Induction turned c-section

*Super long post! You’ve been warned. Lol. If you read it all, you get a gold star.

At my appointment on Wednesday April 9th, my doctor had me come in to be checked for dilation. I was 40 weeks 2 days pregnant. If I was dilated, they would bring me in Sunday morning to start pitocin and if I was not dilated, they would bring me in Saturday night, the 13th, for cytotec. If that worked, they wouldn’t do pitocin.

I ended up not being dilated at all. I was closed shut. They scheduled me to come in Saturday night at 6 pm to for my first dose of cytotec. I was told to call L&D 1 hour before hand to see if they had a bed available and they did. We went to eat at chick fil a because I was under the impression I wouldn’t be able to eat anything once I was admitted. I got there (15 mins late) and they put me straight in a room. It was raining. I gave a urine sample, changed into my gown, and got in the bed. They got my IV started, (blood went EVERYWHERE) asked me 6,028 questions, got me hooked up to two monitors (one for my contractions and one for baby’s heart rate) and she took my vitals. First my temperature and then my blood pressure. At this point, I was feeling very calm. Excited, but not nervous. I wasn’t in any amount of pain and wasn’t having any contractions. My blood pressure was 164/108 when I got in and she took it the first time. She asked me if I was nervous and I said no. She said she would try to get a better reading on my other arm, and she did. It was still high (145/97). She told me they were going to run my urine and she would be back shortly, and that the blood pressure cuff would go off every 15 minutes. They placed the first dose of cytotec (one pill) at about 7 pm and I was told I should start having contractions within 30 mins or so if it was successful.

The contractions started coming. They were irregular and they hurt mainly in my back but I still felt them in my stomach.

My urine came back fine but my blood pressure was still high. I was told I needed to calm down (in a nice way) and breath because if my blood pressure didn’t come down, we would need to start a medication that would make me bed ridden and I’d have to be catheterized.

It never went down.

My nurse had to get another urine sample from me and since they had just given me cytotec and I couldn’t get up for 2 hours, she had to place a catheter. That was one of the most painful parts of my entire labor story. It was so uncomfortable and it hurt.

My nurse called my doctor and they decided to start me on a magnesium sulfate drip until the baby was born. I was now unable to eat. Unable to get up. Unable to use the bathroom by myself as long as I was on this medicine. My IV burned when the medication went in. It made my arm ache.

My blood pressure came down! 130/80. They placed the second dose of cytotec at 11 pm and I was 1 cm dilated. I was excited! My body was doing something. They said they’d come back at 5 am to give me the next dose and check me again.

5 am rolls around. My nurse walked in and I was dying. My side was hurting because of the monitor being tight on me. I was catheterized and that was painful and uncomfortable and my contractions were really hurting. They were about 3 minutes apart, but my back pain was constant so I never had a break between them. My back felt like all the muscles were being shredded with a knife. It was sharp, hard, intense pain. I believe this is when they gave me Stadol (not sure I’m spelling it right, it’s a pain med they wanted to do before the epidural). YALL. THIS MEDICINE WAS AMAZING. I felt so good. I was feeling contractions and all the same pain, but I did NOT care about the pain. I was talking my boyfriends head off😂 The medicine didn’t last long though. It wore off after about 20 mins. I immediately wanted more. I craved it. & at one point I got it again. It seemed like it lasted a shorter amount of time this time too. Anyways.. She checked me again and I wasn’t dilated anymore; still at 1. She said they were going to go ahead and give me another dose and then they’d do pitocin at 11 am.

At 11 am, I was at 2. My nurse came in expecting me to be progressed further. She said the pitocin was a high dose and that my contractions were going to become very painful and closer together, and they would get much more intense. She told me to prepare for the pain increase. This scared me. I was already in pain. I already wanted the epidural. They also had me on oxygen at this point. They never said why, but they put me on it quickly and said not to take it off.

She said that after about an hour of pitocin, the doctor would come in and break my water if it wasn’t already broken and I wasn’t at a 4. I told her if he had to break my water, I wanted the epidural because I wasn’t going through that without it.

She and another nurse came in at 1148 am. She said my baby’s heart rate was dropping with each contraction and he wasn’t handling the pitocin and it was probably time for a csection. Also, my blood pressure was consistently rising even though I was on this medication to bring it down. She said the doctor would be in shortly to tell me about the surgery and explain everything.

My doctor walked in my room at 1159am. My son was born at 1229pm. I was exactly 41 weeks pregnant and he weighed 5lbs, 15 oz and was 21 1/2 inches long. Head circumference was 13.5. He was so tiny!

The spinal was NOTHING. I could have a million of them. I liked being numb. It felt good. I felt warm. There was tugging and pulling. So much so that my body even was rocking back and forth on the operating table. When they showed him to me over the curtain, he wasn’t crying. He didn’t cry for about 3-4 minutes and then he started crying. My first words after he was born was, “he’s a boy, right?” And then when I heard his cry, I said “oh, my sweet baby!” Girls like you by maroon 5 was playing in the back ground.

I didn’t get to hold him for almost an hour and a half after he was born and then we finally did skin to skin. He didn’t have a name yet. Me and my boyfriend were the only ones in the recovery room and there was music playing over the intercom system quietly. We finally picked a name Sunday morning before family and friends came to visit where we displayed it on a letter board for everyone to see when they walked in the room. Also, The last time I had ate was Saturday at 5 and the next time I ate was Monday at 130pm. My boyfriends sister in law brought us chick fil a. It was sent from God. 😂🙌🏼

I didn’t want a csection at all. I didn’t want to have high blood pressure. I wanted everything to go smoothly. But now that my son is here I don’t care how he got here. He’s here. He’s perfect.

I actually had to stay in labor and delivery another day before moving to the step down mother/child unit because I was STILL on the magnesium sulfate until 1230 pm Monday. My nurses in L&D were AMAZING. I loved each one. Now my nurses in the step down unit? That’s another story. I don’t even want to think about it.

Bennett Scott Robinson

Sunday, April 14th, 2019

12:29 pm