Monday the 9th I had been having some strong but distant contractions for most of the morning/afternoon. I was by no means thinking I'd go into full blown labor that day, but I definitely knew that I wouldn't make it to Valentines day. Sometime early afternoon I started having these very odd pains in the lower part of my uterus. It was an incredible pain that felt like Hayden was ripping apart the bottom of my uterus with knives. I would cry out and arch my back every time it happened.
I wasn't sure what it was, though I knew it wasn't contractions so I brushed it off.
Not too long later I went to the bathroom and passed what I thought at the time was my mucous plug yet again. It was actually a big blood clot, though. It was followed by about 2 quarter sized drops of blood on the tissue every time I wiped--like a light period. I knew some bleeding could be common after losing the plug, so I brushed that off too. However, I felt something "leaking" so I went back to the bathroom about 15 minutes later and I was still bleeding. After talking to you ladies, I gave the doc a call and was instructed to come in.
DH and I share a car and he happened to be at work, so I did my best to call my MIL and my best friend in hopes they could run me up to L&D, so that Jesse didn't have to drive all the way home for nothing--which I thought it would be. Unfortunately, no one picked up their phones, so Jesse had to come home.
Just before he got here, I called him to tell him that he could stay at work (he already left) because the bleeding had stopped. He even was going to turn around and go back, but decided not to since he'd only had an hour left of work anyways. I felt bad about calling him home for nothing.
It seemed that once he got home, the 'pains' I was having came on furiously. Jesse went upstairs on the computer and he could hear me crying out. By that time, I was telling him that I think we should go in anyways because the pain was scaring me.
We finished packing our bags and I went to the bathroom and realized that I was still bleeding.
So it was a good thing that he didn't go back to work.
We drove up to the hospital with Alayna in tow because no one was available to watch her (neighbor friend was in Ft. Hood and the in-laws had the flu---bad timing) In the car the pains started intensifying. We got up to the L&D floor and I described what I was feeling to the nurses. They all kinda looked like they thought I was crazy and would be sent home within the hour. That's what I thought, too.
I get settled into the Triage room and was hooked up to the monitors. They monitored me for about an hour in which I was having some very hard contractions spiking to 90!
The nurse came in and said that since my doctor was on vacation, they were going to stop the contractions and send me home since I was a potential VBAC. They also didn't like that I was only at 37 weeks. She checked me and I was still only at 1 CM, but that I was still bleeding quite a bit. She didn't seem concerned, though.
DH walked out to call his dad and say that it was (yet again) another false alarm and that we were being sent home. Well as he walked out, the nurse walked back in and said I was being admitted!
It was totally unexpected because I wasn't dilating, my contractions were only about 6-7 minutes apart or more, and the "pain" I had been having had gone away since I'd been laying down. She said that the on-call doctor was very concerned with the amount of bleeding I was having. Apparently it was a lot more than the expected spotting that might occur after being checked. They started saying things along the lines of a possible uterine rupture and such with my scar, since it was close to the area where I had been feeling the pain. I was told that if the bleeding and contractions don't stop with IV fluids and meds, I would be having a C/S first thing in the morning. Again, I didn't think it would come to that.
Lol, Jesse walked back in and I said "It looks like I'm staying the night!" He nearly dropped his phone. After all, he had just called to tell his dad we were coming home. Unfortunately, we had no one to watch Alayna and she wasn't allowed to stay with us, so Jesse had to stay home with her all night while I stayed at the hospital overnight alone.
He brought up my laptop but the wifi was horrible. It was a long night. At around 4:30 AM I was woken up by 3 very intense contractions. 15 minutes later I got up and went to the potty and passed a fist sized blood clot. It was so weird feeling that thing slide out.
Luckily the nurse was still in the room so I told her and she came to confirm. About 10 minutes later I got the news that we were scheduled to have the c section at 7:30 AM. I called Jesse and told him the news and he started scrambling to get someone to watch Alayna. Thankfully he got his dad to come over just in time. I was actually worried he wouldn't make it in time!
Jesse got there about 10 minutes before I was wheeled into the OR. I was told I'd be having a spinal this time around. I was thankful to hear that the needle was MUCH smaller, lol. I was worried because my epidural last time, I was practically dead anyways and having contractions, so I wasn't in a state of mind to really care about a needle.
It took them a while to get the proper positioning, but I swear that spinal was fast! They immediately told me to lay on the bed and I literally felt the numbness travel down my legs as I was doing so. I would describe the sensations I felt as "static" when they were scrubbing down my belly with the iodine. It was just a light fuzzy tingling and nothing else. I also tried with all my might to move a toe and couldn't, lol. With the epidural I could at least do that. I was told I could experience some nausea with the spinal, and boy did I. I started puking.
It was horrible. But that was really the only negative part of the surgery. I was preparing myself to feel all types of pressure and pain, but I still felt only a tiny static sensation. With Alayna's section, I literally screamed with the amount of pressure. It felt like the wind was knocked out of me. I was pleasantly surprised to feel nothing this time around.
At 8:08 am Hayden came out screaming weighing 7lb 3 oz at 18.5 inches long. His apgars were 8 and 9. He seemed perfect to everyone. I fell in love with him as soon as I looked at him. I had been worried because it took me a long time with Alayna. Little did we know that things would turn sour less than 24 hours later.
After being wheeled back into our room, I put on my make up and did my hair, lol! I was NOT going to look as ridiculous as I did last time.
Unfortunately, I started throwing up all over myself again, right in front of the in-laws.
Yuck. I also started having intense itching all over my back and face. It was a side effect of something they put in the IV. They started giving me all types of things to get it to stop, so within an hour I was a drooling zombie. I have never been so tired in my life. Apparently there was a time when my SIL and MIL were there and I was messing with a bunch of settings on the TV with the remote with my eyes wide open, but I was actually asleep. Quite a few things like that happened, lol, including guests that I don't remember having.
Most of you know what happened next, so I won't go into detail. Hayden's lungs were actually severely premature and he was making very loud gurgling noises with every breath, which the nurses and doctors failed to notice until it was almost too late.
His lungs collapsed within hours and he was rushed by emergency ambulance to Texas Children's in Houston. Thankfully, the staff there was wonderful and got my little boy healthy again in a very short time and they were very impressed with how incredibly fast he recovered. They all exclaimed how they had never seen such a remarkable turnaround in such a very sick little boy.
He is home now and we're having trouble nursing so I'm trying to nurse, pump and bottle feed. He wakes up pretty much every 3 hours to eat, so nights aren't too bad.
That just about sums it up!!!