I thought I would finally share my birth story, partially so I can process the whole thing. I will preface by saying that as far as the induction went, it went smoothly. As far as the competence of some medical staff and the ending.. not quite as smoothly.

We showed up at midnight and they brought us back to a room. The nurse came in and got everything set up to start the induction. She told me my doctor forgot to actually write orders for the induction however, but she was on call so she would get them and come back. She comes back 30 ish minutes later to start the IV. She tried two times and couldn't get one placed so she left to get another nurse. The next nurse also had to try twice then she finally placed one in my inner elbow (worst place ever when you are in labor). At this point I've been stuck 4 times and not feeling so confident in this nurse. By the time we start pitocin its 1:30 am. I should mention I have a very high pain tolerance and no fear of needles so she is very lucky.

Around 4:30 am I ask for the epidural and she goes to get the anesthesiologist. He comes in and reviews my chart and says to me "you have thrombocytopenia? That may cause an issue with the epidural but it looks like it's not too low to prevent you from getting one". Thrombocytopenia is a low platelet count and he was worried about bleeding at the epidural site. If this were a movie, this comment would be foreshadowing.

With my last baby, the anesthesiologist was amazing and placed the epidural in less than 5 minutes and I felt nothing. A few hours later though my blood pressure crashed causing me to need ephedrine. This time around the doctor took about 30 minutes to place it, I felt EVERYTHING and he kept hitting my spine. He had to try twice meaning he had to redo the numbing shots all over again. At the time I remember thinking "this is the worst thing I have ever experienced, I hope I block this out later". Luckily I did. I looked up at my husband during this ordeal and he is stark white and sweating and is on the verge of passing out (this actually made me feel better, ha). This doctor was very mindful of my previous reaction and did the loading dose over 30 minutes so I didnt have any blood pressure drop. Once the relief kicked in I forgave him for the horrible experience.

Now that the epidural had kicked in the nurse and I chatted about her job; I'm in nursing school so I just wanted to hear her opinion on hospital life. She told me she didnt like working overnights so I told her to apply at my work at a specialty infusion center and told her to use my name. So we became friends (she sent me a letter to congratulate me after the birth it was so sweet).

My doctor came in and broke my water at 7 ish. At that point I was about 6 cm dilated and was worried I hadn't progressed much but they weren't worried.

Around 10 am my epidural starting beeping that it was running out. I told the new morning shift nurse and she said "you have about 5 more minutes but I bet you're close". The contractions start to get very strong and I can feel them a lot more. Around 11 she checks me and says I'm at a 10 so they wont refill the epidural. Shes going go get my doctor and we will start pushing. At this moment I'm cursing her in my head, my son took 1.5 hours of pushing and I was not ready to do this without being completely numb. My doctor comes in and they grab my husband who was in the waiting room telling our parents I was about to push.

He walks back in and my urge to push was intense. I tell the nurse and my doctor that I'm going to push, I couldn't really stop it and BAM she came out in three pushes (about 2 contractions and less than 2 minutes). I could feel pretty much everything but it felt so reliving to push. My husband said I let out a huge sigh of relief when she came out all the way.

We were both crying we were so happy to finally see her. I got to do skin to skin and feed her while they delivered the placenta and did repairs. I had a small tear (the same one I had with my son that re ripped). It was more of a graze and took less than 5 stitches. I am so grateful. Afterwards they took her to measure her. She weighed 9lbs 1 oz. The exact same weight as her brother. She was 20 inches. 1.5 inches shorter than her brother. So she was a little bit more stout but cuter than anything. My husband left the room to tell our parents.

This is where things go south. The nurse is standing next to my bed and all of a sudden I felt extremely cold and that I was going go vomit. I told the nurse and she handed me a emesis bag while pushing the button on the blood pressure cuff. It comes back as 75/35. All of a sudden the mood changes. I truly dont remember much of anything other than her yelling into the hallway that I was hemorrhaging and to get my doctor. She put an oxygen mask on me and started to do an intense uterine massage to try to stop the bleeding. The room floods with people. I think at one point they get my husband and tell him I may be going immediately to surgery for a hysterectomy if they cant stop the bleeding. My doctor administered some medication internally and some nurses put in another IV in my hand while another nurse continuously did the uterine massage for HOURS. It was extremely painful and I cried through all of them. My stomach is still a little sore from how hard they had to push into it. My husband tells me my lips were blue and that I was extremely pale.

I thank the universe, God , guardian angel's, whatever powers that be that they stopped the bleeding enough that it was no longer an emergency and I did not end up needing surgery. I was able to go to the recovery room 5 hours later. I stayed in the hospital for 3 days and was not allowed to stand up. They kept the catheter and both IVs in case the bleeding picked up at any point and they needed to take me to the OR. They told me later that in that moment I lost over a liter of blood, not counting the blood from the birth or the bleeding after they stopped the emergency.

It was such a hard experience to go from being SO happy to feeling like I was literally about to die and not knowing where my husband was. Baby is three weeks old now and I'm doing a lot better. I'm actually doing fine with the whole thing. I'm not traumatized or anything which I really thought I may be. Thank God for good nurses and doctors who act quickly.