The birth story

Most of you have probably already heard first hand or read the email about Owen's birth story.  I wasn't going to put it on the blog (or at least not yet), but I feel like skipping over it and into our current lives makes the blog and our family story somewhat incomplete.  So if you've already heard/read this, feel free to skip this entry, though I did add updates throughout the original story.  Here we go.

So anyway, I had started having irregular contractions Tuesday morning (December 11) which was our due date, so I stayed home from work, but they stayed very irregular and inconsistent all day.  Then Wednesday morning I had more contractions and some blood when I went to the bathroom, so we called the hospital and they had us come in.  We found out we were 3 cm dilated, but they sent us home to do some walking, since we weren't showing any other major labor symptoms.  We walked the mall for about 2 hours that night, hoping to kick things into gear.  But nothing happened.  Thursday morning (December 13)  I decided to go into work because the sitting around was driving me crazy, so I went in for about 5 hours and then had slightly more regular contractions that afternoon after some more mall walking.  They were between 12 and 7 minutes apart at this point, but still no consistency.

Then around 5:45 that night (still Thursday Dec 13), while sitting on the couch, I suddenly felt a big THUNK inside me which made me scared the hell out of me.  I told Matt what I felt and he very calmly said, "Maybe your water broke."  I went in to the bathroom to check....and sure enough, my water had broke.  Matt and I both showered and headed in to the hospital, with my contractions then suddenly being 2-3 minutes apart and a hell of a lot stronger than they had been, like to the point where I couldn't talk through them.  By the time we were admitted to the hospital, the contractions were about a minute apart and very very painful.  Our nurse said she figured we would have a quick labor/delivery because of how things had progressed....famous last words.

While waiting for the Epidural (yeah, that decision was made about three minutes after arriving), I received some Morphine, which caused me a lot of vomiting over the next 6 hours.  Once I had the Epidural, things slowed down a bit, so Matt and I were able to "rest" until we were fully dilated at about 2:00am.  However during the "resting" period, my blood pressure, heart rate, and temperature sky rocketed, so they did a test and found me to have a uterine infection (which can happen during labor and they aren't sure why it happens to some women).  And the baby's heart rate had fallen.  So after pushing for 2 hours (it was around 5:00am at this point) the doctor came in and said that we hadn't made any progress with the pushing, and with the baby's heart rate still being low and all my issues, we should do an emergency Cesarean.  Which we of course agreed to right away.

***Update: Word to the wise....do not let the anesthesiologist resident do your pain medication.  I felt every moment of my C-Section because he didn't give me enough to begin with and it was the most painful experience of my life.  I was screaming/bellowing throughout the entire operation.  Thank goodness for Matt being by my side throughout it all...I honestly would not have made it without him being there.  The same resident also had to redo my initial epidural three times before the main guy finally took over earlier in the night.

When the doctors finally announced that Owen was out of my belly all I could do was ask, "Why isn't he crying?  Why isn't he crying?" over and over.  Finally one of the nurses explained that not all babies cry when they're first born, especially with a C-Section.***

Owen was born at 7:11am (Friday, December 14) but was having some problems breathing at first, so we only got to see him long enough for a quick kiss (aka probably slobber) from me, then he was rushed up to the NICU.  After a long recovery time in the OR, Matt and I were finally able to go up and see Owen a of couple hours later.  By that time he was breathing completely fine on his own, but he had developed an infection from my uterine infection, so he had to be on antibiotics for 2 days and stay in the NICU.

***Update: We found out a couple days later that Owen had some of these issues because I have O positive blood and he has A (I can't remember if it's positive/negative) blood, which is not a good mix.  Why this happens is beyond my comprehension, but it at least gave us some explanation.

After being in recovery from surgery for about two hours, we were finally able to go up to the NICU to see Owen.  I was wheeled in on a hospital bed/gurney since I couldn't get up.  Although I was in and out of being awake (and looked/felt like hell), I'll never forget holding my little boy for the first time. :) ***

Over the next day and a half I ended up needing a blood transfusion from my blood loss in the surgery and being on antibiotics.  And the pain meds they were giving me through the IV made me vomit (again) and not be able to keep any food and very little water down.  Once I had the transfusion on Saturday, my blood pressure and heart rate finally started coming down a bit.

***Update: Apparently I looked like death run over twice up until I had the transfusion.  I could barely keep my eyes open and would literally fall asleep while talking to someone and then wake up later trying to finish my sentence.  In the middle of the first bag of blood they gave me I felt like I had woken up from being in a coma.  I was suddenly a Chatty Cathy and wanted to chug water like a maniac.***

Owen had to stay in the NICU until Saturday evening (December 15), but the nurses would bring him down to us every couple hours for feedings and visits, which was wonderful.  Our first overnight with him went great and he seemed to be on a pretty good schedule of waking up, eating, pooping, then falling back to sleep. :)  He developed some Jaundice, so he was wrapped in a Bili Blanket (which is a photolight therapy UV blanket) for a week, which pushed the Jaundice out of his system (Through his poop.  Yup, you poop it out).

***Update: We were finally able to go home on Monday, December 17 in the early evening.  We were excited, nervous, but so ready to get our little guy home.

Still so yellow from the Jaundice (Monday, Dec 17), But finally home!

So that was the birth story.  I'm sure I skipped over some things and or left some things out, but that was our experience in a nut shell.  On major thing....I will never be able to say enough wonderful things about every single nurse we had while in the hospital.  Honestly, how those women do the amazing things they do day in and day out.....despite everything that did not go as planned, the nurses made our stay so much better than we could have ever hoped for.

~Matt, Steph, and Owen~