Levi James

I was scheduled to be induced on June 22^nd. 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.