I can't believe tomorrow you turn FOUR years old! You are seriously the cutest, funniest, most hyper, talkative, rambunctious little boy I know. I am so, so lucky to call you mine. It seems like just yesterday I was in the hospital about to give birth to you. I realized that because I started the blog after you were born, I never documented your birth story. It has been something that I have wanted to do for a really long time, I just haven't made time to do it. Now that we are about to add another baby to our family, I want to make sure to document yours first. It was such a beautiful and special time that I want you to always have this to look back on. A special story of how you came into this world told by me.
It all started the night of April 8, 2013. I was working at Cape Fear Valley Health in Fayetteveille in the NICU. When I was 38 weeks pregnant with you they took me off the work schedule like they do for everyone. Because I was feeling fine I decided to call in for just one more shift {I was 38 weeks and 5 days pregnant with you}. I was feeling great and thought I could pull it off, but I was wrong. Everything had been smooth with my pregnancy with you, except for the week before you were born. My blood pressure was a little high when I would check it at work, but it would always go back bown by the time I would be seen at the clinic. They ran a few tests, and everything was normal. When we checked it that last night at work, {I don't think I was feeling bad at the time but I think we were curious to see if it was high} it of course was elevated again. We are talking 140-150/90-100. I called the hospital to see what they wanted for me to do, and they told me I should come in to be monitored. I let the charge nurse know what was going on and I left work at 11 pm and drove myself to the hospital. It was a short 10 minute drive, and daddy met me there. We went up to Labor and Delivery and they started monitoring my blood pressure in triage. It started to drop slowly back to normal over an hour and they were planning on discharging me home, so daddy decided to go back home so he could get some rest since he had to work in the morning. Maybe 5 minutes after he left, the midwife on shift came running in my room asking if I was okay. I felt fine and told her yes. She started looking at my contraction sheet and informed me that I was having a really long contraction. I thought it was just a Braxton Hicks contraction like the ones I had my entire pregnancy with you, but I guess it wasn't. She started touching my belly and it was hard, but then softened signaling the end of the contraction. Sometime between her feeling my stomach and looking at the contraction sheet, your heart rate dropped. She immediately called for backup, and nurses, doctors, and the anesthesiologist all came running into my room. They lowered the head of my bed and immediately started putting IV's in both my arms and giving be oxygen. I had never been so scared in my life. From my point of view it was chaos and everyone was running around and asking me if I felt okay. I even heard them make the call to the OR to get the room ready for a STAT C-section. In the hype of everything, I remember trying to tell the nurses that daddy had left and to call him, but I am not sure they ever heard me because
I had the oxygen mask on my face and there was so much noise in my room. Your heart rate came back up pretty quickly because they ended up not taking me to the OR for surgery, but they did admit me after that. I called daddy to tell him to come back, and him and Memaw did about 15 minutes later. I was coming out of the restroom from changing into a hospital gown when they showed up.
It's so grainy, but daddy took it with his cell phone as I came out of the restroom and was being walked to my new room.
They moved me to a private laboring room shortly after. I felt fine and was told I was already 3-4cm dilated. The plan was that I would get an epidural and then they would give me pitocin to boost my contractions. At about 5:30/6 they gave me a bolus of fluids to prepare me for my epidural, but because it was so close to shift change, they ended up having to wait until after. They ended up giving me one more bolus since the epidural wasn't done right away. When it was time for the epidural, they sent daddy outside so I was left with just my nurse, the anesthesiologist, and the student. She missed the first time, and I cried because I was in pain and wanted for daddy to be there with me. She tried again and got it. Daddy and Memaw were allowed to come back in after that, and I am so happy they did because I immediately threw up. Gotta love that side effect of the epidural. They started the pitocin shortly after, and the contractions started to get more intense.
I am going to spare you all the details after that, but everything went smoothly. Originally it was just going to be me and daddy in the room, but when it came time to push they put both daddy and Memaw to work. I believe I pushed for about an hour and you finally made your appearance at 1:56 pm. You weighed 7 lbs., 4 oz. and were 20 in. long. It was love at first sight when we saw you! You and I immediately did skin-to-skin and I nursed you. You were so content after that. Then it was finally daddy's turn to hold you.
After I ate dinner, which could have been anything and I would have devoured it because I was so hungry, we went up to our room on the postpartum floor. Daddy, Memaw, and I loved on you until it was time for daddy to take her home. When he came back we spent our first night together, just the three of us.
I love you so much and hope one day you enjoy reading this. You will forever be my first baby and the one who showed me what a wonderful feeling it is to be your mommy.
XOXO,
Mommy
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