Kokopelli's Birth Story
Jun 27, 2016 15:48:22 GMT -5
Post by kokopelli on Jun 27, 2016 15:48:22 GMT -5
I finally got onto a computer so I can actually type this out. Its been a hard past few days with the postpartum hormones so I am hoping this will help me sort through all of the feelings.
TL;DR: Baby girl was born at 33 weeks GA, dx of preeclamsia, induced VBAC. Both mom and baby are doing well
Monday: I went into see my OB for my routine 32 week appt. My bp was not elevated (per the RN, but I had been getting high readings at home). Protein was +1. I had 3+ pitting edema in my feet but mild swelling in hands. Since I was moving and would not have an appt for 4 weeks, my OB and I decided to do a preeclamsia workup just to put my mind at ease (oh ha).
Tuesday: Lab work came back normal except for 2gm+ Protein in my 24 hour urine. Baby was an 8/8 on her BPP and my fluid levels were perfect. My BP is still not really elevated (same RN), I however am getting 180/120s at home. I'm told I have mild preeclamsia, nothing to be concerned about at this point. My OB calls the new OB and gets my appointment moved up.
Wednesday: NST, baby passes. New RN checks my BP and she is getting 180s/110s. Placed on bedrest. Repeat 24 hour urine and labs. Get my first steroid shot for baby's lungs. I call my mom to get on a plane to get the kids. I knew in my gut things were going south fast. My H decides to stay with his current company and accept a raise/transfer/promotion so now I'm moving to a place I know nothing about. I have no OB lined up, no rental, no nothing. I'm glad he accepted it, but it was a serious WTF moment. I was up all night worrying and peeing into my 24 hour jug. I had some test strips at home and they were all coming back at +4 so I knew it wasn't going to be good. H says he had a great night sleep because he felt at peace with his work decision. To be fair, I had not let on how serious things were because I didn't want that to affect his decision. I feel like I have the flu but can't decide if it is stress or worry.
Thursday: Drop my 24 hour urine off. They decide to do a NST since I'm there. Baby passes, my blood work from Wednesday comes back unchanged. BP after NST down to 150s/90s. Sticking with mild preeclamsia dx, will continue modified bedrest. I tell my OB about moving to DFW and he says no worries he know a few OBs that will take me up here. I go home to relieve the babysitter and get a call from OB. They forgot my 2nd steroid shot. So I have to rush back and get it. While there my 24 hour urine comes back at 7gm+. My OB says you need a csection tonight, I beg him to let me take the 5 hour drive to DFW. He was reluctant but since my labs weren't horrible he agrees. He sets up for MFM OB to accept me. I throw my kids, my mother (who had arrived 2 hours prior) a few suitcases with random clothing for everyone into the car and we set off for hospital. The mood was pretty somber because I was NPO and expecting a csection on a 32 week baby who had not had the full 48 hours for steroids to take affect. We got to the hospital at 11pm and got admitted. The MFM isn't overly concerned, thinks we can get baby to 34+ weeks on bedrest and BP meds. So I start procardia (side effects: racing heart, headache, flushing, flu like feeling). The side effects last for 2 hours after every dose and I was taking it every 6 hours. They give me an ambien and tell me to rest. I'm a hard stick so they wanted me to eat, drink and sleep a little before we attempted the iv. It only took 3 times but I warned them ahead of time and insisted on the best IV starter on the unit to come and do it. She did it with an ultrasound machine so thankfully she was able to get a pretty deep vein that was large. That blessed IV lasted me 4 days
Thank you Nurse Amanda!!
Friday: Move up to antepartum. Continue bedrest and procardia. BP stabilize 130s/80s, except when I was out of bed taking a shower and all. Meet the on-call MFM OB. She is really nice and feels confident I can go a few more weeks. I stress my desire for a VBAC and she said it was something that we could talk about when time came. Baby passes all of her NST. That night I start to feel bad again and have difficulty breathing. They think it is just heartburn so they give me something IV that helps (protonix I think). They give me an ambien and I pass out.
Saturday: In antepartum. Baby passes her NSTs. Don't feel great, nurse thinks it is the ambien. I try to drink some caffeine and take Tylenol but my bp goes up. No caffeine for remainder of stay. Have a dull headache, they chalk that up to procardia. My chest hurts again so they start the protonix as scheduled, not as needed. I'm pretty uncomfortable because of swelling. The walls are paper thin and my neighbors are super noisy. I refuse to take an ambien so it was a long night. My nurse had sicker patients so I barely saw her. H said I was pretty irritable and just getting up and down to the bathroom all night long.
Sunday: I have a headache that is getting worse. They chalk it up to caffeine withdrawal. They stress the baby is doing great, my labs have been unchanged. The oncall MFM comes by and gives me a pep talk. I tell her my hands are swelling and my face feels really puffy. She says its all normal with mild preeclamsia. Since my labs haven't changed there is no indication to deliver. H goes out to look at some rental houses. I take a nap and hope it helps my head. A few hours later I wake up and just feel like absolute shit. My head is hurting to the point where I can't open my eyes. The dayshift nurses has the same assignment as the previous shift so she really doesn't come to check on me. I don't think to call her, but my mind was pretty muddled at this point. H gets back from house shopping and can tell something just isn't right and asks them to come take a look. The nurse aide takes my bp and it is 208/124. She puts me on my left side and goes to get the nurse. The nurse pulls my evening meds and gives them to me hoping that helps. They put baby on the monitor and she looks great. Stat labs are run and there are NO changes (platelets, liver and kidney tests are within normal-ish ranges). They give me a quick acting IV BP medication. The OB comes in, checks me (cervix is closed and 50% effaced) and says it is time to go to L&D. If I want to do a VBAC now is the time to go. Otherwise I will sit here and she will throw meds at me until the baby starts to get stressed on monitor then it will be an emergency csection. I apparently decide it is a good time to loose my mind. I can't put a single thought together. I don't know why I wouldn't consent. I wanted to but it was like my body physically wouldn't let me say yes or shake my head. H steps in and say we are going to L&D. I'm a blubering mess but they don't hesitate once they have his consent. I get down to L&D and am put on a FHR and Toco monitor. Turns out I'm having contractions 1 minute long, 10 minutes apart already. This makes sense on why I have lost my mind. I can never think clearly during labor. They start Magnesium drip. The loading dose goes in like fire through my veins. My whole body felt hot but I felt so bad already I don't think it really registered to much. They then push a few more IV BP meds and are able to get me down to 150s/90s. The OB comes in to put the bulb in my cervix. She says I'm already at 2cm and 75% effaced after only an hour. Its clear my body and baby wanted this induction. She puts the bulb in which doesn't really hurt since I'm already at 2cm. The contractions pick up to every 5-8 minutes, and 1 minute long. I pull on the bulb every hour. The OB said for the nurse to do it but she wasn't doing it. Once again I didn't want to make trouble to I just stuck my hand down there and did it. For as out of it as I was, I feel in my conversations to myself I was pretty with it The bulb finally comes out around midnight.
Monday: With the bulb out, they start the pit. There really is no point because I am contracting and making change on my own at that point. At 3am, I was 6cm, 100 effaced but baby was still at a -3 station. They said we just need to let her labor down at this point and not stress her. Pit stays on at 2, mag, other bp meds are flowing. I ask for the epidural, and the CRNA comes right in. First attempt she has a "wet tap". Something about where they go through the dura. She blames me for moving and my nurse calls her out right there. She tries a little higher and "gets" it. I can only feel the epi in my feet. CRNA comes back multiple times to redose, nothing is taking. They tell me I'm just going to have to live with it. My head is starting to really pound. Contractions are 3 minutes apart and last 1.5 minutes. I'm getting panicky and I remember telling my nurse things are about to get really bad. My head was just pounding and laboring on my left side was torture. 7am-Baby HR keeps getting lost so they put an internal monitor in, which also in turn breaks my water. The orginal MFM OB is back on duty and he is happy with how everything is going. A new nurse comes on and she really talks to me about breathing through the pain. Something she said must have stuck because H said I suddenly was handling the contractions better. They kept putting ice on my head but it was making the pain worse. 830ish- H says I just started screaming for them to give me something. Because of the non-working epi I couldn't really move my lower legs but he says my top half was thrashing in bed. He said it was like an exorcist moment. One minute I'm fine, next all hell has broken loose. They give me demerol and phenergan which knocks me out in between contractions. He says with every contraction my upper half thrashes around and I scream out. I apparently kept hugging my IV pump because they wouldn't let him stand on that side of the bed. So I guess I thought the IV pump was a good thing to hug. As soon as contraction would break I would be snoring at total peace. 945-Nurse goes to check me and start screaming for staff to get in there. Baby apparently had come halfway out in the bed and I was to out of it to saying anything. H says she shoved baby back in to her neck and held her there with next contraction. I remember her screaming at me to not push because the dr wasn't there. As soon as he walked through the curtain I pushed and she went flying to the end of the bed. I apparently laid back and passed out. The OB tried to hand her to me and couldn't get me to wake up. By then the NICU team had made it so they took over. She had to be on CPAP because of the mag and they also had to get a ton of blood work. H said she was awake but didn't fight them or cry. At some point my placenta came shooting out and I screamed out scaring the whole room. I then went back to my nap. They took her down to NICU to get situated. The NICU dr says she came talk to me and said I couldn't even put a sentence together other than "She mine, I made her". I have no idea why I said that of all things.
Next 24 hours (Monday/Tues)- I stayed on mag and IV drips to manage bp. I was NPO in case of a seizure. My mouth felt like cotton and really hurt. I didn't really want to move so I laid on my left side the whole time. I had a catheter in so they would periodically change my pad and clean me up. At some point they wanted me to pump but I told them I just couldn't. My face was so swollen I could hardly open my eyes and my hands were so swollen I couldn't make a grip. The night shift girls came in at one point and helped me pump and hand express. I didn't move a muscle while they did it. They really did it with such dignity and care. I will be forever grateful they got that 10 ml of colostrum to feed my baby. Day shift did it as well, but that first time was really the big hump. I finally got the mag turned off 24 hours after she was born.
Next 12 hours (Tues)- I stayed in l&D because there was no room in postpartum. The mag took a good 6 hours to wear off enough for me to sit up and eat and drink. I finally got up and used the bathroom. I got dressed with help and they put me back to bed. I wanted to go to the NICU so bad but H was gone so I had to wait for staff to help. I finally got up and started to walk there myself. Some poor medical records soul took pity on me and stoped me to get a wheelchair. She took me into the NICU and stayed with me until I wanted to go back. Baby girl was breathing on her own at this point. She had a tube through her mouth to her stomach for breastmilk from the milk bank. She had an IV but the dr said it was not necessary anymore and they wouldn't replace it when it fell out. When I was done they moved me to GYN floor since I didn't have a baby to take to postpartum. It was really painful when they said it that way. I tried to not think about it and just push through.
Wed/Thursday-Recovered on GYN floor. It was a loud floor with a lot of post-surgical patients in pain. They kept treating me like I had a csection so it was frustrating to remind them that no I could take a shower if I wanted to. NICU was a good ways away but I insisted I walk so I could keep my independence. H took me at night in a wheelchair but otherwise he was gone during the day. Baby girl kept going up on her tube feeds and was keeping her temperature stable. Late Thursday they discharged me. H had gone back home to be there for the movers. And the shuttle to the Ronald McDonaldhouse was not available. So I walked with my few bags and breast pump the 1/2 mile to Ronald McDonald house. IT was a poor choice looking back on it, but I just felt like I had to make something work. I put myself to bed and was determined Friday would be better.
So after all was said and done, it was not the delivery I wanted, but I am thankful I have a healthy girl and I was able to VBAC one last time. My placenta had some deformities and did partially abrupt during labor. So I was kind of a nightmare pregnancy. I have been told by several OB I can not get pregnant again. The fact that I didn't lose the baby is by the Grace of God. Had I not spoken up and requested those labs, I could have been sitting at home waiting for a seizure. Please make sure if you feel like something is off, don't let a dr dismiss it. I do feel like my gut feelings were really on point. Even if I couldn't pin point what I needed, I knew I needed medical attention. My blood work was atypical presentation for preeclamsia, but thankfully once they dr got some accurate BP readings they took me more seriously.
I'll add some photos below. PDQ, I will poof later.
TL;DR: Baby girl was born at 33 weeks GA, dx of preeclamsia, induced VBAC. Both mom and baby are doing well
Monday: I went into see my OB for my routine 32 week appt. My bp was not elevated (per the RN, but I had been getting high readings at home). Protein was +1. I had 3+ pitting edema in my feet but mild swelling in hands. Since I was moving and would not have an appt for 4 weeks, my OB and I decided to do a preeclamsia workup just to put my mind at ease (oh ha).
Tuesday: Lab work came back normal except for 2gm+ Protein in my 24 hour urine. Baby was an 8/8 on her BPP and my fluid levels were perfect. My BP is still not really elevated (same RN), I however am getting 180/120s at home. I'm told I have mild preeclamsia, nothing to be concerned about at this point. My OB calls the new OB and gets my appointment moved up.
Wednesday: NST, baby passes. New RN checks my BP and she is getting 180s/110s. Placed on bedrest. Repeat 24 hour urine and labs. Get my first steroid shot for baby's lungs. I call my mom to get on a plane to get the kids. I knew in my gut things were going south fast. My H decides to stay with his current company and accept a raise/transfer/promotion so now I'm moving to a place I know nothing about. I have no OB lined up, no rental, no nothing. I'm glad he accepted it, but it was a serious WTF moment. I was up all night worrying and peeing into my 24 hour jug. I had some test strips at home and they were all coming back at +4 so I knew it wasn't going to be good. H says he had a great night sleep because he felt at peace with his work decision. To be fair, I had not let on how serious things were because I didn't want that to affect his decision. I feel like I have the flu but can't decide if it is stress or worry.
Thursday: Drop my 24 hour urine off. They decide to do a NST since I'm there. Baby passes, my blood work from Wednesday comes back unchanged. BP after NST down to 150s/90s. Sticking with mild preeclamsia dx, will continue modified bedrest. I tell my OB about moving to DFW and he says no worries he know a few OBs that will take me up here. I go home to relieve the babysitter and get a call from OB. They forgot my 2nd steroid shot. So I have to rush back and get it. While there my 24 hour urine comes back at 7gm+. My OB says you need a csection tonight, I beg him to let me take the 5 hour drive to DFW. He was reluctant but since my labs weren't horrible he agrees. He sets up for MFM OB to accept me. I throw my kids, my mother (who had arrived 2 hours prior) a few suitcases with random clothing for everyone into the car and we set off for hospital. The mood was pretty somber because I was NPO and expecting a csection on a 32 week baby who had not had the full 48 hours for steroids to take affect. We got to the hospital at 11pm and got admitted. The MFM isn't overly concerned, thinks we can get baby to 34+ weeks on bedrest and BP meds. So I start procardia (side effects: racing heart, headache, flushing, flu like feeling). The side effects last for 2 hours after every dose and I was taking it every 6 hours. They give me an ambien and tell me to rest. I'm a hard stick so they wanted me to eat, drink and sleep a little before we attempted the iv. It only took 3 times but I warned them ahead of time and insisted on the best IV starter on the unit to come and do it. She did it with an ultrasound machine so thankfully she was able to get a pretty deep vein that was large. That blessed IV lasted me 4 days
Thank you Nurse Amanda!!Friday: Move up to antepartum. Continue bedrest and procardia. BP stabilize 130s/80s, except when I was out of bed taking a shower and all. Meet the on-call MFM OB. She is really nice and feels confident I can go a few more weeks. I stress my desire for a VBAC and she said it was something that we could talk about when time came. Baby passes all of her NST. That night I start to feel bad again and have difficulty breathing. They think it is just heartburn so they give me something IV that helps (protonix I think). They give me an ambien and I pass out.
Saturday: In antepartum. Baby passes her NSTs. Don't feel great, nurse thinks it is the ambien. I try to drink some caffeine and take Tylenol but my bp goes up. No caffeine for remainder of stay. Have a dull headache, they chalk that up to procardia. My chest hurts again so they start the protonix as scheduled, not as needed. I'm pretty uncomfortable because of swelling. The walls are paper thin and my neighbors are super noisy. I refuse to take an ambien so it was a long night. My nurse had sicker patients so I barely saw her. H said I was pretty irritable and just getting up and down to the bathroom all night long.
Sunday: I have a headache that is getting worse. They chalk it up to caffeine withdrawal. They stress the baby is doing great, my labs have been unchanged. The oncall MFM comes by and gives me a pep talk. I tell her my hands are swelling and my face feels really puffy. She says its all normal with mild preeclamsia. Since my labs haven't changed there is no indication to deliver. H goes out to look at some rental houses. I take a nap and hope it helps my head. A few hours later I wake up and just feel like absolute shit. My head is hurting to the point where I can't open my eyes. The dayshift nurses has the same assignment as the previous shift so she really doesn't come to check on me. I don't think to call her, but my mind was pretty muddled at this point. H gets back from house shopping and can tell something just isn't right and asks them to come take a look. The nurse aide takes my bp and it is 208/124. She puts me on my left side and goes to get the nurse. The nurse pulls my evening meds and gives them to me hoping that helps. They put baby on the monitor and she looks great. Stat labs are run and there are NO changes (platelets, liver and kidney tests are within normal-ish ranges). They give me a quick acting IV BP medication. The OB comes in, checks me (cervix is closed and 50% effaced) and says it is time to go to L&D. If I want to do a VBAC now is the time to go. Otherwise I will sit here and she will throw meds at me until the baby starts to get stressed on monitor then it will be an emergency csection. I apparently decide it is a good time to loose my mind. I can't put a single thought together. I don't know why I wouldn't consent. I wanted to but it was like my body physically wouldn't let me say yes or shake my head. H steps in and say we are going to L&D. I'm a blubering mess but they don't hesitate once they have his consent. I get down to L&D and am put on a FHR and Toco monitor. Turns out I'm having contractions 1 minute long, 10 minutes apart already. This makes sense on why I have lost my mind. I can never think clearly during labor. They start Magnesium drip. The loading dose goes in like fire through my veins. My whole body felt hot but I felt so bad already I don't think it really registered to much. They then push a few more IV BP meds and are able to get me down to 150s/90s. The OB comes in to put the bulb in my cervix. She says I'm already at 2cm and 75% effaced after only an hour. Its clear my body and baby wanted this induction. She puts the bulb in which doesn't really hurt since I'm already at 2cm. The contractions pick up to every 5-8 minutes, and 1 minute long. I pull on the bulb every hour. The OB said for the nurse to do it but she wasn't doing it. Once again I didn't want to make trouble to I just stuck my hand down there and did it. For as out of it as I was, I feel in my conversations to myself I was pretty with it
The bulb finally comes out around midnight. Monday: With the bulb out, they start the pit. There really is no point because I am contracting and making change on my own at that point. At 3am, I was 6cm, 100 effaced but baby was still at a -3 station. They said we just need to let her labor down at this point and not stress her. Pit stays on at 2, mag, other bp meds are flowing. I ask for the epidural, and the CRNA comes right in. First attempt she has a "wet tap". Something about where they go through the dura. She blames me for moving and my nurse calls her out right there. She tries a little higher and "gets" it. I can only feel the epi in my feet. CRNA comes back multiple times to redose, nothing is taking. They tell me I'm just going to have to live with it. My head is starting to really pound. Contractions are 3 minutes apart and last 1.5 minutes. I'm getting panicky and I remember telling my nurse things are about to get really bad. My head was just pounding and laboring on my left side was torture. 7am-Baby HR keeps getting lost so they put an internal monitor in, which also in turn breaks my water. The orginal MFM OB is back on duty and he is happy with how everything is going. A new nurse comes on and she really talks to me about breathing through the pain. Something she said must have stuck because H said I suddenly was handling the contractions better. They kept putting ice on my head but it was making the pain worse. 830ish- H says I just started screaming for them to give me something. Because of the non-working epi I couldn't really move my lower legs but he says my top half was thrashing in bed. He said it was like an exorcist moment. One minute I'm fine, next all hell has broken loose. They give me demerol and phenergan which knocks me out in between contractions. He says with every contraction my upper half thrashes around and I scream out. I apparently kept hugging my IV pump because they wouldn't let him stand on that side of the bed. So I guess I thought the IV pump was a good thing to hug. As soon as contraction would break I would be snoring at total peace. 945-Nurse goes to check me and start screaming for staff to get in there. Baby apparently had come halfway out in the bed and I was to out of it to saying anything. H says she shoved baby back in to her neck and held her there with next contraction. I remember her screaming at me to not push because the dr wasn't there. As soon as he walked through the curtain I pushed and she went flying to the end of the bed. I apparently laid back and passed out. The OB tried to hand her to me and couldn't get me to wake up. By then the NICU team had made it so they took over. She had to be on CPAP because of the mag and they also had to get a ton of blood work. H said she was awake but didn't fight them or cry. At some point my placenta came shooting out and I screamed out scaring the whole room. I then went back to my nap. They took her down to NICU to get situated. The NICU dr says she came talk to me and said I couldn't even put a sentence together other than "She mine, I made her". I have no idea why I said that of all things.
Next 24 hours (Monday/Tues)- I stayed on mag and IV drips to manage bp. I was NPO in case of a seizure. My mouth felt like cotton and really hurt. I didn't really want to move so I laid on my left side the whole time. I had a catheter in so they would periodically change my pad and clean me up. At some point they wanted me to pump but I told them I just couldn't. My face was so swollen I could hardly open my eyes and my hands were so swollen I couldn't make a grip. The night shift girls came in at one point and helped me pump and hand express. I didn't move a muscle while they did it. They really did it with such dignity and care. I will be forever grateful they got that 10 ml of colostrum to feed my baby. Day shift did it as well, but that first time was really the big hump. I finally got the mag turned off 24 hours after she was born.
Next 12 hours (Tues)- I stayed in l&D because there was no room in postpartum. The mag took a good 6 hours to wear off enough for me to sit up and eat and drink. I finally got up and used the bathroom. I got dressed with help and they put me back to bed. I wanted to go to the NICU so bad but H was gone so I had to wait for staff to help. I finally got up and started to walk there myself. Some poor medical records soul took pity on me and stoped me to get a wheelchair. She took me into the NICU and stayed with me until I wanted to go back. Baby girl was breathing on her own at this point. She had a tube through her mouth to her stomach for breastmilk from the milk bank. She had an IV but the dr said it was not necessary anymore and they wouldn't replace it when it fell out. When I was done they moved me to GYN floor since I didn't have a baby to take to postpartum. It was really painful when they said it that way. I tried to not think about it and just push through.
Wed/Thursday-Recovered on GYN floor. It was a loud floor with a lot of post-surgical patients in pain. They kept treating me like I had a csection so it was frustrating to remind them that no I could take a shower if I wanted to. NICU was a good ways away but I insisted I walk so I could keep my independence. H took me at night in a wheelchair but otherwise he was gone during the day. Baby girl kept going up on her tube feeds and was keeping her temperature stable. Late Thursday they discharged me. H had gone back home to be there for the movers. And the shuttle to the Ronald McDonaldhouse was not available. So I walked with my few bags and breast pump the 1/2 mile to Ronald McDonald house. IT was a poor choice looking back on it, but I just felt like I had to make something work. I put myself to bed and was determined Friday would be better.
So after all was said and done, it was not the delivery I wanted, but I am thankful I have a healthy girl and I was able to VBAC one last time. My placenta had some deformities and did partially abrupt during labor. So I was kind of a nightmare pregnancy. I have been told by several OB I can not get pregnant again. The fact that I didn't lose the baby is by the Grace of God. Had I not spoken up and requested those labs, I could have been sitting at home waiting for a seizure. Please make sure if you feel like something is off, don't let a dr dismiss it. I do feel like my gut feelings were really on point. Even if I couldn't pin point what I needed, I knew I needed medical attention. My blood work was atypical presentation for preeclamsia, but thankfully once they dr got some accurate BP readings they took me more seriously.
I'll add some photos below. PDQ, I will poof later.
