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Well hello!
Jun. 14th, 2013 09:12 amIt's been a busy week! Lots of TMI in this post. :)
Saturday morning I went to the hospital and Dr. Gonzalez said he was going to induce me, but no epidural, which was nice. Well, I kind of wanted to do the epidural but I figured if I could do it without, even better. Funny how things changed this birth. My blood pressure was still high, but not the super dangerous high, so I started my unnatural child birth. I went into this knowing that it was not going to be what I ever wanted for myself, but fully grateful that I was still able to try for a vbac. Contractions started and I went all day with them. My friend Lilly, who is a doula, phoned and said she got her sister to watch the kids (since she was babysitting Paxton for me) and that she was coming in to spend the day. While she was there she crocheted the most adorable skirt for the baby. She reminded me to keep my face non-pinched, to breath through contractions, etc. Around 7pm, Dr. Gonzalez turned off my pitocin and we decided to try this ballooning method. He had never done it with a vbac, but when he went and read studies, he said he could find no reason it was dangerous for a vbac.
Holy hell painful. They stick a tube up through to the other side of my cervix and pumped that with 70ccs of saline. Usually it's supposed to be 80, but I couldn't handle more. Outside of the cervix, they fill another balloon with anther 80ccs, but I could only handle 60 there I think. Basically what it does is force your cervix to dilate by pushing it from either side. Hello pain. Makes you feel like you have to pee, but you can't most the time.
In the meantime, my doula went home to be with her kids, since we weren't having the baby that night, and Tim was at home with Paxton and Reagan for a bit. I started to get stressed out by the pain of the ballooning, my nurse suggested I call Tim and get him back, he was leaving just as I called. My doula also surprised us and told us that her backup doula asked to come and sit with me. She was such a sweetheart, she looked 20 but was 37 like me and was pregnant with #10 baby!! She just sat with me and kept me calm, talked me through contractions, Tim arrived and they both just sat with me in the dark, keeping me quiet and calm. She left around 10, and Tim left not long after.
The ballooning threw me into awful cramping and contractions. My OB sent an order for vicodin and a sleeping pill, but I find the nurses like to cut back the medications and they told me I could only have one or the other. Actually one nurse said that and the other disagreed, but I think she thought I needed both. I picked the painkiller, and got no sleep.
In the morning I was so upset, Dr. G said it could come out at 7 but the nurse said 7:30, I was so upset. I phoned Tim and told him I couldn't vbac anymore, I couldn't handle another day of pain like that, since I was now on 2 nights of zero sleep. He told me that this is what I wanted so bad and he wanted me to at least try. Once the balloons came out I was a new person, I showered, Tim helped dry me off and my nurse actually french braided my hair for me. How loving and sweet is that? She said she hadn't done a french braid for years.
Dr. G came in and by that time I was again focused on my vbac and ready to go. I'll stop now cause I'm heading to LLL this morning, will finish the rest in a few hours!
Saturday morning I went to the hospital and Dr. Gonzalez said he was going to induce me, but no epidural, which was nice. Well, I kind of wanted to do the epidural but I figured if I could do it without, even better. Funny how things changed this birth. My blood pressure was still high, but not the super dangerous high, so I started my unnatural child birth. I went into this knowing that it was not going to be what I ever wanted for myself, but fully grateful that I was still able to try for a vbac. Contractions started and I went all day with them. My friend Lilly, who is a doula, phoned and said she got her sister to watch the kids (since she was babysitting Paxton for me) and that she was coming in to spend the day. While she was there she crocheted the most adorable skirt for the baby. She reminded me to keep my face non-pinched, to breath through contractions, etc. Around 7pm, Dr. Gonzalez turned off my pitocin and we decided to try this ballooning method. He had never done it with a vbac, but when he went and read studies, he said he could find no reason it was dangerous for a vbac.
Holy hell painful. They stick a tube up through to the other side of my cervix and pumped that with 70ccs of saline. Usually it's supposed to be 80, but I couldn't handle more. Outside of the cervix, they fill another balloon with anther 80ccs, but I could only handle 60 there I think. Basically what it does is force your cervix to dilate by pushing it from either side. Hello pain. Makes you feel like you have to pee, but you can't most the time.
In the meantime, my doula went home to be with her kids, since we weren't having the baby that night, and Tim was at home with Paxton and Reagan for a bit. I started to get stressed out by the pain of the ballooning, my nurse suggested I call Tim and get him back, he was leaving just as I called. My doula also surprised us and told us that her backup doula asked to come and sit with me. She was such a sweetheart, she looked 20 but was 37 like me and was pregnant with #10 baby!! She just sat with me and kept me calm, talked me through contractions, Tim arrived and they both just sat with me in the dark, keeping me quiet and calm. She left around 10, and Tim left not long after.
The ballooning threw me into awful cramping and contractions. My OB sent an order for vicodin and a sleeping pill, but I find the nurses like to cut back the medications and they told me I could only have one or the other. Actually one nurse said that and the other disagreed, but I think she thought I needed both. I picked the painkiller, and got no sleep.
In the morning I was so upset, Dr. G said it could come out at 7 but the nurse said 7:30, I was so upset. I phoned Tim and told him I couldn't vbac anymore, I couldn't handle another day of pain like that, since I was now on 2 nights of zero sleep. He told me that this is what I wanted so bad and he wanted me to at least try. Once the balloons came out I was a new person, I showered, Tim helped dry me off and my nurse actually french braided my hair for me. How loving and sweet is that? She said she hadn't done a french braid for years.
Dr. G came in and by that time I was again focused on my vbac and ready to go. I'll stop now cause I'm heading to LLL this morning, will finish the rest in a few hours!
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