whew--I'll try and make this the abbreviated version. Sebastian and Tillman were born on March 29 (due date of April 5). It's been a hard ride both leading up to and since the birth and hence the reason I'm only getting around to typing this up now.
Week 39 I went in for my midwife checkup. My blood pressure was up, and protein was in the urine, and one leg was so swollen I could no longer bend it. She said go home, then come back tomorrow for some natural induction techniques. Fine. Next day we went in, about 6 hours in I was having regular hard contractions but the dilation was minimal. 3 hours later they started to peter out. The midwife wanted to check me into the hospital to sleep and still be monitored because of the Pre-eclampsia signs then continue with more induction techniques the next morning. I was frustrated and laid on the bed while she went to do the paperwork. Next thing I felt were two hard kicks to the gut, and then a flood. Sebastian broke his bag of waters. He wanted out! So we said, okay, we're on.
I dilated 4 cm in 15 minutes with back to back rocking contractions, fighting off both the pain and the arrogant doctors who kept trying to tempt me with an epidural. There were, however, no breaks between. A doctor came in, looked at my swollen leg which had gotten worse and walked out. She walked back in with another doctor--because of the size difference between right and left. She was very concerned about a thrombosis (blood clot) and said that I would need to labor from a side-lying position. I nearly cried--maybe I did. THen the monitors started to go off. Baby B's (Tillman James) heartrate started dropping dramatically with each contraction. They gave me some medicine to slow down the contractions, it didn't touch them.
Finally, they looked at DH and said: she needs a C-section. The concern of a blood clot traveling up during the pushing stage, combined with the dropping heart rate made for a good case. DH asked for my permission when the contraction was at it's lowest point. Two blinks for "I'm okay with this" and one for "no." I sadly blinked twice. Done.
Sebastian and Tillman were born at 11:43 and 11:45 weighing 6 lb 12 oz and 6 lb 4 oz respectively. Tillman was put breifly on a CPAP machine as he had swallowed quite a bit of meconium, and both his color and oxygen levels were considerably off. If for no other reason, I'm glad the C-section happened as he might well have been even worse off with a natural birth based on what we saw. The pediatrician worked hard to get him breathing right so that he could sleep by me and was returned to me around 12:30 AM. I spent the night in the Labor and Delivery ward as both Tillman and I needed round the clock monitoring,
The next day was long. They had me still hooked up to the epidural and catheter and refused to let me stand until they had cleared any chance of a blood clot. They did an ultrasound around 3 in the afternoon which came back negative but they couldn't see my pelvis because of the surgery tissue etc. 2 hours later they threw paperwork at me said I need to sign, I needed a CAT scan right away and I was taking chances with my life if I didn't. All this, mind you, in a foreign language and DH was home with our oldest son. And, oh yes, you can't nurse for 48 hours becasue of the contrast medium in the test. I signed and was wheeled away. The test was negative.
They still refused to let me stand until the following AM (a full 36 hours after the C-section). My blood pressure kept rising and the swelling didn't seem to be going down at all, the protein was still quite high in the urine as well. The pre-eclampsia was not showing any signs of dissapating. I had to feed the two babies formula from the bottle until the contrast was out of my body. I pumped but felt horrible. After 2 days we started again, although the delay really messed with my supply and milk when it came in. The nursing staff was kess than supportive in my attempts to wean the babes from formula and after 24 hours more I was going nuts. I checked myself out against medical advice and came home with the promise that my midwife would give me daily blood pressure and swelling checks.
I've been on strict bedrest since then until today when, 9 days later, the blood pressure has FINALLY started to ever so slightly drop and I can see my ankles again. We are also 100% off of formula. I'm thrilled to have gone for my first walk outside since giving birth. It was a hard, scary road and certainly was NOT the birth I had imagined. However, I have 2 healthy wonderful baby boys, and one one the way to healthy Mama: I couldn't ask for anything more.
Good luck to those still waiting, congrats to those who have delivered and I can't wait to read all the wonderful stories!
Paula
Week 39 I went in for my midwife checkup. My blood pressure was up, and protein was in the urine, and one leg was so swollen I could no longer bend it. She said go home, then come back tomorrow for some natural induction techniques. Fine. Next day we went in, about 6 hours in I was having regular hard contractions but the dilation was minimal. 3 hours later they started to peter out. The midwife wanted to check me into the hospital to sleep and still be monitored because of the Pre-eclampsia signs then continue with more induction techniques the next morning. I was frustrated and laid on the bed while she went to do the paperwork. Next thing I felt were two hard kicks to the gut, and then a flood. Sebastian broke his bag of waters. He wanted out! So we said, okay, we're on.
I dilated 4 cm in 15 minutes with back to back rocking contractions, fighting off both the pain and the arrogant doctors who kept trying to tempt me with an epidural. There were, however, no breaks between. A doctor came in, looked at my swollen leg which had gotten worse and walked out. She walked back in with another doctor--because of the size difference between right and left. She was very concerned about a thrombosis (blood clot) and said that I would need to labor from a side-lying position. I nearly cried--maybe I did. THen the monitors started to go off. Baby B's (Tillman James) heartrate started dropping dramatically with each contraction. They gave me some medicine to slow down the contractions, it didn't touch them.
Finally, they looked at DH and said: she needs a C-section. The concern of a blood clot traveling up during the pushing stage, combined with the dropping heart rate made for a good case. DH asked for my permission when the contraction was at it's lowest point. Two blinks for "I'm okay with this" and one for "no." I sadly blinked twice. Done.
Sebastian and Tillman were born at 11:43 and 11:45 weighing 6 lb 12 oz and 6 lb 4 oz respectively. Tillman was put breifly on a CPAP machine as he had swallowed quite a bit of meconium, and both his color and oxygen levels were considerably off. If for no other reason, I'm glad the C-section happened as he might well have been even worse off with a natural birth based on what we saw. The pediatrician worked hard to get him breathing right so that he could sleep by me and was returned to me around 12:30 AM. I spent the night in the Labor and Delivery ward as both Tillman and I needed round the clock monitoring,
The next day was long. They had me still hooked up to the epidural and catheter and refused to let me stand until they had cleared any chance of a blood clot. They did an ultrasound around 3 in the afternoon which came back negative but they couldn't see my pelvis because of the surgery tissue etc. 2 hours later they threw paperwork at me said I need to sign, I needed a CAT scan right away and I was taking chances with my life if I didn't. All this, mind you, in a foreign language and DH was home with our oldest son. And, oh yes, you can't nurse for 48 hours becasue of the contrast medium in the test. I signed and was wheeled away. The test was negative.
They still refused to let me stand until the following AM (a full 36 hours after the C-section). My blood pressure kept rising and the swelling didn't seem to be going down at all, the protein was still quite high in the urine as well. The pre-eclampsia was not showing any signs of dissapating. I had to feed the two babies formula from the bottle until the contrast was out of my body. I pumped but felt horrible. After 2 days we started again, although the delay really messed with my supply and milk when it came in. The nursing staff was kess than supportive in my attempts to wean the babes from formula and after 24 hours more I was going nuts. I checked myself out against medical advice and came home with the promise that my midwife would give me daily blood pressure and swelling checks.
I've been on strict bedrest since then until today when, 9 days later, the blood pressure has FINALLY started to ever so slightly drop and I can see my ankles again. We are also 100% off of formula. I'm thrilled to have gone for my first walk outside since giving birth. It was a hard, scary road and certainly was NOT the birth I had imagined. However, I have 2 healthy wonderful baby boys, and one one the way to healthy Mama: I couldn't ask for anything more.
Good luck to those still waiting, congrats to those who have delivered and I can't wait to read all the wonderful stories!
Paula
s Paula, you've had a hard ride. I'm glad you are doing better now and your baby boys are back to 100% nursing 
: 
