I was scheduled to be induced on
June 22nd. The day before, I had my 39 week appointment to just
check and make sure all was well for the following day. What happened was
something I did not expect.
The Dr. told me during my exam that
I was not dilated as far as I had been before and he couldn’t feel the baby’s
head. He decided to do an ultrasound to check the baby. He found that the baby
was in a transverse position, side to side instead of head down. He also
noticed that the fluid around the baby was low. Both were a problem for my
induction and he brought in Dr Rose, who was the Dr. scheduled to induce me to
discuss my options.
I had the option of trying an
external aversion, which is for the doctors to manually turn the baby from the outside
into a head down position. If it was successful, they could induce me. If it
wasn’t successful, or it created problems for the baby, I would have to go
straight for a c section. My other option was to just go for the c section and
get it over with. I chose to try the external aversion because I really didn’t
want to be cut open and have a longer healing time. The only complication for
that option was that the fluid around the baby was low and I was instructed to
drink as much as I could the rest of the day to try to build that fluid that
would help move the baby.
The next morning, I was checked in
at 3 am. The night nurse got me set up with iv fluids and we waited until 7 am
for the procedure. I was supposed to have at least three bags of fluid to help
the baby move. I tried to get a little sleep, but I was nervous and anxious
about what was to come. I knew that the day would be painful.
At 7 am, Dr Rose and Dr Morales
came in. Dr Rose did an ultrasound and found that the baby was even higher up
than the day before and facing up toward my face instead of down toward my feet
like the day before. The nurse gave me a shot of medication that would stop my
contractions and make my belly soft so they would be able to work on turning
him without problems. After about fifteen minutes, the meds kicked in and Dr
Rose covered my belly in gel and then she and Dr Morales both pressed their
hands down around the baby and began to twist him in a counter clockwise
motion. Hard.
I won’t lie about an external
aversion. It’s done without any kind of pain medication and if you have one,
you will wish you would just die and someone would kill you. Even labor does
not compare to the feeling of having your insides twisted and manipulated like
a fork in spaghetti. I almost screamed at them to stop and just do the c
section, but I gritted my teeth and tried to focus on my hands squeezing the
railing or the nurse rubbing my feet and telling me how amazing I am or the
fact that by the end of the day I’d be holding my son.
The aversion was successful. Dr
Morales had to hold him in place while Dr Rose did another ultrasound to make
sure baby and cord were okay and in place. They placed a tight binding wrap
around my belly to keep him in place since he was still high and able to turn again.
After that, they started pitocin to restart my contractions and gave me a shot
of demoral for pain.
After a few hours, the
anesthesiologist came in and gave me an epidural. I hadn’t had luck with my
previous deliveries, so I was hoping it would work this time. After the Dr
left, my blood pressure dropped dangerously low. I felt light headed, nauseous,
and was starting to black out. The nurses scrambled to get me on oxygen and the
Dr ran back in to give me a couple shots of ephedrine. After fifteen minutes or
so, I was stabilized but I had to remain on oxygen. If I took it off I would
start to get light headed.
After a while Dr Rose came back. I
was only dilated to a three and she was disappointed that I wasn’t going
faster. The nurses were having a hard time keeping tabs on the baby’s heart
beat from the external monitor so she decided to break my water and place an
internal monitor on the baby’s head so they could have an accurate reading. I
was grateful that the epidural was working and my pain was basically nothing.
She wanted me to sit up in bed instead of lay down( I was laying still so baby
wouldn’t move out of place and I wasn’t allowed out of bed) so gravity could
help him move down. The nurses moved me and it made my blood pressure drop
again and I almost passed out. I ended up vomiting a couple times. After being
stabilized, I sat and watched tv. My mom and Fernando had both left to go run
errands and check on the kids and grab some food. Since I was still at a 3-4, I
figured they had time. The nurse came back in and told me that I had a fever
and they would give me antibiotics to prevent any infections to me and the
baby.
A couple hours later, I started to
feel some low pressure in my bottom. I tried to ignore it, but after a half
hour I told the nurse. She checked me and told me I was at a nine. I asked for
my cell phone and sent out texts to Fern and my mom to get back quickly. Within
fifteen minutes, they returned ( also my dad came) and the nurses began to set
up. At 8 pm, 11 and a half hours after they started the induction, Dr Rose had
me start to push. It only took three pushes and two minutes for him to come
popping out. As Dr Rose placed the baby on top of me, he grabbed a fistful of
my hair. I knew then that my suspicions of him being a troublemaker were
confirmed.
Levi James Piri Pineda was born on June 22nd at 8:02 pm. HE was 7 lbs, 1 oz, and 20 inches.
