Confessions of a Starbucks addict

I call him Quin. :)

Quin never came on his own, so as planned, I went in to the hospital to be induced on Wednesday the 24th. Troy, Chris, Tani and I arrived at around 9AM and at around 10AM Troy went back home to pick up my mom and Kaycee to bring them to the hospital.

Around 11AM my OB came into the room to start the induction. I'd been hoping to have a waterbirth but then some old birth fears overcame me... I'd been vacillating between the waterbirth experience and just getting an epidural for awhile, so when I asked my nurse about getting an epidural *before* the induction was started, I was shocked to learn that they do that all the time at this hospital! So, I quickly decided that I wanted a pain-free birth experience and asked for the epidural post-haste. (Yes, I know, not a popular decision around here...not one that I thought that I would make, at least.) My OB was fine with the epidural and my reasoning, she was also very willing to do the induction the way that I wanted, starting pitocin and breaking my water *after* the epidural was in place.

Unfortunately, the epidural took THREE tries before it started working. The anesthesiologist was great and apologized for having to stick me like crazy. Once the epidural was working, it was quite funny having no way to actually move my own legs. Since I'd never experienced an epidural, it was not what I'd expected. That heaviness was intense.

By the time my OB came back from her office hours around 6PM, I'd dilated to 4cm. This induction was something unexpected for sure. All of my previous labors were intensely quick, so the slowness of the induction was frustrating. It was also maddening since Troy, my mom and three of my kids were there, and were all looking quite bored.

Around 10PM started the craziness. Quin's heart started to decelerate severely during contractions. His head wasn't placed properly on my cervix and so I wasn't dilating well. His heart kept decelerating and though it was only deceling during contractions, it was worrying. At one point, around 10:30PM, his heart deceled so much that the nurse tried to get a better monitor placement on me...and then she couldn't find his heart beat. Quin was then placed on an internal scalp monitor. They noted that I was still 4cm, maybe stretchy to 6cm, but that even then his heart was deceling too much for my liking. Even at 6cm, the way this induction was going, I was worried that Quin wasn't going to tolerate labor for much longer.

I asked for a c-section. I knew it was something that I didn't ever want to do, especially after having had 5 kids, all naturally. However, I'd been having a running nightmare that basically showed me that he wasn't going to make it through labor. It's a dream that I hadn't had in awhile, but it was still there and recurrent. I had all the nurses and my OB flitting in and out of my room then, getting prepped for the surgery. I also asked my OB if since she was already going to be in there, could she please do a tubal ligation while she was at it. Luckily we'd discussed this before, otherwise it'd have been an immediate "no", but since we had it was no problem.

They wheeled me into the OR, got Troy dressed in scrubs, my camera batteries died so I borrowed my mom's. Troy grabbed the video camera and off we went. The anesthesiologist took pics while Troy recorded.

When they finally got into me, they found that Quin's cord was wrapped twice, tightly, around his neck. It was also wrapped down around his legs and around his right knee. No wonder the poor kid wasn't coming out on his own! I'm glad I made the decision for the section since I don't think he'd have tolerated much more labor the way he was tangled up... After his cord was clamped and cut, he started crying right away and they whisked him and Troy back to my labor room to measure, weigh, and do all the other newborn procedures they'd have normally delayed but since I was still in the OR they went ahead and did with my okay.

I don't really remember much after the section. I think I was so exhausted that they let me sleep for quite some time. I remember Troy taking the older kids home and leaving my mom and Kaycee with me until he came back to get them. Kaycee fell asleep on the labor bed with me and Quin, my mom fell asleep on one of the uncomfortable chairs. After they left, I was at some point taken to the post-partum room. I kind of remember being shown where the bathroom was and where the diapers were for Quin...I'm kind of stuck on what else happened, it's a blur. I was exhausted still.

We stayed in the hospital until Friday afternoon. On Thursday they had me drugged up pretty well and I know I wasn't quite coherent, especially when I was on the phone with Troy. I kept falling asleep while talking to him, and I'd have these weird dreams, then wake up telling him whatever I was telling him in the dreams...ugh. I think he was really worried about me, so he called the nurse and had her check on me. Sweetheart. I did finally get some real sleep when Quin slept for 4 hours straight. He then went back to sleep after nursing and slept for another 4 hours. What a good baby!