So.. I decided I should probably start a blog. Having a baby sure brings out that side of you that wants to document everything and remember every detail of absolutely everything.. because well.. time sure passes fast with these tiny little humans.
One day I want to get around to writing about my pregnancy, because I also want that documented. I want to remember every detail about that as well. While every part of it is so so so worth it, it truly wasn't my favorite experience that I've ever been through.. but that's for another day.
For now-- I want to start a few days before I delivered.
Sunday April 13, 2014 -- my due date.
At this point I am beyond ready for this baby to be here. I am so ready for my back to not hurt, to not have to have a pillow behind it providing support every time I sit down, to not have to pee every 2 minutes, to be able to roll over in bed, to lay on my stomach... and the list goes on and on. Not to sound so awful and complain-y, but I was truly to that point where you're ready to do whatever it takes to make this baby come. And you better believe I did. I tried walking, walking with one foot on the sidewalk and one foot off, walking stairs inside my in-laws house (which is reaaallly exhausting p.s.), bouncing on an exercise ball, nipple stimulation by using a breast pump {tmi?-- I'm sorry.. I was desperate I tell you!}, sex, everything.. you name it-- I probably tried it. And.. well nothing was working. I was just going to have to be patient.
Monday April 14
This was the day of my 40 week doctors appointment. I was excited because I was sure I had at least progressed a tiny bit passed the 1 cm I was dilated to 2 weeks ago. Plus my doctor had just returned from his vacation, so I knew I had waited for him to get back so I could deliver.. so I thought everything was going to line up nicely. Well.. I was wrong.
The doctor wanted to check everything out to see if there was any way we could induce me early. As a first time mom they make you wait until 41 weeks to be induced and I obviously wasn't quite to that point. {However, I really didn't want to be induced for some reason.. I wanted this baby to come on his own. So I was fine with waiting, but at the same time I was desperate to get him out of there..remember?} So..I had a NST where they monitor the contractions and the baby's heart rate to make sure they are tolerating everything okay.. and of course he was. Next was an ultrasound to check my fluids. If they are low this is a reason to need to induce. Well my doctor said that I was borderline high with my fluids-- that I had enough for 2 people and that that explained why I was so uncomfortable. {some validation.. I liked that} Next was checking me to see if I had actually dilated at all since the last appointment. You guessed it-- nope.. no change at all. still a 1. Not only that, but my cervix was still back and so he couldn't even strip my membranes.
Fast forward a few days to Wednesday April 16
My family goes down to Beaver Dam/ Mesquite every year for Easter. My sister and her family had planned on going down there already assuming that I would have this baby by now. After telling them about how my appointment went they decided to go ahead and still go down there. She kept saying, "worst case scenario, I get all the way down there and have to turn around and come back. And that's fine... I will come back." We assumed that there would be plenty of time.. I am a first time mom of course. Those labors generally last for 20 hours! So we were certain we were safe having them go. You know where this is headed, right?
Thursday April 17
Another minor hiccup.. Ryan has had a problem with his wrist for quite some time that caused him a fair amount of pain. He finally got it checked out and after a CT scan and MRI they found a cyst there. He wanted to get it out before he started school and so he scheduled his surgery for today. We of course knew that if I was in labor he would have to reschedule. Well I wasn't in labor. No signs of labor. Everything was just the same as it had always been. Not feeling any contractions or anything. So.. in for surgery we went. While Ry was in surgery Jill wanted me to come in for another NST. I really don't know how people go through pregnancy without your mother-in-law being a labor and delivery nurse and your husband working in the radiology department. All my questions were answered all the time and I got ultrasounds whenever I wanted to see my baby too. It was really quite the set up. Anyway, Ry would be in surgery for 2 hours so I hurry and ran to Orem Community and Jill did the NST. She said there were definitely contractions showing up, but I still wasn't feeling them. Or at least I didn't know for sure if what I was feeling was really a contraction. I just thought that it was the baby kind of moving forward in my belly causing it to feel hard. Either way, everything still looked fine on the monitor. So I headed back to meet Ryan coming out of surgery. When I got back he wasn't out yet, so I just sat in the room and started studying for my test that I had to take the next day. I thought that I was maybe feeling contractions.. so I started writing down the times they started on the bottom corner of my paper and turned on my timer on my phone and wrote these down. I only had a few contractions and then Ry arrived..
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| Had to keep April updated |
I didn't think much more about them after he got out. I just was focused on how he was feeling and getting him discharged and home. Once we got home and I got him settled in. I decided to take a bath. I think I was relaxed enough that I started noticing them again. I text Jill to let her know that I felt like I was feeling them and she told me she would come over after work to see what she thought. A little bit before she got here I went to the restroom and had bloody show. I remember hearing that this was a sign that labor could be close so I looked it up and that's indeed what it said.
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This is what my stomach would look like when I was feeling a contraction. Which is why I thought he was just pushing forward in my belly. It seemed so lopsided and I always pictured it being much more round. But this lopsidedness happened every time I felt what I thought were contractions. Which at this point just felt like pressure.
When Jill got here and felt my stomach she confirmed that what I was feeling were in fact contractions. She was here for over an hour from about 7-8:30. During that short time the contractions definitely got worse, but they were still bearable. She went home and told me to let her know if I wanted her to come back over and keep me company through the night since my husband was clearly not in the best state having just had surgery and being on percocet. Plus that I wanted him to get some nap time in because I needed him to be an active participant at my side rather than just sitting over on the couch totally out of it as I am pushing out a baby! At about 9 I let her know that I wanted her to come back. They had gotten even worse and each one that happened was worse than the last. Her and Alysha showed up at about 930 and started helping me get everything in order. I had baby's bag all packed but I hadn't yet packed mine because I had assumed I would have plenty of time to get this done. I didn't know how quickly it was going to happen for me.
My family had just arrived in Beaver Dam a few hours earlier. So I was trying to keep them updated on everything and they were debating whether they needed to leave or not. It was obviously night time and it seemed silly to have them hurry and jump in the car and drive all that way when we weren't really even 100% sure that I was in labor or how quickly it would go. For all we knew I could still be in labor by Friday afternoon. So they just kept holding off on leaving until we were a little more sure.
When Jill got here we decided to have her bring some gloves and check me. Ya ya.. I know.. that probably seems weird to a lot of people. But she's a labor and delivery nurse.. she's seen a lot of stuff. And I didn't feel awkward at all about it. I felt like it was another perk to her job-- I could lay comfortably in my bed rather than a hospital bed and still know how I was progressing. Well when she checked me I was at a 3 but my cervix still hadn't moved forward. She could tell that the baby was posterior which is what we had suspected since I was feeling the contractions in my back rather than in my stomach. And boy were they painful. I truly felt like such a baby. I thought I was going to tolerate the pain so much better than this. I had even considered going without an epidural. "I'll be fine" I said.. "People do it all the time" I said. "I just want to try without one" I said. BAD plan. Really bad plan. I couldn't wait to get to the dang hospital and get all numbed up.
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| We were clearly very helpful to one another! |
We waited a few more hours and Jill checked me again. I was still a 3 but my cervix had moved forward. The contractions were still getting worse and worse. I just kept putting off going into the hospital because I felt like I would be more comfortable in my own home. We kept hoping for my water to break because we knew for sure I would get admitted if it did. Otherwise you just have to sit there for an hour and wait for your cervix to change before they admit you to make sure you're actually in labor and making progress. Well Ryan just kept saying lets go in.. so at about 1230 we decided to head in. They checked me and I was a 4.5 they decided to admit me. The guy got there pretty quick to give me my epidural at about 1:00. And let me tell you something.. I am all for people going natural. I think that's amazing. But what is even more amazing is that we have something that takes away the pain 100%.. ONE HUNDRED PERCENT.. totally and completely gone! I was so happy!
Oh by the way.. my doctor, Dr. McCarter, was on call this night at Utah Valley.. he couldn't leave. It was his turn to stay there and that's what he had to do. So I had one of his partners, Dr. Harward, taking care of me. Jill left for a minute and came back in to tell me that the Dr. was going to come break my water. I told her I wanted to hold off.. I needed to give my family more time to get here and I wasn't in pain anymore so I was happy to wait! Well.. in came the doctor.. "I'm here to break your water." ahhhhh! Okay.. well I didn't dare say anything to him. He checked me before he broke it and said I was at a 7. 7?! All I could think about was that my family definitely wasn't going to make it. This made me sad but I also felt so bad cus I knew they would feel so bad about not being there.. and I was right..
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| My poor sister was real sad about not being there |
He broke my water and then I heard them saying it had meconium in it which I knew was not a good thing. I felt nervous, but everyone seemed calm.
Then all of the sudden I could tell the people in scrubs in my room just kept multiplying. There seemed to be more and more of them very quickly. They were putting an oxygen mask on my face, inserting an internal monitor to check baby's heart rate, and everything just suddenly became very frantic. I could tell something was wrong, but it was all happening so fast I wasn't sure what was happening. Until the doctor said emergency c-section.. we've got to go now! Before I knew it they were all running me down the hall to the OR. I was crying of course. All I could think was worst case scenario. I was so terrified that this story was going to end in my biggest fear. And it was all going the wrong way so far so what was going to be any different? I was alone for what felt like forever. I just kept asking for my husband. Jill got changed into scrubs real quick and was in there with me and Ryan came in pretty soon after. It felt so much better to have him there by my side, but I was still so nervous. I just wanted him out of me and to hear him cry so I knew he was okay. The anesthesiologist told me he was giving me more drugs to numb me up more and that I would feel tugging and pulling, which I definitely did. It was such a strange feeling.. all of it. Within 7 minutes they had him out. And he was crying. And then I cried more. He was okay and I felt a sense of relief. My poor little husband was still so nervous though because during all this he didn't know whether I was going to be okay. It all happened so fast that no one had the time to explain to him that I was totally fine and it really made him so nervous. I didn't figure this all out until later though.
I'm so beyond grateful that this sweet little boy was able to make it here safely. He didn't even aspirate any meconium or anything. He didn't have to be suctioned or need oxygen either. Once he was out he was totally fine.. he was just really pale! They didn't know exactly what happened but apparently his heart rate dropped to about 50 when the doctor broke my water. They weren't sure what caused this to happen, but I guess when he came out his shoulder was kind of pushed on his cord causing it to cut off the blood supply. His cord was totally drained of blood by the time they got him out. His cord was also super skinny I guess. If we had waited for my water to break while still being at home I think there's no way we would have been so lucky. I'm glad that Ryan kept pushing me to come in to the hospital and that we finally did.
Luca Ryan Parsons
April 18, 2014
6 lbs 15 oz
21.5 inches long
