On July 29, 2013, we headed to the hospital at 6:30 in the
morning for a scheduled induction. Our
doctor felt like Baby Schritter was getting too big and we would be better off
helping him to come rather than waiting for labor to start on its own. After all the paperwork and preliminary stuff
they started my pitocen around 8am. At
11:15 our doctor came and broke my water.
By 3pm I was debating an epidural, but decided to hold out a little
longer. By 7:15pm, I was checked and had
dialated to 4cm. I asked for my epidural
and felt pretty accomplished that I had held out this long to get it. I was informed that my platelet count that
morning from the blood draw they did was 104,000 and it had to be over 100,000 in
order for them to do an epidural. And
since that was twelve or so hours ago, they wanted to do another blood draw to
check. So we did that. After waiting until 9:30pm (and IV pain
medication to “take the edge off” was NOT helping), I was told my platelet
count was too low to receive an epidural.
I’m not gonna lie: I started
crying. I was hurting so much by this
point and I couldn’t imagine doing this without some sort of relief. My doctor came in and we talked about it and
discussed the risks of doing it anyway, and then he left to talk to the anesthesiologist
and then she consulted with someone else, and eventually it was decided to go
ahead with the epidural. I can’t tell
you what was going on behind my back, but I do know that when she was done I
was numb clear up to my shoulders, and this was not good. The nurses kept testing how much I could feel
by putting an alcohol wipe in several places on my shoulders, arms, and chest
and asking if I could feel “cold and wet” and every time my answer was no. I couldn’t feel a thing from my neck
down! A couple of different times I was
surrounded by a roomful of nurses and they turned me over from my right side to
my left and then back from my left to my right.
Apparently the umbilical cord was getting squished and they were trying
to give Baby Schritter more oxygen. But since I was so numb I couldn't turn myself over! They
stopped all medication through my epidural and let it wear off, so after
several hours I could feel all my pitocen-induced contractions again and I was
getting pretty miserable. They started
IV pain meds to “take the edge off” again (Fentenyl?), but it was not helping
me at all. My doctor came in at 2am on
July 30, and suggested we do a c-section.
My husband and I convinced him to let us try on our own for another
couple of hours because I so badly wanted to avoid a cesarean delivery. He was super nice and said okay, but that he
would be back around 4 to check on us. We tried different positions over the next couple of hours in a final, desperate
attempt to have our son vaginally. But
at 4am our doctor checked me again and I had still not progressed so he gently
broke the news that a c-section was what needed to happen to bring our son into
this world. I was prepped for surgery, a
team was called to the hospital, Jake got dressed in paper scrubs, and at
5:14am, Carson Ryan Schritter was born, weighing 7 lbs., 15.6 ounces. The doctor said he would have weighed 8
pounds but he tinkled as they pulled him out.
;) I missed seeing the fun stuff
like his first bath, but Jake was able to go with Carson and take some
pics. I met up with them later in our
room after I had been stitched back together.
After being awake and in labor for more than 24 hours, we were all three
exhausted!!
Carson
has a bit of a breathing problem, but nothing they can really pinpoint or find
a cause for. He just breathes a little quicker than most babies do. He had a chest x-ray to
rule out fluid in his lungs, an ultrasound on his head to rule out bruising on
his brain, and an echocardiogram to rule out a heart problem. He passed all of these with flying
colors. After a couple of days in the hospital, both my
doctor and Carson’s pediatrician both signed off for us to go home together on
August 2, 2013. Happy Birthday, Carson!! We love you!
