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Well, I figured since I posted my first story, I might as well post my second as well.
Again, I was in the same hospital with the midwives. However, this time I had chosen an induction once I went post-dates. I didn't want to, but I was between a rock and a hard place. To make a long story short, my husband is Canadian, and we were in the process of getting his green card. The Immigration Office sent us a letter saying we had an appointment for an interview about 2 weeks after the baby was due. You CANNOT reschedule these appointments unless you have a dire emergency. Since I didn't want to be riding in a car for 10 hours in the middle of winter being post-date or possibly have just given birth, we chose to induce 2 days after my due date.
Now people can judge me all they like for choosing an induction, but it was my choice. I will say in advance I do have some anger about this c/s, but not because I had the c/s. It is completely directed at the hospital staff.
So we drove 50 miles to the hospital to arrive around 8 a.m. after dropping my older son off at daycare. This time we had a different midwife, but I liked her as well as I had actually seen her for most of my prenatal checkups. We got all settled into the hospital bed (different room this time, but still just as damn small). In comes the nurse to hook up the monitors and start the IV. I didn't know it at the time, but it was the same nurse who bungled my IV during my first birth. She had changed her hair and I didn't recognize her. I had all ready talked to the paramedic on duty down in the ER to let him know I might be needing his services. (It can be a good thing when your husband is a paramedic student and knows all the other medics by name). I told this nurse I had talked to the paramedic (which I think really irritated her), and she said "Don't worry. I never miss." I agreed to let her try, again, not knowing this was the nurse from before. She got the IV right away first try. After she left, my husband told me who she was. I couldn't believe it.
So ok, away we go with the lovely Pit-induced contractions. Nurse got all pissed at us cause we kept turning the monitor down. She kept saying "I need to be able to hear that out in the hallway so I can know if something is wrong." Bull....you can get off your butt and come in and check. Besides, between my husband (paramedic student), me (nursing student) and my doula (an LPN), I think we could tell if something was wrong. She soon gave up. Every little while, they kept coming in and turning up the Pit, because I wasn't "uncomfortable enough yet." This nurse's theory was that the Pit wasn't working if I didn't have to suffer through the contractions. Never mind that I have a great pain tolerance and was focusing on staying relaxed.
Eventually around noon I think, my midwife comes in to check on me. She asks if we can break my water to help things along. I agree, and this is where we started getting an inkling that this wasn't going to be a "normal" birth. She broke my water, but very little came out. I shifted positions, and it all came out in a gush. Suddenly, bam, the heart rate drops. We shift positions again, and the heart rate comes back up. The midwife checks me, and says the baby went up instead of coming down like it should. This confuses the heck out of her. After a while, we have a few more dips in the heart rate. My midwife decides to start an amnio-infusion. This seems to work, as we have no more dips in the heart rate.
A few hours later, as I was expecting, they hyperstimulate me with the Pit. Its at this point I decide to ask for pain meds. They bring in the Nubain, but just as they are about to give it, the heart rate plummets. Immediately they shut off the Pit, give me oxygen, and change my position. Up comes the heart rate, but at this point, my midwife knows something isn't right. She calls in the OB on call, who was the best OB I could have ended up with. This OB has the best rep and is even referred to as a closet midwife.
After some discussion between me, my doula, the midwife, and the OB, we agree to go for an epidural. This is both for pain relief (which I had wanted just before the decels) and in case of a c-section. I believe I was at a 6 at this point. This time around, the anesthesiologist speaks English. He was wonderful. The epidural got placed in no time, no complications. So by this time, I have an amnio-infusion, internal monitoring, the Pit restarted, and an epidural. After another hour or so, I keep progressing, but the heart rate comes down with each contraction. The OB agrees to leave things alone as long as the heart rate keeps coming back up.
Finally, I reach complete. Since I have the epidural (and it was stronger than my last one), I have to be told when to push. However, after a few pushes, I can feel my body take over. I keep pushing and pushing, but the baby won't descend. The OB lets me keep trying because he wants to try a vacuum to bring the baby down. However, my son just won't come down enough. He is just shy of being able to attach the vacuum.
After trying this for at least half an hour, the OB says I probably need a c-section. He says there is a reason that the baby won't come down, he's just not sure why. So I agree to the c-section, mostly because I felt something different when I pushed. It was like I could feel my body holding me back from pushing, like it knew better. Sure, it was making me push, but not with all the strength I had with my first. Its hard to explain.
After getting the lovely antacid and waiting for the OR to be prepped (which thankfully, was just down the hall), off I go to the OR. My husband calls my mother to tell her our older son will need to stay the night. After he gets done with the phone, the OB tells my husband he'll be able to watch, he'll just have to wait until they get me ready. My midwife assisted in the surgery. Since my doula wasn't going to be allowed in, she went down the hall to call her family to check on them. This is where my birth kinda went to hell.
The RN running the OR refused to let my husband in because he wasn't in scrubs. I didn't know this at the time. All I knew is that after the anesthesiologist had me all prepped, he asked if I needed anything. I said "I would like my husband!" Off he goes to grab my husband, overruling the RN. By this time, my husband had gone around to the nursery door and had put on scrubs to appease the RN. So the anesthesiologist lets him in and sits him right by me. By this time surgery had started. Soon I hear its a boy. Next thing I hear is a nurse ask my husband if he wants to stay with me or go with the baby. He replies he wants to go with the baby and they say "Well, you better get going then! He's on his way to the nursery." My husband kisses me and leaves. I was so MAD! I didn't even get to see my son! It wasn't like he was even in any distress. His first Apgar was 7 and his second was 9! I find out as the OB is closing that my son had a short cord tight around his neck twice, which is why he couldn't descend. I totally expected the c/s to go like you see on Birth Story. I expected to be shown my son and have a chance to touch him. Nope, none of that. I was in so much shock I really didn't know how to express my desires. And I had no one there with me....my husband was with the baby and my doula couldn't come in the OR.
After I was all closed up, I was wheeled off to recovery, which was on a completely different floor. I didn't even know how much my baby weighed or anything! Down I went to recovery at about 11 p.m., in a room all by myself except for the one nurse. She was nice though, and really pushed for the anesthesiologist to get me out of there ASAP. Once they saw how fast the epidural was wearing off, they cleared me to go back upstairs. I was only in recovery for like 40 mins. Soon I was back up on the OB floor, getting settled into my room. It was another 30 mins before they thought to tell my husband where I was.
In he comes with our son and our doula. I immediately try to nurse him, and he does ok. By this time I am an expert at the football hold, which is definitely necessary with a c/s incision. I can't get over how tiny he is compared to our firstborn. My first was 8lbs 11 oz, this one was only 7 lbs 3 oz. Once my doula hears what happened in the OR, she's livid. She said she knows the RN who wasn't going to let my husband in, and she's not surprised. She says he has a tendency to be a control freak. But if she had known that things were going to be messed up like that, she would have stayed with my husband. She apologizes and makes sure I am settled in. At this point, she'd been at the hospital for 16 hours, so I tell her to go home to her family.
I also decide to send my husband home, because he'll need to be there in the morning for older son. Plus, I knew he'd sleep better at home. He agrees to come back the next morning.
Overall, I totally accepted the c/s as being necessary. We tried everything we could to have a vaginal birth. Mother nature knew better, however, and so I ended up with a c/s. My OB and my midwife speculated that the cord might have been around his neck for a while, and that might have been why he was so much smaller. We'll never know for sure.
To this day, I still hold some resentment towards the hospital staff. However, since we moved away 5 months later, I don't have to deal with that hospital again. We ended up rescheduling the immigration appointment until after New Year's and took our housemate along to help with the baby. It was still unpleasant to travel, but in the end, my husband got his green card and I had a healthy baby.
Again, I was in the same hospital with the midwives. However, this time I had chosen an induction once I went post-dates. I didn't want to, but I was between a rock and a hard place. To make a long story short, my husband is Canadian, and we were in the process of getting his green card. The Immigration Office sent us a letter saying we had an appointment for an interview about 2 weeks after the baby was due. You CANNOT reschedule these appointments unless you have a dire emergency. Since I didn't want to be riding in a car for 10 hours in the middle of winter being post-date or possibly have just given birth, we chose to induce 2 days after my due date.
Now people can judge me all they like for choosing an induction, but it was my choice. I will say in advance I do have some anger about this c/s, but not because I had the c/s. It is completely directed at the hospital staff.
So we drove 50 miles to the hospital to arrive around 8 a.m. after dropping my older son off at daycare. This time we had a different midwife, but I liked her as well as I had actually seen her for most of my prenatal checkups. We got all settled into the hospital bed (different room this time, but still just as damn small). In comes the nurse to hook up the monitors and start the IV. I didn't know it at the time, but it was the same nurse who bungled my IV during my first birth. She had changed her hair and I didn't recognize her. I had all ready talked to the paramedic on duty down in the ER to let him know I might be needing his services. (It can be a good thing when your husband is a paramedic student and knows all the other medics by name). I told this nurse I had talked to the paramedic (which I think really irritated her), and she said "Don't worry. I never miss." I agreed to let her try, again, not knowing this was the nurse from before. She got the IV right away first try. After she left, my husband told me who she was. I couldn't believe it.
So ok, away we go with the lovely Pit-induced contractions. Nurse got all pissed at us cause we kept turning the monitor down. She kept saying "I need to be able to hear that out in the hallway so I can know if something is wrong." Bull....you can get off your butt and come in and check. Besides, between my husband (paramedic student), me (nursing student) and my doula (an LPN), I think we could tell if something was wrong. She soon gave up. Every little while, they kept coming in and turning up the Pit, because I wasn't "uncomfortable enough yet." This nurse's theory was that the Pit wasn't working if I didn't have to suffer through the contractions. Never mind that I have a great pain tolerance and was focusing on staying relaxed.
Eventually around noon I think, my midwife comes in to check on me. She asks if we can break my water to help things along. I agree, and this is where we started getting an inkling that this wasn't going to be a "normal" birth. She broke my water, but very little came out. I shifted positions, and it all came out in a gush. Suddenly, bam, the heart rate drops. We shift positions again, and the heart rate comes back up. The midwife checks me, and says the baby went up instead of coming down like it should. This confuses the heck out of her. After a while, we have a few more dips in the heart rate. My midwife decides to start an amnio-infusion. This seems to work, as we have no more dips in the heart rate.
A few hours later, as I was expecting, they hyperstimulate me with the Pit. Its at this point I decide to ask for pain meds. They bring in the Nubain, but just as they are about to give it, the heart rate plummets. Immediately they shut off the Pit, give me oxygen, and change my position. Up comes the heart rate, but at this point, my midwife knows something isn't right. She calls in the OB on call, who was the best OB I could have ended up with. This OB has the best rep and is even referred to as a closet midwife.
After some discussion between me, my doula, the midwife, and the OB, we agree to go for an epidural. This is both for pain relief (which I had wanted just before the decels) and in case of a c-section. I believe I was at a 6 at this point. This time around, the anesthesiologist speaks English. He was wonderful. The epidural got placed in no time, no complications. So by this time, I have an amnio-infusion, internal monitoring, the Pit restarted, and an epidural. After another hour or so, I keep progressing, but the heart rate comes down with each contraction. The OB agrees to leave things alone as long as the heart rate keeps coming back up.
Finally, I reach complete. Since I have the epidural (and it was stronger than my last one), I have to be told when to push. However, after a few pushes, I can feel my body take over. I keep pushing and pushing, but the baby won't descend. The OB lets me keep trying because he wants to try a vacuum to bring the baby down. However, my son just won't come down enough. He is just shy of being able to attach the vacuum.
After trying this for at least half an hour, the OB says I probably need a c-section. He says there is a reason that the baby won't come down, he's just not sure why. So I agree to the c-section, mostly because I felt something different when I pushed. It was like I could feel my body holding me back from pushing, like it knew better. Sure, it was making me push, but not with all the strength I had with my first. Its hard to explain.
After getting the lovely antacid and waiting for the OR to be prepped (which thankfully, was just down the hall), off I go to the OR. My husband calls my mother to tell her our older son will need to stay the night. After he gets done with the phone, the OB tells my husband he'll be able to watch, he'll just have to wait until they get me ready. My midwife assisted in the surgery. Since my doula wasn't going to be allowed in, she went down the hall to call her family to check on them. This is where my birth kinda went to hell.
The RN running the OR refused to let my husband in because he wasn't in scrubs. I didn't know this at the time. All I knew is that after the anesthesiologist had me all prepped, he asked if I needed anything. I said "I would like my husband!" Off he goes to grab my husband, overruling the RN. By this time, my husband had gone around to the nursery door and had put on scrubs to appease the RN. So the anesthesiologist lets him in and sits him right by me. By this time surgery had started. Soon I hear its a boy. Next thing I hear is a nurse ask my husband if he wants to stay with me or go with the baby. He replies he wants to go with the baby and they say "Well, you better get going then! He's on his way to the nursery." My husband kisses me and leaves. I was so MAD! I didn't even get to see my son! It wasn't like he was even in any distress. His first Apgar was 7 and his second was 9! I find out as the OB is closing that my son had a short cord tight around his neck twice, which is why he couldn't descend. I totally expected the c/s to go like you see on Birth Story. I expected to be shown my son and have a chance to touch him. Nope, none of that. I was in so much shock I really didn't know how to express my desires. And I had no one there with me....my husband was with the baby and my doula couldn't come in the OR.
After I was all closed up, I was wheeled off to recovery, which was on a completely different floor. I didn't even know how much my baby weighed or anything! Down I went to recovery at about 11 p.m., in a room all by myself except for the one nurse. She was nice though, and really pushed for the anesthesiologist to get me out of there ASAP. Once they saw how fast the epidural was wearing off, they cleared me to go back upstairs. I was only in recovery for like 40 mins. Soon I was back up on the OB floor, getting settled into my room. It was another 30 mins before they thought to tell my husband where I was.
In he comes with our son and our doula. I immediately try to nurse him, and he does ok. By this time I am an expert at the football hold, which is definitely necessary with a c/s incision. I can't get over how tiny he is compared to our firstborn. My first was 8lbs 11 oz, this one was only 7 lbs 3 oz. Once my doula hears what happened in the OR, she's livid. She said she knows the RN who wasn't going to let my husband in, and she's not surprised. She says he has a tendency to be a control freak. But if she had known that things were going to be messed up like that, she would have stayed with my husband. She apologizes and makes sure I am settled in. At this point, she'd been at the hospital for 16 hours, so I tell her to go home to her family.
I also decide to send my husband home, because he'll need to be there in the morning for older son. Plus, I knew he'd sleep better at home. He agrees to come back the next morning.
Overall, I totally accepted the c/s as being necessary. We tried everything we could to have a vaginal birth. Mother nature knew better, however, and so I ended up with a c/s. My OB and my midwife speculated that the cord might have been around his neck for a while, and that might have been why he was so much smaller. We'll never know for sure.
To this day, I still hold some resentment towards the hospital staff. However, since we moved away 5 months later, I don't have to deal with that hospital again. We ended up rescheduling the immigration appointment until after New Year's and took our housemate along to help with the baby. It was still unpleasant to travel, but in the end, my husband got his green card and I had a healthy baby.
