It all began last weekend when I decided I felt peace with the decision to induce Tuesday morning. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't an easy decision. I did some praying, crying, thinking, wondering, and lots of loving on my first born.
We checked into the hospital at 5:00AM Tuesday morning. We did paper work and the nurses got me all hooked up to everything I would need for the day. Dr. K came in around 6:30 and seemed genuinely happy to see me laying there, he said he was afraid I would be bumped off the schedule because of so many women going into labor. Something about a full moon and women having babies go hand in hand. The nurse did say I claimed the last bed of the day....lucky me!!
Anyway, from there things went well. I was soon informed by multiple people including my doctor that I had the best nurse, Wendy. She was great and so much fun to talk to. The anesthesiologist was also a hoot and made that giant needle seem like no big deal.
My epidural went fine, and I could actually feel my legs which was great since last time I couldn't move a thing below my waist. Not a fun feeling. We were sailing smooth through the labor process.
My pitocin was going and my contractions were one on top of another, although I sat comfortably not feeling a thing. My contractions were moving so fast the doctor and nurse decided to shut off the pitocin and let my body do the remainder of the work. I was around a 4 at that point, it took me a bit to get to a 5, but from there they rolled me on my side and I flew to a 10. The minute they rolled me back over I knew it was time for this little guy's birthday party, as the nurse called it.
Unfortunately my nurse, Wendy, had been called into another room so I had a new nurse in for delivery. Tracy was her name, and she was just as wonderful and she got me started with the pushing process. Things were moving smoothly, when I noticed Carter's heart was slowing way down. At that point, the nurse paged some people for help...I figured another nurse and the doctor would come in, I was not expecting around 8 medical professionals to come storming in. At that point, I realized things were serious. The doctor got me pushing again, but Carter's heart was not cooperating. It had dropped dramatically and was not recovering in between contractions. He then looked over at my already super nervous Mom and Paige and asked them to leave. NICU was paged to come in and brought along the defibrillator and some other scary medical equipment that no one wants to see. Yikes, I was then terrified and felt totally out of control. It seemed nothing the doctor was trying would work. I was totally on my back, covered with an oxygen mask, told I would probably become extremely nauseous, could hardly hear a thing, and absolutely terrified. It felt like a dream or like I was stuck in a tunnel... I had made it this far, what if something happened? I remember I just kept saying, "I'm so scared." It's amazing how fast things can change and impact life forever. At that point my doctor practically got in my face, and assured me he would not let anything happen to me or Carter. He said he would try one more procedure and if that failed we would head back for a C section. Well, the procedure worked, the baby lowered enough for him to recognize his cord was coming out with him and being squished (cord prolapse), causing all sorts of trouble for baby. He was able to cut the cord and get the baby out quickly. I was relieved, but when he lifted Carter for a brief moment I noticed how blue he was and began to panic again. He passed Carter to NICU who got to work on him quickly. It was quite surreal, almost like a scene from TV. No one would say anything or tell me if the baby was fine. I was about to lose it, when finally the doctor told Justin to go check on Carter and give me an update. After several tense minutes Carter rebounded beautifully and I heard his first cry. Praise God! That was the sweetest sound and the greatest gift at a time like that. They checked his cord gas, and re-administered the APGAR and everything came back great. There is no fear or worry at this point about any long term effects of the traumatic birth.
Something similar, yet not quite as serious occurred with Caroline's birth. I think if we decide to expand our family any more I might just schedule a C section, not sure I want to relive those scary moments again. After things calmed down, Dr. K told me he has deliveries like that once every six months to a year....lucky us! Needless to say, I am more than grateful for his knowledge and calm presence during those terrifying moments. Justin was also great (as he always is) and although his face was as white as a ghost, he did beautifully at keeping calm and tending to my emotions.
Today, 6 days later, we are at home and doing well. We've been blessed with help from family, friends, and countless visitors. I dearly love all the people in my life, and am excited to share this time with them. Physically I am feeling great, Carter is nursing wonderfully, he is sleeping for long stretches, and I am truly enjoying this precious newborn phase. Emotionally, I am all over the place. One minute I am on top of the world and the next minute I am sobbing over something silly or nothing at all. I'll be glad when these hormones even out....I hate this out of control feeling.
Well baby is getting fussy and Caroline will be waking any minute now. Time to sign off and get back to the duties of motherhood. I am blessed! :-)
As I already mentioned, I am not the sit at home type, so I took Caroline on her field trip last Friday to the farm. Here she is with all of her precious school friends. I didn't get the memo about wearing her school shirt...I seem to be missing lots of memos lately.
