Before I post any pictures, I wanted to take a few minutes to record Kamryn's birth story. Just as my last two were, she was a scheduled c-section for March 10, 2011 (39 weeks). I made it to that day, no problem. Jason and I arrived at the hospital at 7am to get paperwork and pre-op going. They anticipated delivery around 8:30am. One of my wonderful best friends, Janene watched Gaven (the other boys were at school) so that my mom could meet us at the hospital and be there for her birth.
Things took a little longer than expected and they didn't take me back for surgery until after 10am. Things went smoothly all through delivery. I DID hear my doctor make the comment that it was probably a good thing we were taking permanent measures for this one to be our last because she was encountering a lot of scar tissue from the previous 2 c-sections.
Kamryn Olivia Mann was born at 11:01am on Thursday, March 10th. She weighed 8lbs. 15 oz. and was 20.5 inches long. (They originally measured her at 19.5, but the next day the pediatrician didn't believe that length, so they re-measured her and changed it on her records).
They took Kamryn and I back to the original pre-op room where we would recover for a couple hours until I could move my legs a little. That's when things got interesting. My mom's initial comment in seeing me was that my coloring looked really good. When the resident OB started pushing on my tummy to get my uterus to contract, she started to get concerned because I was losing more blood than she wanted. I started hemorrhaging pretty bad, so they called in some more people. The first thing they tried was manually stimulating my uterus to try and get it to contract on it's own. This was very uncomfortable because she was doing it from the outside AND the inside. Luckily, my spinal was still working from the waste down and I didn't feel the "inside" part. When that didn't work, they were frantically giving me shots in the leg and 1/2 a dozen bags of pitocin along with other meds to try and kick start my uterus to contract. Those didn't work either. At this point, I had been hemorrhaging for a while and they were pretty concerned.
On a side note, Jason had left to go grab a bite to eat before all the madness started and didn't even know anything was going on. At first my mom tried calling him... then the doctors insisted that we page him to get him back. He eventually got back, but missed all the excitement.
Back to the story... This was when the doctor that was working on me reminded me of all the paperwork that I had signed consenting to a blood transfusion and a possible hysterectomy. I shook my head in agreement (pretty drugged up on Morphine), thinking, "I don't care, just do whatever you need, and stop mashing on my tummy." They had already tied my tubes after the c-section, so hey, if they have to do the hysterectomy then I guess the plus side is not having to deal with a monthly cycle anymore.
They had one more thing to try before going back into surgery. There's a new procedure where they insert a catheter that has a balloon on the end into the uterus. Then they fill it with saline so that it expands and puts pressure on the inside of the uterus causing it to contract back against that pressure. LUCKILY, that worked. My uterus hadn't COMPLETELY quit on me after all. The bleeding slowed and returned to what would be considered normal. Pretty cool if you ask me.
So now it was just a waiting game for a while to make sure that it would continue to work. They kept me in the pre-op room for a while and then finally transferred us across the hall to a L&D room around dinnertime. They were going to keep us in there until the next day when they took the balloon out to make sure the bleeding didn't start back up... closer to the O.R. I guess.
FINALLY, 24 hours after surgery, balloon out, and doing better, they moved us over to the postpartum wing. The beds are DEFINITELY more comfortable than the laboring beds in L&D!!!
I am recovering well, no ill-effects of the complications post surgery. The consensus is that even if we hadn't decided to take permanent measures in preventing any future little Mann's... my body took those measures for me. It says it's done having babies, regardless of what we would have wanted. We're thankful that it held out long enough for us to bring our little angel into this world... and boy is that an understatement! I would do it all over again just to have her here!!
Things took a little longer than expected and they didn't take me back for surgery until after 10am. Things went smoothly all through delivery. I DID hear my doctor make the comment that it was probably a good thing we were taking permanent measures for this one to be our last because she was encountering a lot of scar tissue from the previous 2 c-sections.
Kamryn Olivia Mann was born at 11:01am on Thursday, March 10th. She weighed 8lbs. 15 oz. and was 20.5 inches long. (They originally measured her at 19.5, but the next day the pediatrician didn't believe that length, so they re-measured her and changed it on her records).
They took Kamryn and I back to the original pre-op room where we would recover for a couple hours until I could move my legs a little. That's when things got interesting. My mom's initial comment in seeing me was that my coloring looked really good. When the resident OB started pushing on my tummy to get my uterus to contract, she started to get concerned because I was losing more blood than she wanted. I started hemorrhaging pretty bad, so they called in some more people. The first thing they tried was manually stimulating my uterus to try and get it to contract on it's own. This was very uncomfortable because she was doing it from the outside AND the inside. Luckily, my spinal was still working from the waste down and I didn't feel the "inside" part. When that didn't work, they were frantically giving me shots in the leg and 1/2 a dozen bags of pitocin along with other meds to try and kick start my uterus to contract. Those didn't work either. At this point, I had been hemorrhaging for a while and they were pretty concerned.
On a side note, Jason had left to go grab a bite to eat before all the madness started and didn't even know anything was going on. At first my mom tried calling him... then the doctors insisted that we page him to get him back. He eventually got back, but missed all the excitement.
Back to the story... This was when the doctor that was working on me reminded me of all the paperwork that I had signed consenting to a blood transfusion and a possible hysterectomy. I shook my head in agreement (pretty drugged up on Morphine), thinking, "I don't care, just do whatever you need, and stop mashing on my tummy." They had already tied my tubes after the c-section, so hey, if they have to do the hysterectomy then I guess the plus side is not having to deal with a monthly cycle anymore.
They had one more thing to try before going back into surgery. There's a new procedure where they insert a catheter that has a balloon on the end into the uterus. Then they fill it with saline so that it expands and puts pressure on the inside of the uterus causing it to contract back against that pressure. LUCKILY, that worked. My uterus hadn't COMPLETELY quit on me after all. The bleeding slowed and returned to what would be considered normal. Pretty cool if you ask me.
So now it was just a waiting game for a while to make sure that it would continue to work. They kept me in the pre-op room for a while and then finally transferred us across the hall to a L&D room around dinnertime. They were going to keep us in there until the next day when they took the balloon out to make sure the bleeding didn't start back up... closer to the O.R. I guess.
FINALLY, 24 hours after surgery, balloon out, and doing better, they moved us over to the postpartum wing. The beds are DEFINITELY more comfortable than the laboring beds in L&D!!!
I am recovering well, no ill-effects of the complications post surgery. The consensus is that even if we hadn't decided to take permanent measures in preventing any future little Mann's... my body took those measures for me. It says it's done having babies, regardless of what we would have wanted. We're thankful that it held out long enough for us to bring our little angel into this world... and boy is that an understatement! I would do it all over again just to have her here!!
9 comments:
Wow Bri! What a birth story! You certainly ended child birth with a bang! Really scary! I'm sooooo glad everything is okay and you're healing up well now. Thankgoodness the "balloon thingy" worked! I was glad to see you posted about it! Hope you're doing okay and enjoying your new pink bundle! Take tons of pics! Can't wait to see more of her! Love ya and Congratulations again!
Oh wow! I am glad things worked out well in the end. Boy, it sounded like it did get rather scary there for a bit. Glad everyone is safe and healthy.
Something about that story really got to me. You have a way with words dear friend. :) I am so glad that everything worked out. I am thankful your little Kamryn made it into this world safely and that you are now doing well. What a lovely family you and Jason have created. I can't wait to see your angel grow up. xoxo Rest up and take care.
Oh my goodness! I'm glad you are okay. I can't wait to see little Kamryn.
So glad that you are okay and both of you are here and doing alright. She's a beauty.
I'm so glad everything worked out for you, that's scary. Little Kameryn is so cute, i can't wait to meet her in person.
Oh my! I'm so glad you and your baby girl are well.
How scary! So glad the balloon thingy worked. Kamryn is absolutely beautiful, congrats Bri.
Wow, I'm glad everything turned out fine -- it sounds really scary, esp. with Jason gone. Your little girl is so cute! She reminds me of Braeden (but of course more feminine -- she's a doll). I can't believe all that cute hair! And thanks for sharing your belly pics -- cool tradition!
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