Wednesday, May 16, seemed like every other end-of-pregnancy day. With one difference. Our kind neighbor Maureen had come over to offer me a couple of hours of SLEEP. I toddled off to bed with a smile on my face, knowing that not only was I off-duty for a few hours, but she was also CLEANING MY BASEMENT!

I slept about twenty minutes, and as usual woke up needing to change positions. I got comfy again, and in a very few minutes woke up with an odd “stitch” in my side. I changed positions again, and figured I was just pulling a muscle the wrong way. However it became stronger very quickly, and in a very short time I was in so much consistent pain, I began vomiting.

I called Greg, and he rushed to drop off his student, make some calls to arrange for the remainder of his run, and headed for home. His cue was that I was vomiting. I don’t vomit easily. I can have stomach flu and never throw up!

Initially we were thinking I might be dealing with back labor, however, it was not coming and going as contractions do.

We headed straight for emergency, and I just closed my eyes, and prayed. I was hurting so bad, and vomiting several times on the trip in, I knew something was up, but it sure didn’t feel like labor as I’ve known.

I wasn’t in Labor and Delivery very long til I was hooked up with an IV and my obgyn had made an appearance. He agreed with my assessment that this didn’t seem like labor. His suspicion was renal colic - or kidney stones. Once they got the pain under control enough that I was able to give a urine sample, it was verified that there was blood in the urine, and I began to be treated for renal colic.

Being nine months pregnant, there wasn’t much to be done for me at that point except manage the pain. The goal was to have me pain-free for more than six hours, and perhaps I could go home. Over the next three and a half days, I was able to go without meds twice, once for eight hours, and once for twelve.

The first night I passed what we think was my first stone. A very tiny thing, it was. Hard to believe something that small could cause that much pain.

Early in the morning on May 19, Saturday, it hit again, hard. Nothing they gave me helped. I ended up spending my day laying on my right side, with not even enough energy to turn over and switch hips with each injection. I had to get up and go to the bathroom every so often, which took every ounce of energy and motivation within me. I wasn’t able to eat, and forced myself to drink, only because I knew this would be helpful.

Finally after trying several different medications, all administered either through IV, or shots in the hip, we went back to demerol, and FINALLY, mercifully, I had some relief. Though it didn’t take it away completely I could deal with it. And wouldn’t you know, five minutes into the relief, my water broke. On my due date. After four days of renal colic.

I didn’t think I had it in me to labor. Even though I tend to have short labors, the pain was not completely gone, and I was spent after the past four days.

The obgyn on call and I discussed my options. I have a successful vbac, so it wasn’t totally out of the question. And she did offer that I could have an epidural, though she couldn’t guarantee it would relieve the flank pain related to my kidney issues.

She decided to assess me via an internal exam, to see where I was at with dilation. My previous appointment that week had me between 2&1/2 and 3 cm. She assessed me at between 3 and 4 cm. Which was encouraging as I hadn’t at that point even started having painful contractions.

Not wanting to make a rash decision on a vbac versus caesarian, knowing the recovery time for a section is much more difficult, I was faced with a difficult choice.

However this internal exam determined the outcome. Baby was full-face presentation. There was no option. OR staff were called up. An hour and a half after making the call for a c-section, I was in the OR, having painful contractions, and receiving my spinal block. Though the dr. was unsure as to whether this would also block out the flank pain, it did completely block that pain as well. I was sooooo happy to finally be pain-free.

This section was different in that I hadn’t labored for nearly a day before receiving it. I was much more aware of what was going on, and there was a light-hearted mood in the OR, which was nice. I had such a great team!

Baby was delivered, finally. Damara Greer Edwards, made her appearance, ON THE EDD, at 10lbs.4oz. Because she was full-face presentation, she had quite a bit of trauma and stress from her shoulders and up. She wouldn’t keep breathing on her own, and was having difficulty swallowing. She ended up going to NICU, where she spent her first three days. That was very difficult for me, as I couldn’t see her until I was able to walk to her. It was over fifteen hours by the time I finally got to hold my Baby Girl.

So, is the saga over? Why, of course not! Thinking Wednesday or Thursday would be our target date for leaving the hospital, I was focusing on getting into a good routine nursing, and getting lots of sleep. Pain-free. After delivery, and the spinal wore off, my renal colic was gone. We thought that because of some of the concerns over Damara, that she might struggle to nurse, but that was not so. She’s a fantastic nurser!

I had company Tuesday night, and after a busy day of feeding, feeding and more feeding, I thought I had sat in the same position too long. I had a familiar feeling returning to my left side/back again, and I was in denial for the first several hours that it was anything except a pulled muscle. By Wednesday morning, there was no denying, the renal colic had flared up again. The nurse and both of my dr’s made their rounds at the same time, and happened upon a very distressed mommy, failing miserably at her attempt not to cry in front of everyone. Within a half-hour of re-assessing me, I was on my way for a cat scan to determine if and where the stone was.

Around three that afternoon, an urologist, Dr. Feero, came to explain to me more about the stone of which I was informed shortly after the cat scan. I did indeed have a stone. Approximately 7-8 cm, lodged 1/3 of the way down the ureter (tube from kidney to bladder). I would be on my way to surgery in about a half hour. They put me to sleep, and using a telescope and a laser, blasted the stone. I was of course, unable to nurse through the night, though the anasthetic was not an issue. I just was unable to fight my way through the fog of the exhaustion of it all. By morning, they did bring the Baby into me to nurse, and though I didn’t know if I could do it, and was concerned that 15 hrs. on bottles and formula may have messed things up for us, she did great.

I had to have a stent left in, which we were hoping to not have to do. It means another appointment, and minor invasive surgery to get it out, but contrary to what I was initially told, I will not go to sleep again. The stone was a “difficult” one, this from Dr. Feero, who before surgery said it should only take a half-hour, and then ended up working on it for over an hour.

I was falling apart before the surgery, because it just all was overwhelming me. The time away from my family, the pain that I had endured, the concern over Damara’s well-being, a section instead of natural delivery, and then to top it off, Wednesday was our ninth anniversary. When they made me remove my nail polish, my mother’s day gift (pedicure), I lost it. Everyone was so kind to me, and of course that made me cry harder.

However, yesterday at supper, Greg and the kids came to retrieve me, and we are home. I go in tomorrow morning to have the stent removed, and then I think it’s safe to say we’re DONE and we can focus on rest and recovery.

I thank God that my Baby Girl is FINE, and He kept me every step of the way. I suppose there are lessons to be learned in every situation we go through in life, and in time I may start to glean through this whole experience to see just what they are for me. For now, I am just going to cuddle my baby, love my big kids, and hold onto my husband while we all get over what was quite possibly the hardest ten days for our family so far.

Pray for me, that I will be able to just let it all go, and rest in the grace and mercy of God. It’s been difficult and traumatic, and not at all how you expect circumstances to be as you welcome a new life into your home.