This was my second baby, I was 39 yo, had borderline high blood pressure and gestational diabetes with this pregnancy. I was induced at 38+4 with DD 3 years ago. I had a relatively easy pregnancy with this one. I did have gestational diabetes and was monitored for that (took meds) but other than that it was smooth. They set me to be induced at 39 weeks.

On the morning of I called in at 7 am as instructed and was told to eat breakfast and check in at 8 at the hospital. I had breakfast with DD and we took her to daycare and I cried and cried at drop off. It was very emotional for me. We arrived at the hospital and were told where to go so we walked to the check in area. As soon as I got there they made me get into a wheel chair, kinda funny considering I walked in just fine and I wasn’t in active labor! They wheeled me back and we were checked in. I was weighed and told to change into the hospital gown. It was 815 am. We got settled in and numerous nurses and hospital personnel came in to finish the check in process, draw my blood, get the iv inserted, etc and then at 10 am they gave me a pill to get my cervix softened and to begin dilation. I was at a 1 cm at 10 am.

I was given meds again at 2 pm.

I was checked at 6 pm and was STILL 1 cm.. I was so discouraged. My blood pressure had been high all day and they wouldn’t let me out of bed, I had to keep the fetal monitors on and my blood pressure cuff on as well. It was so uncomfortable and I was very unhappy. I had really hoped this induction would go faster bc it was my second but it didn’t appear to be going that way.

After my check DH brought DD for dinner and it was hard bc I was bedridden and DD was confused. But we snuggled and she lifted my spirits. They left at 715 pm so DH could put DD to bed. DH stayed home with DD over night and I stayed bed bound in the hospital. I’m not going to lie that night was terrible. The bed was so uncomfortable; I had two belly monitors on, leg compressors on both legs, an IV in my hand and a bp cuff on my arm. At 146 am I almost had a breakdown, I literally wanted to cry.

At 6 am they checked me and I was 1.5 cm. I lost it. All of this torture, not being able to move around and I was only 1.5 cm after 24 hours. I cried, hard. The nurse saw my frustration (it was pretty obvious) and she told me that I could be off monitors for a while so I called DH and told him to get DD there to visit asap. Well, as it does with a toddler, it took a while for them to get there and by the time they got there the nurse was trying to hook me back up. I had another breakdown and the nurse gave me some additional time. I was just so tired of being stuck in one room in bed. Ugh, I am not cut out for that. I feel bad thinking about how upset I was at that time. The poor nurse.

The on call dr came in and noted I wasn’t progressing and that it was basically the same as my first induction which took three days. I told them I couldn’t stand it taking that long this time so we decided to do the epidural and insert foley bulbs (again). I got the epidural at 1130, foley bulbs were inserted at noon and Pitocin was started at 1215. DH went home to work and DD went to spend the day with MIL and FIL at our house.

I was checked at 515 pm and I was 5 cm!! Hallelujah. I was just so happy to be over 2 cm’s. The dr broke my water at 519 pm and it splashed everywhere, the dr made jokes about it. At this time DH was at home ordering dinner for his family, who was there watching DD and my mom was flying in from FL. My mom landed at 715 pm. DH came to the hospital after eating dinner with his family and my mom came to the hospital to see me. At 8 pm I was checked and I was 5 cm. Again the feeling of frustration fell over me. I was certain it was going to take another 24 hours for DS to come. We sent my mom home to our house to relieve the in-laws of DD duty and DH said he’d spend the night with me in the hospital (turned out to be a good thing!!)

At the 8 pm check the nurse said DS was high and sideways so they had me flip onto my right side and lay with a huge “peanut” ball between my legs. As soon as my mom left they flipped me and I finally felt pain of contractions. I would say it was a 5/10, not terrible but I could definitely feel it every 1-2 mins or so. I tried to relax and get some rest. DH laid down on the pull out couch thing and about 20 mins later the nurse came back and said they wanted to switch my sides bc DS’s heartrate was dropping during contractions. So, I flipped to the left side and the “peanut” ball was again between my legs. I again tried to relax and this time I started to feel pain on the left side every 1-2 mins. After another 20-30 mins the nurse came back and said she wanted to check me bc DS’s heartrate was behaving as if he was ready to come out but just an hour ago I was only 5 cm’s……..

She checked and immediately started prepping for me to push. The lights came on, the mirrors came out, DH was woken up, the dr was called and another nurse came in to help. They were getting all the tools and stuff ready. It happened very quickly, probably took 10-15 mins. The nurse told me to do a practice push and I did, she stopped me half way through and said to wait for the dr. The dr came in a few mins later and they had me push once and DS was born! At 943 pm. DH couldn’t believe how fast it had happened and remarked “I was just sleeping 15 mins ago and now I have a son”. LOL. I noted how tiny DS was.

He was 6lb 8 oz, he scored 9’s on both apgars and was 19 inches long. We did skin to skin and he latched right away. He was beautiful. DH did skin to skin while I delivered the placenta and was cleaned up.

Aftermath:
In the hospital one of the nurses at the hospital thought she heard a slight heart murmur but our pediatrician checked DS and we were cleared to go home. He weighed 6lb3oz when we left. We got home and settled in. He was a good eater and a good pooper. We had our check up 3 days later and he was up to 6lb6oz’s and everything was good.

I was feeling pretty good. Only pushing twice was amazing and my body didn’t hurt too bad at all. I was recovering very well, better than I had with DD.

At ten days old DS didn’t want to eat all day. I figured he might have a tummy ache or was just having an off day. But by late afternoon he felt cool to me. Like not warm enough. I mentioned it to DH when he got home but DS seemed normal (except for not eating) so we had dinner and were relaxing and I was doing skin to skin to keep DS warm. I then gave DS to DH while I went to put DD to bed and DH finally realized what I meant about his temperature being low ( I asked DH to do skin to skin too to keep DS warm). I immediately took DS to the ER. DH called his parents to come stay with DD.

At the hospital DS started having a hard time breathing and they said he had hyperthermia. There were so many nurses and doctors working on him. They told me he was going to be airlifted to Children’s in DC. It was surreal. The helicopter crew arrived at 11 pm and he was moved into an incubator and taken away. We drove to the hospital while he was flown there. By the time we arrived he had been sedated and incubated and a breathing tube had been inserted. It was like my worst nightmare. We were filling out papers and answering questions and just in a daze. At 2 am they said his heart wasn’t functioning properly and it was enlarged. We were moved to the Cardiac Unit. They were doing all kinds of tests on him and there were 5-10 people in his room at all times. DH and I were shell shocked. By 6 am the two main cardiac dr’s came to us to update us. They actually had good news. Somehow his heart was now working properly, however he did have a hole in his heart (VSD), but that is actually quite common and probably what the nurse in the hospital heard (murmur). They said the hole was NOT what caused his issue so they kept testing and testing. They did every test imaginable. They even consulted with the genetics team. Nothing was found.

All tests were negative. After four days the breathing tube was finally removed and he immediately started nursing again. This was good bc my supply had TANKED, I was pumping and getting less than 0.5 ounce from BOTH sides. It was so hard to have him hooked up on all the machines and to have to have help picking him up. As the days passed and he got stronger and stronger they removed some wires/machines until he was down to just the oxygen. We were moved out of CICU and finally all of his wires were removed. He nursed for what seemed like all day and all night. After 8 days in the hospital we were finally released. The cause of the problem was never identified; it was officially classified as culturally negative sepsis.

We were referred to a cardiologist to monitor his VSD and have been there twice (DS is now 4 months old). At our last appt we were told his VSD was down graded from severe to moderate and we now go every 3 months. DS is doing great and thriving! We are so happy and thankful everything worked out ok! It was the scariest thing I’ve ever been through.