Here we go again, round 2. It is time to have a baby.
My due date was March 21, 2022. My in-laws landed on March 1st. We expected 3 full weeks before baby boy would make his grand entrance. We thought maybe he would come early but in all honesty, we had no idea.
At the beginning of the month, I messaged a good friend of mine who was also expecting a baby a week before me. I wanted to have one last girl time sesh before the babies came. She told me that she had already given birth, baby boy came 2 weeks early. That sent us all in a bit of a tailspin. Everyone became convinced that I would give birth early. It was a little stressful just waiting. I later found out my friend was on a bit of a mission to give birth early, she was beyond ready to give birth so she did all the things to make baby come before her due date.
Here we were at my 39 week appointment, I was waiting what seemed like forever (it usually is forever waiting for that doctor) to find out if I was dilated or if there was more chance of me making my due date. Thankfully I was 1.5 cm dilated and the doctor did a membrane sweep (ouchie that one hurt). The next day, as I got ready to go take my shower, I saw that I lost my mucus plug. For all those women who didn’t lose it, count your blessings, that was one disgusting thing to see. But nevertheless it made me excited that things were moving and that baby boy would be making his entrance sooner than we thought.
That Tuesday night, I went to bed earlier than usual, in case things started in the night, I figured I needed all the rest I can get. There I was catching up on RHONJ and low and behold, I started to feel some mild contractions. YIPPEE it was starting. I know who gets excited about the idea of pushing a baby out, but I was more prepared this time, I knew I would be getting the epidural and that the pain of the contractions would only last so long. My other thing was hoping that my water wouldn’t break at home, I really wanted that to happen at the hospital. No mess please and thank you.
Wednesday came and the contractions were so sporadic and followed no real pattern. Until about 8-9pm. At some point they were every 2-3-4 minutes and getting more intense. We were certain that we would be leaving in the middle of the night to go to the hospital. I even called the birthing center to make sure I knew what to look for so they wouldn’t tell me to come home. The nurse I spoke with told me, since this was my second pregnancy that I had to have contractions every 5 minutes for at least an hour or if my contractions were less than 5 minutes apart for 30 minutes to make my way ASAP. Of course, throughout the night, the contractions eased up and I pretty much slept throughout the night. No contractions waking me up. I was feeling discouraged, I was sure I was going to have a St-Patty’s Day baby.
Thursday morning was similar, sporadic contractions, no time pattern but they were getting a little more intense as the day went on, certain ones were lasting over 1 minute each. After lunch, things started becoming a little more regular and around 2:30pm I told David if my contractions keep going like they have been, at 3pm we are in the car going to the hospital. Sure enough, things kept going and it was time to move. This mama definitely cried when I went to pick Kaylee up to give her a hug. It was my first time ever leaving her for more than a few hours. I thought that was going to be the hardest part of giving birth this time around. Like I mentioned, I was planning on getting the epidural and wasn’t too worried about the rest. Boy was I about to be taught a lesson. More on that in a bit.
We got to the hospital around 3:30pm and went to triage. We met with one nurse, who took down some information and started getting me prepped (hospital gown etc.) She told us a resident was going to come see us to check how dilated I was and then we would be brought into a delivery room. It felt like forever before the resident came to see us. It actually was, I think it was almost 5pm or even later by the time someone came in. By then I had had a few contractions and they were being monitored. Every time I had one, we were looking at the baby’s blood pressure as well as the number that was measuring my contractions. The highest it went was 66. They were definitely getting stronger and lasting longer.
When the resident finally came to see us, he checked me and told me I was 4cm dilated. He seemed pretty optimistic that we would have a St Patty’s Day baby. He kept saying it would be going fast this time. That definitely made me happy to hear. I was hoping things would move quickly seeing as the contractions had been going on for so long. I told him I was planning on getting the epidural so he told me that the doctor would break my water after the epidural was in, as that would help with the contractions (I got the epidural after breaking my water with Kaylee, definitely didn’t want to do it in that order again).
The nurse then came again, to insert a catheter for the IV fluids as well as the antibiotics as I tested positive for GBS once again. We were finally brought to our delivery room not too long after that. Not long after being in our room, we met the nurse who would be with us for the evening and hopefully would help deliver baby boy. She was super nice and helpful. She definitely made me feel comfortable and confident that everything would run smoothly. We discussed that my plan was, epidural vs no epidural etc. I told her that I wanted the epidural and we would make sure if would happen before they break my water (did the opposite with Kaylee and oh boy did s*&$ ever get real when they broke my water, I couldn’t wait for the pain to go away). One nurse was suggesting I wait as I was managing my pain just fine, but after thinking it over and discussing with David, we said no lets get it done now. Good thing we did, it took almost 2 hours before they actually came and did it.
This is where the not so fun part began, as I would soon find out. When the anesthesiologist came in, she had me sit on the edge of the bed, hugging the pillow with my head down, like I did with Kaylee. She walked me through the steps, letting me know what I would feel as she was doing everything. Once I thought they were done, our nurse informed me that they inserted the catheter into the wrong space, the spinal space she called it and would have to start over. Little did I know how bad this little “mistake” would be. They did it again and it worked, everything was going fine, I wasn’t feeling my contractions as much and thought this is going to be a breeze just like last time.
It was 8:50pm when they started the epidural. By 10:30 the doctor passed by to check how dilated I was and then to break my water. I was only 5cm, both David and I were so disappointed, I was sure with the contractions I had been having since getting to the hospital that I would have been further along. Luckily things started moving faster once my water broke I just didn’t feel it.
It was about 12:30 when they came back to check how dilated I was. The doctor said I was 7-8cm. Again, the disappointment filled the room. I was ready to deliver but I was also thinking the faster he comes into the world, the faster we get to go back home to our baby Kaylee. No later than 10 minutes after I was last checked, I told David that I was feeling an intense pressure in my poop shoot. I recognized that pressure, I knew what that pressure meant, it was go time. I called in the nurse, and she was calm as a cucumber, telling me don’t worry we have time, we’ll slowly get the room prepped. I told her I don’t think we have time, its happening, he is coming now. Sure enough, she checked me again and I was not only fully dilated, but she could see his head. It was go time. She called for the doctor and as quick as she could prepped the room and the bed. By the time the doctor came and I started pushing, he was out in 3 minutes.
Those 3 minutes were the most excruciatingly painful minutes in my life. I ripped, I felt everything, I felt broken. It just hurt so badly. I had no support from the nurses in terms of pushing, I just gave everything my body had into every push. Then the next shot of pain, when the doctor sewed up my rip. O.M.G I felt every time the needle pushed through my skin, I am still surprised I didn’t kick the doctors in the face. It was so painful. Luckily it didn’t last too long and it was done. Then we got to see our little guy, David Thomas, weighing 8.4 lbs. we had to wait for the nurses in the maternity ward to measure him for height but he was long just like his sister.
The nice nurse came by, removed all the tape from my back from the epidural and started prepping us to move to our next room for the next little while. It was taking longer than expected, they had 5 births that night, more than they were expecting as well. I was feeling good, walking around until all of a sudden I started a painful headache and started feeling really bad. David was walking around with the baby and called a nurse to come in, describing my sudden side effects. The nurse came running and right away gave me Tylenol and lay me down. I stayed lying down for a bit, until they came to get me to go to the maternity ward.
Being in the wheel chair was not great. I felt dizzy, and this paralysing pain, something I have never experienced before. I just concentrated so hard on my breathing to help get me to the next room. It was the hardest thing I had ever been through. I couldn’t stand, I was only able to lay down. Thankfully I could breastfeed on my side. I had Tylenol given to me every 4-6 hours and an ice pack in my neck. At some point the nurse came to see me and I told her I was really not doing well. The pain was getting more intense and I was not dealing well. They sent the anesthesiologist to come see me. They kept repeating that it was not the epidural but the way I pushed that caused the pain. Thats all they would say would explain the pain. Finally someone came to see me, after my continuous complaining of the pain, they prescribed oxycodone to help me deal. I took a pill on Friday night and luckily I was able to stand and move around a little. It made me feel so much better. unfortunately it wore off by the time we finally got discharged (it took forever for the paediatrician to come see David on Saturday morning, and we were waiting for the technician to come for the hearing test). David Sr went numerous times to the nurses station asking when we would be discharged, that we wanted to go home and see Kaylee. We saw the paediatrician and about 2 hours later, we still hadn’t seen the technician for the hearing test. We finally found out that no technician was actually at the hospital so there was no way the hearing test was actually going to be done. We would have to go back. We were so frustrated. Finally we got discharged and we got to go home.
The week that followed was the most difficult time ever. I had a spinal headache, and I was stuck in my bed from Saturday afternoon until about Wednesday morning. Not being able to see Kaylee, and spend time with my new family broke my heart. On top of it being the most difficult time physically, emotionally I was broken. I was crying constantly. I couldn’t take being away from Kaylee, I couldn’t stand everyone waiting on me hand and foot. Its not something I enjoy, I like doing things for myself, doing things for my family. But here I was getting every meal brought to me, with my food cut up. I was getting David Jr brought to me every time it was meal time. It was just horrible.
On the Monday morning, I got a call from the head anesthesiologist who finally admitted that they had screwed up doing my epidural and that they hit spinal fluid. Although it provided no relief, I was happy they finally admitted that it was their fault. She prescribed some oxycodone and told me to take it if it could help. I was thankful for that knowing that if the pain got too bad, I had something that could help. I took one pill a day for a few days until the pain was bearable enough for me to be functional again. The relief I felt when I could finally be up and about with my babies was indescribable. I will never forget this experience, although as horrific as it all was, it brought me my beautiful son, and that I wouldn’t exchange it for anything in the world.
