We shall call you...PJ

Here is the crazy (for us at least) story of our boy's birth.



Saturday evening, the 25th, and continuing into Sunday morning, the 26th, I began experiencing some major contractions. For about 4 hours (10pm-2am) they stayed 10 mins apart, so we decided to just wait them out at home until they got a little closer. By 3am they had spread back out to about 20 minutes apart and I was able to get some much needed sleep.

Sunday morning when I woke up the contractions still felt strong, but not close enough together to worry. I spoke to my OB and she said that I could stay home, go about my day as usual and report to the hospital at 8pm that night as we had scheduled, to be induced.
And that is just what we did...we went about our normal activities. We went to a 5 year old's birthday party and I just dealt with the contractions as nothing were happening. We made it home from the party with a couple of hours to spare, so I showered, and double-checked my hospital bag, packed the car and we hit the road about 7:15pm.

We had high hopes that I wouldn't have to be induced since I was having contractions all weekend. Boy were we right! At exactly 8pm I was hooked up to the fetal monitors. One to monitor my contractions, and one to monitor the baby's heart rate. Not long after being hooked up, the R.N. checked to see how far I was dialated. I was already dialated 5 CM!!!

Not long after that, though, the R.N. and numerous other doctors noticed on the baby's monitor that it's heart rate would drop very low during my contractions, and then raise to normal levels when I wasn't contracting. They decided to lay me all sorts of different ways on the bed to take some pressure off of the ambilical cord. I was also hooked up to an oxygen tank to send the baby more oxygen. They said that my contracting uterus was applying pressure on the ambilical cord, cutting off flow to the baby. Eventually they attached monitors to the baby itself, inside of me, to get a more accurate heart rate.

Pretty damn scary stuff considering we hadn't been at the hospital for longer than an hour and a half and all this was happening so fast. I was given medicine through my IV to stop my contractions to monitor the baby's heart rate on it's own, and everything was fine. It was just when I was contracting that the baby had a tough time recovering.

At some point during this fiasco the nurse told me that my best bet, at the time being, was to get an epidural, considering the fact that I may have to be rushed into an emergency c-section.

So now, at 5 cm dialated, my contractions have been halted, an epidural has been given, and now pitocin was to be given to start my contractions up again. All of course, while the baby's heart rate being monitored by a zillion nurses. (or so it seemed) Patrick and I sat around listening the baby's heart rate at a nice, fast, consistent pace (which at times put us to sleep) only to be terrified when we heard a lag in between beats. Remember, I can not feel my contractions now, so I had no idea when the baby was having a hard time recovering unless I heard the inconsistent beats. Not fun. We would hear the lag, sit up, look at eachother and wait for the dr.'s to come rushing in.

We had to do this for FIVE hours until about 2:30 in the morning when my OB called and gave me two options.

1.) Continue with how things were going, but realizing that the hardest part of birth on a baby is the actual delivery. If it couldn't handle contractions at this point, it would be very stressful during the delivery.

OR

2.) Prepare for a C-Section.

I didn't even ask my husband, I found out later, I just made the executive decision to have a C-section. There was no way I was going to put my baby at anymore risk than it was already enduring.

We called family members at 2:30, telling them to hurry on up b/c the Dr.'s weren't waiting. Daddy got dressed in his hospital scrubs and the Dr.'s upped my epidural dose and off we went to the surgery room. HERE GOES NOTHING!! :)

My arms were laid out flat, pointing directly out. They put warm towels on them, and I was given little nose oxygen plugs. They hoisted a tarp in front of my face and my OB began her procedure. The epidural is no joke. I couldn't stay awake. The lights were too bright, I was struggling to STAY AWAKE DURING THE BIRTH OF MY CHILD. Seriously?? I made daddy talk to me so I could stay awake. He really helped out!

I think the whole C-Section process took about 20-25 minutes. Daddy got to announce the sex of the baby to all of the doctors and to me. We have a baby BOY!!

Picutres were taken, tears were shed. What a surreal experience!
Our perfectly healthy, 8lb 5oz, 20.5 inch baby boy was born at 3:33am!!

We Love You PJ!!

***Editor's Note** My OB had to wait until delivery to inspect what could have been happening to my abilical cord when the baby's heart rate was dropping. She said that my ambilical cord was thin and old (I guess b/c I was 9 days late), and that not everyone experiences the complication that we did, but that it isn't that uncommon.***