Length of labor (not pushing)
17 hours
Length of pushing
0
Who was with me
Husband, mom and sister
What I would do differently next time
Find out the side effects of meds & pain killers BEFORE they are used on me
What I did to prepare for birth
-Packed a labor/hospital bag
How my birth happened
It all started with a catfish!
DH brought home a cooler full of catfish. I was skinning them, when suddenly its barbed fin goes straight into my hand- the meaty bit between your thumb and first finger. I screamed myself hoarse but couldn't get the fin out! I was 39 weeks & I could feel the baby moving like crazy. After a few mins of pure agony (catfish fins have a toxin in them) we decided to go to the ER. As soon as I sat in the car, my water broke. I was so upset! "This isn't how it's supposed to happen!" was all I could wail! Mom and hubby flew up the stairs for the labor bag, and we were on our way to the ER.
Thankfully they removed the fin before sending me up to L&D...I was terrified they'd leave it in there...it hurt so damn bad! I reeked of fish & was still splattered with catfish blood. Lovely! At this point though, we were still laughing and excited about welcoming our bambino.
When we got up to L&D around 1am, the nightmare began. I was slapped straight on pitocin & started out with hard contractions, 3 mins apart (no sleep at this point). Progressed nicely until 4am, when they started me on magnesium sulfate (I did NOT realize that this drugs' PRIMARY purpose is to STOP LABOR). I was given this as a precaution against seizures (my blood pressure was going up). Doc came to visit at 8am, said he was leaving town at noon and wanted the baby out by then! Pitocin at full flow. By 10am I am about to rip the bedrails off and am screaming for pain killers. Given IV pain killers, which were a nightmare; I would fall asleep between contractions, then awaken 2 mins later to a world full of pain & no self control left to deal with them! I was finally given two epidurals, both of which failed. I was stalled at 4cm (which is exactly where I had been when they started the mag sulf!). The pain of their attempts to manually dilate me left me in tears (it was WAY worse than the contractions!). Finally at 3pm, I was told I could have a c-section if I REALLY wanted one.
I was wheeled into the OR and as they slam a syringe full of pain killers into my IV, they discover that the epidural (which I had told them all along was not working!) was in a blood vessel, not the dural space. The whole world started spinning, ears ringing, convulsions. Next thing I know, that mask is going over my face & the whole world goes black.
I wake up to a world of pain and no baby in sight. All the meds took their toll on him, and he was transferred to a level 3 NICU immediately.
Lessons learned
- Make your hubby skin the catfish!
- Make sure the labor bag is PACKED...you never know if you'll have to chuck it in the car at a 2 min notice!
- Learn about all the pain killers and labor meds BEFORE you go...a lot of them have adverse reactions to your bambino! My lil guy spent 5 days in NICU before he could breathe properly...DIRECTLY due to the mag sulfate and the general anesthesia!
- Don't let the doc rush you...my asshole doc wanted my labor to fit into his schedule!
