>An Award for Your Suffering! Nifty! *Updated with Another Prize and Lots More Stories!!*
>Boy, some of you out there made my pregnancy brain damage look like child’s play. I had no idea so many things could go wrong during pregnancy. Really, how do we survive it at all?
I couldn’t let these great comments go to waste… So in honor of today’s Oscar nominations, I’m nominating my favorite pregnancy horror story comments for a special award- The Pregnancy Horror Story Award! Winners will be awarded in two categories- Most Horrifiying Pregnancy Story and Funniest Pregnancy Story. Each will receive a cool little blog button (i.e., badge of honor) made by my friend MommaK, and your choice of a 25-card stationery set from Lauren Goessling Designs! Thanks, Lauren! You’re awesome and so is your stationery- I was looking at it last week!
Also, the estimable Shaz is donating a blog/site/e-store facelift for both of our winners! Thanks, Shaz!
If you’d like to add another prize for the two winners in exchange for a mention, e-mail me at lucindathemom@yahoo.com. If you’d like to enter your own pregnancy story, do so in the comments of this post no later than 10:00pm CST on Wednesday. I’ll put all my favorites in a new post at that point, and you can vote on your two favorites (funniest and most horrifiying) in the comments of that post all day on Thursday. The only requirement to vote is that you must either be registered with Blogger or give me a valid e-mail address.
>This is my friend’s story but her blog is one of those ‘have to join’ blogs. But I HAVE to share it in the honor of women trying to know the person who suffered the most ;)The story is how her son tried to kill her.She has two uterus’ and was told she could never have children, as in EVER. So, when she was married, she and her husband never worried about it, as in NEVER. She always had irregular periods or none etc etc. She got the sniffles, a sinus infection, the flu, for THREE MONTHS… She was miserable. And, of course, never actually took a pregnancy test because why would it ever occur to her? She didn’t gain weight really either, but did wonder at her sore boobs.Somewhere in the fourth month something was really up and she went to the doctor. SURPRISE!Well weren’t they just tickled pink? But then, in the fifth month, she got this huge feverish infection, and went back in, and they discovered they had different blood types. So she spent the rest of her pregnancy on bed rest, miserable, with tons MORE doctor appointments then many of us others, with a HUGE baby boy who was incompatible with mommy, but since mommy never considered pregnancy, mommy didn’t get the shot. (Actually I’m not sure on the science there).
>Now my funny story, which isn’t an award winner but is slightly amusing.Background: I’m a twin. Having twins skips a generation. Yeah. so moving on.”Wee I’m pregnant, I’d like a boy this time.” – me”I hope it’s not twins.” -hubby”It’s not, it skips a generation.” — meI had no early ultrasound, they said there was no need, I was healthy, a little big but not suspiciously so etc etca few months later, like two:”Wow you are SO huge, that is not normal, like seriously, i mean, that’s not pregnancy huge, what are you carrying? I’m telling you it’s twins ha ha ha ha ” — evil laughing friend from above story.”I’m not, it skips a generation.””Wow, honey um, you look like a weeble wobble, I hope it’s not twins.” — hubby”I’m thinking he’s right” – another friend.”I just don’t think that a baby can be that big, it’s got to be two, OHMIGOSH THAT IS HORRIBLE” – A friend with pregnancy and child phobias”SHUT UP IT”S NOT TWINS THEY SKIP A GENERATION GO AWAY I”M JUST SHORT YOU ARE ALL MEAN I HATE YOU ALL” meFifth month ultrasound, car drive down there:”I hope it’s a boy” me”I’m thinking we should get a Mustang, you know, my project car, and I really want that Dell laptop. We could do this in a few months since we’re all set for this.””Mustang isn’t practical though, you have to fit all the kids” me”It’ll fit four fine.”We get there. In the room:I’m laying on the table, the gloppy stuff is on me, and their are fuzzy images on the screen. All of a sudden, the McDonalds Soda drinking grumpy technician stops what she’s doing…”MAKE THAT A DOUBLE”…what cheeseburger, this early in the morning?”Soo anyhow,” grumpily snot lady “Baby A’s head measures blah blah blah, legs blah blah bum blahblah””So are all baby’s just referred to as Baby A?” me, wondering why she just doesn’t say baby.Pause.”You don’t know?””Don’t know what?””You’re having twins. Both boys, definitely.”Hysterical, high pitched laughter mixed with sobs from darkened corner of room.”Are you sure?” me…Anyhow, yeah. We spent the whole day laughing in disbelief. Never did get the Mustang ahhh ah aha ha.
>oops or did you say email them?bah never mind. i’m just going to hog your comment list today.
>I’m opting out, but I can’t wait to read some of these!
>Of the ones you have put in your post so far, I like Nancy’s best. Oh my God, I’m so scared of pooping on the delivery table.
>I sleepwalk. Only during pregnancy though. The first time, my husband found me searching through my closet for a dress shirt that my brother needed. Because every 30 year old man needs a ruffled white dress shirt (that I didn’t even know I had). The one I still get laughed at for was the one where I was convinced that an ice cream truck had gone down our street with it’s music blaring at 4 am. With about 5 patrol cars chasing after it, sirens blaring. I even heard my husband talking to his boss about it on the phone in the living room. When I finally got up to see what was going on, the house was completely dark and quiet. My husband asked me what I was doing and when I asked what happened to the ice cream truck and the police? I thought he’d have me comitted.
>Oh… eww… OH… ICK… AWWWWW… YIKES!I may never eat again. I certainly won’t be looking at… anything the way I used to.Thanks for the fun, though.
>OK, mine is a pregnancy story, but has more to do with the delivery than the actual pregnancy. My husband and I were living in Peru when I got pregnant. We decided to just have the baby down there because, after all, people have babies everyday in Peru, right? It was almost 15 years ago, but I will never forget it.At that time, Peru was dominated by a great deal of terrorism. The terrorists blew things up all the time and tried to control the city. They would announce certain calendar dates and say that anyone on the streets was fair game. So often, the police would put up road blocks on these days. I was close to my due date and they announced another day. I was certain that I would go into labor and not be able to get to the hospital, or worse yet, my doctor who was the only doctor in Lima that I trusted would not be able to get there. So, I convinced my doctor to induce me. Yes, I was induced because of terrorist activity. Besides this, there was an earthquake while I was in the hospital and the terrorist bombed some of the utility services, leaving me without water to shower for 3 days after giving birth. Didn’t feel that pretty for a while. All in all it was an amazing experience and I have a wonderful son as a result of it all!
>From someone who is considering potentially trying to go through this process, y’all really shouldn’t do this.
>Wow, I vote for Nancy in WTF!
>Dear LORD ya’ll are really making me want to have a baby…NOT! 😀
>You need to put a disclaimer up there that first time pregnant women SHOULD NOT READ THESE POSTS. Good lord, some of them are horrible. But I have to say, the doctor dropping the baby takes the cake.
>I tripped on a broken piece of sidewalk when I was 8 1/2 months pregnant (in front of the liquor store…makes for a better story and its true). By that evening, my ankle was in terrible pain. With the OK of my OB, I headed to the emergency room. As I wobbled in with my husband, I am immediately brought a wheelchair which I gratefully used. The guard asked if I knew where I was going. I said ‘no’ and he immediately told me that Labor and Delivery was on 7. No, I said, I’m not in labor, I need the emergency room. So I end up in the ER. The resident examines me, confirms that my OB says an x-ray is OK and sends me to radiology — my husband taking me as transport takes a while and he didn’t want an otherwise healthy pregnant woman sitting in the ER. We get to radiology. The radiologist looks at me and gets pale. “Do they know downstairs that you are pregnant?” I would hope that any ER doctor worthy of being hired could recognize a pregnant woman! Yes, I say and its OK to do an x-ray on my ankle. The guy lays me down on my back and puts every single lead blanket he has over my stomach and shoves one up between my legs. Now he tells me not to move. Of course, just putting me on my back would have rendered me immobile — the extra weight of the lead blankets pretty much cements me to the x-ray table but this guy wasn’t taking any chances. He could see his malpractice premiums rising right before his eyes.Anyway, the ankle wasn’t broken, just sprained. So I’m sent home with a cane. Let me tell you, there is nothing more attractive (and better to make a woman FEEL attractive) than a nearly 9 month pregnant belly waddling along with a cane!
>Oh, I’ve got you beat on that one. I broke my foot a two months ago and was in a big boot for five weeks. Did the x-ray thing twice. UGH.
>I had twins. My son was 7lbs 1 oz and my daughter was 8lbs 2 oz. I don’t know how, and it was VERY Hard but I had them at 39 weeks. I had over 15lbs of baby in me plus the placenta, the water and whatever els that was in there. No wonder I couldn’t walk, sleep or sit. Do I win?
>my. gawd. I thought being on strict bedrest from 17 weeks on was a nightmare….though I do have a story from labor (just sharing, it’s definitely not award winning). I was induced, so they wanted a bunch of IV lines on me. But I was so swollen everywhere from preeclampsia that not even the head nurse could find a vein, The 1 of the 3 nurses that were in the room at that point had to use a blood pressure cuff as a tourniquet (over pumped up and held in place with a pair surgical clamps). Then, it still took all 4 nurses that were now hovering over me to find a vein on the back of my hand. I thought I blacked out at one point, but my best friend, who was watching it all, says I just became very “out of it” and couldn’t form words fully. I wonder who the people who have “textbook normal” pregnancys and labors are?
>I was 16 days overdue with my first child when I finally went into labor. About 12 hours later, I was finally dilated to 10 and could start pushing. Not much progress for over 2.5 hours and I was getting discouraged. The doctor left the room to go check on another patient and right after that I gave a big push. All of a sudden my son was fully crowned and ready to come out. My friend who was with me in the delivery room, called for a nurse, she and the doctor ran back in, and my son was born. He was fine, just big (9lbs 4 oz, 24.5″ long). I didn’t even know anything was wrong with me until I heard the doctor say to the nurse “Well, I got the hemorrhage stopped.” Turns out I had stellate (aka star shaped) 3rd degree tears up both sides of my vagina. Never felt a thing at the time, but later, ouch. And then, at my 6 week checkup, the doctor found granulomatous tissue forming so he had to cauterize the tissue. Just where you want a burning iron, right in the hoo-haa. He had to do it again a few weeks later before everything was finally healing well. Peeing was agony for weeks and weeks.
>Warning – First time Mothers probably shouldn’t read thisI’m one of those people who didn’t know she was pregnant until she got to the hospital. I went to prom 3 days before she was born in a size 8 dress (and yes i have the pictures to prove it 🙂 ). But that’s just where the story begins…First, I went into labor on the bus. I was in labor all day at school, because I hated dealing with our secretary at school and didn’t want to have to get her to call someone for me. My boyfriend took me home and when my mom got there, he left for his Boy Scout meeting. (go ahead, laugh I know you want to ).We get to the hospital and they ask if I might be pregnant, and since I hadn’t had my period in a while (the only actual sign I had, no morning sickness, no swollen feet, etc.), I said I guess. So, they slap a fetal monitor on my and you guessed it, a heartbeat.Well then they think I’m really premature, so they start looking for Vanderbilt’s Angel Flight number, and of course, our hospital has misplaced it. Well, then they call the Vandy switchboard, and they can’t find it (I mean come on, its their medflight copter and they don’t have the number). Anyway, while they are looking for that number. The hospital calls in about 5 or 6 doctors all for me ( a couple of OBGYN’s, pediatricians, etc). They realize that my daughter is in distress, so I’m getting IV’s, cathiders (sp?) and all while being yelled at to flip back and forth from my back to my stomach. Then came the words “Emergency C-section”. Well they wheel me into the emergency room. Our hospital is small so there is no Anesthesiologist on call so one of the doctors is going to have to fill in. Right after they wheel me in, my doctor (whom I had never met before) screams, get me a God D*mn scapel I don’t care if you have to pull it off the tray in the hall. She then looks at me and says sweetly “It will all be ok sweetheart” I immediately think great, I have a crazy person about to cut me open. So they have the mask on me, but I’m not out, so I get 3 shots of Lidacain to the stomach and she starts cutting – Before I am Out. I quickly am put under and don’t remember the pain (thank goodness for drugs).When I wake up I have a 3 pound 12 ounce beautiful little girl. She is 3 weeks overdue and fully developed just underweight. I found out I have a small wall in my uterus that kept her to one side and only allowed her to grow so much. I also had toxima and was extremely anemic. I had to have a blood transfusion and magnesium IV, and almost died twice once when I was in labor and once when my Blood pressure sky rocketed because of the toxima. I got to go home 6 days later.My daughter is an extremely intelligent 8 year old and perfectly happy.Looking back I know I was in denial, if I hadn’t wanted to not believe I was pregnant I probably would have seen it. But I was 17 and the mind is a very powerful thing.
>wow Mgal, that sure is a good story to tell your grandkids!
>I got pregnant with twins on our 7th IVF. I started bleeding at 5 weeks. They never could figure out why, but every time I was sent to the hospital and was told I was losing the pregnancy. This went on weekly until week 14. At week 16 we were in for our amnio when I was told that I was in labor, losing both babies, and needed a cerclage ASAP. I was nearly 3cm dialated and fully effaced at this point. I was put into the hospital that same day and was to receive a rescue cerclage. During the spinal they kept missing and hitting a nerve instead. It took 8 sticks into my spine to get the thing done. At that time, I was put on strict bedrest. I could shower twice a week and go to the doctor. Otherwise I had to lay flat on my back.3 weeks before my daughters were born, my best friend of 35 years died of breast cancer. I couldn’t travel for the funeral. I went into labor at 34 weeks, 5 days. I was 8 cm dialated when my blood pressure bottomed out and the babies heart rates dropped to the low 30’s. I lost consciousness and woke up as they were cutting me for the c-section. I also had gestational diabetes… and lost my gall bladder because of my pregnancy.
>I have serious congenital heart defect. When I got pregnant with my twins, the OB I was sent to was the head of high risk OB at a Harvard Teaching Hospital. The first thing he said to me is, “You’re going to die if you have multiples. YOu must have a reduction.” Nice and friendly, eh? I went to the cardiologist who said that I would be OK. He said “You’re guaranteed to have an interesting pregnancy. It might be an exciting pregnancy, but you will not die.” But the OB insisted I go to see the Reduction specialist, so I did, but I had no interest in talking to him. The OB refused to take me on if I didn’t reduce, so I changed hospitals and saw a wonderful high risk OB for my entire pregnancy. It was an interesting pregnancy with some exciting moments. I could not eat ANYTHING that wasn’t white. Anything with any color made me vomit. I had all day sickness and vomited every day of my entire pregnancy. I existed on yogurt, potatos, pasta, cottage cheese, and anything else that was white. It was not a good diet, but it stayed down. I only gained 35 lbs. At 29 weeks I had contractions and was in the hospital for a week. It happened to be the week of my shower. I had the shower in the hospital. How festive! While in the hospital they made me go down to the NICU and see the babies that were 29 weeks old. It was sobering and scary. Then I was put on bedrest for the rest of my pregnancy, but my VCR broke and I absolutely had to get another one, so we drove to an electronics store where my partner found a rolling office chair, and wheeled me all around the store. I got my new VCR, and has my big outing of my entire bedrest. Baby B stopped growing in Utero and was diagnosed as IUGR, so they planned to induce me early on Monday morning. My neighbor took me to the beach to get fried clams the day before my induction. Got to the hospital, given an amnio to see if the kids were viable at 34 weeks (they were) and then put onto the pitocen. 10 hours later I was in the delivery room.Baby A came out in 6 pushes. Baby B got totally stuck and the OB tried and tried to get her out. Just as they were setting up for an emergency C-section, my OB took one more grab, caught a foot, and delivered B as a footling breech. B was whisked away to the NICU and I never got to see her, just photos. She looked like a pucked chicken. Her apgars were 4 and 7. We stayed in the hospital the requisite 24 hours, as this was during the drive-thru labor days, and then got tossed. But my cardiologist and OB didn’t want to release me because I wasn’t doing too well. My insurance refused to pay for one more night, and wanted me to send A home alone. Without me. Um… nope, not gonna happen. My OB ended up paying for an extra night for me out of her own pocket. What a peach she was. They sent B home a few days later at exactly 4 lbs. She was so small that nobody wanted to hold her. It was ridiculous, but that was the policy in those days. It has since changed to 5 lbs. She had also had a brain bleed and was jaundiced. B was too small and weak to nurse, and the nightmare continued. It was really disasterous to have her come home that early and she’s still reaping the consequences of terrible insurance and bad hospital policy.
>Um…I don’t know what to pick, so I’ll give a condensed version of my favorite episodes. Mine are mostly about the delivery. All that bitching I did when I was pregnant was nothing compared to what others went through! #2 – Went to the hospital for some relief from my Braxton-Hicks contractions. I didn’t even call my doctor and let him know I was going because I knew he would tell me to “rest” and whatever other crazy nonsense he used to sputter. I let them check me even though I insisted I wasn’t in labor and not due for another week. I heard the nurse shriek, “Oh my God! She’s 9 cm! CALL THE DOCTOR! Lisa, DON’T PUSH!”Me: Um, ok?! Looking at my husband in horror.Yeah. Try that “Don’t push!” one.#3 – OB/GYN delivered her in the morning. Lost his medical license that afternoon because of negligence. Not me, but many others.#4 – went from 120 to 181 in 8 months. So swollen I couldn’t even see the part where your toes meet your foot – my toes looked like baby toes slapped on a woman’s feet. Cankles. Fat face. Comments from people. Worst delivery ever – I squeezed my eyes shut the entire time and they put an oxygen mask on me because I kept holding my breath during contractions (like a moron). When the kids came to see me and their new baby sister, they go, “OMG! What happened to your eyes?” I hadn’t even looked at myself in the mirror, but I told them it was just broken blood vessels. After they left, holy hell – I had about a million broken blood vessels. The whites of my eyes were RED. I looked horrible. Going to the store for the next two weeks would get me frightened stares from little kids or quick glances of horror from adults.#5 – I was 36 weeks; we were getting ready for bed when I heard and felt a tiny pop. I felt a gush; went to bathroom thinking it was just pee. Oh no. It was blood. Get to hospital. I was feeling light contractions and told the nurse that, who just blew me off and told me that was normal because my body was in distress. Ok. Had an u/s – she says I’m fine. “Why am I still bleeding?”No one has an answer. The contractions are getting worse – I buzzed the nurse in twice in two hours, who was pissier with me each time – scolding me that I was NOT in labor. The third time I buzzed them, I didn’t even let her talk – I told her to send someone in to check me. I was 7 cm dialated. The nurse put her head down and walked out of the room. I was so happy I was right, but scared at the same time, because, like, we weren’t supposed to be having a baby for a couple more weeks! #6 – My biggest fear came true – I pooped on the table with her. Only everyone else knew I did, except for me. My husband made sure he told me afterwards about it. I was sooooo embarassed.
>During my second pregnancy, at week 20 my baby was diagnosed with Trisomy 18, a rare and most often life-threatening type of dna-disease and I was told to come to the hospital in order to terminate the pregnancy (without actually asking me, but that is a different story). I live in Hungary and with the current state of our health care, you want to stay on familiar grounds when in hospital, and for this reason we switched hospital for the “procedure” in order to be with a doctor, who is a family-friend . On the day, I checked into this hospital, the doctor took a look at my papers and told me to do a second round of examination, just to “make sure” the baby is indeed with Trisomy 18. Guess what? According to their data, he concluded that it is most likely that the baby should be perfectly healthy. And indeed after being very nervous for the rest of my pregnancy, I delived a perfectly healthy girl!
>These are awesomely funny/horrible all at the same time. I have to tell you guys, I have no good pregnancy/childbirth stories – totally boring!!
>These stories are really funny.I had a pretty straightforward, normal pregnancy. The only thing interesting about mine is that I’m naturally hypermobile (double jointed), and that combined with the the joint-loosening effects of pregnancy left me feeling pretty much like a marionette. A lot of women’s hips slip out of joint during pregnancy, and so did mine, but my shoulders and thumbs would slip as well. It was actually pretty funny, once you got past the searing pain of having your joints ripped from their sockets. Anyway, the night before I went into labor, I pulled my legs up over my enormous belly and painted my toenails. The only shoes that fit were flip-flops, and I was tired of looking at my chipped toenail polish.
>I was home from work one afternoon for lunch – just relaxing on the couch with my feet up. Suddenly my crotch was completely soaked… thinking crap, my water just broke I immediately called my doctor as I was not due for another two weeks. She has me come to her office to check me and give me orders to take to the hospital. I then call my office because I obviously would not be back to work and call my husband and my mother who are both now on standby and ready to rush to the hospital.Well… I get to the doctor and she does this nifty little test that confirms that NO my water did not break, the baby must have just kicked my bladder and I peed on myself. It was fun having to explain that to everyone.
>I was home from work one afternoon for lunch – just relaxing on the couch with my feet up. Suddenly my crotch was completely soaked… thinking crap, my water just broke I immediately called my doctor as I was not due for another two weeks. She has me come to her office to check me and give me orders to take to the hospital. I then call my office because I obviously would not be back to work and call my husband and my mother who are both now on standby and ready to rush to the hospital.Well… I get to the doctor and she does this nifty little test that confirms that NO my water did not break, the baby must have just kicked my bladder and I peed on myself. It was fun having to explain that to everyone.
>My 3rd trimester was pretty run-of-the-mill, in comparison to all of these, but I had a horrible first trimester. I was so nauseous I would throw up with the least provocation. My dog had an accident in the house? I puked. Hamburger Helper? Coming right back up! One day I decided to stay home from work for a mental health day, and I met my husband for lunch at McDonalds. I took a bite of hamburger, chewed, and tried to swallow. Not happening. I gagged and it came right back up. In the middle of the McDonald’s dining room. I ran to the bathroom and proceeded to throw up several more times. At some point during the puke-fest, I burst a blood vessel in my eye. The white of my eye was red for at least 2 weeks. Strangely enough, I am doing it again. I am pregnant with baby #2 and while I haven’t thrown up as much this time as I did last time, I did have a hard time eating pretty much anything. I lived on Carnation Instant Breakfast shakes for at least 3 weeks.
>This isn’t really that *funny* but what the heck. When my first son was 23 weeks along we had an ultrasound and his heartbeat dropped to 20 bpm during the time that we were doing the ultrasound. Low low low. It stayed there for a little bit, and then rose back up slowly. Immediately I was put on HIGH RISK alert and the OB told me that she wanted to give me a steroid shot in case of emergency cesarean (AT 24 WEEKS!) because my uterus didn’t seem to be a safe place for my baby. I had to come in every other day for monitoring and I lived an hour away. The nurses would just leave me in the room with the monitor, as I had to chase the little fish baby around my uterus with the monitor thingy, they’re so small then, they are hard to get. I felt like my baby’s life depended on me getting a good reading, so it was a lot of pressure for a first time mommy.Finally, after three weeks of this, the OB decided to send me down to UCSF so that the baby could have an echocardiagram, in utero. The first thing the specialist told me was that she saw this sort of thing once a week! She said the technicians push down too hard with their instruments on the little squishy baby and it cuts off the baby’s circulation. They almost gave me a c-section at 24 weeks (only 50% chance of survival) because the technician had cut off my perfectly healthy baby boy’s circulation.I went back to the OB with that information and she said, “Well, I think we could *consider* taking the high risk label off of this pregnancy. I switched hospitals.
>We had planned on a home birth for our multiples, so when we woke at 3 am and knew it was time, we just proceeded to take our positions and wait for the babies. The first baby came less than an hour after we were awakened and I was congratulating myself and the others on remaining calm throughout. As I was nuzzling with that first little bundle of joy, I lost track of time and didn’t realize that the labor had stopped–completely stopped. No pains, no pushing, nothing. An hour later we were out the door and rushing to the hospital. With the doctor’s help, labor was re-induced and the shouts of encouragement continued. Less than an hour later we had five more precious babies to love. We were released from the hospital that same day–one healthy mama and 6 beautiful labrador retriever puppies! 🙂
>BSummer wins, I think, for most horrifying!
>At 23 weeks, I was sitting on the toilet making a BM. I felt something kinda odd, and when I peeked down there, there was this purplish thing coming out of me. It got bigger and bigger until it was the size of a large grapefruit. I thought it was the baby’s head, but it turned out to be the amniotic sac. It popped like a balloon. Water gushed out onto the living room floor. (I was running to the phone by that point.) My husband rushed me to the ER where I was curtly informed my sweet baby boy would not make it. With my hands over my belly, I could still feel my son move within me. However, within a few hours he entered the world and left it at the same time leaving me with an empty cradle and a broken heart.This Sunday, January 28th, he would have been five years old.
>At 35 weeks, we discovered the baby was growing too big, too fast. No I did not have gestational diabetes. At 38 weeks, we induced. The epidural was put in place. And did not work. The anesthesologist did not believe me. My OB came in and judging from the finger nail marks in her hand, she did believe me. She asked the lady (let’s call her B for bitch) to do the epidural again. B refused, and said “it will just take a little bit to work.” So I delivered a 10 lb 3 oz baby with no pain med. I pushed her out when I was only at 8 cm dialated so my cervix prolapsed. My OB had to hold the cervix open. Good times.
>eThis is the story of the birth of my daughter, Charlotte. We were living in England. I was 15 days over my due date (due to be induced the next day) and I finally went into labour. sidenote: I have extremely long labours, my son was 36 hours, my daughter 24 hours. All was progressing well. They finally let me have my epidural when I was about 7 centimeters dialated. Low and Behold it didn’t work. So I kept on labouring, finally it was time to push. The first push I accidently peed on the midwife, I was so embarassed, I kept offering my profuse apologies, I was MORTIFIED. She was very understanding and told me that it was fine, it happens all the time. Second push, dammed if I didn’t do it again! Again with the profuse apologies, embarassment, etc. Third push, Oh my God I didn’t know I had this much urine in me. So so so Embarassing. To do it once, that’s understandable, but to keep going? Good Grief. After about an hour of pushing I turned into one of those horrifying women you see on TV, screaming, cussing my husband and the doctors out. Sweet Charlotte was finally born, she’s been difficult ever since.
>This is about my mom’s pregnancy – not gross or anything, but kind of surprising for everyone involved.I’m a fraternal twin – I was conceived an entire MONTH after my brother. I had no idea it was possible, but it is.My parents had been planning on a homebirth, but they had no idea they were having twins! They didn’t find out until a WEEK before we were born! My mom’s doctor told her that she needed to have us in the hospital, otherwise *I* might die…she, uh, “fired” him.The homebirth went well, although I was 3-4 weeks premature. I was also born first, 19 1/2 hours before my brother (we have different birthdays), and my brother came out feet first. Also, strangely, I cried my little heart out after I was born, but shut up the minute HE was born.Also, my mom got sick while she was pregnant with us, coughed really badly, and dislocated one of her ribs.
>Nancy, I vote for Nancy’s store with the broken ziphod ziphlaphone or whatever’s it called. that is a stinking FUNNY story!
>I have four kids, all two years apart. My first pregnancy was great, althought I was huge, and right at the end had that whole itchy thing happen. I gained 40 lbs and two days after my son was born, I only weighed 7 lbs over my pre-pregancy weight. Turns out, I had a mass amount of water, that didn’t stop flowing for 14 hours. The boy was only 7 lbs, so 26 extra pounds was blood, amniotic fluid, and it’s… um… “container”. My stretch marks from him are my battle wounds.The next one was a girl. Nothing out of the ordinary happened with her. With my third, I had a uterine infection which made every move I made excruciatingly painful. Even breathing brought me to tears. After admiting me to the hospital, they hooked me and my unborn daughter up to 10 different iv’s/ monitors/ oxygne/ and who knows what else. She came out when I coughed, the doctor missed it, and the nurse was screaming for him to “get the hell in here… this baby is out!”. My little girl was in the NICU for 5 days hooked up to tubes and wires. She acquired the infection that I had and I was sent home. Leaving her at the hospital was worse than the pain of getting her here.My last baby was a boy. He didn’t have enough fluid for them to even break my water. Later I found out that he could have liver damage from that, but I was at a birthing center (it’s where the Air Force sent me) and they didn’t have the facilities to check him out. With him, my epidural quit working as soon as he was crowning, so not only did I scream “get him out!!! get him out!!!” I shut my legs and two nurses had to pry them open so my son could “slide out”. By the time my body had birthed 4 babies, I guess it had stretched enough for them to just get out on their own.
>On my lunch break my little bitty compact car was hit by a large, gravel carrying, construction, dump truck. While in the ER they check me over, give me a set of crutches, an arm brace, arm sling and tell me the baby is just fine. Hubby and I look at each other and say “What baby?” Interesting way to find out you are pregnant. They put me on bed rest too. HA! That is completely impossible when you have a toddler.Went to the grocery store when I was 8 ½ months pregnant. Picture this…After completing my shopping here I stand with my huge belly, crutches (still), arm in a sling (still), carrying my purse, two grocery bags and trying to grab the hand of my rambunctious 1 ½ yr old. Pathetic I know but I had a craving and couldn’t wait for Hubby to get home from work.Went for a check up with my OBGYN two days before my delivery date and I was excited! After my exam he tells me I have another week or tow to go. I get in the car and start crying. Hubby says its not that bad and I wanted to hit him. On the way home I hear a loud *POP* and I ask if something happened to the car. Hubby nor my toddler heard the Pop. We arrive at our house. I get out of the car and WOOOSH! I guess that *POP* was my water breaking. The baby felt sorry for me and decided not to make me wait any longer.During delivery I was hooked up to a fetal heart monitor for just incase the baby went in to stress we would all know. Turns out the cord from me to the machine must have been disconnected during one of my contractions. The baby was choked by the umbilical cord during delivery and no one knew. She was completely PURPLE from her head to her feet! Not only that but the whites of her eyes were not white at all. They were completely RED. The blood vessels in her eyes had popped. After a few hours she was no longer purple. Well, there was no mistaking that I took the right baby home. After a few days her eyes were no longer red. She is 16 yrs old now. Never needed glasses or anything {knocking on wood} and perfectly healthy in every way.
>I have a funny story. Well, it’s actually post partum, so it may not count, but still really funny!When my second daughter was fresh born I spent much of the first day in a morphine induced stupor. I had had a section and wasn’t allowed up for a short time and the baby was in the NICU under an oxygen tent. At some point in my stupor I called the nurses stattion demanding to know where the belt to my sanitary napkins was. Now, I’m only 32, I’ve never SEEN a belt and only know that they used to make them from reading “Dear God it’s me, Margaret” when I was a kid. I’ve never seen one. And who in the world actually says “sanitary napkin?” Not me! The poor nurse was VERY confused and concerned since I kept going on and on about needing it. I was on some serious dope. My entire family thinks it is just a hoot to share this (10 year old) story with anyone that will listen. LOL
>I cannot even begin to touch the horror of the stories I’ve read, but; During pregnancy I develop a immune reaction clotting process. I need twice daily blood thinners in the behind. Already not fun. At 22 weeks I also got cholestasis(the devil itch). I spent 10 weeks in hospital, away from my then 18 month old.At 34 weeks I was induced, I suffered a 23 hr 50 min drug-free(not by choice) labour, to give birth to a yellow baby-bird like creature. She shared my room for two weeks with her blue strobe-like biliblanket.She’s now 6, bright and beautiful.This story is brought to you by the parenting Gods, who heard my boasts that I had gone through far more painful things than labour, with my first child.PS, did I mention that I was 24/7 chaperoned, in shifts, by my family, ‘cos I kept passing out. Even in the bathroom.
>Although this is emotional to write, I will say my pregnancy story has a very happy ending. After trying 3 years, we found out in February of 1998 we were pregnant. I was very sick the first 2 months (not a big deal). My husband and I were living in SD and in the process of moving to MN. The day before our move (moving trucks were loaded in the driveway ready to go); we drove to Sioux Falls for my final doctor appointment and to get a transfer to a MN doctor. What I thought would be a quick “routine” appointment turned into a nightmare. Dr. XXX called me into the exam room for my appointment, he did the normal stuff, blood pressure, listen to my heart, and then said he was concerned with tightness in my belly and some discharge. He performed an exam and said “I’ll be right back”. This was something he had never done before. When he came back he told us the news. He said I would be admitted immediately to the hospital. He said I was fully effaced, dilated to 3 centimeters and baby was breech. I was having contractions (could not feel those) and he could feel the feet of our baby. After being admitted, more ultra sounds were performed. The doctor said he was sending a minister up to see us. He said we were having a boy and probably our son would be born that evening and the chances of survival were slim due to his size (11 oz.). I remember the shock of all this news. It all happed so fast. Being admitted and then the start of the “evil” drug, magnesium sulfate. I was swollen from head to toe from this drug. My eyes swelled shut, my fingers were the size of bananas, and my face the size of an over inflated balloon. My skin was as red as tomatoes and hot. My husband said it was so hot to the touch that it felt like a sever sunburn. My hospital bed was tipped to try and drop the baby back into me. I had no clue as to what day it was or how many days had passed. After I had been in for 4 days, completely unaware of anything my contractions had stopped. My husband had to start his job in Minnesota so he left me in the care of the wonderful hospital staff. Hubby called everyday and visited every other weekend. It was on those weekend visits that I made my only request to him “Please, will you shave my legs? I don’t want to deliver this baby with hairy legs”. Ladies, have you ever had someone else shave your legs? Talk about stubble. But I was just grateful to have him do such a task. To make my long story short, I proved the doctors wrong. I didn’t deliver that evening. I gave my son 41 more days in utero. Each passing day was a blessing giving him one more day to grow. Our son was born at 27 weeks weighing 3 lbs. Big for being premature. His weight immediately dropped to 2 lbs. 8 oz. He did have minor complications due to prematurity but for the most part he just needed to “grow”. I won’t go into the whole hospital stay since that would be way too long. The only way I can best describe what went on for the next three months was life was like a roller coaster. Ups and downs each day. Since we had no family or friends in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, I was given a room at the Ronald McDonald House where I stayed for 3 months. The actual due date of my son was the day we were able to go home. Home to Minnesota. Our son is now a happy, healthy 8 year old. He is our million dollar baby… literally I wouldn’t change a thing in order to give us what we have today. The reason behind having premature babies (in my case) was that I don’t have much of a cervix. Nothing to hold a baby in. When pregnancy #2 was discovered (4 years later), I was “sewn shut” with a circlage in place and required to be on full bed rest. Although it was a long pregnancy, being on bed rest and all, I had family and friends close by for help, a local cleaning lady, and no hospital stay. Baby #2, a girl, was born 5 weeks early. She was/is healthy and we only had a 4 day hospital stay with her. Nothing like our son. Thank you for letting me share my story. Minnesota Mom
>I didn’t realize how lenghty this story turned out to be. Sorry so long…. I even cut it short 🙂