The Birth & Aftermath

After the amnio, we came home and I immediately started to contract again.  I spent the next 5 days contracting every 3-6 minutes.  I got nervous twice when they were 3 minutes apart and went to triage.  Still no cervical change so they sent me home - always with offers of more procardia.  Umm.  No thanks since I nearly died with the first dose.  I was flat out totally exhausted by the time it was scheduled c-section time.  I asked my sister to come up to help my mom and the golden child watch A2.  And truthfully, to help the stress level with the two of them.  The golden child had chewed the inside of her lip raw over the weekend worried about the impending birth and my mom was a nervous crying wreck.

We showed up on time and things got rolling.  As they were about to take me back, they had to take back an emergency c-section -  so I got bumped for about an hour.  Baby A2 came up with my mom and sister and wanted NOTHING to do with the whole process.  He saw me with an IV, my gown, and get up and immediately requested to go home.  Now.  Please.  Thank you.  Do you see the door over there?  Let's hit it.  So everyone went to lunch and I went to have a baby.

I had a sort of bad impending doom feeling as I walked into the OR and straddled the table to get the spinal.  I tried to chalk the feeling up to anxiety.  The CRNA student prepped my back and tried to put the spinal in and missed.  Unfortunately, at that exact moment, the anesthesiologist walked in to see how things were going.  I didn't recognize her and pretty quickly figured out that she was a locum tenens.  Bad news.  She then proceeded to attempt to get the spinal another six times.  Six.  As in - not enough fingers on one hand to count how many time she jammed a needle into my back.  There was talk of general anesthesia.  I was freaking out about getting an epidural abscess or hematoma or spinal cord injury from her nincompoopness when the OB/friend came in all scrubbed and ready.  I finally had enough and asked her to stop - and asked her to allow the CRNA to put the spinal in.  She got in on the first attempt - I was hugely relieved.  Relieved for about 30 seconds until my blood pressure and heart rate dropped down to nearly not measurable.

You guys.  Seriously.  I have never, ever felt that sick.  I was puking and freaking out, watching the monitor, listening to the anesthesiologist bark orders for drugs that I give patients during codes when the situation is nearly hopeless.  And then give more.  And more.  And more.  They gave me 6 liters of fluid in a matter of minutes.  I finally started to feel somewhat better - like I might possibly live through the experience and they let Monk in.  He took one look at me and freaked out.  I would have to imagine that I didn't look exactly excited and happy to be there. 

The nice part about them overdosing the spinal was that I didn't feel a cotton picking thing.  At all.  Nada.  They took the baby out and he immediately started screaming - a scream I was so glad that I was awake, alive, and able to hear.  He was perfect.  His lungs were obviously mature.  They collected cord blood (has anyone else done that?!?), tied my tubes,  and the closing took a long, long time.  I had a lot of muscle damage that she sewed up.  The OB/friend left to fly to a conference in Vegas and assured me that her partners would take care of me well in her absence. They moved us to recovery where I was finally able to hold my peanut.  After all my worries about a giant monster baby, he came out well over 7 pounds and 21 inches - but I swear he looks and feels like a 5 pound peanut.  He is still curled up soooo tight.  He looks just like his older brother did - but somehow tinier (actual weight difference was a mere 3 ounces), and much much darker in complexion.  His blood sugar was low - 35 - and they encouraged us to nurse.  He easily latched on and contentedly nursed for close to an hour.    I suddenly got another wave of nausea and started puking - and puking - and sweating.  It was so awful.  And just wouldn't stop.  They finally called anesthesia to give me something else.  I don't even remember what it was but it helped immensely.

Things with the baby went well after that - He was mildly jaundiced but passed all of his other screenings well.  He nursed, peed, and pooped like he was supposed to.  Things with me were incredibly uncomfortable.  I had close to no pain at all with Baby A2.  I realized that this was my 3rd section - but it honestly was nothing even close to the other two in terms of pain.  I could barely move - even with decent and frequent doses of pain medicine.  It hurt to lift and hold the baby- it hurt to walk, to turn.  My lower back was extremely achy - and bruised like you wouldn't believe from all of the spinal attempts.  They kept telling me that my incision was fine, that it was a different baby, different experience.  It didn't feel right.  I finally asked to go home because I felt like maybe I would be more comfortable here. 

I went to the OB to get my staples out on Tuesday to be told that I have a massive incisional hematoma - something that she felt I should have gone back to the OR for to have evacuated.  Apparently no one looked at me as close as I thought they did.  At this point, there are really no options but to let it resolve on it's own.  I'm just now - a week out - able to get in and out of bed without help.  My blood pressure is up and I still have massive swelling - so I'm getting a work up for post-partum ecclampsia.  Seriously.   

Baby A2 has done so much better than I thought he would.  He and I have both had melt downs at times - more on that later.  Someone in my house has hungry lips and is ready to nurse.  Had to get the details down before I forgot them.  And ohmygoodness the in-law drama. Seriously.  I might have to start a new blog just about in-law drama after this birth.