So where do I begin....I will give you a little background into my pregnancy first...
Pregnancy is an amazing experience...don't get me wrong. I am truly blessed to have my son. That being said. I HATED being pregnant. It seemed like I had every symptom known to man! It sucked...It sucked bad. I would look on pinterest and blogs and see all these cute pregnant women and I was like wow I look like a beached whale. I didn't do the pregnancy chalkboard thing, although I wish I would have. I just felt extremely self conscious and TIRED. It was like there was an alien in my body sucking the life out of me. I would eat and sleep, and work, and then sleep some more. My husband joked that I was a "professional napper."
At 31 weeks I went into labor, at work. I was having a busy night. I work on a surgical unit and was seriously running between rooms trying to care for my patients. I stopped for a quick bathroom break and noticed that I was bleeding. I immediately called the doctor. And she said get to labor and delivery. I thought to myself, oh they will just check me out then send me home. HA.
I called my husband to let him know what was going on. I reported off to the nurse taking over for me, and I rushed over to labor and delivery. My husband met me there. I was hooked up to the monitor. The nurse looked at me and said, "do you know you're having contractions every 3-5 minutes?!" Um no say what????
The nurse then proceeded to check me. Dilated 1-2cm and 75% effaced. And baby boy was low...super low. I then knew that I was not going anywhere. It was probably the scariest night of my life. I was given a shot in my butt to help my baby's lungs mature. I was then placed on magnesium that went in through my IV. They kept upping the dosage trying to slow my contractions. But it just ended up making me sick. I threw up everywhere. I seriously thought my baby was on his way. The NICU nurse came in and visited with me. She told me what to expect if I did end up delivering at 31 weeks. I cried and cried. IT was surreal.
The doctor then placed me on a medication called Procardia. It is a cardiac med, but works well for slowing contractions by relaxing smooth muscles (such as a uterus :) Every 6 hours I took this medication. And thank GOD it worked. I still had contractions but they were sporadic and not very strong. I was kept on bedrest for the REST of my pregnancy. I ended up staying in the hospital for 18 days before I was released back home on bedrest.
I know some people who've never been on bedrest probably think its awesome, but it is not fun my friends. For six weeks I had to stay in bed. The days dragged on and on. But I knew that I had to do this for my baby. I wanted to make it to at least 36 weeks. I was so stressed...mainly because nothing was getting done. The nursery wasn't finished, I didn't have any clothes or diapers or bottles for my little guy. Luckily my awesome Mother-in-law helped me out and got us stocked up on everything. I also did a little online shopping while on bedrest ;) Or maybe a lot of online shopping. The UPS guy dropped something off almost everyday ;) Anyways...during this time I was being checked twice weekly during my non-stress tests, and then would meet with my OB/GYN once a week. They were monitoring the baby's growth because I was measuring small. At 36 weeks it was decided that I would be induced the following week because baby boy was not growing like he should.
I was filled with many emotions. I wanted to meet my baby, but I also wanted him to be healthy. That last week was filled worrying about my unborn child and the fast approaching induction. Then the day finally arrived! We arrived at the hospital at 6 am. I got all the paperwork signed, they started my IV and turned on the dreaded pitocin. Pitocin is a drug used to stimulate contractions and progress labor. Every 30 minutes the nurse would come in and increase the pitocin. I was having contractions about every 2 minutes, and as she increased the pitocin my contractions became stronger and stronger. At 9 am my doctor arrived. I was dilated 3 cm so she decided to break my water. This REALLY got things going. The pain was like nothing I have ever felt. It completely consumes your whole body. Seriously. I just focused on a ceiling tile and tried to control my breathing. I could not focus on anything else. And they kept increasing that DAMN pitocin. UGH. Induction is a bitch.
So I was doing my best to relax, breath, focus on the ceiling tile :) I planned on getting an epidural, but wanted to wait till I was a little more dilated. So about 1 1/2 hours after my water broke, I decided it was time for the epidural. I'm glad I got it when I did considering I was already 6cm. The whole thing went awesome. I'm not really afraid of needles and such considering I'm a nurse. The epidural was the bomb! Not total relief, but enough to make me relax. Within 30 minutes of receiving this I was fully dilated! I don't know how long the pushing lasted, not very long. The baby's heart rate dropped, so the doctor used the vacuum to help pull him out. It was very scary. The nicu team and neonatologist where there to check him over. Luckily, he was perfectly healthy! I was so so thankful.
So that's my story. I hope future pregnancies will be a little less dramatic than this one.
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