Birth Story

The following is the best I could come up with in terms of what happened during S's birth. I'm pretty sure I may have misremembered details.

I've never made a birth story type post. Mainly because the whole thing is rather hazy for me and I don't have a ton of the details. But here is what I do know.

Sammy's birth was induced on December 12, 2012 starting approximately 8am in the morning due to unexplainable gestational hypertension. I was 39 weeks pregnant.

I woke up early the morning of Sammy's birth full of nerves and excitement. We arrived at the hospital around 7:30am and the nurse (who was amazing) introduced herself. I was hooked up to the iv talked with the doctor and the induction began. I was not as far along as they originally thought I was even dilated to 1 or thinned at all. So I was starting from nothing. My doctor had told me as long as everything progressed smoothly I could labor up to 36 hours. Things were slow most of the day. When the contractions started it was back labor. I broke down mid-afternoon and I had an epidural between the back labor and the pain of being stretched from 2-3 I knew I was not going to make it through drug free.

Once my epidural kicked in I was perfectly fine. Mom watched the contraction monitor and said I was giggling through contractions (I texted with Kimberly all day and played on facebook). She had noticed some fluctuation in Sammy's heart rate but because no one seemed concerned about it nothing was done.

At 7 was the nurses shift change at 7:10 my doctor, my day nurse, and the incoming night nurse came in for a check and the change over talk. It was during this time that the doctor broke my water. Right after they noticed Sammy's heart rate. It was dipping into the 60s and 70s. They put an oxygen mask on me and had me roll to one side and then the other. It didn't work in fact his heart rate dipped even further. I was told to roll onto my knees and I did his heart rate spiked to 117 (I saw that one) and immediately fell down to around 60.

At that time I was in tears and terrified. Brett was in the room and mom was just coming back in. Dr. Hurt had the nurses call the OR and the nurses desk to tell them to cancel the planned C-section that they had an emergency coming in. They covered my backside and ran me out of my l&d room at 7:18pm. I remember looking up and seeing Brett being left behind we were running that fast. My understanding is mom gathered our stuff and went to wait in the waiting room and Brett was scrubbed up and waiting to come into the OR.

Once in the OR they started prepping me (shaving etc) when Dr. Hurt said there wasn't time for that. The anesthesiologist introduced himself. The next thing I knew Dr. Hurt was pinching my stomach testing my numbness. I was able to feel her pinching and because of the amount of fetal distress Sammy was under she elected to have me totally put under rather than take any time to do anything with the epidural. The last thing I remember is my nurse holding my hand and crying as I lost conscious.

The next thing I knew I was coming around as they were pulling out the breathing tube. I got sick and started fighting. The nurses held me down and I blacked out again.

The next time I woke up I was in recovery and they were massaging my belly to help with the air/gas stuck in it. I remember reaching for my baby belly, asking for Brett, and then asking for mom when they told me Brett was with the baby. They sent someone out to get mom and gave me some ice chips.

Mom came in and a little bit later so did Brett. Brett held my hand and I vaguely remember him telling me that Sammy was perfect and had a head full of hair and that it was big and even the nurse had commented on how large his head was. They took Sammy back to the nursery and Brett went with him.

Mom stayed with me and went with me to the room I was in (c-sections got the bigger rooms). My nurse came in and helped me get cleaned up and in bed. And put those leg massagers on me. I dozed off waiting on Sammy and Brett and woke up in a total panic when they started massaging my legs. Like screaming, crying, and thrashing about. The nurses decided it was a bigger risk to my health to leave them on.

Eventually Sammy was brought to the room and I was able to hold him.

Sammy was born on a Wednesday and I was home by Friday evening.