Photo story Friday. - just when i thought i had something i was good at....

Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

Just when I thought I had something all figured out, Pierce kicked it into high gear and  RUINED MY PLANS for a normal, Safe, NATURAL, delivery!

He started out life, changing the way things are done around here, and is still always doing it HIS way. Life is no longer predictable, OR boring with this kid around.

This is the long winded tale of birth of my 6th child. Consider yourself warned. do yourself a favor, stop right here if you are pregnant, no need to freak yourself out!


Pierce threw me for a loop and kicked it up a notch FROM THE BEGINNING!

I'll start with saying that Pierce is the first surprise pregnancy for me, EVER.
Even Liberty 10 1/2 months younger than Peyton, wasn't a surprise, I was open to the idea of her while still on the Delivery table with Peyton.

So you can imagine the shock when 8 weeks after radiation, and 3 months after a total thyroid removal from thyroid cancer , I find out I'm pregnant!?! WHAT? how did that happen?  I had been told not to get pregnant at least until after my 6 month follow up and they didn't have my thyroid hormones, or lack thereof under control AT ALL YET! I was exhausted,  and couldn't take anything to help with my energy levels, not to mention Lance was a full time student in his LAST YEAR of COLLEGE!

It went from bad to WORSE for a minute at my first appointment when my Dr. had me on the ultrasound table and he hesitated a minute too long.

Me: "it's not twins right?" ha ha joking with my OB (for all of my kids including 2 miscarriages.)

Dr: (pregnant pause) " Um, well I see two placentas here."

Me: I burst into tears FREAKING OUT, 7 kids under 7 and I'm not cleared from thyroid cancer?
I just had 100 millicuries of Radioactive iodine, in-patient not even 2 months before? Being pregnant right then was stressful enough, but twins?

Dr: "Well, let me just see here, I only see one heartbeat. there were two sacs, but only one is progressing, you may have to pass the other one"

Me: still bawling, but say, "well the LORD KNOWS I couldn't handle twins !" (WHEW, huge sigh of relief, but still freaking out about all of it.)

A few weeks later, I passed the second placenta, and spotted. not awesome but seriously I TOTALLY! COULD NOT! HAVE HANDLED TWINS! Peyton was still 7 when I delivered.  I had 6 kids age 7 and under. Insanity by everyone's standards even my own, by this point.

The pregnancy was hellish, I was sicker than I'd ever been, depressed (and not taking anything, I figured enough damage could have been done from the radiation and my lack of thyroid, I wasn't risking anything on top of that). So I suffered and wallowed in my depression.

My whole family suffered.

My lack of thyroid and proper dose of thyroid hormones, left me exhausted! ALL DAY, every day! I ached, I cramped, they eventually got my dose of hormones up to 400 mcg at the very end, that is the hugest my DR. had ever heard of putting anyone. Pregnancy increases the need, so they adjust the dose continuously, that meant labs every 6 weeks, Ob visits monthly , and Endocrinologist visits every 6 weeks, not to mention (barely) caring for my family and my husband in school full time, and then doing an internship too on top of it all. Hellish doesn't even describe enough how badly that whole 9 months sucked in more ways than one.

So finally I'm getting the end of my pregnancy, and I start having early stages preeclampsia. WHOOHOO free ticket for a speedy induction. I'd been induced 5 out of the 6 times NO BIG DEAL, or so I thought. I was planning on a natural delivery like the last 3 delivery's were.

Honestly, I went in thinking everything would go like normal, who cares about preeclampsia?
Well I guess they do at the hospital, it added new things to my IV, and they dimmed the lights, the Nurse kept telling me, "THIS IS A BIG DEAL". and" YOU MIGHT HAVE TO HAVE A C-SECTION!"

I laughed in that woman's FACE! This was my 6th kid! I have this down! I can do this naturally! I am a PRO! We told her to get ready to catch, my babies come fast and I don't wait for a stinking Dr.! (I'm kidding about the stinking Dr. but really I can do this on my own almost, I am THAT good!)

So the nurse is trying to scare me, and then when I refused to take off my bra, (I hate no support, and I have done it before, it's no problem! "I know what I am doing ! This is my 6th kid!")
that freaking nurse THREATENED ME that she would cut off my bra, if I had to have an emergency C-section! Seriously the bird almost flew, that wasn't happening to ME!

So my Dr. finally comes in, all chatty and nice, well as chatty as he gets, he's not really chatty but he knows me now, this is my 6th time here! We are friends! Obviously I'm a frequent flyer at his office.

He's on lunch, the plan was to start the IV antibiotics, and start the pitocin. RAD ! BRING ON THE PAIN! I told him, "I'm not waiting for you, when it's time, I've got this down."


It was a long process, all afternoon, slow boring, nothing going on but the nurse doesn't want the lights on, or me watching TV, and I can't get up and wander. She's spouting off something about the risk of seizures, loading me up with magnesium, monitoring, it's not safe, blah blah blah! whatever.

Around Dinner time the DR. comes back in to check me,  to see how it's coming along. I reply with, "slowly! up the freaking drip please." He had come in to break my water, (he always has to) anyway, he goes to break my water, and GUSH, dribble dribble, nothing, OH WAIT, let's check that again, "the babies arm is in the birth canal." I was confused and then awhile later he said, "the baby is not progressing there is not enough pressure, we'll have to get that arm back over his head so he can progress, and we can do this normally." GREAT!

Did you recall I had no epidural?

I'm sitting there thinking and may have even said, "Sure, stick your arm up there and push it back over his head." YOWZA! OUCH!?

He tried, for a long while, and then ...

I had to pee, So the Dr. and the nurse were both saying go ahead ,"you can't get up! We can't let you go walking around off the monitor, here use this lovely bed pan, and we'll stand right here over you still. and hurry, the babies heart rate isn't great, make it fast or we'll cath you."

{mentally I'm screaming} NOOOOOOOOOOOO! no catheter! PLEASE! I beg you NOOO , anything but that! ( I had a horrible catheter once with the 1st delivery and have forever refused one since.)

"FINE, (crying) I'll do it!" I managed. and then the Dr. had his arm back up in my lady bits, trying to fix the problem!

Lance is quietly reading in the chair next to me ignoring the fun I am having.

Then, the heart rate DROPS!

It continued to drop and they are calling codes over the intercom all over, and people are rushing in.

That's when the nazi Nurse says, "QUICK GET ON ALL FOURS!"

(mental thought) AHHHH MY HUGE derriere IS IN THE AIR in a hospital gown ! YOU ARE KIDDING ME! I think I said more than a few choice words! (apparently and according to Lance, they covered me up pretty quickly, but not fast enough that I am not eternally mortified by the experience.) Seriously! Scarred. For. Life. The babies heart rate picked up at the position change.

I had a load of nurses in there, they were in the middle of a shift change, so my first nazi nurse was prepping the new one coming on, as this all happened. So I had two with me, plus all the emergency reinforcements.

The heart rate drops again, and they start counting, down to a certain # and they call it and get to business! They tossed Lance some scrubs, it's going downhill fast! this C-Section is happening, and it's going down emergency style! I had no clue about how tense it was, while all my glory is in the air. HORRIFYING!

and get this ...
Lance says, "I'm not going in! I'll be sick!" he does get sick enough to puke just from the smell of the iron in my blood normally, but still! The fact that he has puked in one regular delivery is understandable. BUT STILL he was abandoning me!?

"ARE YOU Freaking KIDDING ME?! Well if you aren't, you better get my mom down here fast!" (she wasn't coming to this delivery for the first time ever, since they had a family party going on.)

Again the heart rate picked up. Ahhhhh, sigh of relief, I got to sit down , the nurse kept bugging me to lay down , but when I did, it would drop again, when I sat how I wanted, Up and Indian style, it was OK. The Dr. called her off, and told her to leave me alone if it wasn't working laying down, the new nurse started prepping me, and was nice enough to re-do the IV's and cords, and not cut off my bra like the nazi nurse threatened.

Just then the anesthesiologist came in asking, "you need me for an epidural?" Um, no, I'm delivering naturally." They sent him to the hall for a minute to wait while I talked to my OB, and since the heart rate was OK I had two options....

Option #1. Give me an epidural and try to push the arm back over babies head, to attempt to deliver vaginally (there I said it!) but if the heart rate dropped again, any deal was off the table, a C-Section, emergency style, was happening to me. STAT!

Option# 2. Get an epidural or spinal, and go for the C-section. Cut to the chase and in my opinion, avoid hurting in two places, and still having a C-section in the end.

I chose option # 2, I made a deal though, for 2 things.

A. (if we could ,without risk) I wanted to wait for my mom to get there, so I wouldn't have to go in alone.

B. I could have pictures of the C-section.

Luckily the heart rate stayed good, until I went in, my mom got there, Lance and my Dr. gave me a priesthood blessing. Then we were on our way,SPEEDY FAST! (to borrow a phrase from Junie b. Jones)

I had a spinal block in the OR and just before my Dr. made this first cut he checked me, JUST to make SURE, I had to have the C-section.

SURPRISE! Pierce grabbed the Dr.'s finger, and wouldn't let go! "He just wants to shake my hand before we meet!"

My mom came in with me, we joked the whole time. I made beached whale Jokes, and of course my mom and a nurse or two took some pictures.

Turns out his arm was too far into the birth canal, it wouldn't have gone back, no matter how much we tried, and the cord was wrapped twice.





*stop here if you don't think you can handle the graphic nature of delivery. *



HECK YEAH! I asked for pictures of my own C-section.
(as you see here for this fabulously, long winded story.)






here come the shoulders
Suction!

cutting the cord

Dr: "Here's your little Boy!"
Me: "EWWW, he looks like an alien, clean him up."

this one is my fave! starting to clean him up.

AHH, recovery, the horrors didn't end with delivery.
I had my FIRST spinal headache, a blood patch, and
numerous other indignities.
Not to mention missing out on my normal speedy recovery!
I was out of commission for weeks. When before, I was at the store 2 days later.
talk about a RUDE awakening!

stinking kid.

GOOD THING HE'S CUTE!