Tuesday night/Wednesday early morning marked beginning of labor...
Sort of...
They weren't contractions like with #1, but they also were not braxton hicks. The doctor wasn't sure she wanted to admit me over the phone, but said I should come in if I had concerns. BEing that these were regular progressive contractions, this was my second child and the fact that I live about 45 minutes away from the hospital, I told her I would be coming in. The least they could do is check me out and tell me I am not ready, but when I got there, they admitted me.
Thing is, I wasn't progressing as fast as the doctor wanted me to progress. I was having contractions, but they didn't feel as if they were progressing any longer (though they were still frequent and "real" contractions). So I get the options of having them break my water or giving me Pitocin first. Of course I let them break my water. There was baby poo in it, which warrented NICU nurses to come down when I went into transition labor so that they would be there to suction little baby boy when he comes out to make sure he didn't get any of that poo in his lungs...
My water now broken, I am experiencing increase in contration frequency and strength, but still not dilated as much as doc wanted me to be. Thus brings us to the Pitocin. Up until now I had been handling the contractions very well I think, but knowing they wanted to give me pitocin made me immediately want to opt for an epidural. Of course I asked for it, and just in time too, as the anesthesiologist had to go to a C-section in 45 minutes. This is where all my trouble began! Well, actually all my trouble happened when I agreed to the Pitocin, but this was all a snowballing situation.
HE comes in to stick me in the epidural space on my spine and misses multiple times. Of course he keeps jacking my back up with lidocain, which isn't the problem, the problem is that he can't find what he's looking for. He finally gets it in there SOMEWHERE and then tells me "it isn't in exactly the right place, so it may or may not work." Great, thanks doctor....
Guess what. It no workie. Pitocin is running in and I am practically dying from this horrendous pain. Good news is, the pitocin worked. It worked rather quickly, as two hours after it began going in (and after the "botched" epidural), I went from 5cm to ready for action....Well, not quite. The pressure got to be so strong though, and the pain with it, that I screamed (I don't scream in pain. I screamed). But if you REALLY want to get hospital workers into a room, you have to scream "I HAVE TO PUSH NOW!!" That'll draw everybody within shouting distance into your room.
I was only 8 cm, but 5 contractions later (a torturous amount of time) I was ready to go. It didn't take that long. This being my second child, thank God one part of the labor didn't take forever. I actually had two doctors in there. My OB doctor, and a doctor that I work with (a bit embarrassing to have people you work with see you in such a state of distress, but you can't help it)...Baby out, placenta out. Thank God. I tore again, but not hardly as much as with my first. Stitches hurt though...Everybody in that room knew that my epidural wasn't working. They said I am part of the natural child birth club now. I disagree. Natural childbirth does not involved multiple spinal injections and infusion of pitocin. blah...
So they get me cleaned up and over to post partum, where I first discover that I am suffering from a massive headache that is only relieved by laying down. That's right ladies and gentlemen - turns out mr. anesthesiologist went a little further than necessary and my spinal fluid was now leaking. Now, I don't deal with the spine too often in my line of work, but I know enough to know that this isn't extremely uncommon with spinal procedures, however, it IS uncommon with epidurals, because essentially you are not accessing that area with an epidural.
Anyway - nurses and doctors are not sure that this is the result of my epidural (hellOOOO??), but one nurse offers to get an anesthesiologist in to talk with me about my concerns. Turns out this doc came to the unit, read my chart, determined my headache wasn't spinal in nature, wrote his own note, and left the unit - without talking with me! I told the nurse my concerns later, and she thought he had, as she saw that he wrote a note on me. Finally the next nurse got one who was on call to come and look at my chart and talk to me. HE believed it was spinal in nature and decided I should have a blood patch in the AM. I had never heard of a blood patch, but as it turns out, it's like an epidural, but they take out about 20ccs of your blood and put it in the epidural space to clot off the leak and to begin to restore that pressure balance in the spine. SOMETHING like that anyway....
SO I had ANOTHER anesthesiologist do the blood patch. I have had my fill of epidurals, let me tell you! The patch worked, but not immediately, as it does with a lot of people. On top of that, I now had major back pain, thanks to my spine being a pin cushion over a period of three days...This earned me a discharge medication order of Percocet. Of course I had it filled, but took one or two with no relief. I just took Motrin. It was working before, it continued to work after I tried the percocet.
Many lessons learned this time around.
First of all - as a woman, my body was built to handle lots of stressors, including labor. I was doing absolutely fine, progressing at a tolerable rate of pain through my contractions, until I agreed to the pitocin. Of course that led to my decision for the epidural, which ultimately turned out not so great for me.
Secondly - narcotics are not better than OTC drugs for any ache/pain. I could have told you this before (as a nurse), but from the patient side, believe me. Tylenol, motrin...Take these OTC drugs with respect, because they alter your body, and can work wonders.
and lastly - birthing plan is important. Write down everything you want before hand (including plans for if things don't go exactly how you planned it) because you will not be thinking clearly the day of.
Well, that was all a week ago. I have a healthy baby boy right now, who is a mighty fine eater, and likes to sleep lots and lots. He's very different than my daughter, but differences can be a good thing.
As far as I am concerned, my back feels much better, I have no headaches anymore (no spinal headaches anyway), and am only dealing with the usual post partum issues.
Keep us in your prayers. We are dealing with a lot here at home - also still trying to buy this house. We should hear something this week apparently. *sigh*
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