It’s been awhile…I’ve been a bit busy with my newborn baby girl Vivienne!
Vivienne was born on 06/04/19 at 8:14pm. She was 8lbs 8oz and 20 inches long. It was kind of a rough labor and delivery. (If you don’t want to read about birth and complications, please don’t read further).
So Monday night I went into labor. I had worked a full day and was tired, but wanted to try anything to get my labor started. I had been bouncing on the yoga ball for at least a week, if not 2, made sure I was walking around as much as I could during the day, and even had as much spicy Indian food as I could. My doctor had checked me the Friday before and let me know, to my big disappointment, that the baby was still very high and I was still completely closed. Hubby and I decided to get a little frisky that night…low and behold, my water broke in the middle! We had started and all of a sudden dann says “whoa…that is a lot of fluid!” I hadn’t really felt anything, so I reached down, felt a lot of wetness and walked to the bathroom, where the fluid started gushing. Because I had polyhydramnios (too much amniotic fluid), my doctor told me if my water broke I needed to head to the hospital right away because I was at risk for cord prolapse (where the umbilical cord drops below the baby’s head and into the birth canal, which can cause pressure on the cord with contractions and lead to a c-section).
I called the doctor and dann got himself and Freddie together. He called his dad and brother to let them know we had to drop Freddie off. Dann had parked about a block away, so he ran carrying Freddie to the car while I put on my adult diaper and got dressed. I grabbed the baby car seat and headed outside. My landlord was up and heard us rushing out the door, so she helped me to the car. Dann drove the wrong way down our street to pick me up and off we went.
We quickly dropped Freddie off at my FILs house, which is about a 5 minute drive away. Then dann drove as fast as he could to the hospital, trying to avoid as many bumps in the road as possible, which is very hard in Brooklyn. I was leaking a ton of fluid. I could feel it going through my pants with every bump and contractions had started. We actually laughed and talked the whole way, which was nice. I had been so grumpy and exhausted as of late, we hadn’t really been connecting like we used to.
Got to the hospital and dann dropped me at the ER to check in while he parked the car. I was soaked (ended up just throwing out those clothes) and they wheeled me up to labor and delivery as quick as they could. Dann and I noticed a huge difference in my belly…it had shrunk significantly since my water had broken an hour ago. The nurse was very nice, but didn’t listen to me about where to put my IV. My left arm is pretty useless when it comes to finding a vein and I have veins that retract. I told her to use my right arm, even though I’m right handed. Well, she tried my left and started digging around on my forearm trying to catch a retracting vein. I suddenly felt dizzy and nauseous and she stopped. Once I was feeling better, she put in the IV in my right arm without issue and I was brought to my delivery room.
I labored for 21 hours start to finish. I couldn’t walk around like I wanted to because of the cord prolapse risk, so I was confined to the bed and even had to pee in a bed pan. If you’ve never had to use that, hope you never do. It was embarrassing and difficult to do. I had contractions, but they were irregular, so the doctor put me on pitocen, just like when I had Freddie. Even on the pitocen, my contractions had difficulty regulating. They tried different doses every few hours until my body finally got into a rhythm, which was very close to the end. I was put on a liquid diet and had 2 meals before needed to push. Once contractions really got under way, I was really tired. Being checked was really painful for some reason, didn’t matter who was checking me, and I was leaking fluid the entire time. My doctor came in and said i was around 8cm dilated, but the baby still hadn’t descended because of my position. He had me do some practice pushes to move her down, which really sped up contractions. He checked me again a little while later and I had one cm to go, but he couldn’t tell me how soon that would be. I asked for an epidural because I needed some rest. Unfortunately, the anesthesiologist never came and I quickly went from 9cm to 10cm. The intern who was working with my doctor came in a few times because I was feeling really uneasy and felt like I had to poop, which is usually a sign that it’s time to start pushing. Dann had to keep getting her because my body started pushing on its own and I was scared.
The delivery team finally came in and set up everything. I was pretty frantic and couldn’t speak and I was really tired. The doctor told me to hold my legs back and I couldn’t, so they ended up putting me in the stirrups. Worst. Thing. Ever. I began pushing and was pushing well, but I felt like I was pushing towards the ceiling instead of the floor. This was exactly what I had wanted to avoid, but I was so tired I just wanted it over with. I pushed for about a half an hour, which is pretty good. I pushed for about an hour with Freddie…I remember my doctor coming in and out a lot while I was pushing for him and pushing a lot with the nurse. Anyway…crowning was definitely the hardest and most painful part. People say it’s like a burning or stinging sensation, but it felt more like a tearing to me. I really thought I was ripping my clitoris. I felt her hair when I was getting close and started pushing more. When I felt the tearing sensation, I yelled to dann I couldn’t do it a few times. I don’t even remember what he said to me, but I obviously kept pushing. Got her head out, a few pushes and got her shoulders and arm out…then for whatever reason I reached down, grabbed her under her armpits, pushed, and pulled her out onto my chest. I had no idea I was going to do that, it just happened. Dann said the doctor was scrambling to keep up with me and then said “wow I’ve never seen that before!”
While I had vivienne on my chest, the doctors started working on getting the placenta out. It was very painful. I was shaking and they kept going back in with their hands. With Freddie, my doctor had me give one last little push and pulled my placenta out by the cord. It was the best feeling in the world! This time, I could see the doctors struggling and I was in terrible pain. My placenta wasn’t detaching from the uterine wall. They tried for about 20 minutes before I told them to stop and dann asked them to stop. My doctor told me I had two choices: 1. He could give me laughing gas and finish taking it out or 2. I could go to the OR, go under general anesthesia, and he would finish taking it out. I opted for #2 because I couldn’t take anymore pain and needed some rest. They wheeled me to the OR, got me setup, put on the oxygen mask and then I remember waking up in recovery with dann waiting next to me.
Before I was taken to the OR, dann asked about the X-ray I had needed. The week before I had vivienne, my TB blood test came back a second time as undetermined, which meant they didn’t know if I did or didn’t have TB and the nursery wouldn’t give me the baby until they had a clear chest X-ray I did not have TB. So after the OR, I was supposed to be taken to radiology, given the X-ray, then taken to the maternity ward. They put in for the X-ray, but it was taking awhile so they took me to my room and said they’d be up soon to take me. I asked every person who came in my room every couple hours when I was going and kept getting the run around. My nurse asked if it was ok to give vivienne a bottle and I had to say ok because I didn’t want her to starve. Eventually, around 9am (around 13 hours since I had my baby), I was told whoever was putting the info into the computer was doing it wrong so the procedure kept getting rejected. Dann was really upset and was on his way with Freddie. I finally got my X-ray around 10:30am and then we were waiting for the results. Dann yelled at every person who came in our room about getting the results. The nursery doctors came in and told me I needed to re-do the X-ray because there was an abnormality on the scan…it ended up being the snaps on my labor gown I had worn. Finally, dann asked to take Freddie to see the baby since he was getting restless and not 5 minutes later, they wheeled her into my room. This was around 12:30pm.
After that, everything was fine. Vivienne has been pretty great. For the most part, she’s calm and cuddly. She’s been having some fussy days as of late, but I think it’s because she hasn’t been feeding on one breast for long enough, so she’s getting too much fore milk and not enough hind milk. She also fights going to sleep. Freddie loves his little sister. He wants to help all the time. He is jealous though if I’m tied up with her and has been wanting to be by my side constantly. He’s been acting up a little too…pooping a little in his pants, having big tantrums, spitting, arguing…all normal things for a 3 year old when you bring home a new baby. Dann says vivienne is my baby…she is a mamas girl and it took me some time to let anyone really hold her after not having her for so long. They’re bonding, but slowly.
Dann had 2 weeks paternity leave which was great. He’s back to work now and it’s been ok. A little difficult to be home alone with a toddler and an infant, but we’re adjusting. I’ve healed up pretty well. Still have a hernia, still bleeding a little, but soreness is gone and I’m returning to normal size. Down to 168lbs from 194lbs. I think most of that weight was the fluid. Mentally, im feeling good. No baby blues, not overly tired, just a little stressed sometimes when both kids need me at the same time. But overall, adjusting well! Breastfeeding overall is going well too. I’m a little worried about how I’m going to adjust once I go back to work, but that’s about 2 months down the road. Just seems like summer is flying by already.
Later all!
~mana~
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