Carter's Birth Story...Continued

I have been putting off writing the second part of Carter's birth story for awhile now, and I have GOT to get it finished so I can update on the first 6 weeks of his life!  I cannot believe my little man is already that old!  I have been putting off writing this because I seriously do not remember most of the second part of his birth story...thanks to being over tired and being on the magnesium drip after delivery for treatment of the pre-eclampsia. I have asked Brent to fill in a few of the gaps for me!

See part one here.

So I left off after I was started on the pitocin drip around 8 am on October 26th.  That morning, things were slow & easy.  The contractions started, but they were not painful at that point, just a little uncomfortable.  They slowly made their way closer together as the day went on, and began to hurt me enough that I wanted something by around 2 or 3 pm.  I was given some pain meds through the IV that my nurse called a margarita. :) And boy, was she right, I felt like I was drunk!  Not long after those kicked in, our priest stopped by to say a quick prayer with us.  Family was also in and out during that time. 

(We think) around 6 pm, I was laying in the bed breathing through a contraction when my water broke...what a strange feeling!  I was trying to relax and let the contraction push him down and all of the sudden, I knew I had either ruptured my bladder or my water had broken!  Within second though, it was obvious it was my water because the contractions became so intense that I felt like I was barely making it through each one.  They checked my cervix and I was dilated to 4 cm, so I requested my epidural.  I felt like I waited forever for it, but in reality it was probably about 30 minutes or less, and it would have been more if my sweet angel of an anesthesiologist that was not technically on call yet hadn't come on in and took over.  There was another women in labor that was having trouble and they thought she was going to have to be taken for an emergency C-section, so the other anesthesiologist was tied up with her.  

Getting the epidural was interesting, to say the least.  I was totally dreading that part, but it wasn't near as bad as I was anticipating.  The worst part was trying to hold still during contractions, knowing I had a gigantic needle in my spine!  Brent stayed in the room with me and held me through it all.  Thank goodness for him!  Once it was in, though, I felt AMAZING!  Brent was amazed at how the mood in the room changed from before the epidural to after.  I was a whole new girl!  I was ready to visit with everyone!  

Lots of family and friends were in and out at that time.  At some point, the pitocin was making my contractions too close, so they had to back it off a bit.  Of course, I couldn't feel them, so it made no difference to me! :)  I was also STARVING at this point and all I could think about was food!  I felt like every commercial that came on the TV was for food that looked delicious.  My nurse's name was Rocky and it was written on the dry erase board in our room "Rocky, RN".  I told my mom it was like torture because all I could think about was food and it looked like that board said Rocky Rd, as in Rocky Road ice cream!

The nurse checked me for dilation around 9 pm, and I was at 6 cm.  I wasn't checked again until around 10:30 pm, and I was at 9-10 cm and about 30 minutes from pushing!  We couldn't believe how fast those last 4 cm went!  

When it came time to push (around 11:30 pm on 10/26), everyone cleared out of the room into the waiting room except for my mom & Brent.  Each one of them was in charge of holding one leg when I pushed.  We were joking around saying baby Carter was going to pick his own birthday.  Brent's little sister Kara's birthday is 10/27, so we wondered if they would share a birthday or not. I hoped they would each get their own birthday and he would come before midnight (not to mention I was hoping for very fast pushing!) However, it was not nearly as quick as I had hoped!  

I ended up pushing for 2 1/2 hours before my little man decided to make an appearance. I didn't even realize I was pushing for so long until my doctor came in and they told her I had been pushing for 2 hours.  I thought it just felt like forever!  I was so exhausted, but once the doctor came in, she helped turn little man around a bit and gave me an episiotomy and things started moving along much faster.  When I started hearing about his hair and head, that gave me even more motivation to get him out of there, and I gave a few final pushes.  

Carter Allen Smith was born at 2:05 am on 10/27/12, weighing in at 7 lb 7 oz and 19 in long.  He came out kicking and screaming!  His daddy cut the cord and he was laid on my chest for a few minutes before being taken away to be cleaned up a bit.  Apparently at that time I was bleeding pretty bad and had been throughout the delivery, but it was internal, so my doctor told me I had to be taken back to the OR for surgery.  Thankfully, Carter's sweet RN, Maxine, brought my little Carter back over for a few more minutes before I was taken back.  Those few minutes I just cried and cried.  I was so happy he was here and in my arms, but so scared.  No one really knew what was going on and why I was bleeding so badly, so they couldn't really say how long it would take or what was going to happen.  I remember thinking that I may not ever see my baby boy again or that I may have to have a hysterectomy or something and never get to experience this again.  

I had to give Carter back to the nurse and sent Brent with him.  Then I was given another IV in case it was needed in surgery to put me under anesthesia, and was sent back for surgery.  I was hoping my mom could go back with me, but she walked as far as she could with me and they said she couldn't go any further. I told her before she had to leave that I was trying to say an "Our Father" but couldn't remember the words!  She told me she would say it for me.  But now, I was awake, alone, and had no idea what to expect!  I was trembling, but my angel of an anesthesiologist got me this super warm "igloo" type blanket that helped calm me down and he stood with me during the entire procedure.  It ended up just being some internal tearing that they were able to use the glue type stitches to get it all fixed up and I didn't have to be put completely under.  

This is really as far as I can remember.  I do not remember coming out of surgery and being put on the magnesium drip IV.  I don't remember going the rest of the night without my sweet baby boy, as he was in the nursery because his lungs sounded like they had fluid in them or that he had possibly ingested some meconium. I do vaguely remember that Brent and I were awaken about a million times by nurses checking on me at all hours of the night.  I was still on a catheter, because you can't walk around when on the magnesium drip, so they had to come keep changing the bag out.  Plus, my blood pressure was WAY too high so the alarm on the machine kept going off.  But I think we managed to get a little bit of sleep.  

We didn't get to see Carter that day (10/27) except to feed him since they thought he was having some breathing troubles.  But he breastfed wonderfully.  We had visitors throughout the day, but we felt really bad that they only got to see us and not the baby!  But around 5 pm, he had been given a chest X-ray and cleared to be with us.  We were so happy to hold him!  My mom & sisters were there when he was cleared so they got to hold him too.  You can tell my little sisters are very proud aunties! :)

This post has gotten way too long, so I am going to stop here & do another on the last part of our hospital stay & coming home.  Hopefully I can get up to date!