Welcome Levi John Friesen.
After having Chloe, Josiah and Madison basically all 4 days late without my water breaking and my labor getting quicker each time I thought I had this pregnancy/birth all figured out. But I was wrong.
Monday morning (2 days past due) started like any other day. The kids woke up at 6:30 when their little green light timer lit up and they came bounding into our room. Chloe grabbed Maddie from the crib and carried her into our room. I had to use the restroom (no surprise there!). However after using the bathroom I noticed something strange… and I immediately said to Tim, “Um… I think my water just broke.” Since it didn’t break with the others I really didn’t know what to expect and it wasn’t the typical deluge of water that I had imagined from stories, but I was 99% certain that was what it was. So we got the kids moving on their before school routine while I called my midwife and Tim called Jennifer to come over. At this point we figured that things would progress very quickly so we needed to be prepared. I showered and finished packing my hospital bag while Tim got Chloe ready for school and arranged for someone to take Josiah to and from preschool. Jen showed up and we got Chloe on the bus. My midwife said I could wait until the contractions picked up before coming in, so I waited.
There were no noticeable contractions. For hours. I drove myself to Caribou to console myself in the lack of progress. Jen and I played Chinese checkers to pass the time. Lunch time came and went, and since we were still just waiting Tim took Josiah to preschool instead. I passed the time by reading a ridiculously long article about what happened with the President and Air Force One in the hours after 9/11. It was a really interesting article and took me and hour and a half to finish. Still no contractions. I spoke with my midwife again and she said if there was no progress by 6:30 that evening I should come in for a stress test to make sure everything was still ok.
The day meandered by. I met Chloe as she got off the bus and she was so disappointed that I was still at home. Josiah asked all day if it was time for the baby to come… Finally Tim and I left for the hospital at 6:30. It was the strangest feeling to walk into the hospital and go to the Family Birthing Unit without being in any pain. We strolled in and they hooked me up to check on the baby’s heart beat and my blood pressure, etc. At that point we started to discuss our options. Since I was already past my due date they had no objections to giving me some medicine to help the contractions along. After talking everything through we decided that they should first test to see if my water had indeed broken. The test came back positive so we committed to staying in the hospital and have the baby now. She did check to see if I had more water that might have not broken yet and there was a bit of water that was still trapped inside so she was able to release that. She also gave me Cydoteck to help my contractions along. At this point I was dilated to a 1. The midwife was having a hard time figuring out the position of the baby so they rolled in an ultrasound cart to get a better look. He was face down, but slightly tipped to the side. The contractions started to pick up a little and I progressed to a 3 over the next hour or two. At that point we decided it was time to order the epidural. He came in a little later and got everything started. The epidural didn’t take much of the edge off, but it did help.
It was about this time that we noticed that the baby’s heart beat was starting to drop during my contractions. As time progressed it was becoming more and more pronounced. They kept coming in to have me change positions to see if that would help, but it didn’t. I started to feel nauseous from the contractions and all the position changes. They had to give me an oxygen mask. Finally after trying everything to stop his heart beat from dropping they came and talked to me and said it was time to get him out—he was going through too much distress. And that meant an emergency C-Section. They paged the on-call surgeon and started prepping me.
The next bit is a whirlwind of activity for me. I know a bunch of people started coming in the room for various reasons. Tim had to put on scrubs and stood by my head holding my hand. Eventually they led him away to the waiting room so I could finish getting prepped and they rolled my bed down to the operating room. I was in a lot of pain by now, so I had my eyes closed for most of this span of time, but I remember thinking the room was very bright and white. I also remember hearing everyone having their own conversations and thinking it seemed like a dream. They lifted me onto another bed and then put up a sheet in front of me then gave me more epidural. When they checked to see if I could still feel anything I could—so they had to give me an extra 4 doses. At one point the anesthesiologist said, “I guess she needs a LOT of medicine!” Because of the high amount I received I was numb all the way up to my shoulders. Tim was eventually led back into the room and sat by my head. I don’t remember looking at him. I don’t remember much except that it felt weird. And then the surgeon held Levi over the top of the sheet to show him to me before they took him over to weigh him and clean him up. I remember the surgeon exclaim that it was a big baby “at least 10 pounds!” The nurses asked if Tim wanted to help cut the cord and he declined. So they offered to take some pictures for us so Tim could stay next to me.
It was at that point that I became insanely tired. So tired I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I remember hearing something about losing a lot of blood. They brought Levi over to us and took a picture of the three of us. I couldn’t keep my eyes open for all the pictures, I was so tired. At some point I told Tim it was ok if he went back to the room with Levi. I remember he kissed my forehead before he left. I dozed in and out as they cleaned me up and lifted me back onto my other bed and rolled me back to my room. They started to do a lot of tests on me and as I was in an out I was aware that they were concerned about my blood pressure. Apparently it was dangerously low. It was aggravated because I was numb so high on my body. They worked on getting it to a safe zone for the next hour. Something must have helped because eventually I stabilized and they set up a bed for Tim next to me and put Levi in his bassinet between us and we all slept for a while.
The next day I asked the midwife about what they discovered when they could see Levi during the C-Section. She said he had a bunch of umbilical cord bunched up around his shoulder, so as he was pushing down during the contractions it was pressing on the cord and stopping the blood—making his heart rate drop. In fact after all the hours of laboring his shoulders were still only at the point of the incision. She said it was a good thing we had the surgery.
But, now he’s here. And as they say, it’s all water under the bridge. I’m just so happy that he came out safe and healthy. And even though it’s going to take me a little longer to recover, I’m completely fine too. Praise God!
Wow. I’m glad I didn’t know all that when it was happening – I would have been so worried about you. Your description of the room sounds exactly like delivery rooms themselves were when you guys were born. Bright lights – lots of people (I always had students in there when I delivered), the white sheet up, Dad by my head. And that was for a standard delivery. I guess things have changed a bit, what with birthing rooms and midwives and all.