Our Birth Story:
Children are a gift from the LORD; they are a reward from him. (NLT)-Psalm 127:3
Part 1
My life became all about someone else's on July 13th, 2015 as I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy, Maxwell Jeffrey Jenkins at 9:04 P.M.
The first picture of Maxwell
I have always been intrigued by birth stories. Pregnant or not, I would find myself often reading blogs, watching YouTube videos/vlogs, and magazines to read all about this special and powerful life changing moment. Maybe that's why I love them so much.--all different--all having such a strong impact on the lives of those experiencing them. I have yet to hear a birth story that sounds like someone else's--all with different circumstances, highs and lows,...positive or negative....I cannot get enough of them.
Our story is a little long- as I was in the hospital for over a week. 82 hours of that time spent in the labor and delivery area, and the rest in the mommy and baby unit of the hospital. I went in with no birth plan, except that I wanted an epidural. I wanted a healthy baby..I didn't have a preference how that happened: vaginal or c-section. In my mind, I dreamt of the moment they would place that ooey, gooey baby on my chest. That's what I wanted- I cared about THAT moment--not what got me to it.
----Unfortunately, THAT moment, did not happen.
My pregnancy was fairly 'easy' and was not considered to be high risk. For the first 35 weeks, I didn't have high blood pressure, gestational diabetes, or any other issue for me to be labeled as such. Week 35 came and my blood pressure started to rise, as well as my heart rate. My BP would stay around 138/90 and I developed episodes of sinus tachycardia with heart palpitations. I also started having contractions pretty regularly..they would be every 2 minutes for hours..and then stop. This continued for weeks. NOT FUN. (I will talk all about that in a later blog--all of those doctor visits, non-stress tests, holter monitors, etc--)
July 10th-
While at work, I started to feel a little off. I felt flushed, my heart was racing, and was dizzy upon standing. I had one of my the RN's in my building take my blood pressure: 182/110. Not good. I called my husband who works in the medical field, and he told me to go to triage at the hospital. My friend Amy drove me to the hospital and I made my way to triage. When I went to take the elevator, I met one of my husband's colleagues/friend of ours. I remember trying to play off that I was just going to triage to be checked out, no big deal kind-of-thing, but I was panicked on the inside. That elevator could not get there soon enough.
I checked in at triage with multiple people in front of me. I swear one of them was about to pop out her baby right there in the waiting area. I just walked around having contractions and praying that my BP would lower. My husband joined me and finally I was taken back to a bed. They hooked me up to the monitors and immediately ordered an EKG, ECG, ultrasound, and Pre-Eclampsia OB- panel. My heart rate was 152 bpm and my blood pressure was going down to 138/87.
I let a new intern and 3rd year medical student perform the ultrasound. Now, that was funny. They wanted to confirm that Max was head down. Simple enough, right? The intern puts the wand on my stomach and continue to 'search' for his head. I look at my husband, trying not to laugh. I could plainly see the large round thing down near my cervix. She looks at me and says, "He may have turned, and I can't seem to find his head placement. I will need to get the upper level resident to confirm where his head is." When they left, I asked my husband if indeed that large circle on the screen was his head...it was. :) haha. The upper level came in, put the wand on my stomach for .2 seconds, and pointed to the large round object near my cervix. Head Down.
My tests started coming back with good results--as the issues above, were not affecting Max, and I could relax. Well, I relaxed until the resident looked at me and said, "You are not leaving today. You are going to be admitted for an induction." My mind started racing: 'I don't have my bags, I need to let work know, Do I call my family now?, I haven't washed Max's 'Bring Home Outfit', I haven't shaved my legs, I haven't eaten....' My lovely husband snapped me out of all that. haha. I didn't need to worry about any of that. I needed to focus on that fact that our baby boy would be here soon and all of that stuff didn't matter. I honestly don't know what I would have done without my husband by my side.
I was in triage from 12:30 P.M. until 10:30 P.M. waiting on a room.My husband would come sit with me and then go back to work, and then come see me again. He also had time to go home and get our bags and get me my 'last meal'- Raising Canes:)) I kept getting 'bumped' due to all of these women coming in.. I believe there were 8 women who came in who were admitted because they were in active labor. I never want to be in triage that long ever again!
I saw/heard/experienced:
-women throwing up all over the floor
-women having bowel movements all over the floor
-doctors trying to convince women that they were indeed pregnant
-doctors trying to convince a Hispanic woman that she was having her baby soon-she
wouldn't believe her--she was at 8 cm. Holy Crap!?
-an argument between a patient and a nurse over a taxi voucher
-an argument between a translator and a nurse
-a pregnant woman wanting Zofran but having a verbal battle with herself because she 'saw those commercials'
We were finally taken to a room and fifteen minutes later, the Doctor was there to start the induction process. I was hooked up to all the monitors and they started a new IV. Then it got interesting..they inserted a transcervical foley balloon. This was very uncomfortable. They push the catheter through the cervix and fill the balloon with saline. This helps open the cervix to 3cm or so, and then it just falls out. When they began to fill the balloon with saline, I felt an intense amount of pressure/pain for about 3-5 minutes. They also put the first dose of Cervidil into my cervix. This helps ripen the cervix.
Picture of a transcervical foley balloon
I started having stronger contractions about 5 minutes after they left.- haha, great. And, then I needed to go to the bathroom. I remember my husband helping me to the bathroom and seeing a trail of blood behind me. I kinda freaked out..."Im bleeding- alot! Is this normal?" I kinda yelled at my husband. He reassured me that it was normal.
---going to the bathroom- for either urine or bowel movements hurt like Hell. That is when all modesty went out the window. My husband, nurses, residents, attendings, etc...were all going to watch me go to the bathroom, etc and I for some reason...was okay with all of that in that moment. Haha!---it's like something clicked in my brain, and little modest me, could care less who saw the goods. ;)
Posted on FaceBook that Max would be here soon.
At about 3:00 A.M. that morning the foley balloon fell out of my body when I went to the bathroom. That was gross too. Blood all over the place and this rubber looking balloon thing that I had to fish out of the toilet.
Every six hours they inserted a new cervidil and they would also check me once every 6-8 hrs. Always the same response, "You are still the same. At a 3. No progress."
Around 4 P.M. they were talking about starting Pitocin. I immediately said that before they hook that up, I wanted my epidural. The physcian who performed the epidural was a work friend of my husband which was nice to have. I wasn't too nervous about the epidural because I have had spinal taps in the past. I leaned forward on the bed while the nurse held my shoulders. My husband wasn't allowed to hold my hand but he sat there and kept talking to me, supporting me, telling me how great I was doing. The epidural started with injection of lidocain to help numb the area before they placed the needle into my back--that was the only part that stung a bit. They then placed the catheter through the needle, taped it in place, and it was finished. Maybe took 20 minutes from start to finish. Not too shabby---
Oh the epidural--oh how I loved it! It felt like cold water flowing down my back when the medicine would go in. I also had the push button to give myself a dose if I needed it between the schedule release times. It was amazing. There were moments when I would just wait for the green light to come back on because of the pain. They started the Pitocin, and I could finally get some sleep. I did have an allergic reaction to the Fentanyl pain med in the epidural which caused itchiness and a rash all over my legs, arms, hands, and stomach, so I was also on a Benedryl, Vistaril, and Hydrocortisone Creme coctail every so often. The itchiness about drove me crazy, but the meds helped. Its been a month, and I still have a lot of the rash left on my legs.
So for the next 24 hours, I received rounds of Cervidil and Pitocin. They put in a catheter so I could pee...in a bag. :) Made it to 4 cm. I remember thinking that this was the slowest birth I had ever heard of. Max's heart rate and levels continued to look good, so we proceeded. Family and friend were welcomed after the epidural :) Loved having my visitors come by to help pass the time. I slept a lot, thanks to all allergy meds and my husband worked/read/watched TV.
My OB came in Sunday morning and broke my water to hopefully get things going a little quicker. I remember her saying she was just going to do it so that the water drained slow and steady. I remember her shocking/surprise face and this sound like a balloon popping. My water gushed and gushed--squirted even--I just couldn't help but laugh--which caused the OB, her resident, my husband, I to laugh for about 10 minutes.
Sunday night came and went. Monday afternoon about 3:00 P.M. they started having me lay on certain sides because of Max's heart rate, and they also put me on oxygen. My kidneys also started to become sluggish.They were pumping me full of liquids and my kidneys were just not flushing like they should have. At this point, I had not eaten in 4 days...just ice chips. I'm pretty sure that started to affect my mental state. haha! They also brought in a Peanut Ball for me to put in between my legs. This has been shown to help open the cervix as well. I was willing to try anything at this point! Bring on the weird peanut ball thing!
Monday evening- 8:00 P.M. the doctor comes in and explains that he is going to check me and if there isn't any progress we will have to sit down and talk about our next step. I knew what this meant....c-section talk. Still at a 4. He was so thoughtful and informative..and just so empathetic to my situation when discussing the surgery with me. The decision was made: we were heading to the OR.
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Part 2 will continue with the c-section and all of it's crazy moments. good and bad.
Numb and ready to begin:)
My cute husband, always by my side.
-Valerie
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