Welcome little B! (Part 2)
As they prepped me to move me to Birthing Room 6 I said to the nurses, "Her name is Beatrix." p until this point only T. and and my immediate family knew our thoughts on names. I was 99% sure this is what I wanted to name her but T. and I were having difficult referring to her as B. Mostly she was Baby. Saying her name out loud was important because if something as to go wrong I wanted the world to know her name.
Once I was transported to Birthing Room 6 things started to move quickly. The contractions started to come more regularly but they were a bit erratic. Dr. LK ordered an ultrasound and the ultrasound showed that bay was doing well and that there was still good fluid levels. Throughout this whole time I felt the urge to use the bathroom. After the earlier bleeding I stopped so hadn't completely emptied my bladder. The nurses were a bit concerned about this because apparently a full bladder can aggravate an irritable uterus.
Shift change for the nurses occurred around the time of my transfer and I was happy to see Nurse Colleen in the room. She had admitted me back on May 5th and she and I seemed to hit it of during my stay in antepartum. She was determined to keep me in bed and suggested that they put a catheter in. From my one semester in nursing school I remembered hearing about how uncomfortable and potentially painful a catheter can be. While I was ok with the ultimate goal of emptying my bladder I was not thrilled about the catheter. Colleen tried once and was unsuccessful so called in the help of "Other Nurse Monica" (who also was very nice but I wasn't much under her care). After another failure or two they finally got it in. And let me just say, "OUCH!!" That little piece of plastic was the devil. I was having contractions and some more bleeding at this point but there is a part of me that thinks that the pain might have driven me to active labor. It hurt so much that I kept asking if they could take it out. Colleen said that she knew it hurt but to take it in a out multiple times would increase the chance of infection and they wanted to minimize that.
Around this time the nurses asked if I wanted to call anyone "just for support." I love nurses but I am beginning to get a bit skeptical about their well-timed questions. At first I decided that I didn't want to bother T. in case this was all just a false alarm. T. was away for the weekend drilling with the reserves so I didn't want to bother him with false worry. I also knew that as much as I love my parents and am grateful for all the support they provide that if they were there I would be stressed out by their anxiety and concern. So I tried to tough it out by myself.
At this point the contractions started to pick up a bit and I asked if it would be possible to have some drugs to help with the contractions and the catheter. They gave me phentinol, that I remembered from S. The stuff works well but makes me quite loopy. Colleen said not to fight the spins but to just close my eyes and roll with it. I remember looking at the clock at 6:46am and thinking, I should probably note the time. And it was good I did because the rest of the morning became a blur.
Something inside me (and no it wasn't B. or was it?) told me that now was probably a good time to tell T. I knew he had to report around 7am so he would most likely be awake. I called him and I could hear the concern in his voice. I told him that he might want to think about heading home and good thing he did. He checked in with his CO and hopped in the car and took off. I hate to think what might've happened if I waited a few more minutes to call. He was about an hour away so I knew there wasn't much time to play with.
From here things progressed quickly. I started to bleed more, contract more, and was in a lot more pain. The catheter was hell and I kept asking to get it out or to have more drugs. About this time Dr. LK came in and said, "You want a c-section, right?" I looked at her confused because up until this point I thought we still might have a chance (and who says I'm not an optimist?). I said, "I want to do what is best for baby." Dr. LK responded, "If you want baby to have a chance to survive then you will have the c-section." So I said, "Yes."
Keep reading or turn back now?
Once I was transported to Birthing Room 6 things started to move quickly. The contractions started to come more regularly but they were a bit erratic. Dr. LK ordered an ultrasound and the ultrasound showed that bay was doing well and that there was still good fluid levels. Throughout this whole time I felt the urge to use the bathroom. After the earlier bleeding I stopped so hadn't completely emptied my bladder. The nurses were a bit concerned about this because apparently a full bladder can aggravate an irritable uterus.
Shift change for the nurses occurred around the time of my transfer and I was happy to see Nurse Colleen in the room. She had admitted me back on May 5th and she and I seemed to hit it of during my stay in antepartum. She was determined to keep me in bed and suggested that they put a catheter in. From my one semester in nursing school I remembered hearing about how uncomfortable and potentially painful a catheter can be. While I was ok with the ultimate goal of emptying my bladder I was not thrilled about the catheter. Colleen tried once and was unsuccessful so called in the help of "Other Nurse Monica" (who also was very nice but I wasn't much under her care). After another failure or two they finally got it in. And let me just say, "OUCH!!" That little piece of plastic was the devil. I was having contractions and some more bleeding at this point but there is a part of me that thinks that the pain might have driven me to active labor. It hurt so much that I kept asking if they could take it out. Colleen said that she knew it hurt but to take it in a out multiple times would increase the chance of infection and they wanted to minimize that.
Around this time the nurses asked if I wanted to call anyone "just for support." I love nurses but I am beginning to get a bit skeptical about their well-timed questions. At first I decided that I didn't want to bother T. in case this was all just a false alarm. T. was away for the weekend drilling with the reserves so I didn't want to bother him with false worry. I also knew that as much as I love my parents and am grateful for all the support they provide that if they were there I would be stressed out by their anxiety and concern. So I tried to tough it out by myself.
At this point the contractions started to pick up a bit and I asked if it would be possible to have some drugs to help with the contractions and the catheter. They gave me phentinol, that I remembered from S. The stuff works well but makes me quite loopy. Colleen said not to fight the spins but to just close my eyes and roll with it. I remember looking at the clock at 6:46am and thinking, I should probably note the time. And it was good I did because the rest of the morning became a blur.
Something inside me (and no it wasn't B. or was it?) told me that now was probably a good time to tell T. I knew he had to report around 7am so he would most likely be awake. I called him and I could hear the concern in his voice. I told him that he might want to think about heading home and good thing he did. He checked in with his CO and hopped in the car and took off. I hate to think what might've happened if I waited a few more minutes to call. He was about an hour away so I knew there wasn't much time to play with.
From here things progressed quickly. I started to bleed more, contract more, and was in a lot more pain. The catheter was hell and I kept asking to get it out or to have more drugs. About this time Dr. LK came in and said, "You want a c-section, right?" I looked at her confused because up until this point I thought we still might have a chance (and who says I'm not an optimist?). I said, "I want to do what is best for baby." Dr. LK responded, "If you want baby to have a chance to survive then you will have the c-section." So I said, "Yes."
Keep reading or turn back now?
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