| When I was about 21 weeks pregnant, Ella was diagnosed with hydronephrosis. Her right kidney was obstructed and wasn�t draining properly. Then at about 31 weeks, I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. I changed my diet and was on insulin, but my blood sugar never seemed to be under control for long. Because of these two things, Dr. DiGiovanni and I decided to try to induce labor a week before my due date. On Tuesday, July 15, Jed and I headed in to the hospital after dinner to check in. When we got there we were taken to my labor and delivery room and I changed into a gown and got settled. I was given Cervadil, a gel insert, to try to ripen my cervix since I was barely 1 centimeter dilated. I was put on external monitors to monitor the baby�s heartbeat and my contractions. The nurse put a hep-well in my hand so that they could start an IV whenever they needed to and gave me Ambien to help me sleep. Since nothing was likely to happen that night, Jed stayed with me until I fell asleep, and then went home to get some rest. At 6:00 the next morning Jed came back just as the nurse was hooking me up to a pitocin drip. My doctor came in and broke my water to try to start labor. At this point I was still only 1 centimeter dilated, so the cervadil really hadn�t done much. From then on I wasn�t allowed to get out of bed and had to use a bedpan! Nothing much happened all morning. Jed and I played cards and watched TV while people kept coming in to check me. I continued to have mild contractions, but nothing uncomfortable. Throughout the day I checked my blood sugar every four hours. I turned on my side to try to get comfortable and take a nap, but the monitors on my belly kept slipping. This made it look like the baby�s heartbeat was going away, so an intern came in and put internal monitors in. The heart rate monitor goes in and attaches right to the baby�s head. Then there�s another monitor that goes in to the top of the uterus to measure contractions. That was the first time I cried. The doctor who did it was so rough that I almost screamed at her, but once it was in, it was fine. Some time in the afternoon, the contractions started to get a stronger, but I was just breathing through them. I was 2 centimeters dilated. Around dinnertime I was laying on my side and suddenly my contractions were coming so hard and fast that the pain was constant and I remember telling Jed that I couldn�t do it. A nurse came in and I asked for something for the pain. They gave me a shot of Stadol in my butt and some in my IV. I immediately felt better and sent Jed to get something to eat for dinner. An hour or two later the pain got pretty intense again, and I had another shot of Stadol in my thigh and in my IV. Soon after that my cervix was checked and I finally made it to 3 centimeters, so they told me I could have an epidural. I was terrified, but I said yes. The anesthesiologist came in and asked Jed to leave. He had me sit on my bed and lean over. It wasn�t as painful as I had always imagined, just very uncomfortable. It took him 30 minutes to get it in because I couldn�t relax or arch my back enough, but once it was over it was worth it! Around 10 PM my doctor came in and checked my progress. She told me that I was still only 3 centimeters dilated and that she expected me to be much further along. At this point, she told us, our options were to have a cesarean section or to continue to labor through the night and see I made any progress with the pitocin, although it was unlikely that anything would change and I would probably end up with a c-section anyway. Jed and I discussed it for a minute and decided to have the c-section that night. We let our parents know what was going on and the doctors removed my monitors, put a catheter in me and gave Jed his surgery gown. Before I knew it, I was being wheeled down the hall into surgery. They lifted me onto the surgery table, which for some reason was tilted so that I felt like I was going to slide off onto my head! A drape was hung just under my chin and Jed appeared next to my head. I was afraid that I would be able to feel it when they were cutting me open, probably because I�d heard too many stories, but there was no pain. One of the last things I remember saying was that it felt weird because I could feel that they were moving things around on the other side of the drape! I was starting to drift away and I heard my doctor tell me that I had nice abdominal muscles, which made me laugh because I�ve never been a super fit person! The next thing I heard was someone saying to Jed, �Look at all that hair! You have to see this!� Jed very reluctantly stood up and took a quick peek over the drape at our daughter, half of her still in my belly. Ella was born with a full head of dark hair. Next thing I knew, I heard a faint cry, as if it were coming from very far away. Then Jed appeared with our baby girl. I couldn�t move my hands and I could barely focus my eyes. I asked if she was ok, and whether her hair was straight or curly (only wanting to know the most important things!) and then drifted away again. Then my husband and daughter disappeared. I was on the table floating in my head for what seemed like hours. I remember being quite certain that I had died on the table and even after the surgery I kept asking Jed what had happened. Meanwhile, Jed and Ella were heading to the nursery. Our parents and Jed�s grandmother were waiting in the hallway and got to hold her before she even got there. I�ve seen this on video. Everyone cooed over the baby and then after a minute or so, Grandma DeRose asked how I was. Oh, remember that woman who just gave birth! Ella weighed 7 pounds 11.5 ounces and was 20 inches long. Her apgars were 8 and 9. The next thing that I remember clearly is being in my �recovery room� which was nothing more than a curtained off section of hallway. The nurse handed me my daughter and I nursed her while Jed stood next to us. He got some really nice video of this moment too. He managed to keep from getting my breast on film while capturing the blissful, doped up look on my face. We stayed there for about an hour, just the three of us. Finally they wheeled me into my room where our family was waiting. At this point it was somewhere around one or two in the morning. They passed Ella around while I babbled and insisted on opening presents that my sister and aunt had left me. All I wanted to do was eat, but they wouldn�t let me! Once everyone left, Jed got comfortable on the bed/chair on the floor and I lay in my bed watching Ella in the bassinet at foot of my bed and watching Jed sleep. I did manage to doze for a few hours, but every time the baby made a noise or a nurse came in, my eyes flew open. The next morning I don�t remember feeling pain, although I�m sure I did. All I can remember is that my whole body itched, especially my back. I had gotten PUPPs, a rash caused by pregnancy hormones about a week before, and it got worse after Ella was born. They had given me some kind of pill that was supposed to relieve the itch, but it didn�t work. So I asked to get out of bed, and the nurse helped me get out of bed and into a chair. I sat there for a while and the nurse came back and removed my catheter. Then she made me go to the bathroom, an incredibly slow and painful walk, but I made it there and back to my bed. I was starving and kept asking for something to eat. I had spent the last weeks of my pregnancy thinking about all the things I wanted to eat once I delivered and my diabetes went away and I was very upset when they told me that I could only have liquid. I ate jello and iced tea for breakfast, but they finally gave in and let me have a solid lunch, although the hospital food left much to be desired! The next few days were a blur. The pain was pretty bad, but got a little better as I shuffled around my room and up and down the hallway, and of course the percocet and Motrin helped. My blood sugar was checked a few times and was fine. My first shower was difficult, but Jed was in the room to help me, and it felt wonderful! By the time they let me shower it had been three days and I felt so gross. Ella and I did pretty well with breastfeeding. It was a little complicated because I couldn�t burp her and she was pretty gassy and fussy, so I would feed her and hand her to Jed who would burp her and hand her back to me. Our biggest problem was trying to wake her up to eat. On Saturday, Ella�s third day, we were told that she had jaundice and was dehydrated. My milk hadn�t come in yet, so we were told that we would have to supplement with formula. I was really upset about this. I felt like I was already failing as a mother. I couldn�t take care of her because I could barely get out of bed, she was born with a kidney condition that I (wrongly) blamed myself for, I hadn�t bonded with her because I was so drugged when she was born, and now I couldn�t nourish her. Ella had lost almost a pound since she was born, and because of her kidney problem, it was especially important that she not be dehydrated. So although I hated it, I gave her formula after each breastfeeding. Once we started giving her formula, Ella improved, so we came home on Sunday. I spent five long days in the hospital. On Monday we took her back into the hospital for a bilirubin test, but I could already see that her jaundice was improving. That evening my milk came in and I stopped giving her formula. Sometime during that first week when Jed was home with me I noticed that there was swelling just below my incision. I was terrified of what they would tell me, but at eleven o�clock at night I called my OB. I went into the office the next morning and I was told that my incision was infected! My doctor reopened an inch of my incision and packed it with sterile gauze, leaving a �wick� hanging out to draw out the infection. We were given a list of medical supplies to get and I was given a prescription for an oral antibiotic. A visiting nurse came to change my �stuffing� the first two days and to teach Jed how to change it. After about two weeks of this, and going to my doctor�s office every other day, the infection was gone and my incision was taped over to close. Now I could finally start to heal. This story was written by Laura. |