Birth Story

I had intended to write posts throughout my pregnancy documenting the highs and lows, my thoughts and feelings, weird cravings and food aversions, etc...  But life happens!  Now, with time to kill between napping and feeding as I recover, I thought I might document Ben's birth story...not that I'm likely to forget the details!  Can't believe it's already been three weeks since my sweet son made his appearance in a rather dramatic way.

Monday, August 11^th I had an OB appointment and after reporting that Ben's movements were not less intense, but were less frequent (although that’s not saying much since he always moved SO much…so less frequent was probably closer to normal for most babies), the doctor decided some peace-of-mind monitoring would be good.  Ben checked out totally fine, but I started having contractions - five minutes apart.  Not super intense, but very consistent.  The doctor gave us the option of staying and seeing if things progressed, but since we didn't have our bags packed or the car seat installed and we were both ready for dinner, we opted to go home to see what would happen.  It was great motivation to get our bags packed!  12 hours of contractions later they went away.  I was so frustrated!!  And sleep deprived since most of that time had been overnight.  Not a great way to start off the week, but I made it through and it seems the contractions got things moving towards baby time.

Fast forward through what seemed like a LONG week to Thursday, August 14^th.  I was extra miserable all day, but managed to make it through the work day and took a walk around Costco to pick up a few things.  Really the blame for Ben’s arrival falls on Josh…when I picked him up from football practice that night it was the first time any of the boys had been in my car since the car seat had been installed.  Josh took one look at it and said "well the car seat is installed, the baby can come now.”  Guess Ben agreed!

About 12:30 that night I woke up to make one of many nightly bathroom trips and walked down the hall to turn the basement stair light off.  Got back in bed and my water broke!  Hurried back to the bathroom to discover that I was right…it was my water and it was go time!  (a direct answer to your prayers Carin!)  Glenn woke up when I started turning lights on and since my contractions hadn’t started yet, we took our time getting ready to head to the hospital.  Jonnie was awake for some reason and was super excited that Ben was on his way.  He was ready to get the other boys up to head to the hospital too, but sleep was important for everyone and we were anticipating a long labor process.

Last bump picture before we headed to the hospital

When my contractions did start, they started in earnest!  No calm 5 minutes apart ramp up this time.    They jump from none to 2 to 3 minutes apart, lasting about a minute, and were too intense to talk through...or do anything really!  Definitely thankful we left for the hospital when we did because that drive was LONG with those contractions.  Not sure I would have made it once there was no break in the contractions!

We got to the hospital around 2am and got evaluated in triage.  My water had in fact broken, so I was definitely staying.  I was between 3 and 4 centimeters dilated, so still a ways to go.  I walked to our room, where we were anticipating delivering our baby boy.  Right about the time they got me settled into the bed and started working on getting an IV started, my contractions started coming one on top of the other and were super intense.  I really wasn’t sure how I was going to keep up that pace for another 6 to 7 centimeters and requested that the anesthesiologist come sooner rather than later.  Pretty much as soon as they got my IV started, the lovely anesthesiologist came and started getting me prepped for an epidural.   Ben was being monitored the whole time and his heart rate was steady in the 130s.  The anesthesiologist did all of his prep work with Ben still on the monitor and just slipped it off long enough (maybe 5 minutes…possible less…it felt like a long time as I was still having such intense contractions) so that he could actually start the epidural.  As soon as he was done, the monitor was placed back on, but I immediately knew something was wrong.  It’s never reassuring when the nurse’s face changes!  I never was able to hear any heartbeat, but was later told that it was 60.  Immediately people started pouring into the hospital room.  Glenn was kindly shoved out of the way.  I was flipped onto my hands and knees and an oxygen mask was placed on my face.  I can’t even express how terrifying it was!  My strong, non-stop contractions were basically putting my sweet baby in a headlock!  When the oxygen and new position didn’t do anything to raise Ben’s heart rate, the doctors wasted no time in rushing me to the OR.  I was so scared, but also amazed at how efficient everyone was.  There were more people pouring into the OR and everyone knew exactly what their job was…and boy were they doing it quickly and with skill.  Ben’s heart rate still was not coming up.  They pinched my stomach three times, but the epidural hadn’t had time to kick in yet.  I just remember someone saying, “just put her under, we’re getting this baby out now.  Go. Go. Go.”  I didn’t even have time to let out the hysterical sobs that were about to bubble up because I was totally knocked out.  I feel bad because I only had about 3 minutes of terror, while Glenn was in a small hallway at 4:30 in the morning with no cell reception (except for a few texts that made it out to AK) and no idea what was happening to his wife or baby.  Thankfully, Glenn could hear Ben cry from the hallway when he came out.  From the time they discovered Ben's heart rate was so low to the time they got him out was SIX minutes.  

First bath

Our sweet little man was born at 4:38am, weighed in at 7lbs 4oz, and was 19.5 inches long.  Beautiful.  Perfect.  God bless each of the skilled doctors and nurses that helped bring Benjamin Lucas safely into the world.

They took Ben to where Glenn was and he got to be there for, photograph, and participate in Ben’s first bath, weighing, cord cutting, etc.

Sweet little feet

About an hour and a half later, I finally arrived in recovery…groggy, but ok…a very reassuring sight for a very worried husband!  After being monitored for a while, they moved us to a room from recovery and thus began our new adventure!

Finally awake enough to hold my sweet son on my own

Such love!