Now that we have had a few days to settle in, I thought I would share my birth story with everyone here. Delivering my first child proved to be much more than I had bargained for, and I find myself having trouble dealing with it on an emotional level. I am hoping that writing it out will help me continue with the healing process.
Koen was due on September 4th. Our due date came and went, and still no baby. My doc began seeing me every couple of days to monitor him. He was doing well so it was decided that he would remain in the womb until the 14th when he would be induced if he hadn't already arrived.
On the 13th, we went to our last doc's appointment. My doc did another membrane sweep (the third one), and we were sent on our way with an induction set for the next morning. I was feeling a little crampy, but nothing major. I had a bath, and decided to have a quick nap. I woke up from my nap at 3 o'clock. As soon as I stood up, I started bawling. I started timing the contractions, and they were already 3 minutes apart. I called DH, and he came home from work.
We arrived at the hospital at 4:30 in the afternoon. They checked me, and I was 5cm dilated. They moved me into a delivery room, and started the epidural right away. They broke my water, and found meconium. A pediatrician was put on-call for my son's arrival. By about 6:00, I was at 8cm, and was a full 10cm by 8:00. At that time, they turned down the epi slightly, and had me start doing practice pushes. I was having a lot of trouble feeling where to push so they turned down the epi even more, and gave me a quick break.
We started pushing at around 8:30. I still couldn't feel very much, but I was able to get the baby down further. His heart rate started dropping every time I pushed. The doc didn't like the sound of it, and checked me. He discouvered that the baby was posterior, and would have to be turned ASAP due to the distress he was in. He used forceps to turn him, gave me an episiotomy, and had to vaccum him out. It was extermely painful, but it saved my son's life.
Koen Philip was born at 9:05 PM. He was 23 inches long, and weighed 9lbs 13oz. His birthday is also 9/13.
Aside from the cuts on his face from the forceps, he was a healthy little boy.
Things started to go wrong very quickly afterwards. They started trying to help me deliver the placenta. It wasn't budging. They were massaging my belly, and I was watching them work on my son. I started to shake, and feel a little weird. The doc told me that I would have to go down to the operating room to have my placenta removed. I started feeling really sick. I can't really describe the feeling, but it is something I will never forget. I started to vomit, and heard the nurses on the phone with the people in the OR. They were saying that I couldn't wait, that I had to go now. My blood pressure was down to 66/29 and at one point they couldn't even get a reading on the machine.
I was whisked off for surgery. I remember watching my DH holding our new boy as they wheeled me away. I didn't have a chance to hold him before I left, and I didn't know if I ever would. I remember praying like I have never prayed before. Although everyone was trying to play it cool, I knew that I was in bad shape. I could feel myself slipping, and I was terrified. I realized how badly I wanted to live, not just for my son, but for myself and for my DH.
I woke up to them removing the breathing tube. That was a bizzare feeling because I was still numb from the anaesthetic, but knew what was going on. They wheeled me back up to my room, and had me covered in warm blankets. My DH gave me my son, and I held him for the first time. After everything that I had been through, it was the greatest feeling. I have never been so happy, and probably never will be again.
I spent the next 5 days in hospital. I lost over 5 pints of blood. My placenta had grown into my uterine wall (a condition called "Placenta Accreta"). When they tried to manually remove my placenta, it caused me to hemorrhage. They did a D&C to remove it, and I was lucky because they were able to stop the bleeding without removing my uterus.
So, that is my crazy birth story. Although it was an awful experience, I am grateful to be here typing this with my son in my lap. I have learned more in the past week than I have in a lifetime. The most important thing in this world is to not take anything for granted because you never know when things may take a turn for the worst.
Anyways, if you made it through this, thank you. I needed to share my story.
Now for some photos of the lil' troublemaker.
You can see how beat up his face was afterwards.
One day old...
One week old, and making a silly face...
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