The Piggy Slippers....The Final Chapter

There was one final place where I wore those mangy slippers...and that was when I was in the hospital having my son. By the time I went in to be induced to have the boy my feet were so swollen that I couldn't hardly wear anything on my feet. Those slippers were worn enough and stretched enough that they were balm for my aching tootsies!

When I was pregnant with Cam I had a very miserably sick time of it...and toward the end I was having to see the doctor twice a week for my high blood pressure. He told me on my last visit I was going to have to go to the hospital for an induction before my blood pressure knocked me into toxemia territory.

I was admitted and they inserted Cervadil to ripen my cervix. For most women this puts them into labor, but I'm NOT most women. I had really uncomfortable cramping all night, but no real strong contractions. I couldn't even sleep that night because I was so anxious to have my baby. So the nurse, who had been in my ward growing up, gave me a shot of morphine to help me sleep. Morphine does NOT make you sleep...it just makes you not care about anything! My thoughts were floating in and out of my head all night long...in my mind it looked like sentences in differing fonts floating past. (I know, it's weird, but I can now say that I LOVE morphine!) The next morning the doctor had them put me on pitocin. Throughout the day they cranked it up until it was going full blast...and I still wasn't feeling labor pains. My doctor had ruptured my membranes and had ordered the epidural for me, hoping that I would relax enough to get things moving. My hubby was in the room up until the doctor called for the epidural, then he was outta there! He HATES blood, needles, or anything having to do with medical procedures. My mom was with me the whole time (she loves seeing me through those things and is a great strength for me!) Well, once they got the epidural in my blood pressure which had been in the 200s/150s (or higher) dropped and they lost Cam's heartbeat. They immediately freaked out and began prepping me for an emergency C-section! My husband heard the commotion in the room and tried to come in, but they wouldn't let him in. He was so upset over the whole thing that he ended up calling one of our good friends to come and help him. My mom was in the middle of everything though. She later told me that my face had turned gray! They tipped me upside-down on the hospital bed and began shaking my belly to wake the kid up...and bring his heart rate back. They rushed me into the room and as soon as we got in there Cam's heart beat came back...but they decided to proceed with it anyway. I was asked if I wanted anyone in the room with me, and I hate to admit it, but I asked for my mom. I knew she could handle the situation better than Steve ever could. But I later found out that they had asked him if he wanted to come and he said, no! So my mom came into the room, tears streaming down her face and she proceeded to give me a blow-by-blow announcement of what they were doing to me.

Cam was born quickly and I didn't even know he was gone from the room until I had asked about him a minute after he was born. They rushed him over to the NICU and started running all kinds of tests on the kid. He had inhaled merconium and had an enlarged liver and spleen. They worried that he didn't have kidneys and other parts. I knew he was all right, but they were being cautious. The boy ended up staying in the hospital in NICU for 6 days. I was SO upset with our local hospital...they tried to feed the boy like he was a preemie (he was over 8 pounds!) So he wasn't eating on the schedule they had for him...he's a slow eater (and never quite grew out of that!) So I finally convinced them to let him eat on his own schedule, and he was able to go home! I wore those tattered slippers all over the place. The only problem with that was that when I wore them outside my feet got wet...it rained for several days after his birth. Those last few walks through the GROSS hospital was the final straw which led to the disposal of my FAVORITE slippers. The nurses would smile when they saw my feet though...just because they didn't see those kinds of slippers in the hospital very often.