Soon I was on my way to the hospital with my mom and my hospital bag in the car. I arrived at the hospital at 11am. Once getting there they immediately got me ready to deliver Boog. I guess it was decided before I even got there. They put me in a hospital gown, Hooked me up at the monitoring devices ( a Doppler to monitor Boog heart rate and my contractions, also a blood pressure cuff.) I called my husband, Mr. R to let him know what was going on. To my surprise he was already in route, which was comforting to know soon he would be by my side.
Then at noon they hooked up me up to the IV and started the Pitocin to induce labor. With the Pitocin I started contracting very quickly. It went from no contractions to major ones. Soon they asked if I had planned to have an epidural. I was going to try to go natural, but they didn’t want me to do that. With my blood pressure still extremely high an epidural would help lower it at least a little, so I agreed.
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| Calling Mr. R and finding out he was already on his way |
Having the epidural put in was the oddest experience! I had a nurse keeping me steady during the procedure because I was contracting and was having a hard time staying still. While they were inserting the epidural they touched a nerve and my left leg kicked out. I ended up kicking the nurse, I felt so bad. I have never experienced my body move without me controlling it. (no this isn’t something that normally happens, I was just lucky).
The next couple hours there wasn’t a whole lot of action. The only thing that really happened aside from them coming to check on me was the OBGYN came and broke my water (the very little amount left).
The OBGYN that came to do it and would be delivering Boog was Dr. D. I couldn’t believe it, the one I had been dreading would in fact, be the one doing the delivery.
Then at 9:05pm it was time! They had me push once and told me to stop. Boog’s head was already half way out and they weren’t completely ready for that. Then it was time to push again. Three pushes and Boog had entered the world.
As soon as he was out, the labor wing’s Code Pink alarm went off (in my hospital code pink means, mother or baby in trouble). Immediately three more nurses and the on call pediatrician came rushing into the room. It was because Boog was only 3 pounds 15 ounces. His Apgar score was great, at one minute it was a 9 and at 5 minutes it was a 10. He was healthy in every way except his weight.
Then they let me hold him, but only wrapped in blankets because since he was such a low birth weight he need the blankets to keep his body temperature up. I was crying and told him I loved him, but the words that kept coming out of my mouth over and over again were “He is so small, he’s so small.”
Soon they took him from me. Boog had to go the NICU, Mr. R went with him.
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| Holding Boog for the first time |
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| Mr. R getting to hold Boog for the first time |
I was so happy that he wasn’t going to be alone with strangers, but with his Daddy. At the same time I wanted to go, I should be with Boog! He needs his Mommy. Unfortunately since I had the Epidural I was forced to stay in the delivery room. I have never felt so helpless and alone in my life. This wasn’t how it was suppose to be.
I was in shock, totally unprepared for this.
Soon Mr. R was back and told me that he got to feed Boog a bottle and that he ate the whole thing. My heart broke. I wanted to be the first to feed him, and it should have been breast milk. But at the same time I was so happy he was doing okay and that he was being taken care of.
Mr. R took my parents one at a time to go see Boog. And then once my in-laws arrived he took them. Mr. R was beaming, he loved Boog so much and was so proud of him and wanted everyone to meet him. I still had to wait in that damn bed.
After an hour and half of waiting a nurse came and got me and put me in a wheel chair. I asked if I was going to see Boog. I was told no they were taking me to the post delivery room. I cried again. They said I could see him soon but they are having a shift change and the NICU is closed to visitors for 30 minutes. I was told, for right now just get some rest. I don’t know how they expected me to rest when my son needed me.
I sat in the room, waiting and crying until they told me I could see him. At this point my legs were still numb and useless so I wheeled myself to the NICU and was finally reunited with my little boy. Seeing him in the incubator was hard, but I bucked up and put a smile on. They handed him to me and I tried to nurse him. He wasn’t latching on and after 30 minutes of trying they brought me a breast pump. So I pumped and then feed him my breast milk from a bottle. I stayed there all night until I was asked to leave for the next shift change 8 hours later. They had told me to go back to my room and sleep many times, but there was no way I was going to leave him if I didn’t have to. Sleep could wait!
The next ten days were spent in the NICU, but that is a story for another post.
I wanted to tell you that I really enjoy reading your blog. Oh, and I had the same leg kick problem :-) In fact, I have some nerve damage because of it. My leg will go numb after walking a long distance.
ReplyDeleteI love reading the story of how your boy was born. it must have been so scary for you when they took him away!
ReplyDeleteAlaina- Thanks you so much for sharing your experience! I think it is important for Mommies to know that they aren't the only ones having these things happening, many of us have had similar experiences.
ReplyDeleteLisa- It was very scary, but I will have to say that the 10 days after his birth were much harder for me. I think partly because the shock of it all had started to wear off.