Peter and I went to the hospital on Saturday at 1 pm to be induced, since I was already a week overdue. I was already 4 cm dilated and the staff seemed to think that I would be a good candidate for induction. Seeing as I was extremely uncomfortable with every passing day, we decided to go ahead with it. They started me on pitocin around 3 and then the waiting began. The contractions started pretty quickly and regulated within a few hours, but they weren't crazy painful and when they checked they weren't being too productive either. By 2 am, I was still only 5-6 cm dilated and was still able to talk and laugh through contractions. They increased the pitocin and it finally felt like real labor was coming. However, after hours and hours of extremely painful contractions, I still hadn't progressed any farther. Around 10 am we made the decision to get an epidural to see if it would help relax me and help labor along. At that point, I hadn't slept in over 24 hours and had very little to eat. I never in a million years thought I would go along with getting a needle stuck in my spine, so that should tell you how bad the pain was :-) Around 10am I got the epidural and my water broke soon after. I was able to rest during this time and felt a lot better. So, I was hoping that the rest of labor would be easy and mostly painless. I was wrong... After several more hours, I had only progressed another cm. The midwife broke another bag of water by his head at that point, and then it was like the epidural was doing nothing. But the good news was, that within an hour he was ready to come out!
This is where the problems started... Miles' shoulders got stuck in my pelvis. I had 2 nurses pushing on my stomach as I was pushing to help him get unstuck, as he wasn't breathing throughout this time. He was finally born, but wasn't responsive or breathing. I sobbed as I cried out to God to give our son breath. Thankfully, they were able to revive him quickly and we soon heard his little cry fill the room. As they continued to check on me periodically, they realized I was still bleeding excessively but wanted to see if it would stop at some point. We had to ask my mom, mother-in-law and sister to leave at that point when the Dr realized there was something more urgent than just blood loss. There was a huge clot still in my uterus that she was unable to remove. Within minutes the decision was made that I needed emergency surgery to prevent me from bleeding to death. They warned of the possibility of a hysterectomy if they were unable to stop the bleeding. Once again, I was being separated from my newborn baby, something I had not prepared myself for. I left Peter with our hours old son and prayed fervently as they took me away.
Hours later I was in the ICU hearing that they were able to stop the bleeding and received 2 bags of blood and would be monitored to see if I would need more in the future. Miles was put in the NICU so Peter could come be with me. I spent the next 24 hours in the ICU, thankfully improving and showing signs that the bleeding was stopping and wasn't going to start. Monday night I was finally able to get moved back to the maternity ward and be reunited with baby Miles! He suffered a lot of facial bruising and a hematoma on his head from the trauma of his birth, but was otherwise healthy and well! I am on a long road to recovery due to the loss of blood. I was discharged from the hospital with levels that are less than half of what they should be. It will take almost 6 months for my body to replenish what it lost and fully recover the levels it should be. Aside from fatigue, headaches, shakiness and pain from his delivery I am on the mend. We are just so thankful that God once again showed us His faithfulness in this situation as it could have turned out so differently in so many ways. We appreciate all the prayers that were sent up on our behalf once again and are once again able to praise the God who saves and preserves life!
