Owen's delivery details

Brace yourself... it's a long one.

Remember this post, where I expressed how my profession as a NICU nurse unfortunately cast a big blanket of worry on me as an expectant mother? Well, I wish I could tell you that my delivery was a beautiful, uncomplicated, textbook case. I wish. While it was in no way the delivery I had hoped for or anticipated, the reward was the same... Owen. He's here, he's healthy, and we love him to pieces!

Owen's birth story:

On July 3rd, I called my doctor and asked to be seen as I had begun leaking fluid. I packed my hospital bag (just in case) and headed to the office. After running a couple of tests, the doctor assured me that it was NOT amniotic fluid. I asked what it was then and her response was, "The world may never know." ...awesome. Me, my bag, and a bad attitude went home. 

Justin and I had been anticipating July 4th for quite some time. It was Owen's due date after all! We had made no plans for the holiday as we had hoped Owen would have made his arrival on or before his due date. But the fireworks came and went, and I was still very pregnant. His original due date based on dates was July 5th. They had only changed it to July 4th after an ultrasound. So by the end of the night we went to bed thinking maybe Owen was simply waiting until his original due date. We hoped anyway.

July 5, 2013

Friday morning, I woke up early and while still in bed began scrolling through facebook status updates on my phone. I saw that yet another person with the same due date as me was now having their baby. I immediately started bawling. Huge pity party right then and there. I left the room so as not to wake Justin with my hysterics. I sat in the nursery and tried to calm myself by looking around at all Owen's things. He WOULD eventually come out. I knew this. I pulled up the What to Expect app on my phone to read my daily stats. It cheerfully informed me that "your baby is past his due date" and was now likely the "size of a pumpkin". While still envisioning all the brand new moms that are fortunate enough to be holding their babies, I got back in bed on my chucks pad and towel, leaking my mystery fluid and thinking about my now "pumpkin-sized" baby. A fresh wave of tears ensued. My crying woke Justin and I half-laughed, half-cried my explanation for my tears by saying, "so and so's having her baby today... and ours is as big as a pumpkin!"  Yep, this is how my morning started. :)

I had a routine OB appointment at 9:15am. I grabbed my hospital bag yet again, just in case they tell me that the mystery fluid isn't so mysterious anymore. Justin went with me to the appointment, but we took two cars so that he could head on into work afterwards. When we got to the office, I requested an on-call schedule as my anticipation for an induction next week grew.

When the doctor came in and checked me, I was ecstatic to hear her say the testing of the fluid this time was positive and that I was also now 2-3cm dilated and 60% effaced. It was official. I was leaking amniotic fluid. Since labor had not started on it's own, and there was now an increased risk of infection, I would need to go to the hospital ASAP to be induced. She said, "I think it's time to have this baby." I couldn't have agreed with her more! She left the room and I looked at Justin, giving him my biggest smile. "We're going to have a baby today!"

The doctor came back in the room and told us which doctor would be delivering him. It was NOT the one I wanted. In fact it was my least favorite one- the only one I had met just once. I didn't have any good reason not to like her, so we immediately started praying that she would be great and we would feel comfortable with her. 

We checked in at the hospital at 9:50am and waited for a room to become available. 

They drew my blood and had an IV in my arm before Justin came into the room- perfect timing! :)

Once they had me settled in bed, Justin ran home to change out of his work clothes and to grab an overnight bag for himself. (I later learned that he also made a trip to the carwash... I should have known!)

When he got back to the hospital, I was all settled in and hooked up to the monitor. They told me I was having good contractions on the monitor. This was surprising to me because I didn't really notice them. I felt some "tightening" but I had that feeling a lot the last trimester and didn't necessarily think much of it. It was never "painful".

At 11:42, I was started on pitocin to induce labor. The doctor came in to check me at 1:30pm and told me I was now 4cm, and 90%. She said she could feel that the membrane around my sac of fluid was intact and that the leaking must have been from a smaller tear higher up, which is why it was a subtle intermittent leak and not a constant one. She ripped my membranes then and the rest of my water came pouring out. My big hollywood moment ;)  My contractions became much more intense after that and they gradually increased the rate of the pitocin. 

I was texting various friends, family, and coworkers while in this early phase of labor. Everyone kept telling me that with an induction, I should "get the epidural early". So I would ask each of them, "How early is early?" This was obviously my first time and I didn't want to get it too soon and have it slow everything down (which is what I thought it would do...). I decided to ignore my incredibly intelligent friends/family and hold off for as long as I still felt I could "breathe" through the contractions. Unlike natural labor's gradual progression in contractions,  contractions with pitocin increase dramatically every time they increase the IV rate. They became VERY painful, very quickly. I think I said my pain score was a 6, but 20 minutes later it was a 10! I felt like every muscle in my body would tense up when one occurred, toes curling and everything. I had myself in the fetal position clenching the side of the bed and telling myself, "THIS contraction will end" as my awesome L&D coworker once told me to do. I just needed to keep breathing through them, anticipating the end of each one. 

Justin held my hand through all this. He offered me ice chips (repeatedly) and even told me, "it's ok to make noise too mere." haha. I told him he's watched too much TV. I was ok and didn't need to "make noise" :)

When the doctor came back in to check me, I was so happy to see her. I was anxious to be checked and find out what progress had been made so I could get my epidural. But when I heard her say, "no change", I cracked. How could there be no change!?!?!?!? I've been in excruciating pain!!! I felt myself tearing up and tried so hard not to break down and cry. I didn't want to be a wuss. I just couldn't believe how bad it felt, and that with that worsening pain came no progress. Justin spoke up and asked the nurse, "When can she have the epidural? Is there a reason she should wait?" The nurses response was, "She can have it whenever she wants it. Whenever she feels she's had enough of a labor experience." WHAT!? I very enthusiastically said, "Oh, I've had quite enough of an experience! I'll take the epidural as soon as you can get it here!" She assured me she had all the supplies on hand as she could tell I was becoming increasingly uncomfortable. I received my epidural at 4:00pm and sweet relief came shortly after. Wow, oh wow, what a fabulous drug!

 The nurse left the room briefly but while she was out I couldn't help but hear the slowing of Owen's heart rate on the monitor immediately following a contraction. I looked at the wall clock and counted his heart rate which had dropped to less than 100. Not good. I told Justin that that wasn't good and the nurse came back a moment later. She said that she was watching the monitors from outside the room and saw that Owen was not tolerating contractions very well. She tried repositioning me multiple times to try and get a better heart rate on him. It would briefly improve but continue to dip with each contraction which they said was likely related to his cord being compressed. Other nurses began calling into the room on the wall-speaker system asking my nurse if she needed help. Clearly the staff outside my room was observing my monitoring as well, and even they were concerned. My blood pressure dropped very low (though my normal BP is low to begin with, i.e.. 97/60). But because it was drifting even lower, Owen was not getting enough blood supplied to him. They put the oxygen mask on me and gave me some meds to increase my BP. Thankfully, Owen's baseline heart rate improved, though he did continue to dip with contractions.

By 5:00pm, I was feeling great but felt a lot of pressure suddenly and the urge to push. The doctor walked in as if on cue and checked me. The nurse jokingly said to the doctor, "C'mon and tell us we're at 8cm, we'd like at least 8!  The doctor checked and said, "Ugh... yeah, she's 10. Time to push this baby out." I was shocked! So was Justin! We went from 4cm to 10cm in a blink! I mean... isn't it suppose to take a lot longer??? I've seen a lot of deliveries and watched plenty of TLC's, A Baby story ;)  I had asked the nurse when we first checked in how long the average first time Mom would labor during an induction. She guessed we'd have a baby by midnight... and here it was only 5pm!!! She had also told me that as a first time mom, I may need to push for an hour or so to get him out. I thought to myself, wow... so by 6pm or 7pm at the latest, we should have a baby!

Justin text our families that we were at 10cm (we still couldn't believe it!) but that they shouldn't leave yet. The nurse and doctor both expressed concern that Owen may not tolerate pushing, as he had clearly not been liking my contractions. They let me "labor down" (no pushing, just let him gradually descent on his own) while the doctor ran to do a c-section on another patient. She came back and gave the ok to push at 5:07pm. His heart rate dropped immediately. The doctor said again that she didn't think he was going to tolerate it. On the second attempt at pushing, his heart rate dropped again, but this time it didn't come back up. The next 14 minutes were a whirlwind... so much chaos in such a short period of time. I remember looking at Justin and saying "Pray for Owen" then asking him just seconds later, "Did u do it? Did you pray for him!?" He had of course. I knew Justin didn't really know what was going on, but the increase in activity in our room was hard to miss. The doctor said, "I don't think the baby's liking this, we're going to need to get him out fast. Meredith, you are going to need to really push good for me. She requested a vacuum to help pull him out while I pushed in order to get him out as quickly as possible. His heart rate dropped to 45. The doctor told me to stop pushing as she removed the vacuum and tried to push him back up so that she could do a STAT c-section to get him out safely. But at that point he had already descended too low. She couldn't get him back up. She called for another doctor to help her. I heard the nurse say, "there's meconium" and then called for the NICU team. All this chaos had poor Owen all stressed out now too. :( 

The doctor put the vacuum on again and said, "Meredith, you need to be a rock star now, and really push hard, as hard as you can." So I did. I pushed like my baby's life depended on it- and it did. I heard them say, "tight nuchal" when his head was out, (meaning that the cord was tightly wrapped around his neck). They unraveled it from his neck and then had me give the final push and out he came at 5:21pm. He cried within seconds which had me crying tears of joy and relief. Thank you Jesus for saving him! They didn't give him to me, I'm not even sure they showed him to me... But I could see him across the room on the warmer bed as the NICU team checked him over and gave me the thumbs up. He cried very loudly showing off his very healthy set of lungs. I saw tears in Daddy's eyes which brought even more to mine. We hugged and kissed and then I quickly switched gears and started in with the "Grab the camera! Get over there and start taking pics! Take more! You can't take too many! Switch to video too!" etc, etc...

His cry was music to my ears. I've heard a lot of babies cry. In that moment his cry was the sweetest sound I'd ever heard. Daddy held him first which was amazing to see. He handed him to me and I saw my little boy face to face. What an awesome experience; he definitely looks like Daddy.

 He was wide-eyed, rooting around and smacking his lips while I held him. I nursed him right away which he took to immediately. Something about chubby boys... they know how to eat! :) 

My parents were the first visitors to walk in our room... I burst into tears the moment I saw my Mom. It was one of those moments I can't really explain. I was a new mommy, holding my baby and here I was about to show him off to my mommy. :')  

The flow of family visitors continued and we had a full room in no time. What a blessing to be surrounded by so many that love us. 

Thank you to everyone that has been praying for our little boy and his safe delivery. 

"Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift" 

-2 Corinthians 9:15