Their Broken Hearts and Mine

The Induction Part 3

With a crash course in congenital heart defects, preeclampsia taking me over at full speed, and fear of delivering my "blue baby," it was go time. At a hospital hours away from home, and designated strictly for women, my induction to labor began. Oral medication was given first, followed by IV medications when the pills failed to start labor. When the IV medications also failed to do their job, foley bulbs were inserted until finally my water broke.  I do not wish this order of events on anyone getting induced! Soon,  the epidural team came in and got me hooked up and ready go. I took on as many contractions as I possibly could before having to press my epidural button for some relief. Much to my surprise, relief was the exact opposite of what I was given. Something wasn't quite right. Each time I attempted to use my button, I ended up in more pain.  Suddenly I was numb. Completely frozen from my mid-back up! I couldn't move or sit up from my laid back position. Doctors and nurses scrambled to understand what was happening to me, and they thought a medication switch would solve the problem. Unfortunately, this only made things worse. Fourteen hours of active labor passed and I felt EVERYTHING from my mid section down. Eventually for the sake of the baby's health and my own, I was taken in for an emergency cesarean section via general anesthesia due to the misplaced epidural. They misplaced my epidural! Uncertain of anything that my body had endured, somehow I peeled my eyelids opened just in time to catch about ten seconds of my precious baby boy being rolled passed my bed, ushered out into the hospital hallway, then straight onto an ambulance. He went , along with my husband, to a children's hospital for his immediate heart procedure. I held on to that glimpse of my sweet boy for three days. I was stuck at the women's hospital without my husband and baby until I was able to check myself out three days after the traumatic birth. I did everything in my power to get over to the children's hospital as fast as I possibly could to reconnect with my husband and our baby. I could barely move, I could barely walk or stand, but I had to get to them. I had to find out what was happening and what I had missed.