caterh

Birth: GBS positive, screamed a lot!, doctor missed the delivery!

I think they must let me go natural over at the birth center just to discourage other moms from doing so. We'll get to the screaming part, but for now let's just say I DON'T hold back when I'm in labor. As I stated in my post above, my doctor stripped my membranes at my 41 week appointment, and handed me the information about prostaglandin. She wanted me to schedule an NST and first prostin insertion Saturday morning. As with my daughter, we never made it to that point. At about 5:30 Friday morning, I got up to go to the bathroom and discovered a big wet patch in my underwear. I also had bloody show. Because I was GBS positive, I decided I ought to call my doctor, even though I really didn't have a real obvious membrane break. Doctor told me to head on down to the Birth Center and get checked. We arrived at the hospital (had to get kids up and to daycare) around 8:30 and met our doctor there. She sent us up to the clinic instead. Checked. Said my membrane hadn't broken, I was 3 to 4 cm dilated & very soft. Said my membrane was paper thin and should break easily. Gave us a choice--go home and nap and have the baby Saturday, or go walking and see if I couldn't get my water to break. We chose walking. So it was off to the mall. Walked there for about 1.5 hours, with contractions ranging anywhere from 3 to 8 minutes apart. I got tired after a while, so we popped over to Barnes & Noble and looked at books for an hour. (Contractions 7 minutes apart.) Then off to Jack in the Box for lunch. Contractions still irregular, but painful. Jeff decided after lunch to take me back to the clinic. At 1:30, Doctor checked me again. She said I was 5 to 6 cm dilated and she thought my membrane had ruptured, so she sent us down to the birth center. Got checked into the BC at around 2:00. Nurse got me settled, got an IV started (for the antibiotics), and checked me again. She said my membranes had NOT ruptured, so got me up walking and gave me a hint to get baby off my back (I was getting a lot of back labor pains). She said to lean over the bed during a contraction, legs apart, and sway. "Put baby on his face" so he'll turn over and get off my back. It seemed to work. My new nurse came on at 3:00. She watched me for a while and wanted to break my membrane manually to get labor over with. I refused. When she checked, I was about 7 cm. I think I must have hit transition around 4:00. Got shaky. Got back into bed. Got peeved with the nurse for continuing to push the membrane thing. Then got a real bad urge to push, which I thought I should be fighting since I didn't think I was dilated enough. Nurse checked me again, and asked me to give a small push, which ruptured my membrane. The amniotic fluid was Clear (a first for me). After that, the urge to push really came on strong. I was fighting it and that's when I started screaming. My nurse said if I really wanted to push, to go ahead. It didn't matter how dilated I was. They called for my doctor. In the meantime, the nurse prepped the room, and the resident on call came in and gowned up. I found pushing this time a lot more difficult and less satisfying than it was for my second child--probably because I just felt WRONG about it. They set up a mirror, and I could see Michael's head when I looked, but because of my position (I pushed lying on my side, with the nurse bracing my lower leg and Jeff bracing the upper), looking in the mirror was awkward. I felt myself tear (OUCH). Then Michael's head was born. More pushing to get his shoulders out. Jeff confirmed he was a boy. Then Michael started crying and quickly turned from blue to dark purple (oh yeah. Good lungs.). Because the amniotic fluid was clear, Jeff actually got to cut the cord this time. Our doctor walked in about that time. Her reaction was "Oh, S**t!" Three pregnancies. Three times I've delivered without my doctor. I don't even know the name of the resident who delivered Michael. My doctor did my tear repair (which hurt the whole time--I don't think the local anesthetic worked at ALL). Michael cried for a full hour after birth. The nurse and my doctor checked him after a while, and after that he nursed. They checked his glucose because of his size and said it was low, but it came up after he nursed, and was up later in the evening when they checked again, even though it had been some time since he'd last nursed. He's not a very good nurser. We have latch problems, which we're working on, and his little bowel gives him major gas pains, which doesn't help him want to eat. When he does latch on, he nurses a good 15 to 20 minutes (although his pattern is suck suck suck, breathe breathe breathe...suck suck suck....). He also seems to have his days and nights reversed, which makes catching up on sleep real fun. Anyway, sorry so long. I actually left a lot out. We're home with our newest little snort now. His siblings are "fascinated" with them, although Big Sister Brynn's a bit jealous. She just painted a picture of him for us. -Catherine