So by the time I was called back to be monitored in triage, it was approximately midnight on January 4th. Contractions were manageable but definitely limiting. I was waiting in line for the bathroom to leave my urine sample when I felt a suspicious gush of fluid. (Kudos to Hub for urging me to wear a big pad! Sometimes boys are very smart.) I told the nurse (who didn't seem to care), "Uh oh! I think my water broke!" And here's where I start to tell you that it is true about the late shift people being shittier than the day time people. They told me they picked their shifts based on seniority. You could tell for the most part.
Anyway, when I got in to the bathroom and sat down there was a giant splash instead of a little tinkle if you know what I mean. I looked down and saw my mucous plug, a little blood and a lot of fluid. I even muttered to myself, "How cool! It's textbook water breaking!"
I told the nurse when I left, and she assured me they'd check to be sure my water had indeed broken. (yeah, because it's so hard to mistake) I could tell she was not so experienced (no she is not ShitNurse), and was praying she wouldn't be checking my cervix... but she did. She never even found it. It felt like someone was digging into my vaginal canal with a very blunt pick axe randomly and blindly. These checks were easily some of the most painful parts of my birth experience. She did take a sample for those stupid paper tests to see if I had any amniotic fluid. (Again because I am dumb), and declared that it was negative. I had been told many times that those tests are very unreliable, but they assured me they'd have the doctor look at it on a slide. Sometimes science is a little too much fact, not enough, "DUH it's right in front of your face!" ya know?
But the doctor never got around to it, and they continued to assure me my water had not broken even as I soaked towels that Hub had to help me change since I was hooked up to monitors and even though E's heart rate started to stutter with each contraction. That's when the battle axe walked in. Ta Da! ShitNurse #1! She had very little interest in our well being and would leave us alone for an hour at a time. I kept telling her my water broke, and she kept ignoring me. I also felt E move frantically and paged them to tell them as I had read this was not a good sign. She came in, looked annoyed and said, "He's fine. Just moving." Yeah.. moving FRANTICALLY. It was very different and happened right after I lost more fluid.
In the meantime I got someone who really knew what she was doing to check me (Thank GOD), since everyone else had so much trouble with my cervix, and it was getting very painful. I should have appealed to her for help but didn't. Afterwards, ShitNurse#1 came in, and I told her one more time that it had to be fluid. She told me we were waiting on a u/s tech who was in another area to come back to check the baby. I told her I was sure. She got directly in my face and said, "And how do you KNOW it's not urine?" in a really rude tone. Exasperated, frustrated, tired and upset, I practically wailed, "Because they are TWO DIFFERENT HOLES! And it feels completely different!" Besides, if there is blood and mucous in anyone's urine, there's something to be REALLY worried about. She huffed out, still not believing me. She also suggested that it was probably just discharge. Yeah... and we all walk around with diapers on because of our discharge.
When the time finally came to go to the u/s (after about 5 hours), another nice lady came in and started bagging up my stuff to be admitted. ShitNurse#1 said, "What are you doing?? She's not being admitted yet! We don't know yet!" You could tell the nice nurse did not think much of this or her and left the things she'd already bagged where they were.
Sure enough, when we got to the u/s, the tech could only find one 1cm pocket of fluid around poor E. I had said to her, "If it's not fluid, what in the world could it BE?" She seemed very apologetic as she told me that it was indeed fluid and that the other nurse should have believed me. I felt very vindicated.
FINALLY, I was off to have a baby! Too bad it wasn't to go any more quickly up at Labor and Delivery...
E is Born Part 2
Update Thursday, February 11, 2010 at 2:23 PM.
Dalam topik birth
Dalam topik birth