Julia Elizabeth Allan

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Julia Elizabeth Allan

Here I am in labor, listening to a thunderstorm..over and over.  I was pretty annoyed that David would take my picture.

So, I took his picture.  He fell asleep several times during labor , because apparently "nothing was going on"  REALLY!?

First moments.  Sweet!

This was just a few hours later.  David had gone to pick up the kids from the bus and brought them  to see their new sister!  It was so sweet to all be together!  Right after they left I starting vomiting and lost a a lot of blood.  Had a blood transfusion that night.  Awful!

Day 2, with Gracie and Julia and several IV accesses in my hand 

In case your interested in the detail of the story here it is.  I really just wanted to write this for my own memory.  My water broke the day after my due date about 2am...and had very light but consistent contractions about 4-5 minutes apart. got to the hospital and contractions had slowed to about 2 an hour until 10am..grrrr! I started feeling very frustrated that my body was not kicking into gear! I really wasn't in any pain during that time. At 10 am my nurse asked me if I would like some pitocin to get things moving. I told her I really didn't want to do that, but also told her I felt very frustrated that things weren't moving along. She decided to check me once more and said she thought she could feel a bag of water. What?! I thought my water had broke?! When I was checked in, that nurse confirmed that indeed my water had broken. She explained that sometimes the bag will break up higher and still be intact down lower, sure enough that was the case. She broke the water again and within minutes the contractions started being much more regular. Yay! I was so excited to finally be moving along with labor! During the 5am-10am I had like 4 different nurses which was also frustrating. I kept thinking with each new nurse, "are you who I've been praying to have help me for the last 9 months?" I really wanted a wonderful nurse! The nurse I finally ended with was WONDERFUL! She did everything she could to make my life more comfortable! She went and got me a rocking chair, foot stool, tucked me in with warming blankets, pillows and then I said, "I'm just not comfortable, and was pretty apologetic. She was so great and said, "honey, this is YOUR birth! However you are most comfortable is the most important!" She was so great! I ended up on the exercise ball leaning at the side of the bed, with my head down on the bed. With each contraction I focused on being totally relaxed and breathing in deep and slow. I was actually doing it! Right toward the beginning I had the thought I ought to act like I was not the show, that all these people coming in and out really weren't here for me and tried to psych myself into downplaying the situation. I think it helped me to relax, think about myself, and not focus on anyone else and what they may be thinking. for some reason, I think this really helped! I listened to the same thunderstorm on my mp3 player about 100 times, as I looked out the window at the beautiful blue sky and the clouds rolling in and out. It really was a beautiful experience...it felt so close to heaven.  I was surprised that I didn't want anyone to touch me or talk to me. I think David felt a bit useless, but I really didn't care. He was asleep in the recliner several times when I would look up, and I thought to myself..like Jesus, "can you not stay with me one hour!" (: I said that to him later, and he said, "there wasn't anything happening though." Oh really!!!!!!? At about 11:30ish I started feeling pretty uncomforatable and began to moan through the contractions but still felt like I CAN DO THIS! At about 12 I thought, "you know, I"ve experienced enough, and really would rather not have anymore! Though I didn't say it to anyone, that was what I was thinking. About that time my nurse said she wanted to check me and I thought, "I cannot move off this ball,...I'm going to have this baby on this ball somehow" though I knew that probably wouldn't work. It was so hard to get up on the bed to be checked and really once I got there within minutes I started to push. I think the doctor was rushing to get in and dressed...but really I didn't care who was going to catch her,  I was going to push. 3 pushes and she was born! It was awesome! I was so glad I had done it! Wow!, 
So, several hours later after David had gone home gotten kids off the bus and brought them back to see me with dinner, I began to hemorrhage. I knew I was losing a lot of blood, but thought it was probably normal and so I didn't tell my nurse. After the family left, I got up to use the bathroom and the nurse came in and saw me and said, "don't move, your lips are white" about that time I started vomiting and a group of about 15 people were in my room. The resident in charge started yelling to someone to get some morphine and I thought, "what in the world?! why do I need morphine?! She proceeded to remove the clotting blood on the underside of my uterus. It was rather painful, to say the least! I was grateful I had just gone through natural childbirth because I kept saying," I can do this!" Apparently I lost a lot of blood. Part of my uterus was not contracting like it ought to after you give birth and the blood was collecting and clotting on the underside of my uterus. I was given a blood transfusion that night. I had to stay an extra day in the hospital, and went home really weak but felt so grateful for those nurses and that resident that acted quickly! I also was so glad I didn't have a home birth...I had given that some thought, but decided not to chance it. The nurse explained to me, the next day, that I had lost so much that had I lost a bit more my liver and kidneys would start shutting down...and I would have been transferred to ICU. Wow! That hemorrhage part was totally not on my radar of what might happen. So, that it the whole story!