So I had my 39 week appointment and baby was measuring 7 lbs 11 oz. With my history of my inversion she didn't want baby to get too much bigger I waited a few days to hopefully go into labor and nothing happened. The day before my due date I went back and my midwife did a membrane sweep to hopefully push things along. I was a little bit crampy but nothing too bad. But every night I would have contractions for a few hours, I would go to sleep thinking this is it, this is the night I'm going to go into labor. And every morning I would wake up disappointed.
Tuesday at 40 weeks 3 days I went back to my midwife. She did another sweep and I was dilated to a 3 and 80% effaced. They scheduled me for an induction at 9 that night. I didn't request one, but she said they called for one later in the week and the hospital didn't have any. And I would be induced at 41 weeks anyways. Baby was growing pretty big and she didn't want it to stress out my uterus having a large baby. I talked it over with my midwife because she knew I wanted to stay away from Pitocin. So we decided that with sweeping my membrane, all she would probably need to do is break my water. She said if I start to get contractions that don't go away to go in before 9. And so I finally had an end date. I was going to meet my baby so very soon.
Chris took the day off so we just went home and cleaned up a few things and got our bags all fully ready. Around 12:30 I started to notice contractions that kept coming. I didn't want to time them yet. Around 1:30 I laid down and put on some music. Contractions were coming about every 2 songs and didn't stop, and usually they would when I would lay down. I text my doula just to give her a heads up, even though she was planning on being at the hospital with the induction. We left around 3 to pick up Zoey from school and brought all our things with us just in case. We picked her up and got ice cream as our last outing as a family of 4. Contractions were still going but I wasn't timing them. I didn't want to start worrying about them getting closer or what not.
We went to my in-laws to have dinner and eventually drop off our girls for their sleep over. Around 5 I told Chris we should just go to the hospital. I felt better being there since I have never been in labor before on my own and I really didn't want to go fast once things started going and not be there. We get to the hospital around 5:45 and they said they would just admit me instead of making me go through triage to see if I am in labor just to admit me anyways later on. It took about an hour to get fully admitted, and around 7:05 they checked me and I was a 4 and 80%, so stuff was definitely happening. My contractions weren't real consistent time wise, but happening. Since I was going natural, I was allowed to be off the monitors. My nurse put in the IV and I was really excited that she picked the vein I thought they would. Its a nurse thing....and its a really good vein if I do say so myself.
Karen, my doula, arrived around 8 and gave me a foot rub on pressure points that helps with labor. The reason was to help my contractions, but really, she just gives good foot rubs and my feet really hurt. At 9PM my midwife came to check on things. She checked me and I was a 5 and she broke my water. I knew that things would start to kick into gear, 1) because breaking your water really gets your contractions more intense and 2) I was a lot closer to transition. Chris, Karen, and I took a walk around the halls. I could tell they were picking up from the start to the end. By the end I needed to really stop talking and breath through them. We got back and I bounced on the ball for a while and tried different positions. At 10:30 my nurse came in to check on things and I asked if she could check me again. I was pretty paranoid that things wouldn't be ready once it was time to push. I was a 6 and 90%. For a moment I was disappointed, but I knew that it was just a number and things can change fast, especially since it was my 3rd baby. I wanted my mom to be there. Someone came in and I swore they said "your mommy" which was a little strange, but it was really Mari my midwife. She came back in the check on things, apparently she was staying upstairs in the lounge. That made me feel a lot better that she would be there. Karen asked if I was able to go in the tub with my water broken and I was given the ok. Thank goodness! They got the tub going and I stayed in there. It helped the contractions stay localized instead of feeling the pain all over my body. When I was in the tub I was able to zone out and was practically asleep between contractions. However, in the course of my time there they started to really get intense. I remember saying I wanted an epidural because I was getting nervous about stuff happening. And there was one contraction that I just said "I'm done. I'm done." In the back of my head I knew that that was actually a good sign that things were nearing the end, but I was too busy getting through the contractions to actually realize that. Shortly after I got out of the tub and into bed. My nurse must have been in there and they checked me at 11:36 I was a 9 and almost 100% effaced. So with that everyone started setting up for delivery.
My midwife came in shortly after and I was complete. And so I started pushing. But as soon as I needed to, my contractions miraculously got a lot more tolerable and I didn't really feel like I needed to push. We tried a few different positions and with a bar and finally found something that felt right to me. It was taking a long time so I told Chris to text my mom and his mom to tell them that everything is fine, its jut taking a while. I finally felt the "ring of fire" and I knew she was so close. Then all of a sudden I needed to push hard because I knew things were getting serious. The baby nurse came up to my side, and I knew from precepting that that means they are worried about shoulder dystocia. And so I took everything I had and out Quinn came at 12:34. They put her right on my belly and my first thought was "she is HUGE!!!" They waited until the cord stopped pulsing and Chris cut the cord. I got to touch it too, once again, its a nurse thing. Umbilical cords feel strange.
And now the wait. My midwife and I talked extensively about what we would do after baby was born. She would wait 30 minutes for it to detach. Well the clock just kept ticking and nothing was happening. tick tock...tick tock.... In the mean time they weighed her, 8 lbs 4 oz, 20.5 inches long. Yep, she was a big baby. Zoey and Ava were both 6 lbs. I tried feeding her to get my uterus to contract and get the show on the road. But nothing.
At 30 minutes she tries to do stuff to get it out. After a while she called for the hospitalist who started doing other stuff. They started Pitocin. Chis said he had some tong thing and a scraper and was scraping it out in pieces. My midwife was pushing on my stomach. Things were really hurting. I knew this wasn't going to end well. I could start feeling gushes of blood come out. Chris was by me the whole time and there was a moment we looked at each other and knew this was it, things were going to get crazy. And soon enough the room started to get full of other staff members. The hospitalist tried to figure out how much placenta was left and there was still probably over half. He said I have Accreta. I knew with my research with my uterine inversion exactly what that was and knew things weren't going to be good. He talked with Mari and they said they couldn't do anything else for me in the delivery room and I needed to go back to the operating room and have a hysterectomy. I knew as soon as they started digging out the placenta that I was done having kids. So the decision of the hysterectomy was easy. And besides what choice did I really have at that point? And as soon as I said ok then the room really got busy. They were calling for blood, putting in another IV for said blood. I was signing consent papers. I told them I wanted my family to come in so I could say good bye before I went back. This whole time I just kept thinking, how is this real life? How can I be doing this again. I had done everything in my power, they even checked for accrete on my 20 week ultrasound, and yet here I was. In another emergency. Only this time, it was a lot more controlled than my inversion. I knew that things would be ok after surgery. The fact that I was awake and in my room to get my second IV actually helped because I knew that they had enough time to do it, rather than being knocked out by that point because they rushed me to the OR so fast. And the fact that I was fully with it instead of being in hypovolemic shock helped too. So at 2:10 I said good bye and off I went.
They took me to the hospital's main Operating room. I was able to move from my bed to the operating table (ugh, that sounds so harsh. Who named it a table?) The room was really cold and they weren't giving me a blanket. Then they said they were going to give me this and that and I would be out, and sure enough I was. Next thing I knew is I was in recovery and couldn't talk. I could whisper, but they weren't listening to me. I was still cold. Finally, someone noticed me talking but they couldn't understand me so I wrote c-o-l-d with my hand and they got the picture and brought out a blanket. Apparently this was around 3:40 AM and Mari talked to my family and said I was in recovery and needed 3 units of blood.
I was back in the room around 5 in the morning and had another unit of blood. I was able to hold Quinn and try to feed her again. She didn't care for the bottle they tried to give her. She still definitely prefers her mommy.
I can't believe I got the birth that I was wanting, minus the whole surgery thing. Only 4 hours of active labor. Not induced. No epidural. Used the tub. I was able to have skin to skin right away and be very involved when they took her over to be weighed and such. Recovery has been ok, a lot easier than my Uterine Inversion. I think that's because I only lost about 2500 ml of blood as opposed to 4000ml during the inversion, and I had the same amount of blood transfused with both. It was entertaining to see how many nurses tried to find my fundus and would push on my tummy. I finally started to remind them towards the end that there isn't a uterus to check. The lack of a uterus was also nice in nursing because I didn't have the after pains that hurt like the dickens. All they removed with my uterus, I still have my ovaries, so I won't need hormone replacement.
A week later I am adjusting to the thought that we will forever be a family of 5. We were going to have one more, but obviously not now. I kind of worry about people asking if we are going to "try for a boy" when they hear I have 3 girls. Enough people asked me that while I was pregnant. I know I am going to have a lot more in the course of a life time. How do I answer that without it being awkward...I can't, I'm lacking an oven to put the bun in?
Quinn is perfect. Once my milk came in, she has been nursing like a champ. She is in newborn clothes, but they actually fit her. The one time I was prepared at the hospital with a premie outfit I had a monster for a baby. Her big sisters just love her. If Zoey goes anywhere the first thing she does when she gets back is ask where Quinn is and wants to hold her. Ava constantly comes up to her and says hi Quinnie Poo. :)
I'm not sure why I had to have two uncommon birth complications that essentially would have killed me without the intervention of modern medicine. But I will forever be grateful that I am here and able to talk about it and watch my family grow.
