My entire pregnancy was troublesome. I had migraines every two weeks, and heart burn , & every other uncomfortable pregnancy symptom you can think of. I was just uncomfortable. It was decided by me and my doctor to induce at 39 weeks. Upon looking at her schedule we found that the only available day for me to have her and not another doctor in the practice induce me was on Saturday the 23rd of June. This meant that I had to give up the idea of donating the umbilical cord for stem cell research, (they don't collect on weekends) but it was a decision that I made - for the better of my own comfort.
Day of induction, I woke up excited, nervous, & anxious to begin the next chapter I was not afraid of labor. I have always said that oddly enough it was one of my favorite parts of the pregnancy. Both of my other kids were both with ease, and I really enjoyed the moment of delivery when they were out and put on my chest, it was the most precious thing I have ever experienced. Having been induced twice before, we were all very confident that we knew the routine and the timing of things. We told everyone that we would have the baby by 4pm, based on the fact that when induced previously both kids were born around 3:30pm.
Everything seemed to be right on schedule until the epidural episode as I call it. I had been on my pitocin drip all day, eating away at my ice chips, when finally my contractions were 2 minutes apart. They called in the anesthesiologist and had planned to break my water shortly after. This was at 2pm, and things did not go as planned after that.
The anesthesiologist came in , and moments later as he pushed the first test dose of medicine into my spine, things took a terrible twist. I became light headed , had ringing in my ears, and felt as if I was having an out of body experience. Just like you see in the movies when the person floats above and is watching themselves be operated on. I kept hearing people talking , and it took me a while to realize that they were talking to me. Yes, I told the doctor my ears are ringing, and I feel like I am gonna pass out. I kept hearing phrases like "this is weird", "i have never seen this happen before" , "nurse don't leave her side" " they baby is ok, but she is not" . All the while the room was spinning and they were giving me oxygen and shots of ephedrine to boost my blood pressure that had dropped to 61/32. This went on for what seemed like forever, when finally, the unanimous decision was made that the epidural had to be removed, and I would have to go on with a natural delivery. As all of this was being discussed, I developed chest pain. I then had to have an EKG to ensure that my heart was okay. I don't know how Paul managed to keep cool though all of this. He was the most supportive and reassuring person. I am so thankful for that.
With positive results from the EKG, I was told that the pitocin , had been turned off and they needed me to rest for an hour to be sure that I was not going to have any more side effects. (understood.) - An hour later, we restarted the drip, and a few hours after that I was back to having my contractions every 2 minutes. I had psyched myself up to deal with the natural birth, and at that point just wanted it all to be over. I had been there for nearing 12 hours and was exhausted, & traumatized.
It was time to get things going, so my doctor broke my water, and man oh man did labor begin. It was a nightmare, I am not going to sugar coat it. Why any woman would ever want to experience that kind of torture is beyond me. It took my doctor & 2-3 nurses, plus Paul to keep me level headed, if you can even call it that. They would tell me to breath and my head would spin around like the girl in the exorcist, and I would scream " i am breathing, i can't NOT breath" It was all a blur of horrible pain. At one point my doctor had to tell me to collect myself and get it together as I was completely flipping out trying to figure out in my head a way out of this situation. I will spare the intimate details, but lets just say I scared the woman (a first time mother) across the hall.
When it was all said and done, what was once my favorite part of pregnancy became a moment of anxiety and tears. I did not want to hold my new little baby girl, I just laid there and trembled , thankful for it all to be over.
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