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"Monday morning at 6:45am we arrived at the hospital to start the induction process. I was barely dilated or effaced at that time. I was given a prostaglandin pill at 8:30am and contractions started at about 9am. Walking around definitely helped distract me from the pain of contractions, which were pretty close together. My ob planned to break my water at noon, but I was still hardly dilated. So, I got a second dose of pills, and shortly thereafter I was given stadahol (a narcotic) to help me relax (though slow breathing was working pretty well, I wasn't able to move around much). At 6:15pm I was still at about 1 cm, so we started pitosin. Later, I was given another dose of stadahol. After my ob delivered another baby (there were a lot of inductions in the birthing center that day), he checked on me again and we decided to do a c-section at 10:30pm because I was still only dilated to 2cm. It went pretty much as described in my childbirth class and as shown on the video we watched. I had a spinal (never got an epidural because I didn't dilate enough). At 11:20pm an arm came out, and then out came his head and the rest of him. Lindsey said he was glad I couldn't see or feel what was going on, because if I had it would really hurt. Lindsey, my mom, and my sister all watched (and took pictures of) Tristan's firsts - shot, bath, diaper, weigh-in, measurements, etc. so I could see later what was going on while I was being sown up.
"On Tuesday, my ob tried to assure me that the c-section was the best choice for me. I could only let him know that I totally agreed (I can't imagine having continued in labor with contractions so close together and so little progress.) I truly feel that it was the right thing to do for me. One thing you should know if you have a c-section, that I don't think was explained well to me, was that there will probably be some draining in the incision area. I had a drain in place while I was in the hospital, and draining had pretty well stopped when I checked out. On Sunday, however, I went to the bathroom and when I wiped I realized I had blood on my arm. Then, the pad I had on the incision dropped off, soaked in blood. We went to the emergency room, and after a two-hour wait (boy was I scared), I was finally seen by a nurse. She reassured me that the blood wasn't spurting, it was problably just draining pooled up blood. The doctor and nurse who worked on me later, assured me that this wasn't at all uncommon. Blood had pooled between my muscles, which were stitched, and the skin which was stapled, and it needed to come out. About a cup of blood was removed, and some of my staples were taken out. Today, we're still cleaning the area several times each day with hydrogen peroxide.
"Back to the first few days...
"The nurses were amazed that I was up and
walking around Tuesday afternoon (though I was just doing what my doctor
told me to - LOL). By Wednesday I was walking around the postpartum area
and I got to have a shower! What a difference feeling truly clean can make.
"My ob asked me if I wanted to go home Wednesday, but I decided to wait until Thursday because we were having trouble getting Tristan to latch-on and nurse. The lactation specialists, and all of the nurses and hospital staff were wonderful. I started pumping on Wednesday so that we could make sure he was getting clostrum and breast milk. Tristan is a lazy eater. We've been finger feeding him - attaching a feeding tube on a syringe to a finger and encouraging him to suck. We also just purchased an Avent bottle which is supposed to be more similar to breast feeding. We're making a little progress with nursing now. He's at least stopped screaming "constantly" in protest when I put him to the breast and makes a little effort to suckle. His favorite trick is to scream and then just fall asleep. We often have to wake him up to feed him (probably a reason for some of the screaming). It just seems wrong to wake him up when he is sleeping so peacefully - but he'll sleep for four hours without eating if we don't. Because of all of the difficulties eating, he dropped down to about 5lbs, 14.8oz by Saturday. We were given directions about exactly how much breast milk we need to make sure he gets each day, and on Tuesday, he was back up to 6lbs, 3.7oz.
"On the way home on Christmas Eve, we stopped for a picture with Santa. My mom had talked to the people in the booth the day before, and they said if we came in they'd put us in the front of the line so we wouldn't have to wait. We get the picture next week.
"Between the holiday and doctors/lactation appointments for both me and Tristan, I haven't been able to stay at home one day yet - though Saturday and Sunday look promising (right now).
"Hugs and Holiday Greetings!
Alisa "Moogoose"
EDD 12/31/98"
written December 31, 1998