After a very long 9 months, our precious baby boy has arrived! On October 19,2012 at 8:40 am, Dakota Lane came into the world weighing 5 lbs 15 oz and was 20 in long! My birth story started in the ultrasound room of the clinic with my high-risk Dr checking on Koda's growth. While he had gained weight and looked healthy and normal, he was still under the 10th percentile and the Dr wanted to make sure that there wasn't something wrong that he wasn't able to see on the ultrasound, so he decided to induce my labor. He checked the schedule and labor and delivery were all booked for the next two days, so he asked me if I would be ok with being induced that day. Without hesitation my answer was YES! I was so ready to meet my handsome little man and my mom and mother in law were already in town awaiting Koda's arrival. We didn't even go home (we already had our 'go' bags in the car) We went straight upstairs to labor and delivery where they immediately took me back, started my IV and admitted me! At first they gave me plain fluids and then around 2:30 they started my pitocin. I started REALLY feeling the contractions a few hours later. The nurse had told me that they would give me some pain medicine through my iv until I could get my epidural (at 4 cm) but that I might want to hold off for a while because the first dose would be the strongest and help the most. After a while of trying to breathe through the contractions-which really REALLY hurt-I went ahead and got the pain medicine. Once they administered the medicine, I immediately went to sleep for a few hours. When I woke up, I could feel the contractions again and they were only getting stronger so I got another dose and went back to sleep. Again, when I woke up the contractions were back and getting stronger. They checked my progress and I was finally at 4-almost 5 cm so they said I could get my epidural. While they were administering the epidural, I heard a loud POP and my leg kicked out like someone was checking the reflexes in my knee. I got kind of worried because I heard one of the Dr's say "shit!"....He told me that sometime after delivery I would most likely get a really bad migraine but there was something they would do for me to help but I'd have to wait 24 hours. They went back in and tried the epidural again and this time, it worked! My contractions went away quickly and I fell back asleep. When I woke up I started feeling a lot of pressure. My midwife came in to check my progress and she said that it was time to push! She left the room for a while and FINALLY my nurse came in and told me that on my next contraction we would start to push! Eight minutes later I was holding my beautiful baby boy in my arms! We snuggled for a while and then they took him over to the warmer to get his weight/height and give him his first bath and then when they brought him back to me, I got to feed him for the first time, which was something I had been looking forward to for my entire pregnancy. A few hours later, they moved me into another room and right around that time, the headache that the epidural doctor had warned me about hit and it hit HARD! Another doctor came in to talk to me about what was going on and explained that I had a 'spinal headache' which had been caused by a 'wet tap' when I was getting my epidural (that was the loud pop and kick). To fix the spinal headache they would wait 24 hours from the time my epidural was administered and then give me a 'blood patch'. This procedure is where they would give me another epidural but instead of the medicine they give you during a normal epidural, they would inject me with 20 cc's of my own blood and this would lessen/take away the spinal headache. In the meantime, I was to lay completely flat on my back, as this was the only way my head would not feel like it was absolutely about to explode! After a long while, I was able to get my blood patch which helped a lot but didn't take away the headache completely, however, I was able to function again without my head being in excruciating pain. (a couple days later the headache was completely gone) I don't regret the epidural at all though! The headache was a lot less painful than birth would have been without the epidural! After 2 nights in the hospital, we were able to take our little man home! Life has certainly changed a lot since he's been here, but for the better! While we get a lot less sleep, our hearts are forever full. Please help me welcome my wonderful baby boy, Dakota Lane!
No comments:
Post a Comment