***Just a heads up, I do not have a wonderful birth story, so if you are looking to read about a perfect delivery, don't read this!***
I think where I left off last I had posted how I had gestational diabetes & I was considered high risk so I had to go see my ob twice a week. I went in to see her Monday Feb. 13th & everything was fine with both Jackie & me. Also on that Monday I started 2 new kids, 2 brothers, in my day care and one was 2 and the other was only 7 months old, taking the total number of kids I watch up to 5. I knew it would be too much for me but figured I'd only have to watch them for 2 weeks, then I would be on maternity leave & come april when I went back to work watching 5 kids plus Jackie would be a piece of cake. That was my plan, & it back fired miserably.
My next appt. With my ob dr. Was on thursday feb. 16th. I had been watching all my kiddos all week & I felt tired but ok otherwise. Of course the 1st thing they do is weigh you, so I stepped on the scale & I had gained 3lbs since Monday, which was strange because I took having gestational diabetes very seriously & I had stuck to my diet. Then the nurse did my blood pressure which was a little high but it became more normal after resting alittle while. So I immediately knew something was wrong when as soon as the nurse put me in a room, my dr. Came in not even a minute later. She checked my blood sugar log to make sure that Iwasn't cheating on my diet & that's why I'd gained weight. Which by the way, even with gaining 3lbs I had only gained 11 lbs total my whole pregnancy! Anyway my Dr. got talking to me about how crazy I was for adding two new children to my day care so close to the end of my pregnancy, and that lots of women can work and be on their feet all day up until the day they deliver, but I am just not one of those women. While she was lecturing me she noticed that my wedding rings looked tight and she then checked my legs, which were swollen also, I had been so busy all day I hadn't even noticed. So she told me right then that I was to be on bed rest the rest of the day and that if I started to get more swollen that I needed to call the on call nurse. So I went home, my husband come home early to help with my day care kids until all their parents came to get them and I felt ok, until about 9pm. I had been having an on and off headache since the sunday before, but after I got home from the drs I got a really bad headache and I could tell my blood pressure was elevated. Luckily, my husband has an automatic blood pressure cuff and so I checked my pressure, and sure enough it was 140 something over 92. I got worried and we decided to call the on call nurse, who called my dr, and they told us to come to the hospital to get checked out.
I don't know if I have mentioned this before, but at that time we had kaiser permenente insurance, well their ob drs only deliver at a hospital that is about an hour and half away from where we live, even though there is a hospital about 20 mins away from us, we had no choice, we had to go all the way down the road to have our baby. So we packed a quick bag and headed to the hospital, at this point I was about 36 weeks pregnant and I really didn't think we would get admitted. Well to make a long story short, I did get admitted, for 10 long days I was in the hospital, I spent most of it on the high- risk floor. I was basically diagnosed with mild pre-eclampsia and because we lived so far away from the hospital the drs were afraid that if something happened and I needed to get to the hospital quickly that I lived too far away to be let go home. So because I was already diagnosed with gestational diabetes and then had pre-eclampsia too, the drs decided to have me on bed rest in the hospital until I was 37 weeks and then they would induce me. Now here is where I must thank God because He truly does watch over His children. On our second night there around midnight, the nurses had Jackie on the monitor and Roger and I were sitting up watching a movie on t.v. I felt a strong contraction, then I felt Jackie kick hard and then she kinda shook, I remember grabbing my belly and in seconds 3 nurses came running in my room, they put a oxygen mask on me and had me flipping from side to side, they paged my dr and then they finally seemed to calm down and the nurse explained something really scary to me. She told me that Jackie had pinched her cord very badly, her heart rate dropped into the 50's and I nearly had an emergency c-section. My husband asked her what would have happened if we were home and she said, well you probably would have been asleep when this happened and you wouldn't have known to move to change her position, so it's a real possibility that Jackie could have passed away. When she said that I just thanked God that He knows all and that He had us exactly where we needed to be so Jackie would be fine. Jackie pinched her cord another 2 times before I was induced. It was terrifying because my husband went to work during the day because he wanted to have as much time off with us once Jackie was born, instead of wasting it sitting in the hospital. Then because I was an hour and a half away none of my family could really visit, so I had to be there all day by myself, it was very tough. But finally Wednesday, Feb. 22 rolled around, the day of my induction! I could not wait to meet my little girl!
They started my induction around 3pm, and my Dr explained to me that they were gonna use some medicine to ripen my cervix and that they were gonna go slow with me so my induction could take as much as 3 days! I was not happy to hear this, I wanted this over with! Anyway, they chose to use the drug cytotec, which I was terrified of because I have heard how this drug has killed mothers and babies during induction because of how strong they cause contractions to be. Well my dr insisted that we use it, so that was inserted around 4pm. I forgot to mention during my stay I came down with a horrible cold, and I had a really bad cough. Well after they put the cytotec in, about 30 mins later I coughed really hard and I felt a gush of water come out of me, so I called my nurse and said I either just peed myself or my water just broke! The drs could not confirm that what came out was amniotic fluid, but because every time I got up out of bed my pad on the bed was wet they were certain that I did break my water. So because of this my drs said they could no longer take their time ripening my cervix, now the induction would go must faster, I was so happy to hear this! So to kinda speed this story up, I will just say that my labor was very very slowly progressing, my contractions were irregular and not strong all night and morning long. So finally about 1pm on the 23rd of Feb. my dr concluded that my water had not completely broke and that he needed to break it. Oh my goodness, this hurt! As soon as he broke my water my contractions got much stronger, but I was dealing with them fine....
Then they started pitocin...oh my goodness, contractions with pitocin hurt soooo bad! I seriously felt 1 contraction with pitocin and I told my nurse, get me an epidural now! And I did get one and felt such relief. While that was going on, my dr came in and said that Jackie's heart rate keeps going too high and too low and that if she doesn't soon stabilized I will be getting a c-section. I this point I was 24 hours into labor and with being diabetic and not being able to eat, I was soo weak, my nurse kept checking my blood sugar and it was only in the 60's. A few times they let me have some juice but that was it, I was seriously wondering how I was gonna have the strength to push my daughter out. Around 6pm Jackie's heart rate went too high again so they had me switch from laying on my right side to my left and for some reason when I flipped over, my epidural stopped working!! From this point on I felt every single contraction, and I basically ended up with a natural brith, it was very painful because of the pitocin.
Of course at 7pm the new nurse came on shift and she was a newbie who had no idea what she was doing. I told her soo many times that my epidural wasn't working and it was like she didn't hear me. At this point my older sister was with me and she has had a natural birth and she was trying to help me through the contractions but with pitocin they were coming to hard and quick I couldn't catch my breath. At 8pm the new dr came on shift and she checked me and said I was at 4cm and 75 percent effaced. I almost cried, I seriously thought I was gonna be in labor forever. She then commented that she would come check me soon and if I had not made more progress I was getting an c-section. From 8 until about 10pm, I was in the worst pain I have ever been in my life. In addition to the horrible contractions, this newbie nurse kept losing Jackie's heart rate on the monitor, so she literally stood next to me and shoved the monitor into my belly, while I was contracting! Finally I totally lost it, I was feeling so much pain and pressure I couldn't take it anymore and I burst into tears and told my nurse I want a c-section now, I can't take another min of this, my nurses reassured me that I did my very best, that I had a very long labor and it was my choice. So they got my husband suited up, they got me ready to go, we were just waiting on the dr.
Well my dr walks in and she starts yelling at me! She starts yelling that she doesn't know why we are all ready for a c-section, that she hasn't approved anything, and that she doesn't do selective c-sections. She then made me name reasons why I think I need a c-section and she wanted to know why I was whining about pain, wasn't I numb? I got very smart back and said NO I am not numb, this epidural hasn't worked in hours! She calmed down and said she would check me and then we would decide what to do. I was seriously so angry I could have punched this dr! Just 2 hrs before she was telling me I was probably gonna need a c-section! So anyway she has me roll onto my back and she goes to check me and she starts yelling at me again! She says, well the reason you are in so much pain is because you are complete and the baby is coming out, her head is crowning, why didn't you tell me you were having so much pressure? I was like I have never had a baby before, how in the world am I supposed to know what's going on?? Well now I got nervous because I was afraid of the pain of pushing, so right then and there I decided I was gonna get Jackie out quick. The Dr. got everything ready and she explained how to push, which by then I had pretty much figured it out. I pushed 2 and a half times and Jackie came out! Thank God it was over! I had a very minimal tear, it only needed a few stitches. Roger and I were so over joyed and so in love instantly! Jacqueline Danielle was born on Feb. 23 at 10:32pm and weighed in at 5lbs 2oz, she is beautiful!
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