Saturday, February 2, 2013

A Birth Story

So this is a little over a year late... but better late than never, right?  :)

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Sweet Titus, getting you here was no small feat!  :)  Your original due date was December 31, 2011.  But that day came and went and there was no sign of your arrival.  I’d have contractions here and there but nothing regular and I was not dilated at all, you had not dropped, your head wasn’t engaged and I was starting to get very worried.  So Dr. Lake decided to induce me on January 5th.  We arrived at the hospital at 7 am and got all checked in to our room.  They started me on medicine to get me to dilate at around 8 in the morning.  The meds worked well and by 8:15 that night I was dilated to a 3 and my water broke on its own while I was walking around trying to get things started.  Up until this point my labor had been boring and not painful at all.  After my water broke my contractions really picked up and they would not let me walk around anymore, so they became a lot more painful.  The breathing exercises did help but by 3 AM that morning they were just too painful and I was getting really tired.  I decided to go ahead and get an epidural so that I would hopefully be able to get some sleep.  I was afraid that without any rest there would be no way that I could push you out.  The epidural took away some of the pain but never really got my left side very numb.  So I was never able to get any real sleep.  I was taking forever to dilate, but by 10 the morning of the 6th I was finally dilated to a 10!!  But you still hadn't dropped so they didn't want me to push yet.  About an hour and a half later I asked the nurse if I could just start pushing.  I was tired and very ready to meet you and wanted to be able to do something and pushing seemed like the next step.  So I started pushing.  By this point my contractions had slowed down to being around five minutes apart, so I had to wait in between each contraction before I could push.  After an hour and a half of pushing they called Dr. Lake in so that you could finally be born.  They got everything ready and as I pushed thru the next contraction Dr. Lake said, "Stop pushing!!  That is not a head, this baby is breach!!".  This was a 1:30pm.  I was really scared that something bad was going to happen to you, but the nurse assured me that your heart rate was doing good and that I just needed to stay calm and then that would help keep your heart rate where it was supposed to be.  Grandma Kerry was there and she also helped to remind me and your dad that God was in control and that everything was going to be okay.  All the nurses hurried up to get me ready for an emergency c-section.  They already had one c-section going on so they had to assemble another team together and get a second operating room ready.  Once they got me into the OR I had to lay there while they were still trying to get the room ready and give me enough medicine so that I would be numb from the waist down.  I had two anesthesiologists arguing over how much medicine to give me, one thought that I needed more medicine and the other thought that I would have too much medicine if they gave me that much.  It was very scary.  But I tried to focus on you and getting to meet you.  I also sang one of my very favorite songs (in my head, not out loud!).  Your dad was not in the OR with me yet because he had to put scrubs on and wait for the room to be ready before they would let me in.  Finally they were ready to start.  My right side was very numb but my left side was not as numb and as they began the c-section I realized that it was hurting a lot.  I felt everything.  It was so painful.  I was so thankful that your dad was right there next to me.  He got right down in my face and just kept telling me over and over again that it was going to be okay. At 2:30pm, after what seemed like an eternity, Dr. Lake called out, “Okay Dad, tell us what it is!”  Your daddy peaked over the curtain and said, “It’s a boy!!”.  I could see you just barely as they cleaned up and you started to cry on the warming table.  Your dad and I had still not decided on a name at this point, but we both looked at each other and knew, your name was Titus James.  Your birth was a crazy event, but seeing you made it all worth it.  After they finished stitching me up they wheeled my bed into a recovery room where I got to really meet you for the first time.  As I looked at you for the first time up close I could see that you were the spitting image of your daddy, which was so special to me.  See you and realizing you look exactly like your dad made me realize that God had a plan all along and had not only blessed me with a baby, but blessed me with a little boy that looked just like his daddy, which was what I had always dreamed about.  It was a sweet little bonus that God didn’t have to do, but that I feel He did as a way to remind me how much HE loves me every time I look at you. 
Looking back it made since that I never went into labor on my own and that my labor went so slowly.  You were breech (butt first) so there was nothing to really put good pressure on my cervix.  Thankfully you were perfectly healthy and suffered no ill effects other than a bruised butt and a little cut on your bum where they had placed the internal monitor on your “head”!!  I will never know why my doctor and two different nurses never caught the fact that you were breech and had been for quite some time.  My advice to every mommy-to-be is to GET AN ULTRASOUND at the end of your pregnancy just too make baby is pointed in the right direction.  :)
You were well worth all the drama and have blessed me more than I could ever tell you!
I love you baby bear!
Mommy

1 comment:

  1. I just love birth stories, and this is quite an intense one! Sounds like you worked really hard to get him here. Congratulations...a year later. (-:

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