Sunday, December 14, 2014

Walt Bryce Millar

On November 20, 2014 after very little sleep we went to the hospital for a 5 am induction. Walt wasn't due until the 25th but with Thanksgiving coming and with that my whole family we decided to set an induction date. All month I had been having contractions and dilating a centimeter a week. I really was hoping I would just go on my own for many reasons but the main one was that I was planning on going natural again. Anyway, we had a birth plan, the doctor wouldn't put me on piton but instead just break my water. I thought everything would go quickly from there. Well, I was wrong. I woke up that morning not in the best of moods and wanted things to go quickly. After the doctor broke my water, we hit the halls and walked and walked. Contractions were coming but I was feeling really good still. Well, after about 3 hours of walking, bouncing, reading and christmas shopping, I decided to get checked. To my disappointment I was only dilated to a 5, I came in at a 3. Bummer! Even bigger bummer, the baby's heart rate was doing some funky stuff so the nurse made me labor in bed from then on. Well. the contractions started coming. harder and faster and to be honest I just wasn't feeling it, you know, the whole natural labor stuff so I asked for an epidural. This was a mistake. It was a busy day and it took them an hour to get a dr. to come in and give me my epidural. The nurse checked me one more time I was at a 7. I should have just kept going but like I said I just wasn't feeling it. I was handling the pain just fine but wasn't in the mood to push it- get super uncomfortable. So I got the epidural and was put on pitocin cause the epidural slows me down. the epidural was great, could move and still feel the contractions but they weren't painful anymore. but after 45 min. I started feeling pain and a lot of it and I could feel the baby coming. I yelled for the nurse that the baby was coming and I could feel everything. She called my dr and the anesteologist and right before I pushed the anesteologist boosted my epidural (stupid cause it takes 5-10 min for it to work) well I started baring down while my dr prepped for delivery and the minute he gave me the go ahead I pushed twice and Walt was born. Super quick, super intense, super painful.  After dr. campbell stitched me up the epidural kicked in and I went completely numb and could barely sit up:) Yeah!

Walt weighed 7 lbs 13 ounces our smallest baby and by far with the smallest head too:) and was 21.5 inches long. he screamed for about 10 minutes after he was born and didn't really make a peep the rest of the time we were in the hospital.




















That night I started having intense back pain that shot down my legs. It was very scary and extremely painful. the next day around 11 I started getting intense headaches that would be manageable if I was laying down but never went away. They got worse throughout the day and decided that they were spinal headaches and that I had a spinal leak where I got the epidural. That night I got a blood patch to fix the leak. They took 20 cc of blood from my arm and put it in where I got my epidural. This was sooo painful and then they told me to lay flat on my back for 2 hours-  I couldn't move without extreme pain in my back. The next day I woke up with back spasms but the headaches weren't there. We loaded the baby up and on the way home they started coming back and by Sunday I was laid out with spinal headaches. Monday my Ob called to check in on me and after talking to them I decided not to go and get another blood patch but to take the  pain pills, load up on caffeen and wait out the headaches0 they said they could last up to 2 weeks from when I got the epidural. It was miserable and I was very emotional. I spent the days flat on my back and only getting up to use the bathroom, feed the baby and eat. Wednesday things started feeling a bit better and by Friday I was feeling ok.  This experience was so humbling and gave me some insight on what people go through. The headaches were so debilitating. I spent the days praying that the headaches would just stop and then praying and thanking God that it was me having complications and not the baby. I know we were blessed during this time. It could have been so much worse! like I said Walt was perfect in every way.  now that Walt is 3 weeks old I'm feeling like Im just recovering from a normal child birth. He's such a sweet baby! I forgot how much fun it is to have a new born.