Detailed Birth Story

Since my little guy is 12 weeks old now (did I just write 12 weeks?! ohmygoodness), I figured that I better write out his birth story since I have yet to write it in his journal (shame on me) and I don't want to forget anything.

FYI: This will probably be long....proceed at your own risk! :-)

March 27th I had my 37 week checkup. As I had a mid-morning appointment and was nauseous I decided to forego breakfast. Yeah...I would regret that later. I was frankly miserable. I had been having contractions on and off for the previous 2 weeks and each week I had made a trip to L&D. This was my first trip. March 23rd-26th were full of contractions and I kept having incision pain from my previous c-section scar. The pain made me so scared. I began to think that I was going to lose Landon. Between my contractions and my fear I barely slept. When I arrived at the doctor that morning I was exhausted, so exhausted that I actually laid on the exam table because I could barely keep my eyes open. My doctor came in and she even said "you look exhausted" I proceeded to tell her about my weekend as she did a cervical check. I was still only 1 cm dilated despite the contractions I had been having, as I sat up on the table I proceeded to have a contraction. My doctor decided to put me on the NST monitor to see how far a part my contractions were. I sat there for probably about 20 minutes having contractions; however, the monitor was not picking them up. :-/ My nurse decided to palpate my uterus to see if she could feel the contractions I was having. Sure enough I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes. They were not huge, long contractions but I was having them. The decision was made to send me to the hospital for medicine and further monitoring. I asked my doctor if they were going to take him. They really didn't want to since I had just turned 37 weeks, but she said that she was on-call the next day and we would see what the day held.

I was then wheeled to the hospital and hooked up to monitors. Their monitors quickly picked up my contractions. I was given an I.V. to push fluids just in case I was dehydrated and that maybe that was what was causing the contractions. I was told that I would not be able to eat anything since I may have to have surgery. Greeeeeat!! I was then given a shot to make my contractions stop. My nurse at the hospital said that if I was having true contractions that the medicine would not stop them. The medicine they give you is awful! It makes your heart race, it makes you shaky and just all around feel bad. 20 minutes later, as I was still shaking from the medicine I had a HUGE contraction along with the incision pain I had been trying to explain to them. Tears were rolling out of my eyes. My nurse was able to witness all of it. The decision was soon made to keep me over night for observation and in the morning they would make a decision on whether or not to proceed with a c-section. I called Freddie, who was at work, to ask him to come to the hospital and texted my friend who works in L&D to see if she was working that night. Sure enough she was! I was so happy that I would have a familiar face there to help take care of me. Finally at 6 pm I was given the okay to get something to eat....yeah...I had not had anything to eat since the night before! :-/ So I ordered some french toast, eggs and carrot cake. Nice combination, right? lol Freddie finally arrived and my mom left with Kameron. I was still starving but the cafeteria was closed so I got a cold cut sandwich that was heated up by my lovely friend, still hungry I ate another one! All the while at this point my contractions had quit and I was able to enjoy sometime with Freddie while we watched Justified. Finally at 1am I decided to try to get some sleep, but it really was impossible. I was partially sitting up in bed because the monitor couldn't catch the contractions if I was laying down, I was also kinda on my side because Landon was putting so much pressure on my tailbone and I was trying to avoid mushing my finger that had been closed in the car door 2 weeks prior. I got maybe 1 hour of sleep.

At 7am my friend ended her shift and said her goodbyes to me. At 7:15 my new nurse came in and asked me if I had talked to my doctor yet, I told her no. She then said "we are going to start prepping you for your section" I was in complete shock!!! I thought for sure that they were going to send me home and that I would have pretty much wasted the whole night at the hospital. Up to that point I was so ready to meet Landon but then when they said that it was now D-day I was terrified. I thought that I had 2 weeks to mentally prepare for my section, now I didn't even have 2 hours. I of course started to shake and tear up. My mom was thankfully already there with Kameron and my dad was on his way. They drew my blood, put on my lovely stockings to prevent blood clots and gave me my beautiful hat. I got to say goodbye to Kameron and my daddy made it just in time to tell me bye and say a prayer with us. I then got to walk to the operating room. That was such a weird experience. As I walked into the operating room all the memories of Kameron's bad delivery came rushing back. The sights, the smells, the coldness of the room terrified me. I started shaking all over and my eyes began to fill up with tears. I kept taking deep breaths and the nurses kept asking me if I was okay. hahaha....yeah....I'm great, just about to have my stomach cut open while I'm awake! Other than that I'm great!! At this point they checked my bp it was 140/100! Told you I was terrified. Then the part I was most nervous about came up, the time for my spinal. My whole epidural experience with Kameron was horrible; it hurt, they went too far so they had to do it a second time, I then got a spinal headache which resulted in a blood patch. Yeah....it was BAD!!! The anesthesiologist began to scrub my back with betadine. Then he started the spinal. One big stick, a zing down my leg and it was over. I was immediately numb and warm all over. It was great! Finally that part was over. Not too long after that my doctor came in and started the surgery. Finally Freddie was by my side, camera ready to record. It was taking a little longer than I thought it should and my doctor finally said that she was having to work through some scar tissue which is what was taking so long. Finally at 9:09am he was here! I remember hearing him cry and my doctor saying "yep he is definitely all boy and look at how beautiful he his" Freddie then left my side to continue filming Landon. As I lay there on the table listening to Landon's cries I just cried. Over and over I said "I can't believe he is here, thank you Lord for giving him to me, for getting him here safe, please let him be strong....thank you, thank you, thank you" I then got to see him all bundled up and kiss him before they took him to the nursery. Over all I was doing well during my surgery except for some pesky nausea and the feeling like I couldn't breathe. My doctor piped up and said that the ovarian cyst that at one point during my pregnancy had been 10cm big was gone so I wouldn't need any additional surgery, she then began the process of stitching me up. At this point I was getting really nauseous and the anesthesiologist was giving me all the medication she could to keep me from throwing up, I then felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest and when I told her I couldn't breathe her response was "oh....that's probably because they have your uterus sitting on your chest" !!!!!!!!!  I then threw up. hahaha. Word came back that Landon was doing great, was super strong and 7 pounds despite being 3 weeks early. I was shocked he was so big! My doctor then came to my side and said that she was really glad that we had decided to do the surgery that day instead of waiting 2 more weeks. She said that when she got to my uterus ,in the spot that I kept having pain, she found that my uterus was actually really thin. Typically when a doctor cuts through a uterus during a section it takes 5 swipes with the scalpel, mine only took one swipe. One swipe and she was in to take Landon out. She said that if we had gone any longer that it could have definitely been a possibility that my uterus could have ruptured. At that point I was so glad that I had listened to my body, didn't push my symptoms to the side ignoring them and that I had a doctor that actually listened to me and my body.

My surgery was finally over and I was wheeled to recovery. Not long after that I heard the bloomp, bloomp of the baby cart. The cart that held my precious boy who was smacking away because he was hungry. Despite my drug induced stupor I will never forget him nursing for the first time as I stroked his head and the peach fuzz on his shoulder.

Despite having a plan and my son not sticking to that plan I am so happy with how things turned out that day. It has been added to my list of life changing moments.

If you have made it this far I commend you! And I will reward you with some of Landon's first pictures. :-)