Thursday, April 9, 2009

Caitlyn's Birth Story

well a lot of people have been asking about the story of Caitlyn's birth since it was a difficult one for me, so i decided to post it on here so i can just send them here to read. It is going to be a little graphic so if you don't want to know the details then don't read, just as a warning for everyone.

First off, it all started 2am Saturday the 21st, I was woken up with what i thought was a loud pop sound, but then thinking in bed that i just dreamed it and Caitlyn must have kicked me in my sleep (which she did often to let me know that i needed to go to the bathroom to make room for her). So i got up and sat down to go potty when i heard a gush of water and realized that i hadn't gone potty...it was funny to me with it being 2 am and still half sleeping. I yelled for Brian to wake and told him that my water broke and that he needs to get everything to the door to leave. I woke my mom up and got dressed and we headed to the hospital. At this point contractions were very light and just annoying.

I get to the hospital and they check me out and for sure my water broke and at the moment they also saw that there was meconium (which is when the baby has a bowl movement in the uterus), so the nurse just tells me that when i delivery i won't hear the baby's cry and the NICU will take her to suck out the meconium before she breathes it in. At this point i got just a little nervous, but more anxious to get the show on the road. When i finally got to my room they told me because of the meconium I'm going to have to be strapped to the fetal machine and no moving around. So to say the least that my birthing plan just flew out the window then, also my contractions where becoming much stronger at this point. I still wanted to go as long as possible at this point without and medication, that was until i realized that all the pain was coming from my back. I had complete back labor and lets just say you can ask any mom who has had it, that back labor is the worse to have. I am proud to say i lasted 4 to 5 hours without drugs, but by the 5 hour i was begging for the pain medication that goes through the IV. It helped for only an hour and by an hour in a half i was saying no more of this and drug me up....lol

I got the epidural (which did the opposite and sped up my dilation), but it also made my blood pressure drop dramatically and made me sick, which is never fun and scary at the same time. By 11:30 i was complete and ready to push. So i pushed for and hour straight, with Brian right next to me being the best support person i could have ever asked for. The doctor came to check on me and realized that Caitlyn was faced in the opposite direction, which can make it harder to deliver, so he basically pushes her back up and tries to turn her. I believe he was unsuccessful, but told me and the nurses that were in there to keep me pushed for another hour and try to turn her at the same time. I will say i was lucky enough to have 3 nurses in there and one of them the head nurse who really seemed to know what she was doing because she got Caitlyn more turned than the doctor did, but still no luck. The doctor comes in and tells me that I'm going to need some help getting her out and gives me a couple of options, first is that he can get the vacuum and forceps and we can try it that way and if it doesn't work we got to C-section or just go straight to C-Section. Well said i trust him as the doctor and whatever he thinks is best, which was the first option. So he told me to keep pushing until he get back with everything. So 30 minutes later he is back and then we try the vacuum with no success and then he grabs the forceps and tries, which even with the epidural hurt like the dickens and would tell every women to refuse them. Yet again no success, oh and also my epidural stopped working on my left side so i was feeling everything.

So they take me away quickly to the operating room and it felt like i was in a parade because i had all 3 nurses plus some and everyone that is in the NICU following right after me. The epidural lady was pumping me with so much drugs so quickly that it only took a second to realize that i was dead(numb) from the neck down. The most i could do is lift my arm up a couple of inches and then it would just fall. Not soon after Brian is walking though the door and sitting next to me and i have a huge sheet up in front of me. So during this time for me is blurr so I'm going to tell you what Brian told me. They slice me open and start trying to pull Caitlyn out, but she was stuck a little bit and it took a bit of work for the doctor. Brian was brave enough to look over when Caitlyn finally came out and he leans over to me and tells me that he just say my intestines and all i could say is ok. Then he decides to keep being funny and tells me that its a BOY....all i could say is shut up...lol. Brian got up and walked over to were Caitlyn was and they cleaned her up and luckily no meconium got into her system and he brought her over to me to i could see her and then he left with her to the nursery for her to get weighed. Now from this time until i get to my room at 5pm i lost an hour, but all i remember is being in post opp for a short time and Brian walking in to tell me that she is ok and healthy and a big girl at 8lbs 10oz, 21.5 inches long.

So that was the delivery which was pretty crazy, but we were very blessed in that the only things that happened was i lost a lot of blood and Caitlyn had a bad bruise on her head. Also for the first 48 hours of her like she had a lot of fluid in her head and so we had to be really careful with her head but it went down very quickly and so she had a nasty headache all the time and then when she would cry it would make it worse. So she wasn't a happy baby for a while....lol

Sorry about the rambling at the end, its getting late and brian is getting sleepy so now i need to go take care of my precious gift. I love you all.

4 comments:

Carolyn said...

I love reading birth stories. Thank you for sharing yours. I am impressed that you lasted as long as you did unmedicated without being able to move around! I was fortunate to be able to have freedom of movement through my entire first labor and birth and through most of my second labor. I can tell you I was begging for some medication after complications arose during my second labor and I didn't have the same freedom of movement as I had before! My second daughter came out sunny side up and I had a ton of back labor, so I can commiserate with you about that one! Honestly, labor is hard enough without being confined to one position. Major kudos to you!

It sounds like you are having a slow recovery on top of this. I am so sorry! I think I've told you that I had abdominal surgery about 10 years ago. It was hard enough to recover from without having to care for a new baby on top of it all! I hope you get all healed up soon.

I'm very sorry you didn't get the birth you hoped for. If you guys are planning on having more children and are hoping to possibly have a VBAC in the future, I would encourage you to check out the International Cesarean Awareness Network. The URL is http://www.ican-online.org/

Also, I belong to an online community of natural-minded LDS mothers (and fathers). There are a few women there who have had successful VBACs after first births that were similar to yours. If you are interested in joining, the URL is http://naturalldsliving.freeforums.org

I'm so happy for you and Brian on becoming parents. Congratulations! Little girls are such a joy. I wish you well through your journey as a mother.

Brian & Denise Marlatt said...

I wish i could have a VBAC for the rest, but i forgot to mention in the blog that because of my tailbone i won't be able to have a VBAC. All my future deliveries will be C-section.

DeAnna H said...

Denise and Brian,
What a precious little girl. I can't wait to see her which will probably be forever. I can understand your stories. It's like reliving my labors. I think God has a hand in how well recovery goes as compared to regular surgery since there is a baby to deal with too. It's not always fun and complications do rise up now and then, but just looking into their loving, straight from heaven faces, it makes all worth while.
We send all our love and hugs and kisses. Give Caitlyn a big one for us.
Love,
Aunt DeAnna, Uncle Ben and troops

Undaunted said...

Hi Denise,
I am Stacie Catanzaro (formerly Marlatt) Brian's cousin. I just found some of the family blogs and if you don't mind I would love to keep up the happenings in your world. You can link to my blog through Cheryl's site. Have a wonderful day. Congradulations on your new addition. :)