It was early on a Sunday morning (2 am to be exact). I got up to go to the bathroom as I often did each night at the end of my pregnancy. I happened to see a small amount of liquid come out...I wasn’t quite sure if I had just peed orrr if it was something else. I was 39 and a 1/2 weeks pregnant, so I was on high alert for any signs of baby. I called the on call doctor and she told me to go back to sleep for a few more hours and if I saw any more discharge to call back. So I went back to sleep for a bit, and woke again around 4 am. This time I sat down to go to the bathroom and a rush of fluid came out. There was no mistaking it this time...my water had broke. (my husband was sleeping away through all of this by the way...). I was not having any contractions yet, so I knew we had some time. So I got dressed and ready, made all the final checks for my hospital supplies, and then made myself a nice breakfast. I figured I wouldn’t be eating again for awhile so I wanted to fill up as much as possible! Now, it just so happened that this day was also my husband’s birthday. So around 6 am I decided I should probably get him up so we could get going...I brought him some breakfast and his birthday gift. He wasn’t too pleased with me waking him so early on a weekend morning, and on his birthday no less. I told him I just wanted him to open his gift, and then he asked if he could go back to sleep after. I told him yes, even though of course I knew this wasn’t going to happen. He opened the card first and in it I had written, “happy birthday, I hope you are ready to meet your son today!” After he read this he looked at me sort of confused, and then I said “my water broke...you need to get up so we can go to the hospital!” He jumped out of bed and asked what he should do...I told him I still wasn’t having any contractions so we didn’t need to rush. So he showered and got ready and then we were on our way. I texted my parents and my sister to then let them know the baby was coming! My mom and sister were planning to be in the delivery room, so they made their way over to the hospital too. My husband’s mom happened to be a few hours away (she lives out of town), so her and her husband started driving to us once they heard the news!
Once at the hospital, around 7am, we checked into the triage area and then I went to a room there and put on a gown. By this time I was having some small contractions, 8 or 9 minutes apart. The doctor came in to check me and I was only about 2cm dilated. He also told me that my son’s head was turned sideways. He said typically babies will turn their head so it’s facing backwards as they move further down the birth canal, so he wasn’t too worried about it at this point. Since my water had broken and I wasn’t progressing much, he told me that once I got to my labor room I would have to get some medicine (pitocin) to increase the contractions. At the time I was in good spirits and excited to get the process started. Once I got the medicine the contractions came hard and fast. It was like nothing I had ever experienced in my life before. I tried moving into different positions in the bed, heat, sitting on a therapy ball, but there was no relief at all. I asked the nurse if I could get any medicine and we decided I should get an epidural. I went into this whole thing with no real birth plan or decisions ahead of time as to what meds I might want or not...my only plan was to GET THE BABY OUT! So i decided that the epidural was the way to go...it took about 30 minutes for the resident anesthesiologist to come into the room after I made this choice. That 30 minutes seemed to last forever. There was a point there when I just thought to myself that I was not sure I would make it through as the pain was just so intense.
So the anesthesiologist came in and put in the epidural. This was also a difficult process as you must sit at the edge of the bed and curl your body forwards for them to place the epidural in your back...all while having intense pain and discomfort (nearly impossible to maintain this position and sit still). After 15-20 minutes I was hoping for some relief, but this did not happen. The procedure did not work. The chief resident ended up coming in and had to take the first epidural out and give me a second one...good times...once this was in he also gave me a spinal block (pretty sure it was because he felt badly that the other one got so screwed up). The next couple of hours felt like pure bliss. I could not feel ANYTHING! It was amazing. So they monitored my contractions and I was progressing along gradually. The doctor checked the position of the baby again and he was still facing sideways. So I attempted to turn my body so I was lying on my side in hopes to let gravity help the baby shift. He apparently did not like this move as his heart rate started to dip. A bunch of people rushed into the room and there was monitors being shoved everywhere to better see what was going on with the baby. This was pretty scary. It was about 1pm and my mom and sister had stepped out of the room. They got back and were surprised to see me hooked up to all these new monitors with an oxygen mask on...thankfully everything was ok though and we continued on with the day.
The epidural started to wear off so I asked to get another dose of medicine as the contractions were coming back fast and fierce again. After this was administered the baby started having another dip in his heart rate. This time was even more scary and they had to give me some medicine to attempt to stop my contractions and calm the baby down. It was crazy because within a minute all of my contractions had stopped. The baby’s heart rate came back up and all was well again. After about 30 minutes or so the contractions came back, but they were further apart and not as strong. I got some more pitocin and this helped some, but the contractions just never really amounted to much. The doctor started throwing around the idea of a c-section...I was really trying to avoid this, and he said I could try and push for awhile (at this point I was fully dilated, but the baby’s head was still turned). He said possibly the baby would turn and come out if I could get some good pushes in.
So we gave this a try for a couple of hours...I pushed the hardest that I could...I just wanted that baby to get out the natural way!! After awhile though I started to run a fever, and was getting sick. The baby had pooped and some meconium became present. This is a problem because the baby could swallow it and get an infection. I started to feel pretty terrible and almost passed out a couple of times. I was exhausted, hungry, sick, and just so physically tired at this point.
At around 10pm the doctor came in, sat down next to the bed, and said it was time to do the c-section. He said he didn’t want the baby getting further into the birth canal as this would make it more difficult for him to get him out during the surgery. I just started balling. I was so defeated and disappointed, but I knew we had to do what was going to be best for the baby and myself. So they gave me some more meds, made sure I was completely numb, and then wheeled me to the OR.
The OR was SO bright. It was like the brightest lights I had ever seen shining straight into my eyes. I started to get really shaky once I got in there...from the meds, the infection, being cold in there, and just from being so upset. They seemed to get the baby out pretty quickly and he started crying right away. At 10:56PM I became a mother. I was so relieved/happy/nervous/scared all at the same time. They came over and showed him to my husband and I, although I could barely see him since I was still shaking so badly. They wisked him away to the NICU at that time since they were concerned he may have had an infection too. His grandparents got to see him briefly as they wheeled him out of the OR to the NICU, which was pretty neat. They tried to ask the nurses what his name was though, but they wouldn’t tell. We kept his name a secret throughout my pregnancy and our family was so anxious to hear it! We ended up telling them when we saw them a bit later.
So while I was in the OR still I waited for them to close me up and bring me to my recovery room. This was tough because I had to wait to be with my baby. After about 3 hours I got to go to my new room. The nurse told me that baby Grady was doing just fine and that he was going to be leaving the NICU and coming to our room. At this point it was about 3am. I had been up for almost 24 hours straight and just wanted to be with my baby. They finally brought Grady in and I was so happy to finally get to hold my son. I picked him up and placed him on my chest. I then just sat there for awhile and was so at peace and in love with this tiny little miracle. <3
