Like, wow, man.
Dec 5, 2005 Okay, so I sent Bryan off to have coffee with a friend, Charlotte's sleeping, and the girls are watching Bambi, so I have a few minutes to post.
For brevity's sake, I'm going to try and pare down the birth story, otherwise this post would end up being pages and pages and pages long. And, frankly, I find that I have less time these days to be on the computer than I would like.
Anywho, Bryan and I called my mom over and we went in to the hospital on Sunday night. The doc came in and checked me out, and my labor wasn't progressing AT ALL, so they decided to give me a cervix softener to speed things up. They dosed me at about 7:30pm, and the doc's instructions were that once I was dilated a couple of centimeters more I was to be given pitocin (EVIL!).
The cervix softener can be dosed every 4 hours, but by 11:30 the nurse hadn't come in to check me (or my cervix), and I was getting frustrated. Bryan and I both tried to get some sleep, but that wasn't happening. I was laying in the bed, trying not to bump the I.V. in my hand, and trying not to fall out of that damn uncomfortable bed. Since the nurse hadn't come to check on me, and since I wasn't getting any rest, and since the cervix softener wasn't DOING anything, and since I couldn't eat or drink, and since I was totally annoyed, I woke Bryan up and told him I wanted to leave.
We got up and he disconnected the I.V. line, and we both got dressed. About 5 minutes later (as we were gathering up our things) the nurse came in the room. It was after midnight at this point, and I told her that if I was just going to be laying in a bed being ignored by the staff that I would go home and come back if anything changed.
She didn't like that very much, so she called the House Supervisor and my treating doctor. The supervisor came in and talked with Bryan, and my doctor called me on the phone in my room trying to convince me to stay. In the end, after much heated debate, Bryan and I decided to stay the course and see what happened, with the promise that if nothing changed in the next couple of hours, come hell or high water, we would leave.
My little shenanigans must've set the doctor off, though, because the nurse went ahead and gave me pitocin even though I hadn't dilated any further. She started the pitocin drip at 1:30am, and by 2:00am I was at 4cm and I asked for pain meds.
The anesthesiologist was in the OR working on someone, and wasn't responding to his pages, so I pretty much went through the whole pitocin induced nightmare with no pain meds. I went from 4cm and 60% effaced to fully dilated and effaced two hours later. I was in terrible pain, but I only cursed twice (I am SO impressed with myself!) and Bryan was really great through the whole thing, holding my hand and giving me support and helping me breathe through the contractions.
The anesthesiologist actually came up to my room right around the time I was fully dilated, and I didn't think they would still give me the epidural, but they offered and I accepted (dumb thing to do in retrospect). He dosed me three times, but it didn't take effect AT ALL, so it was pointless and I really shouldn't have had one.
It took 3 pushes to deliver the baby, and when the doctor announced that it was a girl Bryan and I actually high-fived each other, and I think I yelled, "Hell yeah it's a girl! TOLD YA!", and then I proceeded to feel incredibly drunk. I asked the nurses if they were pushing drugs in my I.V., and they kindly told me that THAT was the epidural finally taking effect. Oh joy. So, I don't get any relief during the actual labor and delivery, but I DO get to feel too drunk to hold my daughter. Yeah. Suck.
So, blah blah blah, at about 8am we were taken to the recovery room, and since I felt great, and Charlotte had peed and pooped I wanted to know what it would take for the doctors to let us go home that day. Okay, here's where it gets really long and convoluted, but let's just say the staff didn't want to discharge us (they never really gave us a reason why not) and I really wanted to be discharged (unless there was a reason for us to stay). Bryan finally ended up talking to the right people, evidently, because the pediatrician came in and checked Charlotte out, pronounced her in excellent health, and wrote her discharge papers. So, by 2pm we were headed home.
I'm obviously disappointed with the experience for many reasons, and I told Bryan that I am absolutely NOT getting pregnant EVER AGAIN, unless I can be 100% assured of having a home birth. I hate doctors, I hate hospitals, and I hate not being in control of my medical care. It frickin' sucks.
Anyway, there you have it. Nursing is going incredibly well, and the girls have adjusted to having a newborn in the house much better than I thought they would. Phoebe gives Charlotte kisses and hugs every time she sees her, and Marissa can't stop petting Charlotte's head.
All in all, I feel incredibly blessed.
Reader Comments (12)
MWAH!
And congratulations on your beautiful little one.
so glad that things are going smoothly at home and hope that you have more time to get on the puter to post more pics of all THREE of your beautiful girls :)
hugs.