My First Baby

In 2010 I had my first child.  My pregnancy was one that I will never forget.  The beginning of it was scary since I had lots of bleeding and multiple ultrasounds to verify that I was still pregnant.  One night at work I started bleeding heavily and rushed home to get my husband and head to the emergency room.  It was determined that there was no heartbeat and that I just needed to take it easy and rest.  I saw my OB and had an ultrasound that determined that there was a heartbeat.  It was a very emotional moment and I shared it with my mom since my husband was at work.  I enjoyed the feeling until again I was bleeding and I was scared again,  thought oh no I'm going to miscarry.  I saw my OB again and I was fine, however part of the placenta had started to detach.  It was a waiting game to see if the placenta would re-attach. 

Then I was struck with massive pain in my belly; I went to the emergency room again and it was determined that my gallbladder was full of sludge.  Being my first trimester it was determined that surgery wasn't safe; the only time that was safe was during the second trimester or waiting until after the baby was born.  The surgeon decided to wait, but unfortunately things got progressively worse and I was hospitalized until I was able to keep any sort of food down.  I finally went home and followed up with the surgeon; he decided that based on how things were going I needed to have surgery.  As soon as I reached my second trimester I had the surgery.  My OB was in the hospital that day too (it was his surgery day); luckily he was because after my surgery the nurses tried with the Doppler to get a heartbeat and was unsuccessful.  I begged them to call my OB and have him look.  He rushed down and tried with the Doppler then requested the ultrasound machine to see what was going on.  My husband waited there anxiously with me as we waited for an answer.  Then we saw two little legs just kicking away; we were both relieved and so happy to see the baby made it through the surgery fine.  I spent the night just to be safe since I was pregnant and felt so crappy. 

After that ordeal I had a quiet pregnancy until I reached the 8th month.  That's when we had lots of false labor and many a trips to the hospital to only be told sorry it's a false alarm.  Finally at 35 weeks my OB ordered a final ultrasound and that's when my world stopped; my baby was in the frank breach position (he was butt first).  A week later we tried to do an external aversion, but that didn't work, we got as far as I could go pain wise and the baby showed some distress so we stopped.  That night the baby went back to where it was before, so now I needed to have a c-section.  I was scared, but at least I knew my baby would be born healthy.  A few weeks passed then OMG, I had these horrible back pains that just didn't go away; working an hour or so from home I called my OB's answering service and spoke to an on call doctor.  We went in and it was discovered that I wasn't in labor, but that my back was having muscle spasms.  Man was I discouraged.  So that night, I decided that it was time to stop working; I knew it would be difficult, but it was more practical since I couldn't keep leaving work until the c-section.  I spent about 2 weeks just hanging out at home prepping for the arrival of the baby and had hardly any false alarms.  Then it was the big day...

I remember the morning of my c-section, it was a quiet uneventful morning.  I went to my mom's to meet them and then we were heading to the hospital for check-in.  My OB was doing it on his lunch hour, so we didn't have to be there until later in the morning.  I arrived on time and waited and waited...the OR was still occupied when I was supposed to be in there. So instead of things going smoothly I was waiting; the time finally came to meet my baby, well being awake during it wasn't so bad.  That was until he was finally born; he wasn't crying or breathing from what I could tell and they rushed him over to the warmer to give him oxygen and clean him up.  My husband videotaped the entire delivery and you could see that they were having a hard time getting him to breathe.  Finally a after a minute or so he cried for the first time.  I was relieved and so was my husband; my mother stood in the scrub room until the OR emptied out a little bit and then she was allowed in.  She took lots of pictures while my dad waited in my room for us.  When I finally got to hold him; I thought that my little family was finally started and I didn't want to let him go.  As the day progressed I had lots of emotions running through my mind; I made the decision to bottle feed him (later I regretted that decision) and he was doing ok.  My nurse noticed that he was breathing fast and decided to check on us again in an hour.  Friends were with us upon her return; he was still breathing too fast.  She rushed him to the nursery and I told my husband to stay with him until I could be brought down to be by his side.  Our friends said that everything would be ok and I begged the nurses to get me down to be with my baby as soon as possible.  As our friends were leaving the nurse came in to see how I was doing, she noticed that the catheter wasn't working so the decision was made to remove it and give me a chance to try and pee on my own.  That was when something very embarrassing happened.  My husband left our baby in the nursery and brought his parents back to my room (after I'd told him to stay with our son until I could get there) where he opened the door and they saw me having the catheter removed...I was very angry because he didn't even knock. Finally I was able to get down to my son.  The nursery nurse said that he was doing ok and that they gave him some sugar water.  My husband left with his parents and went to dinner; I'd asked him to call my parents and fill them in on what happened.  My parents dropped everything and came to be by my side since I was alone.  The doctor's didn't know what was wrong, but they took blood and did a chest x-ray to see if there was anything going on.  They ruled everything they could out and then finally my husband returned.  My parents left us to be alone with our son and asked that we call should anything happen; they left and I stayed with our son, held him skin-to-skin and fed him a bottle.  He seemed to improve being on my chest and after being without the catheter for 6 hours and no ability to pee I had to go back to my room and be re-catheterized until the first 24 hours was up.  As I lay in bed and they did it I begged to be allowed to return to be with my son, the nurse informed me that they were going to bring him back to me as soon as I was in bed.  I was pleased and so happy once he was in my arms again.  That night we slept skin-to-skin and it was hard to sleep since he was so tiny.

The next morning my parents came to visit; my husband went and helped my dad move some items, but before he left he changed his first diaper ever...yes, he got peed on.  Then they left and my mom stayed with me until they returned.  The nurse came in removed my catheter and said it was time to take my shower.  My mom held my son and read to him while I showered and got cleaned up.  That day I took a walk around the floor (doing multiple laps) and just visiting with my mom.  Once my dad and husband returned they headed out and we just talked and figured out what was needed from home since he was going there to shower.  He brought back a bottle for me to try since we were having some problems with gas.  That night was our last night there and the next morning we went home.  I was on the road to a speedy recovery until we got home.  The day we left we went to my mom's to see my aunt, her kids, and my dad's dad.  When we got there I took it easy, but my poor dad never got to hold my son the entire time I was in the hospital so I left my dad feed him and cuddle with him.  My family visited and then it was time to go home, I was tired and needed some sleep and the baby needed to get to know where we lived.