I'll start with my many, many trips to L and D. At 27/28 weeks, I had pre-term labor symptoms. I had been washing shelves at the drugstore I worked in, scrubbing them on my hands/knees in fact. I felt a "fluttering" or rhythmic tightening of my stomach with some discomfort. Talked with my partner and convinced him that we needed to go. I indeed was in labor and having contractions. The nursing staff calmly told me that they were calling my doctor and setting up an ambulance to take me to a larger center, as the hospital there did not handle pre-term births. I was allowed to call my parents to let them know but I couldn't leave the bed. They started an IV on me and I was given Magnesium to attempt to stop the labor. Contractions eventually stopped, and I was able to stay for observation over night. I had an ultrasound and it was discovered that I had a severe UTI (looking back, I was probably not eating/drinking due to the vomiting/nausea). I was put on bedrest for a few weeks.
After the false labor/pre-term stuff I was terrified to have it happen again. So every time I had Braxton-Hicks (almost, anyway) I would think I was in labor and would go to the hospital. At this time I had very little family or partner support, so looking back that had a lot to do with my frequent visits.
Once I was a week over due, my physician stretched my membranes. He did this once a day for three days. On the third day, I started having a horrible back ache and went to the hospital. They hooked me up and I had a real, live contraction! This time I was staying! But only after I would be kicked out of a birthing suite and moved to the television room for a few hours, then to an assessment room, then another assessment room where they broke my water. My dad and my mom showed up around this time, and had an argument over who was going to stay with me. My partner was there, but he was leaving to go outside to smoke once an hour at least.
We finally got into a birthing suite. I had an enema and then the nurse started a bath for me. I was in active labor at this point and was given an injection of Demoral in between the bed and the tub. I made it into the tub where I had a little leakage and ended up having to get out. From this point on I was taken back to the bed and stayed in bed for a few more hours. My partner watched Sci-Fi movies and my mom coo-ed annoying things into my ear, something about breast stroking in the cool ocean. All I wanted to do was tell her to leave, but I didn't want to be alone and my partner was no help.
Fourty five minutes of pushing and Tai Lin was born! She had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck between three and four times and so she was whisked away. I had an episiotomy that needed repairing, not too sure how many stitches but I know I had more than a few.
Around four hours later I finally got to meet my daughter and start the initial breast feeding. She was diagnosed with jaundice within a day and so we were in the hospital for an additional five days before we could go home.
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