Births

Baby #1
My first birth was in April of '89. My pregnancy was fairly uneventful. No problems, other than a whopping 50+ lb gain on my 5'2" 106 lb frame!! My Dr. decided that since he was going out of town for a convention, that if I felt the slightest hint of a contraction, that I was to call so we could schedule an induction. The very next day as I was watching "The Price is Right", my sil came to the door to ask me how I was feeling. My mil was right there behind her in the doorway. Now, I have to tell you, we all lived in the same house. I was a newly married 18 year old. And before you ask....NO, I wasn't pregnant when we got married. My first one was a honeymoon baby. Literally! LOL So, back to my story....Sil asks how I'm doing "fine", "Nothing", she asks. "Nope", as the words leave my mouth I have my first contraction. My eyes probably bugged out of head. My Mil ran upstairs to call the dr. Before my sil could get out of the house for work, she knew that Mil had indeed called the dr. and that my induction was set for 4:00p.m.That one contraction? Yeah. It was the ONLY one I had all day til the induction!  I'll skip most of the rest of the details here.. I had an epidural. Not because I asked for one, but because my AWESOME dr. thought I needed one. My baby decided that he wasn't ready after all, he cocked his head and stayed put. The nurse who we'll call Helga, dug her elbow into my stomach to keep baby from sliding back up, while Honey pushed me up to push. I was dead tired. Baby #1 was born at 1am. With a baseball shaped knot on his head from the vacuum extractor. Yeah. That was a treat. But not as great as the episiotomy. 4th degree laceration, peeps! 4th degree! I felt the stitches, the epidural had worn off. I healed and enjoyed my baby boy!


Baby #2
June of '91
My second pregnancy was unknown until I was losing it. I wasn't even late yet. We had a busy day ahead of us that fateful day. I was getting ready to leave the house with Mil. We were heading to L.A.'s jewelry market. I needed my wedding ring fixed, and she had some jewelry to be fixed as well. I was in the bathroom, no really I was on the pot! My 2 year old son was in the bedroom playing by the sliding mirrored closet doors (we had a master bedroom with in- room bathroom). That's when the earthquake hit. It wasn't a major one. Just what I call a roller. I braced my hands on the wall and "rode" it out. LOL It was over as fast as it hit. My 2yo never skipped a beat. He was still playing with his Duplo Lego's and was unfazed by it all. Kids are so funny!
So we left for the jewelry mart. Got our jewelry fixed. And I got a migraine. Major, unexpected, killer migraine. We left the jewer's and headed to the airport to pick up my Fil. He had been up in Utah at the time finding work and housing. He was coming home for his birthday. We picked him up and then headed home. Party time at the house that night. Migraine in-tact. I took some Tylenol-4 whatever that is, and went to bed. I got up early the next morning and threw up. Then I noticed that my period was in full swing. Oh Joy. Baby loss #1. My "period" lasted for 6 weeks. It was heavy as all get out and full of clots. I had no clue. No-one ever told me what a m/c was like. I thought it was a "BAD" period. It finally stopped the day of my birthday. YAY!
After that I didn't have another period for 9 months.


Baby #3
May '92
After my EPIC period of July/August, I missed the one for September. I was pregnant! Yay! I was excited! I'll skip to the delivery from here..the pregnancy was totally uneventful and normal. The day I went into labor I had been out and about with my now 3yo. We had gone out and paid bills, and stopped for lunch at Burger King. Then I went to a baby store nearby our home. When I went to get out of the truck, I noticed a sudden wet sensation. I leaned over and smelled the seat. You read that right. I smelled the seat. It smelled funny, but nothing like urine. My water had broke!!! They had had to break my water with baby #1. I hurried into the store to buy that "last item needed" for the baby. I couldn't find what I wanted and asked the clerk. She had no idea what it was I was looking for and said they must not have any (it was an arm bolster that ties on to the arm of the rocking chair, has a pocket for your phone, remote, pacifier etc.). I told her Thank You and turned to leave. That's when my son proudly announced that "My Mommy'S water broke!" and smiled at her. I wish I had a camera shot of the raised eyebrow, surprise, shock and then fear that crossed her face! We started to leave the store, that's when I saw what I was looking for. It was on the back wall. I grabbed a bolster and took it to the counter to pay. Clerk girl looked at me and claimed she had" never even seen those before" then asked if my water has really broken. Yes. yes it has! I then went home and started using pad after pad to soak up the water. My dr.s office said to come in when I started having contractions that I could feel. That was at o'dark-thirty.
Skip to the birth...no epidural. We were on Medi-Cal at the time and it didn't cover an epidural in L.A. county. By the time my husband agreed for me to have the epi. I told the nurse it was too late. I needed to push. Suddenly there was another nurse in the room. My dr. wasn't at the hospital yet. They tried the whole breathe-through-it thing...yeah.right. Then they held my legs together and put me on my side. No go. I needed to push. NOW. They gave up and brought in E.R dr. on call. I'll just call him Id-jit. Id-jit let me tear. Can you say 3rd degree laceration?!! Then after baby #3 was out and screaming. He would tug on the umbilical cord. The part still attached inside me. My dr. finally got there and Id-jit disappeared. Thank goodness, I was seriously considering kicking the crap out of him if he tugged at me one more time! My dr. is a happy guy. Smiles all the time. Prettiest smile you ever saw. He wasn't smiling. I was bleeding. Bad. Bad enough he couldn't get it to stop. I had been anemic during this pregnancy, but had been on iron pills. Apparently I didn't take as many as I should have. You know young people sometimes think they are invincible. I thought I was. My dr kept trying to stitch me back together. He couldn't because of the blood. It was like water. He finally asked for an ice pack. The nurse brought it to him. It was a surgical glove filled with water and frozen. He literally just slapped it on my girlie parts, and I think I jumped a mile. Then he ordered pits. I asked later what pits was..pitocin. I went through two bags of pitocin before he got me stitched up. He never once smiled at me or my husband. My baby had been rushed off to the nursery/nicu area. He was having trouble breathing. The pediatrician described it as a bike tire. The tire is normal, but the inner tube is flat. There's a pin hole in it. The baby would be fine, these things correct themselves. Me on the other hand....
Dr. left. My husband left to pick up his mother at LAX. I was alone. With my nurse still in the L/D/R room. Nurse A checked me and called Nurse B. I was now clotting. I went from one extreme to the other. From watery bleeding to major blood clots. The pitocin had done it's job a little too well. They had to manually remove the clots. That isn't something I would wish upon anyone. Not even my worst enemy. That was of epic nightmare proportions. I hyperventilated into a bag and screamed. I've never been one for screaming during delivery, but I did it then. Holy crap that was bad!
I made it through and so did baby. Healthy baby boy.


Baby#4
Feb '96
Very uneventful pregnancy. No morning sickness. Perfect. went into labor on the due date. Leap Year day! Born with 19 minutes to spare! My epidural was AWESOME. It lasted through the whole thing! Lasted for quite a while afterward, too. Nice!
Welcome to the world Baby girl!


Baby #5
May '98
Miserable. That's what I was feeling. Pregnant and miserable. I was swelling and hot. Summer was coming on fast. Humidity was up. We now lived in Tn. My dr., Dr. Idiot, had been pushing the idea of contraceptives at my visit that month. I hate birth control pills. They make me sick. I was in a time of my life that I was questioning if i should have any more kids. We were still renting. We had one car. I couldn't go anywhere because of that. Besides, where would I go? We were new in town and I knew no-one. Heck, we were new to the state! I felt like if I had more kids we would just get further behind on acheiving any part of the dream of home ownership, blah, blah, blah. My besties husband just got fixed, my sil got fixed, even my dog got fixed. Maybe I should too.
Baby #5 came without a helpful nurse. She wouldn't up the epidural, so I still felt pain. I told her I fely pain and she told me, and I quote "Oh, sweetie! If you don't have any pain, you won't know when to push." WTHeck!!! Are you for real??!! Lady I think you need to retire. You are definitely older than my Gramma and things have changed in the last 30 years! I.DO.NOT.NEED. PAIN.TO.KNOW.WHEN.TO.PUSH!!!!!!
I got no more relief. Until baby was born. Went in at 8am, had baby at 3:30p.m.
Welcome Baby Boy! He has hair! Lots of it! None of the others did!
I went in the next morning for my Tubal Ligation aka Total Lunacy. I get a little religious here. If that offends you I'm sorry. Just scroll down. I felt the Holy Ghost telling me not to have the surgery. It was loud and clear. I didn't listen. I suffered because of this decision. In more ways than one. This decision has had impact on my life in so many ways, and none of them good.

Baby#6
Jan '06
Pregnant!!!!! I had reversal surgery in July '05 and now I'm pregnant. It took a few months, but here I am. Pregnant.
Fast forward one week. I'm having a m/c. Life sucks sometimes.
Two weeks later, I lost the baby.

Baby#7
Dec '06
Pregnancy went well. Only gained 18 pounds! Thought It would have been more than that. Delivery went ok. The epidural made my b/p drop really low, but they fixed that and he was born healthy. He had a knot in the umbilical cord. A true knot. It had been there for a while. It had been there since he was just teeny, tiny and could swim around in there! Crazy! we will always wonder if it caused his learning delays....
I ended up back in the hospital 4 days after delivery. I had only been home for two days. I went in with pneumonia. I think with all my hysterics and crying the dr. was freaked out and went ahead and sent me home after 24 hours.
Welcome Baby Boy! Beautiful, chubby baby boy!

Baby#8
Nov '08
I developed Pregnancy Diabetes with this one. Crap. Glad it was at my last 10 weeks of pregnancy. I delivered 3 weeks early. Same as Numbers 3 and 7. Crappy epidural. I had hot spots. AND.PAIN. Ugh!
Baby was perfect. Peed on me as soon as they placed him on my chest! LOL!
Welcome Baby Boy! You sure are fun!
I went back to the hospital again. This time I thought it was the pneumonia again. It wasn't it was congestive heart failure (aka peripartum cardiomyopathy). For whatever reason, my body decided to retain all the water AFTER I delivered (because my heart was overtaxed and couldn't pump the blood to the extremeties, so they pool with fluid). They kept me for 3-4 days and then I got to go home to my baby.
Sweet Baby Boy!

Baby#9
Jan  '10
Found out I was pregnant beginning of November. Started spotting in January. I was 15 weeks pregnant. Ultrasound showed the baby had died at 10 weeks. I had a d7c done that week. I did not want one. My husband was fearful that something might go wrong and we lived an hour+ from the hospital. I still have night mares and panic attacks about what a d&c entails for the removal of a baby.
Husband thinks it was a girl. I think so, too.

Baby #10
July '10
I got pregnant again in April. I, again, made it to 15 weeks. Then the spotting started. Crap. I went in, had the ultrasound. Baby died at 11 weeks gestation. I decided against a d&c. I delivered the baby at home. I did pass out. But my husband was here to help me and to clean up. He was shocked at how much a 12 week gestational fetus looks just miniaturized. It was almost perfectly formed. The ears were just starting to form.
Welcome to this world Baby Boy. I will miss you for now. I will see you again! I love you!

Baby #11
May '11
Made it to 15 weeks again. Delivered at home again. Only this time I was alone. I passed the baby. Then I passed out praying "don't let me die!" over and over. I laid on the floor and was out. The rest I'll post later.
Welcome to this world Baby Girl. I will see you in Heaven. I'm so sorry you couldn't stay here with us!I will miss you every day! I love you!