Viveka's birth story (as written in the pre-birthy me)

Preface: I purposely am NOT reading this before I post it. I logged into myspace to find some photos for another post I'm planning and found this area called "blog" - I remembered blogging through my labor with Viveka via my old Helio... so... here it is. Watch the comments for my comments 4+ years later on the topic. Feel free to comment as well.

----------------------------------- Written Feb 2008 - 4 days after she was born ---------------------------

At 8 pm they inserted the cervix softener and I sat back and relaxed. Dh was there the entire time and we watched some tv and "hung out." The next morning, I was hungry but of course no food. I was hooked up to an IV the entire time for fluids since we needed to try to maintain levels. At 8 am, we started pitocin to start contractions. This was in hopes that my cervix would take some action since I really wasn't making much progress.
At eleven am the doctor came and broke my water. I was a whole one cm; 50% effaced. Soon, it helped progress some it seemed - the contractions were mild. I tried the birthing ball and such ball but was as i was in pain by mid afternoon, I opted for sterol (I think that's what it was called). Since I wasn't progressing I was hoping that if I was able to bear the pain better, we would progress more quickly. Many times I was asked if I wanted an epidural but I decided against it and DH supported that. Neither of us wanted a lethargic baby. Soon, the contractions got stronger and VERYYY painful. With the medication, I able to get some rest - the pain meds were in after about 5 hours of my water being broke.

After 2 hrs they checked again- gosh darn won't u knowm i was ONLY 1.5 cm. I took more sterol as contractions were kickin my butt. After 2 more hrs they checked again ,and inserted internal contraction sensor to verify how big they were since I once again was 1.5 cm.

now wouldn't you know my contractions were actually off the chart. w

I was extremely upset by then - all this pain and NO progress! So went for epidural at 6:30 pm. At that time I immediately progressed to 4 cm, most likely because I was able to relax some. I was surprised by watching how huge the contractions were but I felt nothing. I had wanted to be able to push, but I had to be realistic.

After two hours they checked me and while I was about 80 percent efaced, I still was a "small" 4. I spoke with the doctor and we decided to give it another two hours. After about an hour and a half, baby's heart rate was starting to drop at times. We spoke again and at 11 pm opted for a c section. Had I not had the epidural I would have had a spinal, so in a way I am glad that I did get the epidural.

Right after I got off the phone with the doctors I started vomitting water. They cleaned me up some and rolled me off to the c section room just down the hall. The entire time I was shaking and kept thinking oh my what if I don't survive. I kept concentrating on my breathing. While there was a sheet up, I could see some reflection of what was going on through the light above me. I stopped watching after I saw them remove something red from me (who know what organ that was). DH said it smelled like a meat shop!

I puked again during the surgery but dear Viveka was born at 11:45 pm. DH looked so afraid as he held her. I was still shaking and they gave me some medication via injection to help stop the shaking and of course kept putting warm blankets on me. DH brought her over to me and I gave her a kiss - her eyes were open and she was so beautiful. She was a 9/9 on the apgar score... I asked DH to hold her close and they went off to prepare her. They gave her the Vitamin K injection and also the eye medicine while I was getting sewn up. It took almost an hour to sew me up because my uterus had to be massaged since I had been contracting so hard for so long.

After all was done I vomitted again, but was happy to be brought over to my room. DH was there, the blood cord people were called and her blood cord was sent off for processing... They brought the baby in and she fed. We didn't get a good latch but after a little meneuvering it all worked out.

We spent a few more nights at the hospital and came home Tuesday aftenoon.

She lost a little weight in the hospital but she's definitely a joy to have home. I am recoving okay but in some additional pain because I've chosen against pain meds. The first day and a half I didn't opt for any but day two and three both I took 1 percoset. I took them immediatley after breastfeeding because I'm a bit hesitant. I've been taking motrin the last day - I figure at least there is such thing as baby motrin...

I'm still amazed they let me take her home :) She's such a joy!

Sorry for the novella about our Viveka.