Andy and I went to the Dr. on Monday June 29th for a regular prenatal checkup. Our intentions were to try and convince our Dr. to start me so we for sure wouldn't have the baby on July 4th. But when our Dr. walked in the first thing he said was "well you are far enough along that you guys can go ahead and pick what day you want to have this baby, except for today because I already have someone in labor and tomorrow because I'll be in Montezuma Creek." We were so surprised and so happy. He hadn't even checked me yet, he was just going off our last visit. So we thought about it and decided that July 1st would be a great day to have a baby. He still went ahead and checked me and I was at 3 cm. and 80% effaced. He told us to come into the clinic Wednesday morning at 8 am and we could get things rolling.
Tuesday night was a pretty emotional night for me. I was so scared/excited to finally become a Mom. I had Andy give me a blessing to help and calm my fears. Andy and I talked for a long time that night about what our new journey was going to be like, I don't think either of us got much sleep.
Wednesday morning came fast. We woke up extra early so we could for sure be ready and have all of our stuff ready to go. Then we went to the clinic and they took us to a room where they monitored my contractions and the babies heart beat for about 15 min. Then they came in and gave me half of a pill to put under my tongue to help get my contractions more regular. They only gave me half because I was already progressing on my own pretty good. About 15 minutes later I was having regular contractions so they sent us up to the birthing center at about 9 AM.
We called my Dad on the way up to tell him that hopefully in a few hours he would have a new grandson and that we would call him when he was born. At the birthing center they gave me a robe to change into and then they got me all hooked up with an IV and put these belts on me to start monitoring my contractions and the babies heart beat again. The nurse checked me and I was at a 4 but you have to be at a 5 to get any medication. Dr. Jones came up on his lunch break around noon and broke my water. This really made my contractions start progressing and hurt, and the pain was mostly in my back. When he broke my water he also screwed a wire into the babies head so they could monitor the heart beat from there and take the belt off of me. I didn't realize until later that they really did screw something into my babies scalp, I thought it was sticky and it just stuck on there. One of the bad things about having the baby at the birthing center is that when you do get to a 5 and you can have the medication you have to wait for the anesthesiologist(Dr. Young) to get there from Monticello before he can give it to you. So finally I was at a 5 and the nurse called Dr. Young and told him to come and she called Dr. Jones and then she gave me some stadol to help take the edge off of the pain and also to help with nausea that the intrathecal may cause. The stadol helped a little but I was in so much pain by this time that it felt like Dr. Young took 3 hours to get there, it really took him about half an hour. After they gave me the shot they noticed that the babies heartbeat dropped down to about 70 and wouldn't go back up. I didn't know this was happening because of the medicine I was on but Andy said that it was really scary and Dr. Young kept trying to position me different to to help the baby until Dr. Jones got there and then for some reason his heartrate went back to normal. After this scary incident Dr. Jones checked me and I was ready so he went and changed and I was ready to start pushing. The stadol had made me really sleepy so I kept dosing in and out of sleep in between contractions, and the intrathecal had made it so I couldn't feel anything, which was really nice. I remember thinking "this is going to be so easy, I can't feel anything and everything is going really smooth". Well after about 2 hours of pushing, and still no baby we started to get worried. For some reason the baby did not want to come. They had to get the vaccum and try to suction him out. Dr. Jones was pulling so hard and still he wouldn't budge. The suction ended up pulling the wire out of the babies head and they had to screw another one in. About the time he tried the vaccum is when the intrathecal wore off and I started to be able to feel everything. But the pain wasn't bothering me, I just wanted to get the baby out and I couldn't understand why he wasn't coming. 2 1/2 - 3 hours of pushing had now passed and still he wasn't budging so Dr. Jones told us that he would have to take the baby c-section. I was honestly devastated! I felt like such a failure and couldn't understand why my body wouldn't work like it was supposed to. So I kept trying to push for about another 20 minutes while the nurse called Dr. Young and told him he needed to come back to Blanding for a c-section. By the time he got his crew together and they got everything set up it had been 45 minutes. During this time my contractions were so bad. Andy was so awesome and tried his very best to keep me comfortable during the whole thing.
When they took me in to the operating room they told Andy he wasn't allowed in there. So he found a back door and cracked it open and watched. When they finally gave me some more medicine to take the pain away and I could relax the stadol kicked in again and I fell asleep. So I ended up basically sleeping through the whole surgery, which took only a few minutes. I do remember that Dr. Young was up by my head and kept telling me what was going on and was so nice. When the baby was finally born at 5:48 PM his cord was wrapped all around his body and he wasn't crying. I guess they rate the baby on a scale of 1-10 when they are born of how well they are doing and they rated him at a 3. Eventually he started crying and was doing good, he even peed on the nurse. After he was all cleaned up they brought him in and showed him to me and I just remember thinking that he was the cutest thing I had ever seen. He didn't look very newborn and his skin was perfect. He had so much hair and it was so blonde. The back of his head was dark purple from the vaccum and he had a big sore from the wire. Then they took him away and I fell back asleep. Andy held him out in the hall for about 20 minutes while they got me all cleaned up and put back together. He fed him his first meal with a syringe and changed all the diapers. He is a very proud daddy.
My Dad and Billie came up about 20 minutes after he was born, then Kenny and Amber, Michelle and David, and Steve and Shauna all came up to meet their new nephew. We had visitors until about 10:30, then Andy ran home to eat and and talk to his parents on Skype, but they weren't on so he sent them an email and we talked to the next night when we went home. When he came back we tried to get some sleep but I hadn't held him yet and I wasn't allowed to until 2 AM so it was really hard to sleep at all. Plus, Andy and I were so happy and had so much to talk about. My Dad came up to visit a few more times before we went home. He was so excited. We went home the next day on Thursday around 9 PM where we had more visitors. Suzie, Steve and their kids and Jeff and Chelsa all came over to meet Dodger. We had so much help from our family and friends, we couldn't have done it without you guys!
It was a great experience and my Dr's were wonderful. I do wish that I could have had him natural but I'm just happy he made it here safely. I'm so thankful that we live today and not 100 years ago so that we have the option of c-section. Otherwise who knows what would have happened, one or both of us may not have made it. Andy was amazing and so sweet through the whole thing. He took such great care of me at the birthing center and after we got home. That is probably why I recovered so fast.
5 comments:
Leece,
I didn't know you had to have a cesarian! Now we have the same battle scar! :-)
I know the feeling when they say that they have to do a c-section. I remember feeling like a failure too, but i was so exhausted I didn't care if they reached down my throat and pulled him out. I just wanted him out!
Just think, next time we have a baby...we can schedule when the baby comes, and 15 minutes later...the baby will be here! AWESOME!
Thank you for telling your story. I have been waiting to hear it. I'm glad that everything went well even though you had to have a c-section. You sure seemed to have recovered fast. It took me forever to get back to normal and everything.
Wow leece. I love to hear birth stories. I forgot you had to have a c-section. I'm so glad you have recovered fast, and that Dodger is doing well! He's so cute!
Oh my heck honey! You poor thing! I can't believe they let you push for that long without doing a c-section sooner! I bet you were so exhausted! Hope you're healing well and doing great!
I've been waiting to hear how it went! Andy was in the drug store a few days after you had him and told my mom you had to have a c-section. Wow 3+ hours of pushing, that would be exhausting! I'm glad everything went well though and you are recovering so great! I love to hear all these birth stories, they are all so different!
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