The Whole, 60+ Hour Story

So, Friday the 3rd, I started having contractions at 5am. They were steady all day. All I could think of was that I didn't want to go to the hospital too early only to be sent home, so I waited them out until 9 pm. When we went in, I had only dilated to a 1.5. I was ticked. Anyway, there was a really nice nurse. She told me she thought it was real labor, but since I had such a long way to go, she would send me home with morphine and phenergan so I could get some sleep.

I woke up with every contraction that night, but by morning they had slowed down a little. But, even though they slowed down, they were way more painful. And, they started lasting for longer and longer. When I say longer, I mean we clocked one at 6 minutes. We headed to the hospital in the early afternoon. When we got there I was practically delirious. I told the nurse the contractions were farther apart, but they were way more intense and they were lasting up to 6 minutes. She said, "So, what made you think you needed to come in?" She was so rude. She gave me another shot and sent me home.

The worst thing about the shots were that I would wake up in the middle of a contraction totally unprepared for it. It would just be horrible, unannounced pain. And I was totally loopy from the meds.

We finally went back in at around 1am. By this time, we had all (my husband, my mom, and I) had all been awake way too long. I was about to loose it. We called the dr. before we went in because I was so afraid they would send me home again. We were insistent that they get me on Pitocin at that point. I was already 4 days over due by then. I was scheduled to be induced 2 days later. So, we went in. They reluctantly decided to let me stay, even though I wasn't dilated much more. I think I was at a 2 or so. When they hooked me up to the monitors (and I finally got an epidural), they realized I was indeed having 6 minute mega-contractions, and that every time I had one the baby's heart would drop! They started prepping me for a c-section. Every time the crazy contractions would happen, a team of nurses (including the really rude one) would come racing in and work on repositioning me so the baby's heart rate would rise. The mean nurse was totally back-peddling because she realized I wasn't just a wuss, and I had been in labor when she saw me before. If they would have sent me home a 3rd time, it would have been disastrous. I can't even really think about that...

The mean nurse finally saved me from a cs because she acted fast and gave me a shot that stopped my natural contractions. Then they slowly gave me more and more pitocin and I was able to dilate.

Several hours later, I had finally dilated. The epidural was wearing off at this point, but it mostly worked still. I pushed for an hour and a half. By this point, my body had had it. My upper back had gotten so cramped that I couldn't turn my neck. I think I had just been in bed in the same position for way too long with really tensed up muscles. It was hurting worse than contractions. I didn't cry with the contractions, but when I had to move my neck, I for sure cried. Anyway, the pain worsened when I was pushing, so I was in quite a lot of pain.

After the hour and a half, my dr said he would be willing to try the vacuum to get the baby out, but if it wasn't successful after 2 rounds of pushing he would have to wheel me down for an emergency c-section. He was an amazing doctor. I am so glad he was on call when he was. I don't think anyone would have been as open to letting me go as long as I did without a cs. So, he used the vacuum, and Samuel was finally born. He had passed meconium a long time before, so they said he was just green. I team of respiratory therapists were ready to work on him.

He was only 5 lbs 15.8 oz. The tech called out the weight, "15 lbs, 16 oz.." The dr said that in most countries that would be considered 6 pounds. They put him on my chest long enough to snap a picture and they rushed him to the Special Care Nursery with my husband. I felt really comforted that he would be okay. I don't know where the optimism came from. They put him on antibiotics and a glucose drip because he was really dehydrated. He was on oxygen for the first night, too.
I got to see him later on that night in the nursery. It was sad to go back to our room without him, but we finally got some really good sleep.

I somehow retained a TON of water. I'm not joking when I say a ton. I had no ankles. I'll have to show you a picture sometime. You won't believe it. I had 3 chins. I couldn't fit into my maternity clothes. Nobody recognized me. That lasted for about a week after he was born. That is another post entirely. Just wait.
I got to feed the baby every 3 hours or so while he was in the nursery. It was brutal. I never got to really hold him except to nurse. Then, they made us stay an extra day because they had to wean him off of the glucose. They let Mike and me stay at the hospital for an extra night for no charge, which was a huge blessing. The morning we were scheduled to take him home, Sam was looking very yellow. I was so worried that they wouldn't let us take him home. A nurse told me I was not to worry. They would probably put him under lights for a few days and he would be fine. I was devastated. It was 3am at that point. I went back to our room and sobbed. Luckily, the nurse didn't know what she was talking about. We got to take him home that afternoon.

When we finally got to take him home, we had to have him on a biliblanket because he had jaundice. He is healthy now except for some pretty bad reflux. He's on Prevacid for that, but it's still a problem. His thyroid test came back weird from his PKU, too, so we're waiting to see if it was a fluke thing. There are a lot of false positives for that, evidently.

Overall, I have to say that we saw some major miracles.

Just the fact that I didn't have to get a c-section is a miracle. Even more miraculous is how persistent we were about staying the 3rd time. That makes me so sick to think about the alternative! The stay in the Special Care Nursery was only a few days, as opposed to the weeks and months other people have to endure. The biggest miracle is that we have our baby home, and he's sleeping in my arms as I type this with one hand. He is so sweet and perfect. We couldn't possibly love him more.