Birth Story 8(Janeen & James Richard)

Are you excited? Here is story 8 for our Empowered Birth Week!! Remember, keep it classy in comments!!




This story comes from Janeen and the birth of James Richard.

Here's our birth story. A classic induction turned c-section. I know it's long...but it's ours. :) We got to the hospital for the scheduled induction (due to “low amniotic fluid” according to the OB) just after 8am on Saturday, the 8th of May. The lady who was checking us in was not having a good day and what could go wrong with the computer was going wrong it seemed. As we were sitting there waiting for her to get everything figured out, a woman and man came in and she asked them what she could help them with as if she was annoyed that they were there. The woman told her they needed to check in and she looked at her like “HUH?” and asked her “Are you even pregnant?” Oh God I felt so guilty and so pissed off at the staff lady when I heard the man sadly mumble “Well, we were.” It was sooooooo sad! I sat there trying to be hush hush about how we were about to have a baby as this poor woman was sitting behind me losing hers. We got to the back and I changed into the lovely hospital gown. The nurse did her thing and told me they would probably start with the cytotec and then move on to pitocin but that would depend on what the doctor’s check revealed. They got the IV started and the monitors on to my belly and then at about 10:30 or so they decided we would skip the cytotec and go straight for the pitocin. I couldn’t even tell you how frequently they were upping it but it was every hour or so. Around 12:30 they upped it for the fourth time and at that time the nurse said she expected me to be begging for drugs within a couple of hours. I was bound and determined to show her otherwise and I did hold out longer than she thought I would. My mom and Jimi decided they were going to smoke. After they had finished and were coming back inside my sisters Joanna and Betty and my niece Sharon called saying they were held up in traffic due to a Cinco de Mayo celebration in downtown Denver. As Jimi was giving them directions and getting them to the hospital, he also got a call from me because as I was lying there breathing through contractions, I heard and felt a pop. For a split second I questioned what it could have been but then I knew…my water had broken and was gushing. I verbalized an “oooooo” when it broke and told Jimi’s mom, who went and told the nurses. Not even five minutes after the contractions were SOOOOOOOO much more intense and within a half an hour they were bad strong, like how in the hell did this happen so fast strong. The nurse explained to me that when the water broke, my body started producing much, much higher levels of oxytocin which was even way stronger than usual since we had the pitocin hiked up too. At this point we started talking about the epidural and this nurse was SUCH an epi pusher. I had already been thinking long and hard and came to the conclusion that I may as well go for it. My main reason for wanting to delay an epidural was so I could remain mobile as long as possible and that idea flew out the window from the moment I checked in for an induction. So I decided it was time and they called the anesthesiologist. I absolutely hated getting the epidural. The nurse lied to me and said it wouldn’t be any worse than getting an IV. She said the IV hurts worse so I thought oh hell yes I can handle this…lies! It felt like it was being drilled into my back and I could feel the catheter moving inside of me. It sucked so badly. It took the pain away but also made me feel really weird. I have never had any medication like that so the sensations in my feet and legs took me off guard and just felt so strange to me. At about 9ish we had a little scare. I was lying on my left side and I heard my sister say something to Jimi’s mom in a discerning tone and asked what was wrong. The baby’s heart rate had dropped to 80. When I saw that I said, regarding the nurse, “That’s gonna freak her out.” And sure enough she came storming through the door, telling me to roll over NOW. Yeah, okay…I’m numb from the waist down, let me jump right on that! She said the baby didn’t like me being on my left side and if this happened again…we could very well be headed for a stat c-section. She helped me roll over and the heart rate went back up and stayed that way. She decided at that time that we needed to have the internal monitors placed and all I could think was “one intervention leads to another.” I don’t think there were any other interventions to be added to the list at this point! After getting the epidural they had decided not to restart the pitocin and see how things went. At the 11pm check I was 4cm dilated and since I was still progressing slowly they decided to keep it off and see how I did on my own from there. At 12pm they decided to restart it as the contractions were slowing. I felt so bad for my family around this point. They were all so tired and there weren’t enough places for everyone to sit so they were playing musical chairs. At one point Jimi was sleeping on the hardwood floor and one of my sisters decided to go take a nap in the car. Present during this time was me, Jimi, his mom, my mom, my two sisters and my niece. My friend Amber was there for a little while to see how I was doing but she had to leave. At 3am they started talking about a c-section. They said that baby was sunny side up and having a hard time descending into the birth canal and that is why I wasn’t dilating more. Jimi started talking about maybe not being able to handle being in the room and that scared and saddened me big time. At 5am it turned into a definite c-section and everything started happening so fast. Jimi was gowning up and I had a cap thing on my head. Before I knew it I was saying goodbye to my family and we were on our way to the operating room. When we got in there the anesthesiologist started doping me up. I could feel the cold medicine going in through my back. They started touching my belly asking if I felt this and that. I could feel the pressure of them pushing on me and told them I was scared to death that I was going to feel them cut me. He said even though I could feel the pressure, I would not feel the cut. He also said that at some point I was going to feel like someone was sitting on my chest. And this is where I started going in and out and only remember parts of it. I remember them starting the procedure, it sounded like they were cutting cables or something at one point. I could feel pressure and had to breathe through it. Jimi ducked his head behind the curtain really close to mine so he couldn’t see anything and I remember Rick the anesthesiologist telling me I had to relax. Jimi said shortly after, I started snoring and then they pulled the baby out of me. At 5:48am on May 9th, 2010 James Richard entered the world weighing 6lbs 6oz and measuring 19 inches long. Jimi said he was in tears and absolutely speechless. He said he looked at me with the biggest eyes and tears just streaming from his face as they showed him the blue and bloody baby that was his son entering the world. I wish so bad that I could have experienced this with him. I do remember him showing me the baby and telling him to move the blanket away from his face but I don’t really remember knowing what he looked like or anything at this point. I wish I could have seen the tears and saw the look on his face as he looked at his firstborn son for the first time. This is the one thing that saddens me the most out of everything. Nothing went as planned but I feel like I missed out on something so huge by not being able to remember this moment. At this point I guess they started putting everything back inside of me and my arms started flailing, I wanted to stop whatever it was that was putting all of the pressure on me. Rick tied me down at this point and gave me a general, putting me completely under. The next thing I remember is my head jerking and me waking up as they were rolling me to recovery. I remember thinking what the hell is going on for a moment and then I remembered what had just happened. Being in recovery is a fog. They gave him his first bath and I nursed there for the first time. Jimi proudly went out and got our moms to come in and see the baby. My sister told me he looked so proud as he walked out there. I’m tearing up just thinking about how my husband must have felt. He told me he had never seen anyone go through something so harsh before and he had a whole new level of respect and love for me that he has never felt for anyone, not even me before that moment. As a special treat, when Jimi was about to walk in to the room with our moms the doctor who had done the IUI was walking by. Jimi said he got a really pleasant surprised look on his face and then the doctor got a really pleasant surprised look on his face, so Jimi asked him, “Would you like to see him?!” Doctor Faber of course said, “Well, hell yes!” So he walked in with Jimi and our moms. We got visits and about a million pictures out of the way in the recovery room and my sisters and niece decided to go home. We went to a transition room where we waited for our permanent post partum room and that’s when Jimi gave me and our moms our Mother’s Day gifts and I gave him his New Daddy gift. He got us all some perfume and he got me the sweetest card I have ever received in my life. The stuff that came written on the card says: "For the One I Love, Mother's Day is the time to say the things our hearts feel every day. As each day comes and goes, you mean more and more to me. Our life together is very special and I wouldn't change it for anything in the world. Happy Mother's Day to the one I love." From him he wrote: "For my beautiful wife. I love you sooooo much." And from the baby he wrote: "Hi Mommy! Because of you I took my first breath today. Because of you I am happy. Because of you I am beautiful. Because of you I am here and I have my whole life ahead of me. Thank you Mommy, James Richard." Although the birthing experience was everything I didn’t want and it ended in a c-section that sucked really badly, I told Jimi in the recovery room that I would be willing to do it all again with him…maybe we’ll even do it twice more.