Wednesday, November 16, 2011

BAYLOR MATTHEW HAS ARRIVED

This post has been a long time coming. Our beautiful son Baylor Matthew joined our family on October 19, 2011. I am so excited to share with all of you how Baylor made his debut. It was nothing like I had "planned" or thought it would be. But I guess that is why they say we plan while God laughs! God knew exactly how and when Baylor would join our family, and it so special to me now looking back on that chilly October day.
Baylor was due to arrive on October 12th. Casey and I swore for months that I would go early. We even planned for my mom to arrive a week after his due date(the 19th), in order for her to spend as much time with our little guy as possible. The 12th came and went, with no baby. Then the 13th I had my 40 week appointment. This little guy was not budging, so she said if nothing happened before my next appointment on the 19th we would schedule for induction on the 20th. The 14th, 15th,16th, 17th also passed without a trip to the hospital. Everyday I became more and more anxious, because I had an overlying worry about having to be induced. Mostly I was nervous, about it pushing me into a C-section(haha!).  I try to not worry a lot, but being about to deliver this baby made me worry more than ever.

On Tuesday the 18th, I felt more fluid leaking than normal and just felt "off."  Casey was all the way down in the Springs for work that day(he goes a couple days a week). He decided to come home early, being that the springs is about 2 hours from our house.  He convinced me to call my doctor and move my appointment from the following day to right then. We headed in hoping that it would be Amniotic Fluid that I  would be leaking, but the doctor informed us that it was not. She said I was 3 cm dilated and 75 percent effaced. She filled out the induction paper work and scheduled it for 5:30 am Thursday(the 20th) morning. 

That evening we went on our nightly walk and relaxed around the house. We had it completely out of our heads that we would be going to the hospital anytime before Thursday.  Although, my husband insisted on me bouncing on my exercise ball, which he had me do the last few nights. We were scheduled to pick my mom up from the airport between 9 and 10 am the next morning. I spoke with her that night and she wanted to have the hospital address "just in case."

I got up in the middle of the night, at about 2:25 am, with an intense pain around my abdominal and pelvic area. I was convinced that the pain was a result of holding my pee to long in my sleep. I hurried to the bathroom with a weird pain shooting up as a scurried to the bathroom. As soon as I got into the bathroom, my pink Aerie pajama shorts filled with fluid and some leaked onto our bathroom mat and floor. I sat down on the toilet to avoid anymore getting on the floor. From there I called to Casey in bed, "Casey, I  think my water broke!" (This was kind of in a tired/excited/ nervous voice) I had to say this three times before it woke my very tired husband.  As soon as he realized what I had said, he jumped outta bed so fast.  He immediately was so excited, clapping his hands and smiling as he brushed his teeth.

I had originally planned to take a shower when my water broke at home, to arrive at the hospital as fresh as possible and with one key ingredient...clean hair. But being that I was already in pain and having contractions 4 minutes apart we decided to head to the hospital. I changed my clothes, put on a small bit of make up and headed to the hospital, greasy hair and all.  I had also planned to maybe grab a small granola bar or something to eat, considering I hadn't ate a thing since 6 o'clock the night before. But, my whole pregnancy, like many women on their first, had the fear having the food come back out in a not so pleasing way during childbirth.  So my empty stomach, tired eyes, and greasy hair all arrived at North Suburban Medical Center at 3 o'clock in the morning. It was chilly as can be and I was wearing a dress and sweater. I didn't want pants on when I was having painful contractions.

We walked into the hospital and had to have them call up to the labor and delivery floor for someone to come down to escort us up to the third floor.  They came down with a wheel chair, even though I definitely could have walked,  and wheeled me up to the elevator.  They took us immediately into the room I would be laboring in and had me change into a gown. For the next hour she had me answer questions and fill out a couple things of paper work. All while the only thing on tv was Married with Children. Which is a show I don't particularly care for. They then had to check to make sure it was indeed the amniotic sac that had ruptured. The nurse was sure that that was what it was, but they had to make sure. This test was the most uncomfortable thing in the world. They take a dry cotton swab and swab up into your cervix. It literally felt like someone was scratching my insides.  She also checked my dilation. At this point, I was 4 cm and 75 percent effaced. My contractions were quickly progressing closer and closer together. 
I loved our nurse at this time, she was so sweet and definitely seemed on top of everything. She was originally from Texas, which made for great conversation, especially when we told her what our soon to be son's name was going to be. My doctor wasn't on call so they called the doctor that was on call for that day. She came in about two hours after we arrived to check my dilation and the thinning of my cervix. At this time, I was at 5cm and about and close to 100 percent.
At about 8:30 my regular doctor came in after they called her to let her know that I no longer would need to be induced, because I would be having this baby today. She told me she would be back during the delivery of Baylor and was going to be working in her office taking appointments until then.  After holding off the pain for a bit,  I got my epidural around 10 in the morning.  At this point my body was moving quickly and progressing very well on its own. I did not need to be put on pitocin and continued to dilate about a cm an hour even after my epidural.  It was the cutest thing that our anesthesiologist was also pregnant, so I got to talk to her a bit about her pregnancy.  Sometime right after my epidural our nurses shift ended. In comes my least favorite person of this entire process. Her name was Cippi and she was an older nurse who would be the one there while I delivered our "little" bundle.

Cippi was very hard to understand and seemed to have a kind of short demeanor.  Although I knew it was all worth it and our little boy would be here very soon.  At 11 my mom arrived after being picked up at the airport by Casey's Aunt Becky, Uncle George and his Grandma Ruby( his dads mom).  They live in Colorado Springs and when we got into a bit of a pickle in order to pick my mom up, they were so nice to drive up and get her and bring her to the hospital.  This was probably a three hour drive for them total, because they live 2 hours from us and we live about 45 min from the airport.   After arriving, they went in the waiting room while my mom stayed with us in the room until it would be time to push.

Casey and I were both getting hungry, but because I was nearing time to push, he held off from eating and we knew we would get to eat directly after delivery...or so I thought.  At 1:30 Casey's family needed to leave, they needed to pick their kids up from school, being that they hadn't planned on making the drive up that day. At this time I was at 9cm and waiting to be checked again. I felt bad that they wouldn't be able to meet our precious boy that day, but they would be coming back on Friday on their way to take Casey's Grandma back to Washington.  As soon as they left I was checked for the last time.  I had made it to 10 cm and the big time was about to begin.

After my best friend Emily having her baby boy three weeks before had only pushed for about 20 minutes, I was prepared to push close to that! haha. The whole time I was pushing Casey, the student nurse(who I had been asked if she could be in the room) and Cippi all made me feel like with every push  I was right there.  I now know this is a tactic they use to try to get you to keep pushing and not get totally exhausted. So now if I choose to do a VBac for our next child, I doubt I will believe this lie.  I do not know the time span of all the following things, considering you kind of lose track of time when you are pushing a baby haha. Slowly but surely I started to slowly start feeling more contractions again.  All while Cippi kept saying the most annoying phrase, "Push to the sky." ON EVERY PUSH! 

The pain was definitely more intense in between contractions, than during the pushing.  The pushing was more of a relief than anything.  Also, during my whole time pushing, one of my machines kept malfunctioning and making a beeping noise.  This meant with every beeping noise, Casey left from holding my left leg to reach down to turn it off. At the time I kept getting upset with him, because when he let go of my legs it made the pain that much worse.  Our nurse probably should have called someone in to fix the machine, or to be the person to push it off.  Even though you have people helping you with the weight of your legs, I felt like my legs weighed 5,000 pounds and I had probably been holding them for an hour and half at this time.  

My doctor would not be coming back until I had been pushing for 2 hours.  So as my pain increased, I knew my epidural was definitely wearing off.  At about and hour and half is when I got my first bonus to my epidural.  Apparently, with epidurals though, if they start to wear off there is not a way to get back to the no pain type of feeling.  I would get three bonus' of the epidural during the pushing, but eventually it had completely worn off. At this time I also got an oxygen mask put on. My doctor came in about 3:45 or 4.  At this time she stayed for about three contractions worth of pushing.  Even with suctioning our little mans head, he was not budging. She came to the determination that we would need to get him out by c section.  At this time I completely lost it.

You know how people say that childbirth isn't as dramatic as the movies, I turned on the drama at this pint.  Looking back now, Casey says this is the one time during the whole process where he thought he might cry.  He said that he just felt horrible for me.  In my head I wanted him out safely,  but I felt like my body had failed me.  Why could I not deliver a baby naturally, but so many of my family and friends could? (Little did I know) I had a million thoughts run through my head in the next couple minutes. Would I ever have stomach muscles again? Would I clot or something worse go wrong? Would I have a horrible recovery? Would I not be able to have as many kids now?

My doctor also told me that I would need to have about 8 more contractions and she could have him out.  At the time, when I was feeling everything, that felt like eternity. I just cried and looked at Casey and talked to him like there was no one else in  the room.  My doctor also said their was some tearing and she would need to stitch me up.  Really? How could this happen, tearing without even delivering the baby vaginally.

Casey would not be able to come into the surgical room until after they had me all set up on the table. That is the last thing you want when you are in that much pain, to be taken away from your husband.  I remember them rolling me out of the room, and seeing my mom in the doors waving to me and giving me a thumbs up. At the time, I remember thinking, this is no thumbs up situation. But now I think of it as a sweet gesture to let me know it was almost over.  They rolled me down the hallway to the surgical room.  There were about seven people in the room total.  They needed to move me from my labor bed, to the surgical table.  This was possibly some of the worst pain I had ever felt. Although, there soon would be even more pain.  I now needed to get my spinal.  For this, I had to sit Indian style on the surgical table and grabbed my ankles. While they inserted the needle I needed to arch my back. This is all while sitting on my fresh stitching. Glorious, huh?!

After that they laid me back, and from that point on I felt like 100 bucks. I also felt extremely tired and could barely keep my eyes open.  Casey walked in right after they had the paper up and everything set up.  The rest went very quickly. Casey says now that they were shaking and pulling me like crazy to get him out.  But to me I felt like I was laying super still. Baylor's head was all the way down in the birth canal.  But at 4:47pm I heard the best sound I have heard in my life, other than the day my husband and I said I do.. it was the loudest, most precious cry!! Next, I heard everyone awing over how big he was.  I had figured he would be bigger, but just didn't know how big he would really be.

Casey left my side at this time and immediately ran over to our little boy and snapped pics and cut the rest of the umbilical cord.  I remember looking to the right and watching them bundle and clean off Baylor. Then they brought him over and laid him on my chest. He was so close to my face while the nurse asked me how big I thought he was. Because I was so out of if and barely could see his whole body, I said 8 lbs 5 oz. She laughed like I was crazy and was like, "Oh no, I think he is bigger than that!" I kissed on my boy some more and then they took him and Casey both to the nursery,  where they would meet my mom. I watched out of the right of my eye as Casey wheeled Baylor out of the room.  A few minutes later, they called the surgical room(after they had all placed their bets) and told us he was 10lbs and 22 inches long. No wonder this child could not be delivered vaginally. And he had a huge head at 15.5 cm!
 
 

After about 20 minutes of stitching me back up, they moved me from the surgical table to the recovery bed. This was the best transition of beds, because I didn't feel a thing.  At 5:30pm they started wheeling me into my recovery room. Then I woke up 30 minutes later in that freezing cold room.  I remember being so incredibly thirsty, and asking Cippi( of course she is who I woke up to) for some water. She said she wanted to make sure I was fully awake first and I needed to wait. I was like what does it matter if I am awake? I AM THIRSTY!  But then in walked Casey and Baylor!!!! I was so excited to see my little boy and my amazing husband!

During the time in the recovery room, we tried breast feeding Baylor, but it wasn't working out very well. I also had not been super keen on breastfeeding throughout my pregnancy, but wanted to try it, especially to save money.  After hearing he was 10 lbs, I knew I would need to supplement a bit anyways. So in order to make it easy on everyone, we decided we would just formula feed him.  She said they would bring us formula, when they brought him to the room.  At 6:30pm She took Baylor back to the nursery to have his formal bath and do a few other things, while Casey and I moved to the room we would stay in for the rest of our time at North Suburban.

They rolled me down to the room, which I was excited about because I had loved these rooms on our tour a few weeks prior.  My mom was waiting for us in the room and Cippi was once again very rude to her and told her to leave the room, while they transferred me to my final bed. This transfer hurt a bit more, because my spinal was pretty worn off.  At that time I met a  bunch of different people who would be taking care of us that night. The baby nurse, my nurse and my technician(who would do my blood pressure and stuff with some of the machines).  During our whole stay I loved the recovery team. Baylor had the sweetest baby nurse all three nights named Danielle. I also was blessed to have the same nurse all three nights named Alyson and she was very thorough and helpful. During the day, both nurses would change, sometimes the same as the day before and sometimes someone different.

Baylor finally made it to our room after about two hours. And other then getting his circumcision, he did not leave our room the rest of the time we stayed there.  Our baby nurse said Baylor was her favorite, being that she loves chubby babies.  And she was sad he never came to the nursery to hang out, but said she thought it was awesome we kept him in our room the whole time.  She said some couples will call them after leaving the hospital distraught, because there baby was making  some weird noise or cried all through the night, and they slept with their baby in the room the while at the hospital.

From the moment Baylor arrived in this world he has been the most easygoing, beautiful, hungry, good sleeping baby I have ever laid my eyes on. He has been a huge blessing and so has my recovery! The nurses were even shocked by my recovery as I was.  I had heard that  C-section recoveries were awful, which is one of the reasons I was so worried about having one. But I basically had both a vaginal(at least the negatives of one) and a C-section and have felt amazing. Other then the first night, I have not felt much pain at all. The most pain I felt was the day after when I had sore shoulders and back from my epidural, spinal and holding my legs for three hours.  But I have been thanking God so much that after that I have felt like a whole new woman.  There were times during this pregnancy, labor and delivery when I felt like there is no way I could ever do this again, and we would need to adopt the rest of our kids.  But now after this recovery and this amazing baby I would do that all 100 more times! Okay, not a hundred but definitely do it again!  And my main question after having a baby, HOW DO PEOPLE NOT BELIEVE IN GOD?! 
Baylor Matthew, I love you so much and I am so excited to watch you grow and become the man of God he designed you to be! Thank you for being a great baby and being such a blessing to your dad and I!

No comments:

Post a Comment