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Redlemon · 02-08-2005, 05:53 PM

Here's my cut-n-paste, from my time on the TFP hotseat:

Quote:

OK, the worst day of my life was about a week long, and it started the day before my son was born.

My wife and I (I'll call her Hotdish from now on, just to make it easier to read. That's the name I used to sign her up at TFP, but she doesn't have time for this kind of stuff) had been to all of the birthing classes, and read all sorts of books, and were "fully prepared" for the birth. We even had written one of those birth plans, where you tell the doctor and nurses what your wishes are. Hotdish wanted a natural birth, no drugs, and we had a doula to help out in the hospital as well.

Her water broke at around dinnertime, and we went to the hospital with our prepacked bags. Things went normally for the first, oh I'd say 16 hours. However, she didn't dilate beyond 8 centimeters. So, we went to some inducement drugs (I don't recall what it was, but the pill that you place on the cervix). That didn't do it, but it made the contractions so bad that she felt that her back was going to break. So, the epidural went in to reduce the pain. This still wasn't enough, and our son's head (he has a huge head, just like his dad) was going forehead first, so it wouldn't fit through. So, the C section.

They do a bunch of tests on your child at the hospital. On the first round, our son failed the hearing test. This led to all sorts of worry, until they tested him again a day later and he was fine.

Hotdish doesn't handle strong painkillers well. The painkillers started to make her paranoid as the week went on. Also, our son couldn't get a good "latch" to breastfeed (perhaps the painkillers, also I've heard that C-sections can affect breastfeeding), so he lost more that 10% of his birthweight in the first week, so we had to go for further testing.

I'm horrible on little sleep, and usually one of us can be the "strong one" when the other isn't feeling well, but there's only so much you can do. We should have reached out for more family help earlier, but we were too exhausted to think about it.

There is no worse feeling I know than seeing the woman you love in pain, and knowing that there is nothing you can do to help her. The post-pregnancy hormones have blurred the details of this event for her, but I remember all of it.

What did I learn from this week? The definition of a "successful birth" is one where your child and your wife are healthy after it is all done. They were and are healthy, and that's all I can ask for. However, it was still a horrible week.

Good luck, hope it all goes well!