Before I get too far away from the details, I wanted to post about the day Reed was born. The night before Reed was born, Zach had a ball game and Ava was spending the night with my mom so I was home alone. I was very emotional and also feeling some contractions. I got some last minute things done around the house and then laid down to rest. Zach got home a little after 10:00 and we finally got settled down to bed around 11:00. I woke up on his birth day at 2:30 and couldn’t go back to sleep.
When it was finally time, we got up and got ready to head to the hospital. Here was one last shot of me:
I told Zach on the way that I was worried I’d be laying in bed in pain all day! The day before at my appointment, I’d only been dilated to a 2. I was very thinned out, but not much dilation. I was also very excited about seeing our little boy for the first time! We got to the hospital and checked in. One nurse tried to do my IV and she missed my vein. They had to wiggle it around in my hand and oh that hurt! I got very faint when she did that. The nurse asked about my labor with Ava and I told her about. She said she thought I’d have a fairly easy time. My doctor had ordered pitocin to start around 6am and since Ava was a fairly quick delivery, she said she wasn’t going to start it early. It started at 6:00 and they came back and 6:30 and 7:00 to up it. At that point, I was feeling contractions and they weren’t too painful, just slightly uncomfortable. My doctor came in around 7:20 to break my water. When he started, he said I was dilated to about a 3. He had a little bit of a time getting the water broken because Reed’s head was so low. He finally got it and looked at me and said, “You just went to a 5.” WOW! He told the nurses I was his over achiever. (Side note: my doctor is moving and I’m simply distraught over it. He’s so great and is a wonderful doctor and I don’t know how I’m ever going to find one who lives up to him. I dread my post partum check up next week because it will be my last appointment with him – maybe. I got a reminder letter yesterday in the mail and it said my follow up appointment was with his partner. Hoping it’s wrong and I’ll at least get a chance to say goodbye.) He told the nurses I could have my epidural any time. The contractions started getting harder and faster and I said I’d like it at any point. The anesthesiologist was in a c-section so I had to wait until he was done. It was probably close to 8:20 or so when he came to do it. They checked me and I had dilated to a 7. I was hurting pretty badly at this point. The contractions were every 1-2 minutes apart and I was feeling them in my back as well. I finally got the epidural and they told me within about 4 contractions I should feel better. Well, nothing ever happened. We waited and I never got ANY relief. They called him back and he got back around 9:15. They checked me again and was still at a 7. He said he had trouble getting it in and was glad he hadn’t gone any further b/c he would have gotten it into my spine. Thank goodness for small favors! He gave it another go around and this time I felt relief almost immediately. The nurse came in about 20 minutes later and said she wanted me to roll to my side to see if that could move me along. I did and about 15 minutes later I told them I needed to push. She came to check me and said I was complete and they got the ball moving. My doctor came in and after a few pushes recalled I’d used the suction for help with Ava (one of the many reasons I love himi – he remembers my history even with the hundreds of patients he has!) and asked if I wanted to do it again. I said if it’d get him out faster then yes! At 10:31 Reed was born!
I did get to hold him immediately. When the nurses took him to clean him up and check him, they noticed him grunting. They tried to do a few things to see if he’d stop, but he didn’t. They brought him to me and let me hold him again for just a minute and then they let Zach hold him too. Then they took him away.
A couple hours (?) later, a NICU nurse finally came in and talked to us. He’d had his cord wrapped somewhat around him and at that point they still didn’t really know what was wrong. I was very upset and just surreal, really. He’d been healthy so it was such a shock. The neonatalogist came to talk to us shortly after to explain about his collapsed lung. At that point, we felt better knowing what was going on, but still unsure of what the future held.
I then got moved to my post partum room. When I stood up the first time, I got incredibly light headed and nauseous feeling. I felt fine in bed but every time I stood up, I felt very weak. That afternoon, Ava came to visit me. It was hard explaining to her that her little brother was “out of my belly” as she put it, but that he was sick.
After she came, I was able to go see Reed for the first time since they’d taken him. A sweet lady who worked in the NICU came and got me with a wheelchair since I was feeling so dizzy. We couldn’t take pictures of him at that point because we couldn’t stimulate him.
The whole day was so emotional. You go into something expecting it to go one way and when it doesn’t, it catches you off guard. I was disappointed at the time for the things that we “missed” out on. Ava didn’t get to meet her brother for 10 days, we didn’t get family pictures at the hospital or many pictures of that day actually, and so on, but I’m so grateful for a healthy baby. I think the whole process was something I had to process emotionally and sadness and anger were part of that. But, I tried to keep my eyes on the positives – that we were able to stay here at our wonderful NICU and that my baby would be ok. We saw several babies in the NICU that were so much worse off and it was so sad to see. Again, I’d like to thank every one who prayed for us that day and the days that followed. I truly believe that’s why he healed so quickly.
