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Logan's Birth Story By Angie Pilkington |
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Birth Stories -
Hospital Birth Stories
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Thursday, 12 February 2009 13:44 |
The first day of my 39th week of pregnancy I was relaxing after working all day when I stood up, sneezed, felt something "pop", and immediately felt a lot of abominal pain. I went to the bathroom, sat down and felt a little gush of fluid. I thought my water might have broken but was unsure because the fluid didn't continue to come out. My water broke 3 weeks early with my first child and it was a continuous trickle, so by comparison I couldn't be sure this time. I did a little hip rotation/jiggle/dance to see if anything else would happen but got nothing else so I decided to take a shower. While in the shower I felt another more substantial gush and looked down to see greenish fluid in the tub. I knew this meant that I had meconium staining and that I needed to call my provider and let them know but I was not particularily worried. I told my husband that my water had in fact broken with meconium staining and that we needed to call his parents to come and watch our 2 year old daughter. I then called Kaiser to let them know that I was on my way to the hospital. The nurse I spoke with was concerned about the meconium and asked me if the baby had been moving at all. I said that it (did not yet know the sex) had been moving earlier in the day but not much that evening. She had me jiggle my stomach around to see if I could get any movement but I couldn't detect any. I was becoming a little worried but still believed everything would be fine. The nurse said she wanted to call an ambulance just to be on the safe side. I wasn't crazy about the idea but of course didn't argue. She then patched her phone through to the ambulance dispatch person who spoke with my husband and gave him instructions about what they wanted me to do; undress from the waist down, lie on the couch and by all means do not sit on the toilet. "I'm not having this baby right now on this couch" I kept saying but dispatch seemed terribly concerned that I was going to give birth any second. He even had my husband get a shoe string and put it in his pocket to tie off the umbilical cord if the baby was born. When the firemen arrived (they beat the ambulance) they ran in asking me if I was feeling any pressure or need to push and I kept saying "I'm not having this baby right now on this couch" but they didn't believe me either. My contractions were coming about every three minutes but they were still bearable. The firemen didn't really know what else to do so they just stood around in my living room making small talk while we waited for the ambulance which, by now, seemed to be taking a very long time to arrive. Finally, the ambulance arrived and the EMT's ran in asking about my contractions and if the baby's head was crowning (I was starting to get the feeling that some sort of miscommunication occurred between the Kaiser nurse and the dispatcher and that my "emergency" evolved from meconium staining to imminent birth). I told the EMT's that I was not going to have this baby right now on this couch. My contractions were getting stronger and closer however, so the fellas strapped me to the gurney and wheeled me out to the ambulance where I told them which hospital I wanted to go to. Well, no such luck, the refused to take me to the hospital where I was supposed to give birth according to my insurance and would only transport me to the nearest hospital. By now my contractions were really getting close together and painful so I just went along with their plan. Funny though, throughout the entire experience including the ambulance ride I never really got scared. I think I just didn't believe that something could really be wrong with my baby. My mother on the other hand was frantic. She had made it to my designated hospital only to have to turn around and go to the hospital the ambulance was taking me to and got more and more worried every minute. Well, we all arrived at the hospital safely and I was immediately hooked up to the fetal monitor to find that in fact my baby was fine. I, on the other hand, was extremely ready for my epidural (contractions every one and a half minutes) but couldn't get one yet because all my medical records were at the other hospital! To make matters worse the doctor on call came in and asked if I had called my doctor. I said that I had called Kaiser and that I didn't have a specific doctor set up to deliver my baby, that through Kaiser you get whoever is on call. She thought that was just horrible and said the If I wanted to go to that hospital I could, she wouldn't make me stay there. I could barely have a discussion through my contractions let alone get in a car and go to another hospital and said I'd just stay. She then wanted to vent her feelings to me about how unbelievable it was to her that Kaiser doesn't let you pick a doctor to deliver yor baby (as if the nurses don't do all the work anyway). All I wanted was an epidural. When the doctor left the room a very nice nurse told me not to worry, that I'd be having my baby at that hospital, probably very soon (I was seven cm at this point), and that they wouldn't call the doctor back in until the very last minute. Eventually, after some blood work and paperwork faxed from the other hospital I got an epidural and was extremely happy. about half an hour later the nurse checked me and said it was time to push. I pushed for about 5 minutes when Logan William was born. He weighed 7lbs 3oz. The entire episode from the time I first thought my water broke to Logan's birth; 3 1/2 hours. Very quick compared to my 14 hour labor with my daughter. Logan is now, at 4 months of age, 17 lbs and the most adorable little butterball I've ever seen!
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