My Labor Story

Tuesday at 5 am, I called Labor and Delivery to see what time I come in to induce. (Previously they told me the afternoon or Wednesday morning) WRONG. They said “Ok Mrs. Castillo, your room will be ready at 7:15. “ I said, “oh okay, pm?” Her response was a little giggle and said “No lol, Am. 7:15 AM.”

I was NOT prepared for that!

I called Jesse and he headed home from work (my mom had stayed with me so she was already with me) We got everything in the car and headed towards the hospital.

On the way there, I was a little uncomfortable. When we get in and situated in our room, she hooked me up to monitors and said “Wow maybe this baby was already ready to come! Your having strong contractions every two minutes.”

She checked and I was dilated to a 2, 75% effaced and Station 0. She started pitocin.

Two hours later, I started shaking and sweating as my contractions were getting stronger. The pain wasn’t intense (tmi but I’ve had some period cramps be worse) She checked me and I was dilated to a 4, 90% effaced and Station 0. My nurse informed me that God forbid I have to have emergency C- section, Jesse can’t be in the OR if I do not have epidural since they would have to knock me out SO I got an epidural.

Within ten minutes from epidural , they broke my water. Titan did NOT like that. He started decelling and became a concern. Especially when they tried to put me on my right side. After a few hours I was dilated to a 8 and 100% effaced and still at Station 0. At 7 pm I became a 9 at Station 1, 8pm a 9 1/2. 9 a 9 1/2. At 10pm a 9.75. Finally at 10:45 ish I got the clear to push. I pushed for almost two hours straight. Perfect pushes. Everyone said I was great and did wonderfully.

However, Titan wasn’t born vaginally, you see... Within only thirty minutes of pushing he started decelling and taking a long time to bring his heart rate back up. It became to the point where they were making me stop every other contraction and rest instead of push. I had to wear oxygen mask and lay on left side and just relax. Doctors and nurses kept coming in and leaving. Kept whispering, looking at the paper (print out of his heart and contractions) and we began to worry. Finally, I was told “It’s okay, he okay. But we need to stop pushing. It’s not you but we just don’t know what’s wrong in there.”

My Doctor came in and looked at the stats and looked at my nurse and said “Ok, these are our options...forceps or c-section. I can try forceps however if not then we’ll have to go ahead and do c-section. On top of that with how his vitals are looking, it’s concerning about a cord wrapped around. We need to do this ASAP.”

I said C-section, all of a sudden my blood pressure starting rising and I became really hot...I had a fever of 101.1 so within 5 minutes we were in an OR. We didn’t have time to prep or anything. They wheeled me straight in and before Jesse even got into the door they were already cutting and trying to get him out. The whole process from cut to glue-only took 30 minutes. Titan was born at 12:55am. He was immediately taken out and to NICU.

He was fine, they had to take him because I had developed a high fever which could’ve caused him to have infection. They kept him in NICU and on Thursday they tested him for Jaundice. His bilirubin score was 9.9 (which is high for a 24 hours old) within a few hours it jumped to 12.4 They immediacy had to start him on extreme light therapy.

On Friday morning, they checked his score and it was back down to 10.4 so they took him off the lights but left him in the NICU. That night it was down to 8.9.

This morning it was back at a 10 BUT that’s to be expected because it should SLOWLY increase and he is right in range now for his age (84 hours)

For the past several days in NICU, we’ve been going down to feed him every three hours (it takes an hour to feed him so really it’s two hours) Breast and Formula. Every other feed he will feed on breast for like 20-30min and sometimes not at all. He has a problem with spit up and if we don’t hold him up for a while after every feeding everything comes back up. I pump after every feeding and get about 2-3 oz a breast. We’re finally home and it feels so great!

Titan Leon born 8.8.18 at 12:55 am