Labor - Delivery - And The Road To Recovery

Friday July 10th 2009, Nathan and I arrive at Riverside Hospital for my scheduled induction at 6:45am. I was 41 weeks, 1 day (8 days overdue) and ready to meet our son.

The first thing the nurses did was start an IV with fluids to keep me hydrated. I like to think that needles do not hurt, but man oh man I remember how that IV hurt for 5 minutes before I started to realize it wasn’t there. It made me a bit nervous to think how that needle hurt and I started to wonder how I was going to manage the rest of the day.

At 8:15 another nurse arrived to begin distributing Pitocin; which helps jump start contractions. She explained to us how to watch the monitor for Tyler’s heart rate and my contractions. Prior to her starting the Pitocin she mentioned that I already had a few contractions on my own, but I could hardly tell. It just felt like stomach cramps.

A little while later I could feel the contractions becoming slightly stronger and the pitocin starting to work. A resident OBGYN came into my room to break my water to help speed up the process. While checking my cervix she mentioned that his head was still floating around and not fully engaged. Because of this she decided not to break my water and to wait a bit longer. She advised me to get out of bed and sit on a birthing ball to his head settle into my pelvis. As soon as she left the room and I sat on the ball, my next contraction hit my like a ton of bricks. The pain was so intense I felt like I couldn’t breathe and I wanted to cry but couldn’t because it hurt too badly. I told Nate that maybe the contraction was just stronger because the fact that the nurse had just checked my cervix for a few minutes. But nonetheless a minute and a half later another contraction came and it was just as painful. It became obvious that these were here to stay. Fifteen minutes later my nurse came into the room and Nate told her about the pain I was in and she offered me Nubain. She told me that it would make me relax and I would feel like I had a few too many margaritas. The thought of relaxing sounded good to me so I told me that I’d like to try it. She administered the Nubain and left the room. I began to feel a bit dizzy and out of it but the drug didn’t take away one single once of the pain! What the heck was the point of this drug??? My contractions were still just as painful but the minute and a half I had in between I felt cloudy and dizzy –this is not what I needed. Thirty minutes later the nurse asked me how I felt and I told her I was still in a lot of pain and the Nubain didn’t work. That is when she told me that it wasn’t meant to take away the pain – it was just meant to help me relax in between the contractions. Wish I would have known that 30 minutes ago. This is when we decided to I wanted the Epidural.

Roughly 20 minutes later the anesthesiologist came in and administered the epidural. I was 7cm dilated. There were two pricks in my back which felt like bad bee stings, but overall it was not as painful as I feared it might be. After the epidural was in place they had me lay on my left side and then on my right side to make sure it was evenly distributed. Roughly 30 minutes later I could tell that it brought relief to pain. What a weird feeling to have your legs numb and feel the contractions coming and going but no pain involved.

As the day progressed I began dilating 1cm every 2 hours. During this time I voiced several times that I felt really thirsty but was only allowed to have a small cup of ice chips; which did not satisfy my thirst.

Around 7:30 I was 9cm and nervous that I was getting ready to push. I was so frightened of what pushing and potentially tearing would feel like. I also noticed that I could feel slight cramping in my stomach and lower back and so I asked for them to ‘up’ my epidural. The anesthesiologist came back to the room and I felt satisfied knowing that I was now mentally prepared to go through this. Around 8pm my nursed checked my cervix and said I was 10cm and that should would now call in my doctor to begin the delivery. I asked my doctor if she would simply let me tear or if she would perform an episiotomy and she adamantly said that she does not like to do episiotomies and only does about 4 per year. She had the healing process is more painful and takes longer to heal then tearing naturally. I was happy to hear her say this and was glad that I wouldn’t have to go through that.

At 8:15pm I began to push – Three 10 second pushes per contraction until Tyler was delivered. After 45 minutes of pushing my doctor informed me that I was crowning and had torn a bit but his head seemed to be stuck. Around this time the nurse dropped the mirror so I could also watch. It was awesome to see Nate and the nurse talking and debating what color Ty’s hair would be. At this point it appeared to be blonde / brown. No red? What a surprise! With no progression being made, the doctor said I tore, but it wasn’t enough. She wanted to use a vacuum to help him out. She attached the vacuum to his head but it ‘popped’ off and didn’t work. After a few more contractions and no progress she said I would need an episiotomy. Thankfully that worked and Tyler was born at 9:30pm.
Nathan cut the umbilical cord and I briefly got to hold Tyler before the nurses wiped him down. I was overwhelmed with joy and got a few tears but to my surprises, didn’t cry. Tyler was then taken by the nurses for proper procedures while my doctor was stitching me up.

After delivery of Tyler and the Placenta I spiked a fever of 101, started aching, was very thirsty and shacking uncontrollably. It took my doctor about an hour to ‘clean up’ and she told me I had a 2nd degree episiotomy and had lost twice the amount of blood then a normal vaginal delivery. They gave me extra IV fluids since I was dehydrated and gave me another drug to stop the excessive bleeding.

After family came in to visit, the 3 of us were taken up to our post partum room. I remained immobile until about 4am – which meant having a catheter to urinate – oh what fun! I requested that Ty stay in our room and I wish someone would have told me he would be waking up every 20 minutes choking and spitting up brown amniotic fluids! I didn’t sleep a wink – not to mention I was in pain, achy and had a fever. The OxyContin wore off every 2 hours. Sunday morning the nurse came in to check my stitches from my 2nd degree episiotomy and told me that I had a few hemorrhoids. What is a hemorrhoid??? Uh, I wouldn’t have pushed so hard if I knew that this was going to happen!! Days later these got significantly worse which made me phone my Doctor to get a prescription cream. (Thankfully after about 4 weeks, ALL of them disappeared!!)


GOING HOME….

After our 48 hr stay in the hospital we took Tyler home on Sunday evening. What happened the next few days is a blur. However I do remember that I didn’t sleep more then 2-3 hours total from the Thursday before I was induced till Tuesday night when both my parents came to the rescue.

To make a really long story short – here is what happened in the first 2 weeks after we took Tyler home. Tuesday morning, July 14th Tyler woke up for his 2:30am feeding. We went through our normal routine however once I thought he was done he screamed for more. Then more, and more, and more….non-stop screaming and hunger through 11:30am the next morning when we decided to take him to the Dr. He weighed in at 7lbs 7oz – he lost a whole pound in 4 days was a cause for worry. Apparently he was starving and not getting enough food. We started to supplement him on formula to get his weight back up. I was instructed to begin pumping to see how many ounces I could produce and to heal since I was now scarred and bleeding from non-stop feedings. I went to Riverside to meet with the lactation consultant the next day to have her take a look and she recommended I use Jack Newman’s cream (only 3 pharmacies make it in Columbus) and she also thought I had Mastitis and suggested that I start pumping every 2 hours, around the clock for the next 48 hours – uh! I followed these instructions but was very very slow to heal and only produced between 13-15 oz of milk a day.
*OH, did I forget to mention that Tyler was having the WORST time trying to sleep on his back, on his side or in his car seat. NO matter what, he was crying, fussy or waking up every 20 minutes. He had a crazy startle reflex and constantly thought he was falling!! Also, Ty was the LOUDEST sleeper. He made crazy dinosaur noises, snored and sounded extremely congested. Because of this we decided to take him to the doctor to see if maybe he had reflux. Nate and I needed to get some sleep! Turns out the Dr didn’t know if he had reflux, said all this was probably normal, but prescribed Zantac to see if it helped. Also, we changed from Similac Advanced to Similac Sensative.

That night I woke up in the middle of the night with a fever of 100.3 and was feeling very achy and awful! I knew I still had whatever bug I caught Friday during delivery. The aches felt just like the FLU so I went to the OB the next day. She thought I might have mastitis and checked me for a UTI and other infections, but found nothing. Because it seemed to be a viral infection or the FLU, she prescribed Keflex to help fight the infection. Also they drew my blood to see if I was anemic since my Mom and Nate said I lost all color in my face the last couple of days. Turns out I was anemic. My Iron level was an 8 and it should be a 12, minimum. The Dr prescribed me Iron pills to take over the next 5 weeks.

The following week the lactation consultant suggested I take a prescription drug called, Reglan to help increase my milk supply. She told I need to be pumping at least 18 oz a day before I could begin breastfeeding again. I took Reglan for about 4 days, my milk peaked around 18oz a day, but I decided to stop taking the drug after seeing a commercial on TV from a law firm who was pursuing a class action lawsuit against the drug company that makes Reglan because people had been experiencing neurological disorders as side effect. After several weeks, and still trying to heal – I called the lactation consultant, told her that I stopped taking the drug and asked for her advice. She told me I could try breastfeeding again, but would need to supplement with formula no matter what – or – I could continue pumping at least 8 times a day.

I decided to pump because if Ty still needed formula, how would I know how much to give him if he was breastfeeding? Anyways, Ty was not the best sleeper for the first 7 weeks and was up all day long – fussy. I couldn’t find the time to pump expect in the morning, after Nate got off work and then twice before bed.

As a side, during week 4 I went to my OB to see why I still looked pregnant. Why was my stomach pouched out? She checked my cervix and everything was normal. She proceeded to tell me that my abdominal muscles tore during pregnancy and are now coming back together caused a bump. Once I was cleared at my 6 week appointment I could start working on my abs.

During week 5 Tyler went to his 1 month Dr appoint and weighed in at an impressive 11 lbs 1 oz. His head was in the 95th percentile, lol Hope he grows into his big head soon!

At my 6 week OBGYN checkup, I got cleared to work out again, my uterus was back in place, but it appeared that I had a nasty yeast infection of the breasts. WTF?? I didn’t even know you could get those! It sounds really really stupid now, but that explains the shooting pain in my breasts…I just thought it was from pumping. What did I know? I was a newbie at all this. Anyways, apparently I had this infection from probably the last 5 weeks and must have got it when my scabs were open and exposed. My doctor put me on 3 weeks of Diflucan to get rid of the infection. 3 weeks later I go back to my doctor because my infection was better, but not gone. From here I was put on another 2 weeks of Difulcan (but she increased the strength of the prescription) and also prescribed a cream. IN the mist of this, I told her of an uncomfortable feeling that my tissue was dried or scarred – you know where. Apparently this is something called Atrophy – which is when your body does not produce enough Estrogen to moisten the tissue and it’s usually caused from pregnancy and lactation. – Or as my mom put – Atrophy? You’re not a geriatric. I’ve never heard of someone your age getting that! Uh – so nonetheless, I received a month supply of some prescription or as I like to called it, estrogen cream. During this appointment I also pointed out, that on top of the last 15lbs I needed to lose, my abdominal muscles still seem ‘poofed’. She told me it could take between 6-8 months for them to flatten. This put me over the edge! UH, that is not acceptable. How am I going to fit into my clothes??? That night at the gym, I signed up for a personal trainer. I bought 64 sessions and plan on using them between now and Christmas. I am focused, ready to be healthy and more importantly, feel like me again!

Baby milestones to make note of:
4 weeks old – first real smile
August 10th first laugh
5 weeks old – first real coos
6 weeks old – lifts body off ground with forearms and hands

7 weeks old - starting to sprout hair (I consider this a big deal :) )
8 weeks old – starting to eat 5 oz at some feedings. Also transitioning to size 2 diapers!
8 weeks old 6 days – rolled from tummy to back took several minutes! September 10th 2009
10 weeks old – beginning to discover hands and feet