On Friday May 22nd I started to suspect I had begun leaking amniotic fluid
On Friday May 22nd I started to suspect I had begun leaking amniotic fluid.
Now - it was not an obvious “gush” or “trickle” like you read about, it was a couple drops in the morning, maybe something midday and then nothing at all. However, this is EXACTLY what I experienced with my first son, so it was high on my suspicion list.
I called L&D who told me to monitor it & was very encouraging that it didn’t sound like a prerupture of membranes (PROM). And although the amount never increased, the fact that it didn’t go away made me more and more suspicious.
Days before I was also experiencing lots of early labor signs (contractions, nausea, dull achy low back pain, severe exhaustion out of the blue and more).
On Monday May 25th (Memorial Day) I was having more contraction like pains and noticed a little more fluid. I told my husband I was really concerned and if it happened again we needed to go be seen at L&D to be safe. He had gone to work and sure enough it happened again. He ended up leaving early to take me to L&D while my mom came over to care for Jax and stay in the event it was PROM.
After getting to L&D we were triaged and saw I was having pretty mild but frequent contractions. My BP was a little high likely to wearing a mask and having some pains. And after my exam they said they weren’t convinced it was my amniotic sac, but something did seem off.
And what do you know....moments later the midwife came back in and told us I was leaking amniotic fluid! Now, if you’re not familiar with preruptured membranes, it usually can be ok if it’s caught early. However, having a broken water can greatly increase mom & baby’s chance of getting an infection as that safety barrier is now broken. And if it stays broken for a prolonged time that means longer time to risk bacteria getting in there or even placental abruption (which is more rare).
And it’s also important to note that PROM is also rare and usually only happens in 8-10% of pregnancies, which is why I was SO shocked when we found out it happened again!
Now that we were confirmed leaking amniotic fluid, the goal was to induce me & get this baby out to prevent all of the above. We were quickly admitted & taken up to our room. We were told we’d have to wear our masks at ALL times (including labor) and that I’d have to be tested for COVID-19.
Thankfully, most of our nurses were very kind and didn’t make us wear our mask 100% of the time since they had their own PPE & knew we had passed our screening. In addition- the COVID swab sucks! I hope to never have it again lol
During the first day my contractions has started picking up on their own so they opted to hold off on starting any kind of induction medication. After my first cervical check they confirmed I had made 0 changes. By then my contractions started to die down and they ended up giving me a dose of Misoprostal (a medication used to help soften/ripen the cervix in order to start pitocin).
Throughout that night I had 2 doses of Misoprostal and by morning around 4am I was finally effaced & dilated a little more to start Pitocin. Almost immediately, I felt the contractions begin to kick up after my Pitocin CRI began. It was crazy because with my first, I ended up making out on Pitocin where as this time around the smallest dose was causing me intense contractions.
I held off on any pain interventions as long as I could but eventually I was just so exhausted and I’m so much pain/discomfort I knew I needed something to take the edge off or else the discomfort alone could halt my progression. They started with a dose of Morphine which helped me take a nap but as soon as I woke up it was back to pain & discomfort.
Eventually, my nurse suggested I get my epidural now in the event these contractions pick up even more and it be too late so we did. I think it was around 9-10am by this time! This part, well this part sucked. I was having the most painful contractions ever, coming in pretty close frequencies, enough to finally put me in tears. When the anesthesiologist walked in I remember thinking “THANK GOD”. Except, it didn’t go that well. I sat there, hunched over, clenching onto Brad’s hands - breathing through every contraction that I could while being numbed & poked multiple times as they tried to administer my epidural. For some reason, they kept hitting spaces that felt like bony fragments which wasn’t allowing the catheter to feed in correctly (which could explain why my first epidural with Jax never worked well).
I think it took 45 minutes, maybe more because another nurse walked into the room and says “Doctor we have an emergency C-Section who needs a spinal right now”....as I’m sitting there in the worst pain of my life, the doctor apologizes that he has to tend to this emergency and either him or someone else would be back in to attempt my epidural. You could tell my nurses face was shocked and somewhat saddened as she could tell how uncomfortable I was.
Maybe after 15 minutes of waiting a 2nd anesthesiologist walked in and attempted placement. She was able to feed the catheter and administered a test dose. Sadly, I felt my feet and legs completely and told her I didn’t feel the medication working. We waiting a few minutes in case it was some kind of delay and when she asked me to lift my legs up, I easily kicked those suckers right up.
So - back to another attempt. By a miracle - this one went in nicely and I instantly felt numb all the way from the belly down. It was the BEST feeling ever! I remember telling her how thankful I was because it literally took all my pain away. Not long after, I knocked out and took a nap for a couple of hours as my contractions got even stronger and more frequent on the monitor.
By the afternoon, around 1:45pm, I felt that “pressure”. The one that feels like a baby is about to fly out of your body. I called the nurse and asked her to check me since I was confident he was coming. I yelled at Brad to wake up because baby is coming. The nurse checked and sure enough we were ready to start pushing!
They called in the OB and Midwife (since I was preruptured & baby was anticipated to be big they wanted both of them there in the event of an emergency).
A couple of nurses came in and before I knew it, it was time to start pushing at 2pm on the dot.
I swear, for whatever reason, the pressure and burning sensation felt more intense this second time around (probably because he’s a bigger baby) but before I could even catch my breath I felt the last push where he was out and I was able to hold him in my arms. And that’s when Brad said “wow you only pushed for 10 minutes!”
After this I just remember feeling flooded with emotions. I was so happy Ryan was born healthy. I was happy I could hold him and nurse him right away. I was happy he started to cry and we could hear his raspy little voice. I was happy Brad got to deliver him and the staff was kind enough to take these amazing photos. And lastly I was kind of in shock we actually just had a 2nd baby, lol!
Fortunately, our hospital staff did not make me wear a mask during delivery and I’m beyond thankful for that. Despite having PROM again - we ended up having a smooth delivery with NO infections for mama or baby this time around. Baby boy was born weighing 8lbs 10oz (compared to his big bro 8lb 2oz) and was 21.5 inches long!
Within 24 hours after birth, we were able to be discharged and get home to our other boy which was honestly the best feeling in the world. Being home as a family with all my boys and doggies felt so overwhelmingly fulfilling ♥️
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