April 8, 2004 – at 9:00 AM I had an appointment at Madigan for a growth scan ultrasound to check the baby’s weight. Going in the doctor told me that because I was past 36 weeks if they saw any problem at all, they would induce me…problems like poor growth or low amniotic fluid for example.
Right away he noticed there was very little fluid (AFI was 4) so he told me to prepare for induction. He continued the scan and told me the estimated fetal weight was 6 pounds 13 ounces. So there was no problem with growth. Then he had my husband come in to see some of the ultrasound and to inform him we would probably be starting an induction shortly.
We prepared as best we could during the hour and a half we were waiting for a Non-Stress Test (NST). I called my mom and she changed her flight to come in later that night instead of the 13th. They finally hooked me up and told me they were going to start and IV drip to hopefully raise my fluid levels and send my home the next morning. Johnny left for home (1 hour away), because there was no one to watch our 23 month old son. So I stayed and they started my IV drip and I watched crappy television for hours. Apparently they were very very busy that day, which is why they didn’t start my induction as they had told us they would. They were also to busy to remember to change my saline bag (which was wide open) 5 times!!! Each time my IV needed to be flushed.
Also the amount of fluid they were giving me and told me to drink was making me need to use the restroom CONSTANTLY, but to go I had to push the button for a nurse to help me. One time I waited nearly an hour after pushing my call button before someone finally came into the room to help me, I barely made it to the bathroom. They also forgot to feed me and by the time they came in to repeat my AFI, I was very ready to go home. The AFI was between 10 and 12. They also did a cervical exam at this time and found I was only finger tip dilated and very long.
Johnny came to pick me up and we left for the airport to pick my mom up right away.
April 9, 2004 – After a long and emotional day we were glad to be home and happy to have my mom there. We went shopping at Target and picked out the outfits we wanted to take the baby home in; a boy outfit and a girl outfit.
Then after some debate we decided that my mom would go to the hospital with me for the AFI that Madigan told me to go in and have…Then Johnny could go in on Monday for my next one and be there Tuesday April 13th for the amniocentesis.
So my mom and I got to the hospital and told the nurse all about the previous day, did the NST and when the OB came in to do the AFI he got an index of 4.6 (which is below the minimum of 5 and well below where they would have felt comfortable). He expressed his concerns and told us he disagreed with Madigan hydrating me and sending me home since my AFI’s have been fluctuating for the past couple weeks. So he said, “How would you feel about an amniocentesis today?” I said, “OK, I guess,” even though I was nervous.
I called my husband, Johnny, right away, already regretting the decision to take my Mom and not him simply because I wanted him there in case anything went wrong! We only had one car and I had Gavin’s car seat with me, so he couldn’t even get a ride. I felt terrible but we pressed on.
The OB came into the room to start the amnio but with my lack of fluid he could not get a good pocket. So he left the room for a while. We waited for a time and he came back and said, “I’m sending you down to Madigan to have this baby.” They got all of the paperwork and my chart ready to go and the nurse told us the OB was going to send us by ambulance but she told him to let us drive to have time to get used to the idea of having this baby.
Once we reached the parking garage I called Johnny and said, “Get ready! They’re sending me to Madigan to have this baby tonight!” He was excited and packed his bag while my mom and I drove home.
At home we made reservations for my mom at the base where they were sending us to; that way Gavin was close and they could visit when the baby was born without Johnny having to drive over an hour to pick them up. We took about an hour at home but eventually made it down to Madigan and after about 30 minutes of attempting to find where my mom was staying we checked her in and made it to the hospital.
So up to 3 North we went with all of our bags and everything ready for induction. Well here we go again…
At first they didn’t know who I was or why I was there. Then they stuck me in a room and hooked me up to the monitors and left me there without any information, I was starting to wonder what was going on.
Eventually someone came in and did ANOTHER AFI to check my fluid again; I figured that wasn’t a good sign for an induction. It was around 8. The resident who was seeing me began to question why I was there. After a bit we went to another room to wait for a speculum exam and a cervical check…everything looked good and I was 1-2 cm.
Now I really believed there would be no induction. I was very frustrated, this was the second time in two days I was told I was being induced and wasn’t. I just wanted to know what was going on. Around 11 PM the finally came back in and told me the plan was to do an amnio in the morning. They brought me some food because I wouldn’t be able to eat anything past midnight and I would be hungry. That was when Johnny left to stay with my mom and Gavin at their cabin.
The nurses came in to get me ready. 2 nurses tried 4-5 times each to start and IV but couldn’t so they paged the anesthesiologist. In the meanwhile the doctors had ordered some blood work so they stuck me a few times and eventually got some blood. Apparently they also ordered a catheter urinalysis, which hurt like heck and I bled from for a while. I started getting the chills and feeling dizzy around 12:30 AM. Shortly after the anesthesiologist showed up and got the IV into my wrist (OUCH!). They started more saline and tested my blood sugar to see why I was shaking, it was normal. The shaking eventually stopped and they got me moved to another room, not reserved for labor and delivery.
April 10, 2004 – After a very long night and no sleep my nurse told me she heard that they would NOT be doing the amnio that day. I was so frustrated and tired of not knowing what was going on, I broke down and started crying; that was when my Mom, Johnny, and Gavin showed up, it made things easier. The hospital wanted to keep me until the next week and do the amniocentesis then, but my Mom and Johnny asked if I could go home that day and celebrate Easter with my family and do the amnio at the Bremerton hospital that I usually went to. They agreed and I was out by 11:30 AM with instructions to stay in bed and show up at Bremerton Naval Hospital first thing in the morning on April 12 for another AFI and NST.
The rest of the day was highly emotional, as was the following day which was Easter.
April 12, 2004 – On Monday morning I showed up as I was told, bright and early. They were surprised to see me back and apologized for the ordeal. NST and AFI went great; AFI was 16! They worked hard to get me out of the hospital as soon as possible. My new instructions were to come back at 7:30 in the morning for my amniocentesis. They would send the results to another hospital and have them back in the afternoon and would begin the induction later that evening if the baby’s lungs were mature (which they expected them to be).
I was apprehensive of the amniocentesis; I had one with my prior pregnancy and did not like it at all. I didn't sleep well that night with all the anticipation.
April 13, 2004 – At 7:30 AM Johnny and I showed up to begin preparation for my amnio, I was very nervous but dealing well. I knew the pain wouldn’t last long and the probability of the lungs not being mature was VERY low so I would probably be having my baby that night or the following morning!!
A little before 8:30 AM the OB/GYN who would be performing my amnio showed up to get things started. She did an ultrasound to check for a good fluid pocket to draw from. She searched for a while, things were complicated by my placenta which was anterior and took up the majority of the front of my uterus. After a while she decided the only thing to do was go through the placenta.
They prepped my belly with iodine and started the amnio. It hurt; but not as bad as I thought it would and I was very proud of myself for being able to breathe through it. When the procedure was done I looked at the three vials of fluid she drew and saw they were very bloody. The OB told us it was very common when you go through the placenta and that they should still be able to test it.
We waited and waited while they did another NST, drew some more blood and gave me a Rho-Gam shot because I am Rh-negative. Finally I got out of my gown and back into my clothes, when the doctor and nurse came in…
My doctor said, “I’ve got some bad news.” My heart sank. I was so glad everything was over and that I had done so well. Oh well. They told me the blood in the fluid samples had clotted and they would be unable to test them. Ugh. They wanted to check my fluid again and asked if they could do another amnio. The baby wasn’t really cooperating, so we had to hurry. I consented to the second amnio and rushed back into my gown. The baby was moving like crazy and the pocket of fluid was right where a foot was and kept disappearing.
They stuck me, but the baby moved and the pocket was gone.
They stuck me again, this time the needle was in for a very long time, and I had my eyes closed and had no clue what was going on. When I felt her pull the needle out I looked and there was no fluid. She couldn’t get any. She didn’t know why because she could see the needle on the ultrasound in the fluid, so she asked me if I would let another OB try one more time. I said OK. She couldn’t draw any fluid either.
I was so sad and each consecutive amnio was more painful than the last. I hated to go through it all for nothing. After more waiting the OB came back in to apologize and tell me how awful she felt and that she made some calls and the plan now was she was going to send the clotted fluid to a different lab that said they can test it and see if they can and if it’s positive, if so we’d be going back that night OR if they can’t do that I would do 48 hours of steroids starting at 8:00 PM that night given every 12 hours in 4 does that last dose being April 15, 2004 at 8:00 AM making the induction 8:00 PM that same evening.
At 2:00 PM she called to tell us that the lab was unable to perform the test so we would be going with Plan B: The 48 hours of steroids, with induction scheduled for April 15th at 8:00 PM!
April 15, 2004 – After my last shot in the morning the doctor came in to check my cervix and stir my membranes. I was then 1-2 cm and 50% effaced. Stirring my membranes was a bit uncomfortable but not as bad as I expected. They hoped it would ripen my cervix more and maybe even put me into labor; but after 4 pokes to my uterus I doubted this would do anything. I was right.
8:00 PM - I arrived back at the hospital to begin my induction with Johnny, my mom, and my little sister Katherine.
It took about an hour and a half to get me set up in the room, during that time a nurse told us they were really full that night and had I been anyone else coming in for elective induction, they would have sent me home, but after everything I’d been through they wanted me to stay. Good thing.
It was another difficult time trying to give blood and get an IV; after a while of trying and a couple nurses, I finally ended up with an 18 gauge IV in my hand.
10:30 PM - the certified nurse midwife (CNM) on call, Commander Perry, came in to give me my Cytotec. She told me to get some sleep and they’d start the pitocin in the morning unless the Cytotec started my labor. I was then 2 cm and 70% effaced.
11:00 PM - I got up to use the restroom. If felt like a lot of fluid and I wondered if my water had broken. When I got up I looked and the “hat” in the toilet was completely full with blood. My nurse said it was normal and was probably from my cervix dilating. I was still a bit worried.
11:15 PM - My contractions started, they were uncomfortable but I could still breathe through them at about 5 minutes apart. Shortly after that I felt a big “gush” and thought my water had broken. I pushed the call button for my nurse, she looked and said there was blood and clots and called in the CNM. The midwife looked and decided to do a speculum exam. By this point I had felt several more “gushes.”
The exam showed I was 3 cm and my water had not broken, she could not explain the bleeding and there was a substantial amount, enough to warrant a call to the OB who was at home asleep to see what he thought. I was worried about the baby, who was on the monitor doing just fine. She told me that she planned to see how things were progressing and go from there.
April 16, 2004 -
12:00 AM – Not long after the CNM left to call the doctor, I started feeling VERY dizzy and passed out. The nurse rushed for the doctor and they tried to get me up. I was very out of it at this point. That was also when my contractions were 2-3 minutes apart and becoming very hard for me to cope with. I said I wanted an epidural and they paged the anesthesiologist.
Then the nurse came back in to put in a catheter because of the unexplained bleeding, well I hate them; not like anyone actually enjoys them; so I asked if she could wait until after my epidural…no darn it, she couldn’t. Eventually, after a lot of work by Johnny, my mom, my sister, and the nurse she was able to get the thing in. (I was a big baby and made things extremely difficult).
The nurse took this opportunity to inform me that they needed to draw MORE blook for a test they forgot to do when I got in to check my blood clotting time because of the blood thinners I was on throughout my pregnancy. Without that blood test there would be NO epidural because of the risks with regional anesthesia. I was very disappointed; at this point I had expected my epidural soon.
I was laboring through difficult contractions as she drew the blood, I remember looking at it as she left and it being light colored and watery. She sent it to the lab STAT, which should take 45 minutes to an hour. I could wait…it hurt! Meanwhile the anesthesiologist came in to give me an additional IV to replace the one I had because the gauge was too small.
1:00 AM - They needed to draw MORE BLOOD!! All because my nurse drew it from a vein that the IV was flowing through which diluted the sample and made the test invalid! So that’s when I lost it completely…I wasn’t doing well anyway but hearing that I wouldn’t be getting my epidural any time soon threw me over the edge. I became incredibly annoying and to this day am disappointed by my behavior (9 weeks later!). I wasn’t mean to anyone, but I wasn’t cooperating with the people who were trying to help me and yelled several times.
So there I was being a baby and the anesthesiologist was trying to get more blood to redo that test. He tried every place he could. At this point I was sitting (which seemed to help a bit) so he tried my feet for 15 minutes or so until eventually he shut off the IV and drew blood from my arm. Of course that was after at least 30 sticks!
1:30 AM - the baby’s heart rate started to drop. So I was freaked out on top of being annoying and feeling out of control. The doctors rushed to get a fetal scalp monitor on the baby to get an accurate reading so they broke my water (I was then 4 cm). They put me on oxygen and I got on my side, it seemed to help some, but I was still bleeding.
2:30 AM - The baby’s heart rate was still dropping and they rushed me to the OR for a c-section -- after finally getting back the results of my blood test which showed and epidural would be A-OK! I got several shots of terbutaline to stop or slow my contractions. In the OR I was still out of control and had to get my epidural laying on my side because they didn’t want to put any more stress on the baby so it took a while to finally get it in. I was still bleeding unexplainably and my mother, sister, and husband were watching from the window and said they could see a lot of blood dripping down from the table during the epidural.
I started feeling better and apologized to those around me.
The OB had come to the hospital at this point and checked my cervix, I was 7 cm so he decided that since I was progressing so quickly and the baby was doing better he would let me labor on my own and try for a vaginal delivery.
3:30 AM - Back in my room.
4:00 AM - Epidural started to wear off. My pain was back and so was my out of control behavior. I begged for the anesthesiologist to come help me.
4:30 AM - Anesthesiologist showed up. I was lying on my side facing away from everything and asked for something to help with the pain. A minute later he asked if I was feeling better, I said, “no!” I asked again for something, he told me he had already given me something. I was not feeling better and started to lose hope again. (After the delivery I learned that the anesthesiologist NEVER gave me anything and had really lied to me.)
Baby’s heart rate started to decelerate again.
5:10 AM - A resident came in to check my cervix and said it was 9 cm with an anterior lip.
5:30 AM - Moved to my hands and knees to help get rid of the lip. It helped me deal a bit better with the contractions. I was starting to feel some pressure.
6:10 AM - The OB came in to check my cervix and said he disagreed with the resident and said I was 8 cm with an anterior lip. He tried to stimulate the baby by tickling it’s scalp but the baby wouldn’t respond, so he decided they needed to do a c-section.
6:30 AM - More terbutaline, prepped with monitors, etc, put up curtain, fixed my epidural…ahh…nice.
6:45-ish AM – Johnny came back in and kissed my forehead and told me everything would be OK. The new anesthesiologist was very nice and was excited when we told him we didn’t know the gender.
7:15 AM – Owen Michael was born. He peed as they were taking him out (just like Gavin did!), and I cried when I heard him, it was wonderful. I was so happy and relieved. Johnny wrote the word “BOY” in the air with his finger to my mother and sister who were looking through the window. He did need to have his stomach suctioned because of some retained fluid, and Johnny practically had to force them to do the cord blood collection we wanted, but Owen was a healthy 36 week 6 day baby at 6 pounds 9.5 ounces 19.25 inches with apgars of 7 and 8.
They took him away and Johnny went with him. I was in the OR alone and kind of nervous. I could hear them talking about not being able to make the bleeding stop. Eventually the anesthesiologist gave me a drug that knocked me out!
9:00 AM - When I started coming to and they were taking out my epidural and wheeling me back to my room. I was still out of it. I didn’t end up getting to hold Owen until after 10:00 AM, I hated that.
I was disappointed I needed a c-section but I was up walking around that afternoon. They wanted to do a transfusion because between all the blood I lost during labor and them having a difficult time stopping the bleeding during the c-section my hemoglobin was 4.6 (normal 12-16) but thought I was OK without one for the time being because I didn't have any other signs. I went home 2 days after Owen was born. My recovery was difficult, but I think it’s partly because of the high emotions leading up to the birth and the birth itself: Things did not go as I had planned and as I mentioned earlier, I was very disappointed in myself. To make things worse I was not well-informed regarding when the physical recovery would be like…I didn’t know what to expect.
I was severely anemic after leaving the hospital and would have the chills very badly off and on. It also took about 2 weeks for any color to return to my face. I got a rash from the steri-strips they used to keep my incision closed, AND I developed a rash all over my body and because we didn't know the cause I had to stop taking my pain medication.
After about 2 weeks things became much easier though, and by 3-4 weeks I was practically back to normal. I am so happy to have my little boy with me, happy and healthy, he’s such a joy and worth EVERY bit!
