Sam’s
Labor Story
Samuel
Boyd Anderson was born on June 27th, 2014 at 6:03 pm. He weighed 8
pounds exactly and was 20 1/2 inches long. I was induced with him a couple of
days before my 38 week mark due to complications, namely pre-eclampsia. Let’s
start there… (skip ahead if you don’t want to read all the pre-baby stuff!)
At
my 34 week appointment I went in and found out that I had high protein count in
my urine and unusually high blood pressure, I usually have picture perfect
blood pressure. I was asked to do a non-stress test on the baby to make sure he
was okay, which he was, then I was asked to do a blood draw to test for my
platelet count, which was low. All of these signs combined made my doctor think
I had pre-eclampsia so she told me to do a 24 hour urine test just to be sure
the protein levels really were elevated. So the next day I drove to the
hospital to drop it off and we heard back that afternoon that yes my levels
were elevated and I needed to come back in the next day. So I went back to the
doctor’s office (a 40 minute drive!) and we did all the tests again, with the
same results. High protein, low platelets, high blood pressure, but no problems
with the baby. They also did a quick ultrasound to make sure my amniotic fluid
levels were okay, which they were. So I was told to get a blood pressure cuff
and take my blood pressure at home every couple of hours and if it got
consistently above 140/90 I was supposed to come back in. Well, I was almost
always over on one number but not the other, so I was the absolute border of
where they wanted me to be. I would be either 142-ish over 88-ish, or I would
be 138-ish over 92-ish. Once I got a reading of 154/100 which was kind of
scary.
I
was told to take it ridiculously easy, basically partial bed rest, until my due
date got closer. Problem with that was, well, I have two other small children!
My mom and dad were in Europe for the month of June, so I was keeping them
updated on the phone and through texts about my condition, which was stressful
for all of us. Ben took a bit of time off here and there and my mother in law
and sister in law were great to come down often and take over caring for my
kids so I could take it easy and not endanger Sam or myself. I was even told to
limit how many times I went up and down my stairs since the slightest activity
spiked my blood pressure! It was a very stressful time for me, and discouraging
to not be able to be a functioning mom…
I
now had to go in to the doctor twice a week instead of just once, which was a
major pain but I am glad they were being so careful about my health and about
Sam’s well-being. At my first 36 week appointment my doctor was out of town and
I was seen by someone else who said she would induce me that day if I wanted
since my levels were steadily, if somewhat slowly, climbing the charts. I chose
to wait another week for my doctor (I didn’t really like the one I saw that
week) and to let my mom have time to come home early from her trip to be with
me since it was most likely that I would have the baby before she was
originally scheduled to come home. I went in for my scheduled 37 week
appointment and found out that I was 85% effaced, dilated to a 3, and my levels
were still high so we set my induction date for Friday that week. I was so
excited to have a date set, but so nervous about all these complications and
worried about Sam. It was a roller coaster of emotions, but nothing compared to
what was coming!
The
Actual Labor:
I
was admitted to the hospital at 7:00 AM on Friday. We were almost in the same
room that I had Noah in, we were right next door! I jokingly told the nurse to
tell the lady to move and she said she was positive the lady wouldn’t
appreciate that, and about 20 minutes later we heard her baby cry, so yeah she
probably wouldn’t have liked moving just then! Anyway, there was a weird
picture on the wall of different birthing positions that creeped Ben out, so
the nurse actually took it down and put it in a closet! Our nurse was
absolutely wonderful, she was so accommodating and friendly and we really
enjoyed her bedside manner. She spent a lot of time with us since she only had
one other patient that day so we got lots of attention.
I
was hooked up to the IV and started on the Pitocin by 7:30, and once that
Pitocin hit I started contracting regularly every 3 minutes. I am the most
regular contractor ever! I am like clockwork the whole time, which is great,
but it is also very tiring. I was able to last until I was at a 6, which was
around 3:00pm. I got my epidural at that time, which had to be administered
twice because he hit a blood vessel the first time. It was pretty miserable to
have to be numbed and stuck and poked twice, and all the while I was having
very regular strong contractions, but I made it and the epidural was wonderful!
I still got sick and light headed and nauseated from it for about an hour, just
like I have every time I get one, but the relief from the pain is so nice. I
did have to have a little bit of oxygen once or twice to help with light
headedness. My mom had shown up around 11:30 and she was there to laugh and
joke and visit with us and her support was so nice, especially through what was
to come. Ben was so wonderful too, especially while I got the epidural, he held
my hand the whole time, and he also gave me foot massages, helped me stay
comfortable on the bed, assisted me in walking to the bathroom and around the
room to help with pain, and just generally supported me and told me I was doing
a good job. He is so sweet!
After
getting the epidural about an hour later one of the doctors from my clinic
FINALLY came to break my water, my doctor was supposed to be there around noon
to do so but got held up and had to ask someone else to come over, and after my
water broke I progressed very quickly. By about 5:30 I was feeling ready to
push and I was experiencing a lot of pressure and just a touch of real pain.
When the doctor came in and got ready and told me to push, after one big push
she said, “Well he is just going to pop right on out!” and he did, only 2
pushed later and he was here!
Sam’s
Big Scare:
When
Sam came out he was so cute and chubby, my biggest baby, and he let out a few
decent cries while they started to clean him off then suddenly that beautiful
pink color receded and the dark blue color came back and he stopped making any
sound. They grabbed him off my stomach and rushed him over to the bassinet and
the nurse was talking into her radio thingy and said, “We need staff to room
412 we have a limp baby” and my world just stopped. I couldn’t see Sam because
he was instantly surrounded by a large group of nurses, probably 8 or more, and
there was also a large pillar in the way, but I could see his monitor and it
wasn’t moving. He had flat lined. They did chest compressions on him and got
him going again, but his breathing was incredibly shallow and very very rapid. Once
I knew he was breathing and his heart was beating, I began to cry. We had
literally just done almost the same scenario with Josh a year earlier (Josh and
Sam are Irish twins, both born in June) and I didn’t know if I was strong
enough to go through it all again. I was so worried about Sam, I don’t think
there is any way to feel more helpless than to watch a team of nurses
frantically working on your newborn child, before you have even touched him or
held him or let him hear your voice. I couldn’t even go be near him because I
was getting the afterbirth process over with. Ben stood as close by Sam as he
could get without hindering the nurses efforts, but he was just as helpless. As
I cried my mom was by me and kept rubbing my arm to support me but she was also
emotional and we cried together as we watched my precious son from across the
room. The room seemed very big at that point, he was so far away.
Eventually,
roughly 20 to 30 minutes later though it felt like much longer, they got me
sewn up (two little stiches) and cleaned up and got Sam stable enough to bring
him to me. I was able to hold him for just a few precious minutes, give a few
kisses, and let Ben hold him. I learned from Josh last year that if Ben didn’t
get a chance to hold him then it might be a couple of days before he got the
chance. So I made sure Ben got just a moment with our new son. Far too soon, he
was whisked away to the NICU for further evaluation to see if he had to be
admitted. After he was gone and my emotions were back somewhat under control I
began to shake violently. Partly from the labor and partly from the trauma and
emotions and adrenaline. I was brought 3 heated blankets and I still shook and
shook and shook. It took a while to stop. I tried to eat some crackers and
drink some juice and took a pain pill since my epidural had long since worn off
and I was feeling the pain, but I threw it all up immediately. I decided to
wait to eat and take another pill for a little while because I think my
emotions were making me ill. Ben was in the NICU with Sam at that point so it
was just my mom and I and I am SO grateful that she was there to be with me!
I
was ready to go to the maternity ward, and in my hospital when a new mom is
wheeled from labor and delivery to maternity they play a lullaby overhead. Well
I had also learned from Josh that being wheeled over there with empty arms and
a broken heart while listening to a lullaby is torturous and so I asked them to
kindly refrain from playing the song, which they did. They quickly wheeled me
to the NICU first so I could see that Sam was hooked up to his machines and get
an quick update from the nurse there, who was actually the nurse who first took
care of Josh and she remembered us which was kind of coincidental. We were told
he was being admitted, which I knew meant several days in the hospital. Sam was
hooked up to oxygen, a heart monitor, a breathing monitor, an IV, a pulse
monitor, and an oxygenation monitor. He was breathing SO fast and so shallow,
it was frightening to watch. They assured us that he was not life threatening
and would be fine once they slowed his breathing down, which ended up taking 8
long days in the hospital plus another month and a half of home oxygen. Anyway,
after I visited Sam I was wheeled to maternity, with Ben and my mom walked
alongside me. We were all very subdued and I especially was feeling discouraged
and disheartened because I knew I was in for a long recovery, it is difficult
to recover when you are staying in the hospital with your baby for several
days, and I knew how depressing and lonely I was about to be while I waited for
Sam to be ready to come home. It was not a good feeling. Little did I know my
personal adventure was just beginning!
My
Big Scare: (kind of gross at the beginning)
Once
we got to my maternity room I was ready to lie down, try to eat again, and rest
for a while. I hadn’t eaten since 6:00 that morning, it was now about 8:00 at
night, and I was physically and emotionally wrung out. However, when I stood up
from the wheelchair to get on the bed, I felt a huge gush of blood, including
several fist sized (or bigger) blood clots go down my legs. I told my nurse and
she helped me lay down and then looked down and her eyes got huge. She
immediately called for my doctor and another nurse to come into my room. She
began “massaging” my stomach to get any remaining blood out and each time she
pressed down on me a large amount of blood would gush out.
My
doctor came in and did the same thing for about 10 minutes and then said they
would let me rest for a few minutes and see if the bleeding slowed. I was in a
lot of pain by now because she wasn’t exactly gentle and I had absolutely no
pain medication of any kind in my system by this point. Ben left, at my
insistence, to go check on Sam. While he was gone my doctor began to push down
very hard on my abdomen to get out any remaining blood and see if I was
clotting like I was supposed to, and several more huge gushes and enormous
clots came out each time. Then she told me she was going to use her hand to
pull out the clots still inside me and told me to hold onto the sides of the
bed because it was going to hurt, a lot. So I braced myself by holding onto the
bed rails and honest to goodness it was all I could do to not scream. That was
the most intense pain I have ever felt in my life. She would push down as hard
as possible on my abdomen while literally scraping with her fingers around my insides
and pulling out handfuls of clots, with gushes of blood each time. I had my
eyes closed, I was biting my lips, and I had tears just running down the sides
of my face. I was literally writhing in agony each time she had to do that, and
it took about 15 minutes, and I was getting dizzy and light headed from the
pain and the blood loss. Ben called my cell phone, which my mom was holding, to
give me an update on Sam and I wasn’t paying too much attention but I remember
her saying, “Ben you need to get over here, she needs you.” Ben showed up a
minute later and luckily she had just finished so he didn’t have to see me in
that kind of agony, but he could tell it had been bad because by then I was
full on sobbing (I am NOT a crier, so he knew it was bad) and I actually moaned
a few times when I tried to even just shift my weight. I kept reiterating that
I had no pain medicine working to help me and I could feel the tremendous loss
of blood that I had just gone through, on top of the normal post labor aches
and pains.
At
that point the doctor laid out what was happening with my poor body. She said
in rare cases some women with pre-eclampsia have complications after the birth
which is unusual because normally the “cure” for pre-eclampsia is having the
baby. I was one of those lucky few. I was hemorrhaging and would probably
continue to do so until they intervened with medication. I was borderline for
needing a blood transfusion but my doctor decided against it, but later said
she wished that she would have ordered it anyway since it took a full 2 months
for my blood count to return to normal. She ordered pain medication to be put
into my IV so I would be able to get some relief, then told me that I would be
on magnesium overnight at least, possibly longer. I was told to lay flat and
not get back up until I was given the okay from my nurses, which ended up being
around 11:00 the next morning.
I
was wheeled on my bed back to labor and delivery where a nurse would be able to
closely watch me for seizures and respiratory failure since I was losing so
much blood, I was on the magnesium, and I was also given a strong muscle
relaxer. I was told I couldn’t eat, which made me SO sad because I was starving
by this point. The magnesium was really weird, it makes you feel REALLY REALLY
hot when they first put it in, and they even had to bring in two big fans for
me! That only lasted for about half an hour thankfully. I was told to sleep
which was hard since I was hooked up to so much stuff! I had compression boots
on each foot going off every 30 seconds (all the way up to my knee to prevent
blood clots), my IV in my hand, a blood pressure cuff which went off every half
hour, an oxygenation monitor on my finger, a catheter, a second IV line for
continued Pitocin to try to contract my uterus as much as possible so the
bleeding would stop, and something else I can’t remember. I stayed like that
all night long, with nurses coming in often to check on different things,
change IV bags, and I even had a blood draw in the middle of the night! Ben
spent the night sleeping on the couch-bed in the room, but I don’t think he
rested much.
The
next morning Ben checked in on Sam, who was doing fairly well, and then he went
home to get some rest after having breakfast with me. By 11 that morning I was
SO done with all that, and everything was disconnected except for the IV in my
hand. I was able to get up and slowly walk around and freshen up just a little bit.
My face was droopy from the muscle relaxer and my mouth felt like something
cottony died in it, so it was nice to watch my face, brush my teeth, and just
stand up for a little bit! I was able to finally eat my breakfast, and I
ordered it twice because I was so hungry! I was finally taken back to the
maternity ward and told that I could go visit Sam is someone wheeled me over,
which was necessary. I hated feeling so helpless but just walking across my
room made me dizzy and weak. By the end of the day I was able to slowly walk
myself to the NICU but I had to really take it easy.
