On Tuesday, June 22nd at 9am I had a 39 week checkup with the a new midwife in the office. It was my first time seeing this woman so I was a little skeptical to begin with, but I seemed to like her from the get go. I told her of my recent complaint of being unable to sit on the toilet easily because I felt like I had a watermelon sitting up underneath my right breast, she stated the baby probably wiggled around and was making me uncomfortable, but I found it a little odd to know I was feeling discomfort higher than the previous weeks when baby should've already begun the decent into the birth canal. She decided to go ahead and check my cervix and while she was down there a sudden look of question rolled over her face. I got a little uneasy and immediately knew why she was making the fore mentioned face..."I'm not sure that's a head" she stated quite questionably. She left the room for a quick second to retrieve the ultrasound machine, only to confirm both our suspicions. At 39 weeks 4 days our little surprise gender baby had decided to throw us for a loop and flip breech. Lovely. Wonderful. Three whole days before our due date and my hopes of going into labor naturally were completely shattered. One of the main OB's came in to review the ultrasound and discuss our options. I could either schedule a c-section right then and there or attempt an external version to turn the baby from the outside. I immediately felt like I wanted to attempt the version, anything for the natural birth I had been dreaming of for the past nine months, right?! I left the office in tears, sobbing my heart out and more terrified than I had been in a very long time and headed home to discuss it with Josh. He was not so keen on attempting to turn the baby, but it was what I wanted so he agreed. We called and scheduled the procedure for Thursday, June 24th, my birthday. In complete and utter silliness I had hoped that because it was my birthday I would have a little more than the average luck...ha! We spent the following day tying up loose ends and getting everything ready for the arrival of our little unknown. Thursday morning rolled around and we headed to the hospital, got checked in and settled into our room. We awaited the doctor for quite some time, but once he arrived things started moving quickly, that is where it all gets fuzzy. The external version was a complete nightmare, the most painful thing I have ever experienced in my life. I think I would rather go through ten births than to do that again! Lets just leave it at that. During the failed attempt at turning baby the doctor monitored the baby with the ultrasound machine and repeatedly said "her" and "she" so we just knew he had ruined the surprise and we were having a baby girl. Once we realized baby was not cooperating the doctor decided to go ahead and get the c-section moving as he did not want me to go into labor with a third child in the breech position. Josh and I were left in the room alone for awhile and I could not contain my fear. I was completely terrified of what was about to happen, while also quiet upset that we were not going to experience the birth we had envisioned. I cried for a while but eventually sucked it up, I was a little overwhelmed to even be very excited to be truthful. I guess it is safe to say I am a big sissy! After a few hours the ball started rolling and I got the spinal and was prepped for surgery. Josh stood back in the corner while a whirlwind of people shuffled around me, doing ten thousand things at once. It was quite scary to see how many medical professionals were actually involved in such an event. That fact made me ever MORE nervous, at this point I'm a wreck. Josh got dolled up in his paper scrubs and we headed back to the OR. The ride in the bed on the way there was a little awkward, I felt like I was on an episode of Grey's! Josh waited outside while they wheeled me in and got me setup on the operating table. It was quite surreal watching the team of nurses swarm around me all while talking about the new iphone and what they're having for lunch all while I am lying on the operating table about to have my body cut open! I just wanted to scream "HELLOOOOOO! Can we focus people?!?!" but quickly realized they do this same procedure several times a day and I was just over reacting just a tad ;) Josh finally got to come in and sit next to my head but he was more focused on trying to see what was going on behind the curtain. After a few pulls and tugs Josh flung up and we head what sounded like a dying cat (seriously, not kidding at all!) and a faint "it's a...." and that was it. Josh had disappeared and I'm lying there bawling my eyes out and couldn't even hear the gender over my own breaths! I finally had to ask the guy who was monitoring my spinal if it really was a boy! He confirmed, I cried some more...tears of joy this time! Josh tended to the picture taking of the new unnamed baby boy while I tried asking a gazillion questions without a soul hearing me. After a minute or two I began to actually cry tears of pain again, I was feeling a lot of whatever was going on behind that big blue paper curtain and I did not like it one bit. They had to shoot me up with some heavy narcotics to calm me down and from there on out I was in la-la-land. Baby boy was finally brought over to me where we snapped some pictures and exchanged kisses, then off they went again. The doctor got me stapled up and moved back to my wheelie bed and rolled me right on out to recovery. Thirty minutes tops and it was all over and done with. In recovery I was reunited with daddy and baby, who was currently getting HIS first bath. They did everything right next to my bed which I absolutely loved. It made me feel a little closer to him and the experience. After a few minutes I finally got to hold my baby BOY for the first time! It was glorious. We immediately began nursing and he nursed like a champ, I was proud. After a while Josh decided to venture out and tell the family the big news. I wish I could have seen their reactions...that is something I really missed out on. I did not get to experience that part of it at all and it was something I had looked so forward to throughout the entire pregnancy. We spent about two hours in recovery and then they wheeled us up to our room. On the way there we started talking names and I think that is when we finally decided on Jake. Josh was pretty set on it from the minute he saw him, but I was still having doubts. Jake Miller. It fits him so perfectly. The next several hours was spent visiting with friends and family, nursing, nursing and more nursing...oh and pressing that little morphine pump, oh, a hundred thousand times! We survived the next several days with lots of visitors, many tears (of pain, from the sissy of course!) and lots of quiet time together, just the three of us. Josh and I really enjoyed our time in the hospital this time around, we actually did not want to leave but needed to get home. Jake was born on Thursday and we headed home on Sunday. Before we made it home we had to stop by Target to get baby boy some clothes of course. As big of a sissy as I was and as much pain as I was in, I pushed through it to hit the Target baby section! Haha! Oh yeh, and to get my pain medicines filled as well. We finally made it home to a quiet house and enjoyed the evening together with our new baby boy. I actually made it upstairs that evening, which we were worried about, but it took me all of 15 minutes. The following day I did not move out of bed much because the pain seemed to have worsen. That Tuesday we headed to the Pediatrician for Jake's checkup to find that he had jaundice. For the remainder of the week we went daily to the hospital to have his levels check while keeping him on the bili-bed at home. It was tough keeping him on the bed 24-7 and not being able to hold him, but we pushed through and he finally go to stay off of the lights on Friday. It was quite frustrating for both Josh and I.
So, this is Jake's birth story in a nutshell. It was completely not what any of us expected. Different in every aspect from our two previous experiences...and it still continues to be that way. Jake definitely has us in for a ride....but we are looking forward to every minute of it!
2 comments:
Thanks for sharing your birth story! I've been checking in periodically ;) Take care!
Omigosh!! I haven't been around in so long!! Congratulations on #3!! That's awesome!
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