to have to cut her cord myself. Finally after a stern "Trevor get up and cut this cord," from Greg, Trevor relented and cut the cord.
The baby was then given to Erin and I was left with my OB who was dealing with my excessive blood loss. He got the bleeding to stop and finished up with me. The baby was doing great and my recovery period began. A normal recovery is an hour and a half, well mine was extended to five hours because you guessed it I started bleeding again. After two more bags of pito.cin, lots of painful uterine massage (by massage I mean pushing so hard I could feel it in my spine) and 4 cyto.tec pills place up my bottom I was stable enough for transfer to the post partum unit.
Once on the post partum unit I thought I was doing great and everything was fine until I got up to the bathroom. I felt a huge blood clot come out but when I got to the bathroom just one tiny clot was on the pad. That is when I realized it fell in the toilet. I thought great my nurse was my good friend Keisha who gets a little queasy with blood and the protocol is when a patient has a large blood clot you have to measure it. So I called for my sister to bring me a glove and I fished that thing out myself. The only thing available to place it in was a lid from my lunch at Gates BBQ so I placed it in that. Which is where the french fry rumor started, no I did not have a french fry in my blood clot, there may have been a few left in the lid. It is surprising that I left any in the lid because I did eat enough french fries it wouldn't be that surprising if one were in my clot. I called Keisha who had to check the clot and notify the doctor that my bleeding was continuing. She came back with a shot and lots of uterine massaging. Finally that was the last of my excessive bleeding. I think my uterus was afraid of Keisha and decided to behave.
That concludes my part of this journey and I will gladly pass the sleepless nights and crying baby on to Erin and Trevor. She is beautiful. Enjoy!
Finally it was time for my epid.ural, my OB had come and ruptured my water, and I was starting to hurt. It took about a hour for anesthesia to get to my room, as Erin posted they had just started a c-section. In Erin's original post she wrote that the CNA was placing my epid.ural, those of you in the medical field (and some not in the medical field) know that a CNA is a nurses aid. So to clarify things, no I did not let an aid place the epid.ural, although I was about at the point I would have allowed anyone, including housekeeping, to do it. She has now changed her post to say CRNA, which was a skilled nurse anesthetists. Within fifteen minutes of the epid.ural placement I was feeling no pain. I did have a complication with the epid.ural, in which my blood pressure dropped to 80's over 30's, which is quite a drop for a girl on blood pressure medications to control elevated blood pressure, necessitating a dose of epinephrine. I should have just suggested Erin get back out the ped egg because I am sure that made my pressures hit the roof.
By this time my mom had arrived and she and Erin decided to leave me alone to rest in my drugged up stupor. My nurse, Pam came to my room to check my progress and reported a 5 cm dilatation. I got on my phone and tracked down Erin and my mom to give them the update, they were in the cafeteria. I guess with all the foot filing Erin did she had worked up an appetite. Next I placed a call to Trevor and Greg letting them know to come on in, although I expected 2-3 more hours of labor. Within the next hour I began to have decels which are drops in the heart rate of the baby. The decels were happening with every contraction, which I had to let my mom know I was still having as she was on the phone with her sister reporting the contractions had stopped because she could not see them on the monitor.
Next thing I knew in walks the nurse and my OB. I immediately got nervous because from my past two labors I knew they didn't call the OB until right before the baby's debut. I thought great I am getting a c-section. Instead as Erin posted the plan was to insert an internal monitor and infuse fluids to get the baby off her cord, which was compressing with the contractions causing the heart rate to drop. The plan changed as OB checked my cervix finding me complete and ready to push.
Trevor had not made it to the hospital yet, but they began placing me in the stirrups. Trevor arrives and is guided in by a nurse because he is refusing to open his eyes, afraid to receive an unsolicited eyeful. Trevor was place in a chair at the head of the bed, looking more than a little queasy, and the pushing began. Both of my boys were delivered with one or two pushes because I was able to labor down, which means when the pushing started they were low and ready to come out. With Audrey, I started pushing with her in a much higher position. Later that night as I recounted my pushing with my mother/baby coworkers at the nurses desk, I was telling them how hard I pushed and how it was much more difficult than delivering my boys. I told them it was only about 30 minutes but it was intense. I had my nurse Keisha look up in the chart how long I pushed and she looks up at me and says, Angie it was only 7 minutes. Everyone got a good laugh at that, but I told them it was a hard 7 minutes.
Next Audrey was here and the deliberation over who would cut the cord began. My OB offered it to Erin first, she declined, next Trevor declined, I began to think I was going to have to cut her cord myself. Finally after a stern "Trevor get up and cut this cord," from Greg, Trevor relented and cut the cord.
The baby was then given to Erin and I was left with my OB who was dealing with my excessive blood loss. He got the bleeding to stop and finished up with me. The baby was doing great and my recovery period began. A normal recovery is an hour and a half, well mine was extended to five hours because you guessed it I started bleeding again. After two more bags of pito.cin, lots of painful uterine massage (by massage I mean pushing so hard I could feel it in my spine) and 4 cyto.tec pills place up my bottom I was stable enough for transfer to the post partum unit.
Once on the post partum unit I thought I was doing great and everything was fine until I got up to the bathroom. I felt a huge blood clot come out but when I got to the bathroom just one tiny clot was on the pad. That is when I realized it fell in the toilet. I thought great my nurse was my good friend Keisha who gets a little queasy with blood and the protocol is when a patient has a large blood clot you have to measure it. So I called for my sister to bring me a glove and I fished that thing out myself. The only thing available to place it in was a lid from my lunch at Gates BBQ so I placed it in that. Which is where the french fry rumor started, no I did not have a french fry in my blood clot, there may have been a few left in the lid. It is surprising that I left any in the lid because I did eat enough french fries it wouldn't be that surprising if one were in my clot. I called Keisha who had to check the clot and notify the doctor that my bleeding was continuing. She came back with a shot and lots of uterine massaging. Finally that was the last of my excessive bleeding. I think my uterus was afraid of Keisha and decided to behave.
That concludes my part of this journey and I will gladly pass the sleepless nights and crying baby on to Erin and Trevor. She is beautiful. Enjoy!
4 comments:
Thanks, Angie, for posting... and, you know, for birthing my baby and all.
Just one thing I HAVE to clarify in my defense, and she knows this was coming. I asked on about FIVE different occasions if the foot-filing was annoying Angie (because I admit, it WAS annoying, even to me) and she told me it was fine, so I had no idea it was bothering her. She is the epitome of calm under pressure in labor.
Other than that, I can definitely corroborate the parts about the intensity, bleeding, and french fries.
You guys crack me up.
Angie I must say, you are one hell of a sister and Erin is very lucky!
You are a wonderful person, and you have given two other wonderful people (Erin & Trevor) a gift that is beyond words...
You get the sister of the year award for sure!
OMG! Angie that was hilarious! I can just imagine you fishing the clot out of the toilet and putting in the bbq lid. HAHAHA!
Angie, it's a great thing you did for your sister and you have handled it with grace AND humor:)
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