It all started on Thursday April 7th, 2016. It was a week before my due date. I had my regular doctors appointment. Jeff was able to get work off and come with me. We thought it would just be a regular appointment and everything would be fine. One of Jeff's coworkers actually went into the hospital that same day. On the way to the appointment, we joked about us also going to the hospital and being down the hall from Jeff's coworker. Well, we got to the doctor and I had my non-stress test first. Everything was fine there. I wasn't even having any contractions that the monitors were picking up Then we went back to the waiting room and waited to be called back to see the doctor. The nurse came and got us. She sat me down and took my blood pressure. It was about 150/100! That's pretty high and almost to the preeclampsia ranges. The nurse said that she was going to have the doctor come and talk to us about it. The doctor came in and said that he was going to send us to the hospital to be monitored to see if I needed to be induced. He told us to go home and grab our stuff and go to the hospital. He said to probably plan on staying and having the baby that day. I asked him who the doctor was at the hospital that day and he said that it was Dr. Wolsey. My heart dropped. I go to a group of 9 doctors and he was the only one that I had not had an appointment with! I was also intimidated by his picture and so to hear that he would be delivering my baby was kind of scary! I had a feeling that this would happen and now it was! But, that's just my luck! (He ended up being super nice.)
Anyway, we couldn't believe it! The funny thing was that I was supposed to take a test that day and I had planned on taking it before the doctors appointment but I didn't feel ready enough for it so I thought I could take it after my appointment. But the joke was one me! God had a different plan. So Jeff and I went home and grabbed our stuff as if we were going to stay at the hospital. On our way to the hospital we stopped at Culver's so that Jeff could get some food because he was hungry :)
We got to the hospital at about 4:00 pm and they took us to a room. They put baby monitors on me and a blood pressure cuff. They took my blood pressure about every 5 minutes. In the hour and a half they were monitoring, my blood pressure didn't get any better. I was even having contractions which was weird because of the fact that I didn't have any contractions earlier at the doctor. However, I was not even feeling the contractions. The nurse came in at one point and asked if I was feeling the contractions because they were pretty strong on the charts. I said that I wasn't feeling them and she was super surprised. But it was really nice that I wasn't feeling them! At about 5:30 the tech came in and told us that we'd be staying and got some information from us. The nurse came in and took me off the monitors. Then the doctor came in to check to see how dilated I was and to see how my swelling was. Then the nurse took us to a different room that was bigger and that had a window! It was really nice. The room we were in was quite cramped and I didn't particularly want to give birth in that room. The nurses were about to have a shift change but the nurse put an IV in me so the next one wouldn't have to come in to do it.
Things were getting real and we were super excited to become parents. We called our families and my mom and sister headed down from Salt Lake to be there with us when the baby was born. At this point it was about 6:30 pm. So I was hooked up to an IV, had a blood pressure cuff on me, a baby heartbeat monitor, and a uterine contraction monitor. That's quite a bit! My nurse told me that getting an epidural early would be good for my situation because it could bring down my blood pressure. The doctor had talked about how they could give me magnesium that would bring down my blood pressure but it would offset the pitocin. The magnesium would slow labor while pitocin would be trying to make labor go faster. I didn't want to get the epidural right away because (I'm crazy) I wanted to feel labor pains just so I could experience what it felt like. They said that was fine and that they would just watch my blood pressure and make sure it didn't get too high or they would have to start magnesium. They upped my pitocin dose to make the contractions stronger (I was still not feeling them.)
My mom and sister got there and I started feeling the contractions. They were getting so bad that I decided to get the epidural. It was about 8:00 pm when the anesthesiologist came in to give me the epidural. He explained the procedure and then we got started. I swung my legs over the side of the bed. The nurse and Jeff were there in front of me to make sure I was okay and I was able to hold Jeff's hand. I love him so much. It was so great to have him there and that he was available to be there. The epidural wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. It did hurt like a bee sting, but it wasn't unbearable. After he was done giving the epidural, he left and the nurse stayed because she was supposed to stay in the room for 20 minutes to make sure everything was fine. This was where it got scary! I almost died! Okay, probably not. But it was still scary. They were taking my blood pressure like every minute or so and it was dropping fast! I felt like I couldn't breathe! The nurse left to get the anesthesiologist back in the room and they both came back pretty fast and the anesthesiologist had a syringe with some medicine in it. He came to my side of the bed and I told him I needed to sit up. He asked why and I said it was because I couldn't breathe. He asked if I was feeling nauseous and I said that I was. The nurse gave me a barf bag! Luckily I didn't puke. My blood pressure got down to about 74/40 within a matter of minutes. The anesthesiologist put the medicine in my IV line and it only took seconds for it to take affect and I felt much, much better. I was glad that nothing worse happened!
After the epidural kicked in, I felt so good!! Jeff, my mom, and my sister were laughing at me because I was just laying on the bed and kept saying "Man, I feel so great right now. Next time I'm just getting the epidural to begin with. What was I thinking?!" It was literally night and day. What else was nice was that I still had control over my leg movements. The nurses would come in to check to see how dilated I was and I would just move my legs for them. They were impressed. However, I had started shaking uncontrollable. The nurse said that this was normal and that it could be a sign that my labor was moving right along. The shaking would come and go but it was really bad at points and it was quite annoying.
At about 10:30 pm the nurse came in and said that the baby's heart rate was dipping during my contractions. It would come back up after the contraction but it was to the point that they were going to try some things to get it to not dip. Before they did anything to possibly help with this problem, they told me that a C-section was very likely. A anesthesiologist came in to talk to me about what would happen if I ended up having a c-section; another nurse came in to have Jeff sign some papers; other nurses came in to do things on the machines; my doctor came in to check on me and talk to me about the c-section; my room was a hopping place for a bit and it was kind of scary to have that many people in my room at one time because I knew things were pretty bad. Before fully deciding to give me a c-section, they wanted to try some things to see if they could keep Wyatt's heart rate up. First the put an in-utero baby monitor on Wyatt's head so they could get a better track on his heart rate. They also put something inside me to better track my contractions. They also started an amnioinfusion to put water back inside my uterus. Warning - TMI - I had three different tubes/probes stuck up me plus a catheter. It was quite crowded down there. To help, they rolled me on my side and put a peanut ball between my legs. It was actually quite comfortable. The amnioinfusion seemed to help things because the nurse didn't come back for a while.
Around 12:45 am, the nurse came back in (she had checked on me before as well) to check to see how dilated I was and she accidentally knocked off Wyatt's heart rate monitor. The charge nurse came in to put another one on him. Once they got it on him, it showed that his heart rate was dipping again during contractions. They think that because I had to move for them to get the monitor on again that it interfered with the progress that I was making without having Wyatt's heart rate dipping down low. They called my doctor and he came to check on me. At this point I was dilated to an 8 at rest and a 9 during a contraction. My doctor said that we were going to do a c-section to get Wyatt out safe and sound. While all the nurses were prepping for the surgery, the doctor sat down in my room again and had me push a couple times to see if we could successfully push Wyatt out. After a few pushes he said that we were going to go to the operating room, check me again, and then fully decide if we were going to do a c-section. (My group of doctors have one of the lowest c-section rates in America. Meaning they don't do emergency c-sections unless absolutely necessary.)
They wheeled my bed to the operating room - with me shakin' like a dog! I left Jeff, my mom, and Brianna back in the room. They were going to get Jeff dressed in operation clothing and then have him come to the OR. I was really emotional as we were getting to the OR. I knew everything was going to be fine, but I was more bummed that I didn't get to have a normal vaginal birth. That's what I had been emotionally and physically preparing for. So finding out that I was going to have a c-section put a damper on my emotions. Once we got there, my doctor spend a few minutes checking me again and having me push a couple of times. He ultimately decided that a c-section was necessary to get Wyatt out in a good time. I got more emotional at this point because he had decided that we were for sure doing a c-section. My doctor was so great and said, "It's going to be alright, hun. He's going to be fine." My doctor was such a sweetheart, I don't know why I was so intimidated and scared of him. I'm silly.
They moved me over to the operating table and the charge nurse started shaving where they were going to cut. Then they were cleaning me and sterilizing the operating site. Looking back on this moment, I get really embarrassed because I realize that practically my whole bottom half was completely exposed to about 10 different medical personnel who were in the room. I know that they get that all the time because it's their job, but it still makes me feel kind of embarrassed just thinking about it! :)
The anesthesiologist started talking to me and helping me get situated so that he could do his job. They had my arms strapped to these side tables (with nice cushiony blankets - for comfort), not so that I wouldn't move, but so that I didn't have to worry about not moving. They put the sheet up in front of my face so I couldn't see what was going on...and for sterile purposes. Then I heard Jeff come in the room. This is when I got really emotional. I knew it was going to happen too. I knew that once I saw his face and heard his voice I would just start crying rivers of tears. And I did. It was just great to have him there by my side... or face... I was in a scary situation and so it was just nice knowing that he was there with me.
The actual surgery went pretty quickly. At one point near the beginning the anesthesiologist said something along the lines of, "Well, we just made a nice sized incision in your tummy and you didn't flinch an inch so I think you're pretty well numbed down there!" It was nice to know that I didn't feel anything when they were cutting me. The anesthesiologist was so nice. He was talking me through everything. He told me when I was going to feel more pressure or whatever was going on. At this point though, I was listening keenly for the first cries of my baby. I knew that I would cry even more when I heard him cry. It was really weird to feel them taking him out. I just remember feeling a ton of pressure as they moved him down lower in my abdomen and then the pressure release as they took him out. Then I heard it. Those sweet baby cries. It was 1:32 am and I was completely and uncontrollably crying now. Jeff went over to be with Wyatt as he was getting cleaned off. Then I saw him. They put him on the weight table that was right in my line of sight. He was the most beautiful thing that I had ever seen. Jeff got to hold him and they brought him over to me so I could see him. I gave him a kiss and then they put him in a bassinet and a nurse took him and they left with Jeff right behind.
It is crazy, but I honestly don't remember practically anything past that up to the point that I was feeding Wyatt for the first time. I think I vaguely remember coming back to the room and saying goodbye to my mom and Brianna, but I'm not completely sure. It's like I completely blacked out, but I asked and they said I was awake the whole time. I just could not remember them sewing me up, taking my epidural out, transferring me from the OR bed to a regular hospital bed, putting compression things on my lower legs, and rolling me back to the room. There is absolutely no recall of that. That is crazy because something like that has never happened to me! It's kind of scary to not be able to remember about 2 hours of my life. (It was from about 1:40am to 3:30am that I can't remember)
It was so great to have my precious babe in the world. In my next post I'll talk about our time in the hospital. The first 24 hours were the worst!
If you got to this point, great job! Thanks for reading! :D
