Labor and Delivery

Jax is one week old today! Yipee! In honor of this mini-birthday, I thought I would share how our beautiful boy came into this world. I will insert a warning here... 

***if you are pregnant (and you know who you are), this story will probably make you very nervous. I know you will most likely read it anyway, but just know that the circumstances were really freaky and uncommon and are NO indicator of how most labor/deliveries happen***

... ok, now onto the story.

Monday, June 1st- I went in at 9am to get checked and see if they had a bed available for me to be induced. After being told that they did and waiting for almost 2 hours, we were turned away because the beds filled up. We were told to call at 3pm and see if they had anything available. At 2:30, I called back (I was anxious!). They told us to come on in. We were having a baby! We got to the hospital only to be told that they weren't sure if they could admit us. I put my foot down, told them that I wasn't coming back and they finally admitted me. At 5pm, I was put on an IV drip of Pitocin. 

Tuesday, June 2nd- By 9am, I was having contractions but they weren't regular and were hardly helping me dilate. The nurse decided to take me off Pitocin, let me get something to eat and restart the Pitocin after an hour had passed. By 11am, I was back on the Pitocin and finally having some more contractions, although they still weren't much. At 2:30 they poked my water. I say "poked" because they didn't actually break it. Jax was still sitting high and they didn't want his cord to get under his head then get stuck. By poking my water, it allowed small amounts to come out slowly. By 5pm, my contractions were pretty brutal and I was dilated to 5cm. Time for the drugs! I got an epidural and life got much better. Over the next few hours we all napped and tried to rest until it was time to push. 

Wednesday, June 3rd- At 2am, I was dilated to 10cm and it was time to push. I pushed for 4 hours. Yes. 4 HOURS. He refused to come out. We could see his head but for some reason, it wouldn't move past my pelvic bone. Everyone told me that I was pushing great and making progress. We still have no idea why he didn't come out. The doctor finally decided that a c-section would be the next step. I really wanted to push him out, but at that point I was so incredibly tired that I just couldn't do it anymore. 

They prepped Ryan and I for the c-section, told Ryan to wait outside while they got me all set up, then wheeled me into the operating room. During my pushing, my epidural had come out so they were going to put a spinal tap in for the c-section. Once it was in and I laid back down, I started to feel very nauseous. Then my body started to tingle. I asked if it was normal and the doctor said that it was only normal if it was just my hands tingling. Well, it wasn't just my hands. It was all over. Then I started realizing that I couldn't get deep breaths. I told the doctor that I was having trouble breathing and they put me on oxygen... which did not do a darn thing. Very quickly I realized that I pretty much wasn't able to breathe. At all. I tried to say something but I realized that I couldn't talk either. Scary! Luckily, the doctor realized I wasn't doing so great and said "ok, we are going to put you under". The last thing I remember was hearing him say "we need to intubate her". Next thing I knew, I woke up in a recovery room, still on oxygen and completely numb from my belly down. I hadn't even seen my baby. 

It wasn't until a little later that I learned that my anesthetic had really messed up Jax and when they pulled him out, they had to do CPR for FIVE minutes to bring him back. He had an initial APGAR score of zero. That's pretty much unheard of. Although I was pretty devastated with how everything turned out, I was so glad that I hadn't seen my baby doing so poorly. I don't know what I would have done. 

Well, apparently what caused all of this was that my spinal had gone high. It's very uncommon and rare, but for some reason it travelled higher than it was supposed to and therefore messed with my chest. It's a major bummer how everything turned out and I really wish it had been different. But I just keep remembering that both Jax and I are healthy now. Above anything else, that is what I'm most thankful for. And I'll always have a very... interesting story to tell about how our beautiful baby boy came into this world. 

Happy one-week birthday baby. We love you!