I’m am pregnant for the second time and it has got me thinking about my first pregnancy with my daughter in 2007. I had a wonderful pregnancy. I only has some heartburn and only gained 20 pounds. I guess in return I got a terrible labor and delivery. Also - this was so long ago that I don’t remember exact times or my cervix progression - sorry!

I was 19 when I had my daughter. I was a week past my due date and scheduled to be induced. On October 3, 2007 I went to the hospital at 5 am to begin my induction. Around 6 am, the doctor came in to break my water. Suddenly everything became real and I freaked out. I would not let him touch me and made him come back later. I think this is when his frustration with me began.

The pitocin was started and later he came back to break my water. I was not really progressing and the nurses kept changing the bed into all different positions to try and get me to progress. At 7pm, the night shift nurse came in. She checked me and then looked at my pitocin. She said that i was at the highest dose and it was causing me to contract a lot, but not progress at all. She started to change some stuff, I started to progress and then got an epidural.

The epidural was wonderful for about 30 minutes. I don’t even remember any pain getting it out in. I had a “hot spot” on my left thigh where I could still feel. This slowly began to spread until I could feel everything. I could have walked if I wanted. The anesthesiologist came back two times to change the dose. After the second time, he said no more. So from about 9pm and on I had no pain control. I guess I was one of the unlucky ones where the epidural didn’t work.

Around 11pm I was fully dilated and ready to push. I did a few practice pushes and got the hang of it pretty quick. However, it was almost 4 hours before she was born. I broke my tailbone when I was younger and we think she was getting stuck on it. Also, towards the end, her heart rate would drop when I pushed. So I could only push every other contraction. This was excruciating. My contraction were lasting 30 seconds at a time. Finally, at 342am, with the assistance of vacuum she was born. The relief was instant when she was delivered. Then - the doctor tried to stitch me up without numbing me. He somehow forgot that my epidural didn’t work. He was irritated with me for not getting a c section and making him stay so late. He rushed through everything and left. Madeleine Grace was 7lb 6 oz and 19 1/2 inches. She was great!

Now the really fun part starts. In postpartum, I had an experienced nurse, but she was new to postpartum. She kept commenting the there was more blood then expected when she would massage my uterus. This is important later. I was discharged home two days later and everything was great for about a week.

I have never had a UTI. But I was having a lot of pain, so my mom thought maybe I had one. I was also passing clots the size of golf balls. I went to see my doctor and he prescribed antibiotics without even checking my urine - also important. I took the antibiotics for 7 days. On day 8 - things really went downhill.

I stood up and felt something warm run down my leg. I went to the restroom and clots were coming out bigger than golf balls. This time it doesn’t stop. There was blood all over the restroom. I started cleaning it all up for some reason. I of course got too weak from losing blood. I could not walk. Everyone was outside. I had to drag myself to the bag door and scream for someone for awhile. My daughters dad finally came and called 911. At this point I thought I was going to die. The ambulance couldn’t get an IV because I had lost so much blood. When I got to the hospital, the doctor did an exam

And blood rushes out onto the floor. His face went pale. They admitted me.

I had a pretty bad infection and blood loss. Initially, they thought my uterus just wasn’t contracting down right - it was the same size as when I gave birth. They gave me some pain meds and a medication to start contractions. The pain meds must have worked because the next thing I remember was being taken to ultrasound. The ultrasound technician made a strange face and walked out of the room quickly. I was taken back to my room. A new doctor came in and said I needed surgery. A golf ball size of placenta had been left in my uterus.

I was in the hospital for 3 days. Fortunately everything turned out ok. At least I know my next delivery can’t be much worse! Maddie is a healthy and happy 10 year old - excited to finally be a big sister in February.