Sunday 7/20/08
I started having pains in my left side, right about where my kidneys are. I had been cleaning around the house all day, and figured I might have just strained a muscle, so I asked Kyle to rub my back for me. He did, but there was no relief, and in fact, the pain started to travel up my back and wrap around my side. I had taken a total of 4 Tylenol by 6:30, with no relief. I tried walking around the house, but that just made the pain more intense. Finally, Kyle took me back to the ER, and we checked in to Labor & Delivery (L&D) by 7:45. I was told that I still wasn't in active labor, but the doctor wasn't going to let me go home in so much pain. They gave me a shot of morphine & phenegran (sp?) so I was able to sleep.
Monday 7/21/08
Dr. Kirkpatrick came in around 7am, and said that she was going to augment my labor at that point, and wrote an order for Pitocin (pit) & an epidural (epi), and that my bag of waters would be broken. She was going to break the water right then, but needed to have an IV started just in case. Once the IV was in, they started the pitocin, and I got my epi soon after. Unfortunately, my epi got messed up. The doctor was in the epidural space in my spine with the needle, but the catheter broke through the subarachnoid membrane, so I started to leak spinal fluid. The doctor had to come hand dose all of my pain meds throughout the day (instead of a regular epi where you are put on a continuous drip). After the 3rd dose, however, I wasn't getting any pain relief, so he had to do another epi on me. He really didn't want to, since if I had to have a C-section then he would have to put me completely under.
Well, the 2nd epi worked, but probably a little too good. I was numb up to T3 (that's about where your clavicle is) so he was a little worried, since if the meds got to my brain stem, then I'd be dead (your brain stem controls all of your autonomic functions, and you really don't want it to be numb and not functioning properly!) The nurses had me on my left side at this point, and decided to roll me over to my right side. Mind you, this is about 10:00 or so, and I had been in the hospital for over 24 hours. Well, the pain hit me at that point. I guess turning me was enough to make the baby descend, and for me to dilate from 4cm to 10cm. I was screaming at this point! Lots of expletives were said, and poor Kyle was left to deal with me! I was yelling at the nurse that I wanted a C-section since I had been there so long with no progress. She said no, and decided to check me. Lo and behold, I was finally at 10 and ready to push! Lots more screaming was done, and at 11:50pm, Conner was born! My only words were "Oh my God!", followed by "He looks just like you!" to Kyle.
I think he was waiting for Mom & Dad to get to the hospital, because they arrived just in time for his birth!
Tuesday 7/22/08 & Wednesday 7/23/08
We just spent time in the hospital trying to recoup. I was dealing with a spinal headache from the epi, and it was an effort to just be able to sit up enough to try to breastfeed. I was discharged on Wednesday, still dealing with the headache.
Finally, by Friday, the headache was so bad that I couldn't walk without feeling like I was going to be sick, so Kyle took me back to the hospital to have a blood patch done on my spine. By bedtime that night, I was feeling much better.
Conner also had his first checkup on Friday the 25th. He had jaundice, so they called in for him to wear a bili blanket. By now his levels have come down, so all we have to do is keep feeding him and make sure he goes potty! He also lost a pound from the 21st to the 25th, but has gained back 4oz, so that's good. He's expected to gain 1 ounce per day. I hope I can keep up with that!
His next doctor's visit is Wednesday, so I should be able to update then.
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