I definitely didn't have a Bradley birth. Rick and I got to the hospital at 8am on 2-24-10 they said I was 5 cm dilated and my contractions were 4 minutes apart lasting 1-2 minutes. They took my blood pressure and it was too high, they said I was pre eclamptic and there was protein in my urine. By 8:30 I was hooked up to all theses machines that took my blood pressure every few minutes, took my pulse, measured my oxygen levels and all kinds of stuff. They put me on an IV with magnesium for my blood pressure but it still kept going higher, when I looked at the machine and it said 179 over 100 and the nurses were in a panic trying different blood pressure cuffs and saying that it couldn't be right, then my labor stopped and they were talking about how I was going to have seizures or die if they couldn't lower my blood pressure and get the baby out. It was really scary. Then they put me on pitocin also to get my labor going again. I got Demerol for the pain but it didn't help at all and it made me feel really out of it and my oxygen levels dropped to 80 and it should be 100 so the put an oxygen mask on me. Everything they put me on caused some problem that needed some other medicine to fix. I finally got an epidural even though I didn't want to get one because I was scared of the side effects. It was such a great decision, he could only give me a small dose because of the magnesium and everything else but I found that it really calmed me down emotionally.
I started pushing at 6pm and they told me the baby was sunny side up, which means the head is turned wrong so the largest part of the head has to come out first instead of the back which molds into the cone shape. When I got home I looked it up and apparently 5-12 % of babies are born that way and it lengthens labor and makes you more likely to need a csection or forceps and increases your risk for severe tearing. I didn't know that at the time but I do know I pushed and pushed and it was just the hardest thing in the world, I never could have imagined pushing a baby out would be so hard.
By 8pm nothing had happened and I had stayed at +1 which means he hadn't moved down at all in 2 hours of pushing, I was already so swollen by this point. My Dr left to prep for a c section. Rick, my mom and some really great nurses were like "you can do this!" and I some how pushed some good pushes. I had absolutely nothing left by that point and I have no idea where the strength came from because I had not eaten or slept in 24 hours and most of that 24 hours I was in labor. The Dr came back in and canceled the c section because I had progressed. Rick and my mom were pushing my legs and Rick was rolling my back up. He said he was rolling me up like a tube of tooth paste to try and push the baby out. Blood was everywhere, every time I pushed I was sliding off the table.
At 8:32pm Ryan Christopher Powell was born, 8 pounds 2 oz. They rushed him to a table that had Drs and nurses standing by because they were worried about all the magnesium and the long traumatic birth but he was crying and pink and just perfect. My doctor just handed him off and said "get me a chair" and she just stitched and stitched and stitched while 2 nurses held me open. The next day I found out I had two 2nd degree outside tears, and one inside me (she didn't tell me a degree) that was 6 inches long and 4cm deep, she said it was the worst she'd ever seen she could see all the fat cells and muscles and I lost half my body's blood volume.
They kept me on the magnesium and the IV all night. My urethra was swollen shut so I had to have a catheter for 24 hours because I couldn't pee on my own. Also I was not allowed to get up because they were worried about me fainting from the blood loss. That's why I had to stay in the hospital so many days.
The Dr said I can not have another 8 pound baby because of the risk of re damaging myself so Rick and I will take the Dr more seriously next time she tells us its a big baby and just schedule a c section. Ryan is such a tough baby, I was hooked up to fetal monitoring for over 12 hours and his heart rate never dropped or showed any signs of stress, and all the medications I was on didn't seem to effect him at all. The whole ordeal was very scary but it was all worth it and I can't wait to have more babys!
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