Bjay's (Diabetic Mommy's)
Pregnancy and Birth Story
Part 8
Go Back to the Hospital -
To Have the Baby!
After a string
of good tests and no apparent complications, I went in for my
routine bi-weekly check on Thursday, April 26, at around 37 weeks.
I had my Stephen King book and hunkered down for the test, impatiently
waiting for it to be done. I was in a particular hurry this weekend
because I was having a baby shower on Saturday and I wanted to
go get my haircut and do some other girlie things. The fetal monitoring
showed no irregularity. Then I went in for the sonogram check.
I could
tell by the sonographer's face that something was amiss. She went
out to get a doctor. My heart stopped. I had recently taken myself
to the ER a couple times the past couple weeks when I wasn't feeling
the baby's regular kicking. They said nothing was wrong - but
could something have happened? I was on pins and needles.
The doctor
came in, never even looked at me, turned to the sonographer and
simply said, "induce" and walked out. I thought he meant
the plan was changed and we would induce later. It turned out
he wanted to induce that evening. It turned out my amniotic fluid
was too low. It had fallen below the magic number "5"
(cm). My placenta had started to break down, and it was time for
my little baby to come out and meet everyone.
Like I mentioned
earlier, the placenta is a big temporary organ. For some reason
it starts to break down sooner in diabetics, and that is exactly
what happened to me. Thank goodness for modern medicine and fetal
monitoring.
I went back
to see Patty, the midwife. She checked and told me I was dilated
2 cm. My instructions were to go home, get my stuff, and check
into the hospital. It was taking a while for the situation to
sink in because I kept telling her I couldn't have the baby now
because I had plans for the weekend.
I called
the hubby and he excitedly met me at home to pack up some stuff,
get our birth plan, and get the "supply" bag we had
made up during our birthing class. I got my focal point, my workbooks,
and other little goodies they told me to bring. The situation
had finally sunk in and I was excited but I was very scared too.
In spite of the birthing classes I still didn't feel I knew what
was going to happen. Plus in the back of our minds there was the
nagging thought that something might be wrong with the baby. I
just couldn't believe that with the way my pregnancy started and
all the intricate development that was going on, that I could
possibly have a perfect child.
We checked
into the hospital around 7 p.m. The hospital had beautiful huge
birthing rooms. They looked like really nicely decorated hotel rooms
with matching curtains, bedding, and furniture. Mine had a rocking
chair in the room and a built-in couch area. There was even a large-screen
TV smack dab in front of the bed. I was ecstatic when I saw the
big walk-in sit-down shower in the bathroom. I had planned on using
the shower and bath during labor. We set our stuff up and were discussing
what we might want to do: walk, use the shower, various exercises
and positions.
Unfortunately,
in the birthing classes they never mentioned what could be the drill
with diabetics and my OB never talked about the details of the delivery
so I didn't know what to expect. I assumed my birth would be like
what we practiced for in the birthing class.
When the nurse
came in, she asked me to lie down on the bed. Pitocin was started
at 9 p.m. and my confinement began. First she put a fetal monitor
on my belly. Then she put a short-corded automatic blood pressure
cuff on my upper arm. I had to keep my upper arm out at a right
angle to my body for it to work correctly. Finally, they put an
internal fetal monitor. I was hooked up like this from about 9:30
a.m. until the baby came at 5:30 a.m.
I could not
move. When I did something came off and the nurse was obviously
inconvenienced. The only thing I was capable of doing was lying
there watching TV. I was not happy. I asked if we could move around
for a little bit, and we were denied. A claustrophobic feeling
was overwhelming me, and I had to remove something, so I took
off my gown. It must have been really pretty, a big fat pregnant
lady, full of grump, with nothing but a blood pressure cuff and
two fetal monitors on. When the doctor came in and stated, "You
don't have a gown." I only glowered at him but mentally answered,
"That's right and you can shove it if you don't like it Mr.
Man." I'm sure he could tell what I was thinking just by
looking at my eyes. haha
I had seen
the TV shows and movies that depicted some pregnant women acting
very badly. I felt that was a terrible characterization and an
awful stereotype. I was so sure I would be happy and smiling with
little cartoon birdies flying around me - and barely breaking
a sweat. Instead, I ended up being a seething creature from hell.
They say it's always the quiet ones *wink*.
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Index:
Part
1 - We Decide to Have a Baby
Part 2 -
Meeting Dr. Wrong and Getting Pregnant
Part 3 -
Finally Finding the Right Team Members
Part 4 -
Going to the Hospital to Stabilize Glucose Levels
Part 5 -
Let the Appointments Begin
Part 6 -
Stomach Flu - Go Back 2 Spaces, Go Back to the Hospital
Part 7 -
More Frequent Fetal Surveillance Begins
Part 8 -
Go Back to the Hospital - To Have the Baby!
Part 9 -
The Baby Comes!
Part 10
- Since the Birth
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Diabetes
and pregnancy, fertility issues, gestational diabetes, parenting, 
