Oh how life has changed and better for the most part! Our precious boy came two weeks early on June 2nd. The night I went into labor (Friday) Hadley spent the night with her Nana and Papa thank goodness! We tried to have her stay with them or Nini and Pops as much as possible the closer I got to my due date. I could not imagine going into labor and having to tote a toddler to the hospital at 2am in the morning! That evening Patrick and I went to the movies with my sisters and their significant others and I cant even remember what movie now! lol That's pretty bad but I have had plenty of sleepless nights since then! Throughout the movie I was pretty much uncomfortable the whole time which could be expected and I just had a strange feeling so we went home after the movie and it was about 10 or so. I could not fall asleep first of all and I had that anxious foot twitch lying in bed I get when something is on my mind. I finally fell asleep but not for long! I woke up at 1am and still had a strange feeling other than a few mild contractions so I woke Patrick up and we came into the living room to contemplate on whether we should head towards the hospital or not. I timed my contractions and they were averaging about 8 min apart and over a minute in duration and Patrick wanted to ahead and go but I was reluctant! I didn't want to be sent home! Since I was already a 4 and had been for nearly three weeks I decided I better just go in. Thank God I did because I was a 6!
When we found out we were going to be staying I called all my family and friends who wanted "the call" and then we got out room! The anesthesiologist came around 7am and that is when my good fortune came to an end! It was all down hill from there! He tapped into my spinal fluid! I figured something was wrong when I felt warm liquid drip down my back and about that time he told me what he had done. He first acted like it was no big deal and informed me that I would probably have a pretty bad headache in the next 12 hours. Wow, how I learned that was a huge understatement! But I wasn't in the clear yet, about two minutes after he gave me my epidural I started to feel like I was going to faint. My blood pressure dropped so low and I could see them start to panic and then I started to panic. All the while my mom and Patrick were made to stand outside for the epidural and they could also tell something was wrong. I laid looking up at the ceiling of the hospital seriously thinking I was going to die! I could not feel my heart beating and and I was cold. It didn't help that the epidural was starting to work also. I did not feel in control at all and it was the worst feeling! He proceeded to tell me to stay with him because he did not want me to pass out. Thank God that while all this was going on Cohen's vitals stayed normal. Usually when moms BP drops the baby's does too which leads to a C-section. About that time I started to vomit and afterwards I felt a lot better but a few minutes later I started to feel like I was going to die again. I stared at the ceiling and I could hear the nurse asking me to talk to her but I seriously could not respond! I felt overwhelmingly lethargic and that's when the anesthesiologist told her he thinks the epidural went to high and he wanted to sit me up and make the medicine work its way down. It was seriously scary because he told me that its only happens to 1 in 1000 epidurals and he has only tapped fluid one other time. Things were starting to calm down and the anesthesiologist decided he would stick around for a while to make sure things were okay. I'm pretty sure I gave him a good scare!
As always they ended up breaking my water around 10am and had Cohen at 11am with no problem at all! He came out as hairy as Kaston did! He had and still has such a furry back and shoulders! lol Cohen weighed 7lbs 8oz and was 21 1/4 in long.
Not too long after delivery my headache started and got worse every hour. At first I didn't even notice it because of all the company and enjoying the new bundle but it was hard to ignore after a while. By the next morning it was in full swing and I could not even see straight! I couldn't sit up either, I had to be laying flat on my back and that was the only way I felt any sort of relief. My Dr came in and told me that what I was experiencing was called a spinal headache and that a anesthesiologist could do a short procedure called a blood patch to help. But it came with risks of possibly not working at all or making my spinal headache worse. I felt like that way I was feeling it could only help because I could not imaging it becoming any worse than it already was. The blood patch is basically an epidural but instead of injecting you with medicine they take blood out of your arm and inject it at the sight of the previous epidural. Getting another epidural after what I had already been through made my heart race! I was so nervous and did not want to feel like I felt before! Well I made it through that and felt so much better! I felt almost too good, it was instant relief and I am so impressed with how that works! However I was released the next day and went home and I guess I over did it because my head started to hurt again but not as bad and not only my head but my neck hurt even worse that shot a shooting pain down my arms! I started to panic because I thought my spine was just ruined forever! By noon the next day my mom had to run and errand and Whitney had to go back to work so it was me and Patrick's first day alone with both Hadley and Cohen. My mom had been gone for about an hour and I went to make myself a bowl of cereal and every time I would go to take a bite my neck and head felt like they were literally going to explode! I broke down and started crying which I never do when in pain and Patrick was feeding Cohen so he jumped up and said we are going to the ER. He went to the bedroom to start getting him and both babies ready to go and a few minutes later he came back out and said I'm just going to call someone to come over here so I can take you. I think he realized what a chore it was to get everyone out the door! Long story short I was readmitted to the hospital and they performed another blood patch but not until the next day because my CT scan showed an air bubble in the left frontal lobe of my brain! They wanted a neurologist to check it out before doing anything else to me. It was horrible not being with Cohen! I even had to miss his first Dr appt because I was in the hospital! My mom and Whitney took him to his appt and his Dr said his jaundice count was almost high enough to admit him but he said if they go rent a bilirubin lamp bed and try to keep him in there for 24 hrs that he would not admit him. So that's what they did!
He did excellent and slept in there great! I think he liked the warmth! Any way I was still in the hospital when they sent Patrick this pic and they did not want him to show me this picture because it would upset me. My mom sent this pic in a text to Patrick and said that Cohen was just getting his tan on! I made my mom send me the pic because I couldn't stand it any longer and when I first saw it I was okay and then a few minutes later I looked at the pic again and couldn't hold the tears back any longer! I wanted to be with him sooo bad! When they took him back to the Dr the next day his jaundice count was almost normal! That day the neurologist came in early that same morning and told me the air bubble was nromal with the procedures I had and that it would just absorb so basically no big deal! Yay! But that didn't stop the air head jokes by any means! lol I had my second blood patch and this one worked for good! I haven't had a headache in almost three months! I was also released the next day so that I could rest and make sure the the blood clotted this time. It was so nice to get home and be with my family again! I missed my girl Hadley so bad! We spent everyday together for almost two years and to be away from her that long was not fun! Thank God for all of my wonderful family for helping us during that time! I was so glad to be able to put all of that behind us and start our new life of a family of five!
That's all for now! I feel like I've written a book! lol Any way my next post I will talk about the next major event that happened (Cohen's surgery)!
Girl! That was a SCARY birth story . . . so glad everything worked out okay! Love the family photo at the end :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks Chelley! It was scary and verified that Cohen is definitely my last baby! lol
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