The Rest of the Story

it occurs to me that i have left out a lot of details over the last few weeks. let's start with the fun ones!

regarding quinn's birth, i had many reasons for wanting to try a VBAC, and among them was the opportunity to experience a real labor. i didn't get one of those with livie since my labor was induced.

on monday, 11/3 (my mom's bday), my contractions changed drastically (i had been havng BH constantly since 31 weeks). i was no longer able to walk or talk through them starting at 8 that morning. i was still having them very sporadically, so i didn't call the doc. at 3 pm that day, i started to have bloody show. i went to bed at 11 that night, but could not sleep b/c the contractions were coming faster and harder. by 1:15 tuesday morning, i realized that i was bleeding more and decided to call in. they had me come to the hospital, and the nurse and OB in triage determined i was in active labor and dilated to 3 cm. my labor actually went pretty fast in terms of getting to 10 cm. my water broke (on its own) at 7:45 that morning and i was dilated to 10 just before noon. the problem was that i stayed at 10 cm for HOURS without making any progress getting quinn down the birth canal. in the very end, he did get wedged under my pelvic bones (and he still has the bruises to prove it), but my old c/s scar had trapped him by his chest and could not complete his exit.

regarding the bladder rupture...it's nearly 100% certain that i had bladder damage after the c/s, but my bladder did not fully rupture until tuesday, 11/11. it was 5:30 a.m., and i'd just finished feeding quinn. i was sitting in the corner of our secional sofa upstairs (deep sofa), and was doing that scoot, scoot, twist, stand-up maneuver we all do when we try to get off a couch with a baby in our arms. well, when i stood up, i felt a horrible pain in my stomach...felt like someone had dragged a knife down my stomach starting at the top of my ribs. fortunately, i did not drop quinn, but i could barely move. i shuffled back to our bedroom to ask josh to help me. by this point, i was shaking, sweating, and crying uncontrollably...the pain was immense. i tried to walk it off and even tried taking a hot shower...the pain just got worse. i asked josh to call 911 around 6. we live less than a mile from the fire station, so they got there quick. the ride in the ambulance was HORRIFIC. my BP shot up to 185/105 and i could barely breathe (lying down was excruciatingly painful). by the time i got to the ER, my heart was going haywire and my BP continued to skyrocket. after many shots of morphine, blood draws, a CT scan, and a bunch of nurses and doctors freaking out, i was rushed into surgery (after signing consent forms for a hysterectomy b/c they thought my uterus had ruptured again). the surgery entailed fixing my uterus, which had opened up again, and doing an extensive repair on my bladder...it was apparenlty a severe rupture. i had to stay in the hospital as long as i did b/c of the issues with my heart and to be watched for abdominal infection/abscesses b/c of my abdomen being full of urine for 5 hours. my kidneys have recoverd (was in kidney failure when i was first hospitalized), my bladder has healed, and i'm infection free. the only residual issue i have is with my heart. there is still fluid around it. no one knows why...i will prolly go see a cardiologist in the next few weeks to either get a clean bill of health or find out what the next step is (there's risk of the fluid becoming infected).

suffice it to say that i now have an unnatural fear of our red couch. and, i have to admit that this whole thing seemed so random to me that i keep waiting for some other part of my body to rupture. seriously. i have dreams (nightmares) about it.