Grady's Birth Story

Or should I say "Birth Saga". Here is how it all went down.

Sunday December 26, 2010
6 o'clock am. I wake up with a contraction. Not a braxton hicks contraction, but a REAL contraction. I lay in bed for a while and another one comes along. I decide to wake up Jerry and have him start timing these suckers because they really kinda hurt. 10 minutes apart. Okay... just stay calm. We watched a little TV and the contractions just kept coming. 8 minutes apart, then 6 minutes apart, then 5. I tell Jerry I think we better start making a plan to go to the hospital. I called my doctors answering service and they told me to come in and be checked. We packed the last couple of things and headed out the door around 12:30. We had to get gas, drop a key off to Jerry's cousin to watch the dogs and take something to Jerry's brother in law... all the while I am having contractions 5 minutes apart. We finally get to the hospital and they hook me up to the monitors. Sure enough... contractions every 4-5 minutes. The nurse checked me and I was only 1.5 cm and 80% effaced. They monitored me for about an hour and came back in and told me that the on call doctor didn't think I was far enough along to keep me there and that I would be more comfortable going through this part of labor at home. I asked them to please call my doctor and they just said that they already talked to the on call doctor and it was his decision. So I sadly got dressed, packed up my stuff and went home... crying most the way. I didn't know what to do because I was still having contractions every 5 minutes... how was I supposed to know when to go back to the hospital? I continued to have contractions all day and through the night. They spaced back out to about 8 minutes apart, but they were getting more and more intense.

Monday December 27, 2010
Had a doctors appointment this morning. Told the doctor that I had gone to the hospital and that they sent me home. He was not very happy that the nurses didn't call him. He told me that he would have just had me stay and started on pitocin. That upset me even more! I could have had a baby by now and I wouldn't be dealing with these miserable contractions! I told him I was having contractions every 8 minutes so he checked me. I was only 2 cm dilated and 80 % effaced. So depressing. All those contractions with such little results! My doctor told me he would see if he could get me in to be started tonight, and that he would call me around six o'clock and let me know if they had room for me to be induced. If not I would have to wait until tomorrow morning at 7 o'clock am. I COULD NOT go through another night of these contractions. They were getting worse and worse. Again, we went home and I just tried to relax as much as possible. We watched "Where the Red Fern Grows" and continued to time the contractions. Around 5 o'clock I had had enough!! The contractions were consistently 5 minutes apart and they were pretty darn painful... to the point where I couldn't talk through them. I told Jerry we were going to the hospital and I didn't want to wait for my doctor to call. We loaded our stuff into the car (again) and headed out. We got about half way up Antelope Drive when we stopped at a red light and WHAM!!!!! We got rear ended. Jerry was NOT happy. I told him to hurry and call 911 because we didn't have time to be sitting around filling out paperwork for a stupid car accident. He called 911 and told the dispatcher that I was in labor and that we needed to get this over with quickly. The dispatcher asked Jerry to check and make sure the baby was not coming out... he assured them that the baby was not coming out but they made him physically check... it was pretty funny. They asked me to let them know when I was having a contraction so they could time them. They were about 4 minutes apart. The girl who hit us came to the window and Jerry told her I was in labor and the police were on their way. She felt really bad and said "You hate me right now!" I looked at her and said "roll up the window." Jerry told her to go wait in her car and he rolled up the window. The police and the paramedics show up and they would not let us leave. They put a neck brace on me, strapped me to a stretcher and loaded me into an ambulance. Jerry followed us to Davis hospital and when we got there they took me straight up to labor and delivery. I kept trying to tell them that we were already on our way to LDS hospital when we got rear ended and that I just wanted to go there but they wouldn't let us leave. The nurse hooked me up to monitors and my contractions were now 3-4 minutes apart... she checked me and I was 4.5 cm dilated and fully effaced. She told me that she would not be able to let me leave because I was in active labor. Right then my doctor called to let us know he could fit us in tonight to be induced... Jerry answered and told him that I was already in labor and that the hospital wouldn't let us leave. My doctor talked to the nurse and told her to release me and send me to LDS hospital ASAP. She agreed to let us leave, but first she had to monitor me for 20 minutes to make sure the baby was stable enough to be discharged. Jerry had to fill out all the admittance paperwork and give them a copy of our insurance information WHILE he was talking to the cops about the car accident. It was a big old mess and not what I wanted to be dealing with right at that moment... I have the worst luck ever! The nurse came back in and said that she technically couldn't take orders from my doctor because he didn't have rights at Davis hospital. She got the on call doctor on the phone and wanted me to talk to him. The nurse looked at Jerry and said "He's going to convince her to stay, I'm sure of it." and Jerry looked at her and said "I don't think so." He knows me so well. I explained to the doctor that I had been planning this birth for nine months and I wasn't about to let some stupid lady who rear ended us change everything. He kept trying to convince me to stay and I finally had to cut him of and tell him that I trust my doctor and to get me the hell out of this hospital and get the show on the road. I think that finally caught his attention. Well... an hour and a half later we were finally released from Davis hospital. They got me into a wheel chair and ran me out to our car (which was a total mess from the wreck) and we were on our way to LDS hospital. We finally arrived at LDS around 8 o'clock pm (3 hours after leaving our house). Immediately when I got there I was put on an IV and given my epidural. The anesthesiologist was a master at epidurals and he was in and out in about ten minutes and I felt immediate relief! I could still slightly feel each contraction but I wasn't wincing in pain like I was before. My doctor came in and checked me and I was 5 cm and fully effaced. He broke my water and told the nurse to start me on pitocin. He told me I would probably be having this baby around 3 o'clock am and to get comfortable. I was totally okay with that and I was even ready to take a little nap... but the baby had different plans for us. Soon after I was started on the pitocin the nurse started to notice that the baby's heart rate was not recovering from each contraction like she wanted it to. His heart rate was around 145-150 and it was dropping all the way down to 89. She put me on oxygen and I was being turned from side to side every couple of minutes to try and get his heart rate up (which isn't an easy task when you can't feel your legs!). The nurse put internal monitors inside to try and gage his heart rate a little more accurately. She checked me and I was 6 cm dilated. She didn't feel comfortable keeping me on the pitocin because she thought it was putting too much stress on the baby so she stopped the pitocin. A couple of hours later our nurses changed shifts and we got a different nurse (this one seemed a lot more competent). She called for my doctor and asked him what he wanted her to do. Apparently the previous nurse didn't tell my doctor that she had taken me off the pitocin and he was not too happy about that. At this point they knew that something was wrong with the umbilical chord... wrapped around his body or his neck and that is why his heart rate was dropping with each contraction. They checked me again and I was 6.5 cm dilated (not much improvement over the last couple of hours). They told me that they were going to make a last ditch effort to get his heart rate back up by doing a reverse amniocentesis or amnioinfusion where they would pump water back into my uteris to give a bit of cushion for the baby during the contractions. They told me if this didn't work to prepare for an emergency C-section. I was getting nervous and I could tell Jerry was nervous too. He just held my hand and we were preparing for whatever we needed to do to get this baby here safely. After the amnioinfuision his heart rate had stabilized to about 130. They checked me again and I was still about 6.5 cm dilated and at that point my doctor felt it was safe to be put back on the pitocin. After being on the pitocin for about 15 minutes I told the nurse I was feeling A LOT of pressure like I needed to push. I could tell by the look on her face she didn't really believe me since it had only been a short time since they checked me last. She agreed to check me again and the look on her face was priceless when she did... pure shock... she told me I was complete (fully effaced and dilated)!! She called for my doctor and he checked me as well and said I was ready to start pushing. He told me he wanted to see how I could push and on my next contraction to push as hard as I could. Jerry was on my right and the nurse was on my left, and on my next contraction I pushed three times and the doctor yelled for a table to be set up because this baby was coming! He asked the nurse why she didn't have a table ready while he was putting on his delivery robe thing and she said "I thought we were going to the OR!". Apparently everyone thought this delivery was going to end with a C-section! Once they got everything set up and the pediatricians and respiratory specialists were in the room I pushed again on my next contraction three times. I just remember the doctor telling me to "keep pushing just like that! Do it for your baby!"... that was all the motivation I needed to get this baby here! I had another contraction and pushed once and the doctor told me to STOP PUSHING, the head was out and the chord was around his neck. He quickly pulled the chord over his head and told me to push again. I pushed once more and he was here, born at 12:00:52 am.

Tuesday December 28, 2010I immediately started to cry and looked at Jerry and I could see some tears in his eyes too! Jerry cut the chord and the baby was whisked away to the pediatric team. Jerry followed them with the camera and I was left alone being tended to by my doctor. I was so sad that I wasn't able to hold my baby boy right away and I made Jerry take some pictures and come show me while they were still cleaning baby up. It was the most amazing feeling knowing that he came from us! I thought right away that he looked like me from my baby pictures and I was shocked at what a cone head he had! The doctor assured me that the cone head would go away. They weighed and measured him and he was 7 lbs 8 oz and 20.5 inches long. He was born two weeks early and I can't imagine how big he would have been if I had gone the full 40 weeks! I was so thankful to have my doctor who I trusted deliver my baby and I thanked him over and over. He told me he was glad that I was able to come and have the baby at LDS instead of Davis, because I most likely would have had a C-section if I had stayed at Davis hospital. Once I was all cleaned up and the baby was declared OK I was finally able to hold him. It was the most surreal moment. His eyes were wide open and I swear he was looking straight at me. He was the cutest thing I had ever seen. Jerry was holding me while I was holding Grady and everything felt so right in that moment. I felt so much love for Jerry and for this sweet baby I was holding. It was a crazy couple of days... actually, a crazy nine months... but it was all worth it to be able to hold my sweet baby boy.

{moments after he was born}{a big boy!}

{look at that cute cone head} {first moments with mom}

{our new little family of three}

{a very proud papa}

{Grady has HUGE feet... getting inked}

{first bath}

{Welcome Grady boy!}