Birth story

*** WARNING - Extremely long post ***

First I will start by saying that we welcomed Alexander John Ulanoski into the world on Thursday, 04/12/2012 at 1:49pm. Turns out our lil guy wasn't so little - he was 8lbs, 9oz and 21.5 inches long. Can you imagine how big he would have been had I been full term? Ahhh! We are blessed to have a healthy baby boy and he is a wonderful addition to our family. I thank God for letting us experience the miracle of life together. The whole thing is so incredible. Amazing how much I love this little guy already. *sigh*

Here are the deets on how it all happened.

In my previous post, I mentioned that I went to my 38 week appt and was 1.75cm dilated but had high blood pressure, so Dr. Cartwright sent me straight to St. Johns L&D unit so they could run some labs and keep an eye on the bp. By the time I got to the hospital, my bp had shot up to 175/100 or something crazy like that (probably from being nervous), so they went ahead and admitted me and got me started on Magnesium Sulfate to bring it down. I was told they would induce me in the morning. It was time! I was pretty excited. They gave me Cervadil that evening to sofeten and ripen my cervix as well. Lenny came up and hung out with me for several hours, but did not end up staying that night, as I wasn't in any pain and there was really no point since they wouldn't induce til the next morning.

They started me on Pitocin around 8:30am Wedsnesday and then broke my water around 11. I pretty much sat around all day having contractions and they got worse as the day went on. Because the Magnesium (which relaxes you) and the Pitocin (which tries to make your uterus contract) work against each other, it took quite a while for my cervix to dilate. Twelve hours into it, I ended up ordering an epidural when I was about 3cm dilated. So now it's about 8:30 pm. I freaked out getting the epi. I always said blood and guts don't bother me, but when you mess with the spine or talk about spinal fluid at all, it grosses me OUUUUUUT. So yeah, Len sat in front of me and held my hands while I was getting the epi and I know I probably crushed his hands from squeezing them so hard. I remember flinching when the needle went in, but the worst was when they were feeding the tube into my back after that. That's when I started bawling. It didn't really hurt at all, just freaked me out that I could feel these twinges in my back as the tube was being inserted. Gross. If I never have to experience that again, I'd be perfectly happy. Contractions continued to get stronger through the night with the cervix slowwwwly dilating. I knew I was supposed to feel pressure with the contractions, but I was feeling pain as well. I mentioned this several times, but at the same time I thought maybe I was just being a baby about it and this was what labor was all about.

By 9am on Thursday, I was finally dilated enough to start pushing. Here's where things get a little foggy for me. I am not sure exactly what happened when, but I know I pushed for over three hours straight. You could see the baby's head coming down the birth canal, but at a certain point it just got stuck and would not come any further. It was just me, Lenny, and one nurse in the room. They kept coaching me and trying to get me to keep going, but I was getting worn out. That Magnesium is no joke - it really had me feeling lethargic. It's no wonder since it's used to relax you and get your bp down. At some point they had a doctor come in and redose my epi, because I could feel everything that was happening. Not fun. Dr. Cartwright showed up a little after noon and by that time the nurse said that the baby was getting quite a bit of a cone head from all the pushing, and of course the cone head shape was just lodging him in there even more. Dr. Cartwright put her hands in there to see if she could turn his head a bit and dislodge him, and I about jumped through the roof. I was like "OW OW OW OW OW!" She tried again and I was like "STOP!" I felt like she was going to rip me in half! Then i felt a pinch, HARD, on both sides of my labia. I was like "OWWWWWWWW! What was that???" I about kicked her! She was like "Oh, you can feel that? You shouldn't be able to feel that if you have an epi." I wanted to scream. I was like "Yeah I can feel that! I have been telling you that the whole time!" She mentioned possibly having to do a C section if she couldn't get him turned, and that gave me motivation to give it my all and try pushing a few more times. Nothing happened though, he was still stuck. I felt so defeated. :( Here I had worked so hard for all that time, barely keeping my eyes open, and it was all going to end in a C section anyway. Ugh.

It was amazing how quickly they the C section team was in there. I swear, within 5 minutes there were about 10 different people in the room getting me prepped for surgery. There was a baby nurse as well as a NICU nurse preparing a baby warmer and getting oxygen masks and all the other emergency equipment ready should he have needed it. Someone was taking my bp while another was scrubbing the area with iodine. Another anesthesiologist came in to do a spinal block (?!). No way would I have let them hack into me without being 100% sure I was going to be numbed up for real this time, so I made darn sure I told him I could feel everything that was happening when Dr. C was trying to turn Alex's head. He assured me he would take care of it. He took out a pin and started poking me in various places along my legs and abdomen and I felt all of them. When he sat me up to give me the spinal block, he was like "Oh, no wonder you felt everything. The epi fell out and all that medication they were giving you was just soaking into the bed!" NICE. Lenny was livid. He was like "Are you freaking kidding me? We probably could have done a vaginal birth had the epi been done right to begin with because she wouldn't have been able to feel the Dr manipulating the head to allow it to come the rest of the way down the birth canal. This is ridiculous." I believe there may have been a couple explatives in there too. We were both upset that it all ended in C section, but I was so exhausted that at that point, I would have given anything for it to all be over. I just wanted to see our baby!

Lenny put on his scrubs and grabbed the camera, and before we knew it I was prepped and we were being whisked away into the operating room. It all happened so fast! Lenny sat up by my head and they had a curtain up so that neither of us could see the actual procedure being done. About 5 minutes into it, Dr. Cartwright said "Ok daddy, stand up and get ready to take some pictures!" Lenny stood up and took a couple pictures right after they had pulled the baby out, and I heard someone say"One forty nine pm." (the time he was officially born). Moments later, I heard Alex's first cry. Music to my ears! Our baby was finally here! I felt a single tear of joy roll down my face. They immediately gave him to the two baby nurses, and I watched as they cleaned him off and sucked all the gunk out of his mouth and nose. He scored an 8 and a 9 on the Apgar tests, which is really good. I heard them ask Lenny if he wanted to cut the cord and he politely declined. That's about the last thing I remember.

During our hospital stay, Alex had a bout of jaundice and spent two days under the bililights, but other than that it was amazing. It felt like there was a revolving door with lots of nurses in and out all the time, lactation consultants stopping by to see how breastfeeding was coming along, and plenty of visitors, which we welcomed. I was thrilled to show everyone our new baby boy. The nursing staff at St. Johns was phenomenal. They took excellent care of me while I was there and I would go back there to give birth in a heartbeat! Hopefully the next time around, it will be a little easier. Pretty sure I will just have a scheduled C next time. It's true what they say though...you forget about all the pain the first time you hold your baby in your arms. It's amazing. My life is now complete! :)