My Birth (And Near Death) Story Pt.1

Because every blog has a birth story right?
And, when God gives you a miracle you should tell people about it!

Little Beemer, shortly after birth.
I can't tell you how many times I heard "look at all that hair!"

July 5, 2008, my grandpa's birthday, was our due date for our very first little bundle of joy. I was working full time and worked up until July 3rd, which was a Thursday. I was to be induced Monday if he didn't come sooner. I really did NOT want to be induced. I started feeling like it was going to happen that weekend. Just kind of a hunch, and my body felt different somehow.

Fourth of July rolls around and we head out to a party at our friend's place (who by the way, has labor-inducing stairs). It was a pool party, but I had the good sense to stay out of the pool that day. (Like I said before, things were changing. If you've had a baby you know what I mean!) My husband asked if we should take the hospital bag with us, to which I said no. I guess I didn't think we would actually go into labor! On the way to the party I told him "We better not get there and have to leave because I go into labor."

Well, that's exactly what happened. I went up those labor-inducing stairs and started doing what all pregnant women do. Eat. I had just enough time to down some queso and other stuff you do NOT want to have in your tummy when you're in labor. Up comes my best friend, who gives me a hug, and POP. Something happened in my stomach that I can only describe as the feeling of a balloon popping followed by the feeling of peeing on myself.

I didn't say anything and immediately took myself to the bathroom. There was a slow trickle, but I wanted to make SURE I didn't just pee on myself before I started telling my friends. Suddenly, I became very shy. My friends like to retell the story that I walked around and whispered to them "Hey, I think my water just broke." WHAT?! Your water broke?! Why are you being quiet about it?

So, we headed to the hospital. My husband, for whatever reason, was suddenly in a HUGE hurry. Like I was going to be lucky enough to have the baby come out of me on the way to the hospital. Oh, I would give anything for that experience compared to what I got. I tried to go home for my bag, he wouldn't take me. Within a few minutes of being in the car it became very obvious that my water in fact had broken. I started having contractions, and with every one more of that fluid came out. By the time we got to the hospital I was soaked. I was embarrassed to walk in. I remember the person who got on the elevator with me let me go first. I thought for sure they couldn't see the huge wet spot on me.

Here we are before the real pain began, still looking happy.

From there, things went pretty quickly. My water broke around 4:00 and around 10:30 I was 7cm. In between that time I, regretfully, accepted narcotics in my IV while waiting my epidural. I experienced a lot of shaking and a lot of anxiety. I had no idea shaking in labor was so normal. I would absolutely not take narcotics again and would not reccomend them to someone else in labor. It was not a good experience. The epidural, however, was glorious. I was terrified of getting it, it was absolutely no big deal. I barely felt it when they numbed me up and the pain just melted away. In fact, maybe a little too much. Around 11pm I called my nurse to tell them I was feeling extreme pressure. My nurse was on break, but the fill in nurse agreed to check me even though it had only been 30 minutes. She checked and said "You're 10cm, time to push!" Up went the stirrups, just like that. My parents were in the room, along with my a friend and my husband.

And here I am after awful narcotics. Big difference!

After 2.5 hours of this fun stuff, the doctor came in and said "You have a fever, you've developed and infection and this baby needs to come out." We could see his head, but he wouldn't come far enough down to crown (my husband likes to say his hair made it's appearance on Fourth of July, gross). I honestly think I just did not know what I was doing and my epidural was so strong I wasn't feeling anything. The nurse later told me my pelvis was very narrow. My doctor disagrees, but I think having birthed without an epidural would have done me a lot of favors. Not much you can do for your pelvis when you're on your back.

They told me they could either use forceps or do a c-section. They said the forceps would cause some damage that sounded pretty bad to me. So, in the moment, I opted for a c-section. I'm still not sure if I made the right decision, but the fact that I had a c-section is one of my only regrets in life. I hate it.

Ready for surgery! I have the funniest video of my husband spinning in circles, videoing himself, on a doctor chair.
He was telling the camera that they'd just taken me back and showed us the time.

My shaking had finally calmed down, but as soon as they started prepping me I started again. I was terrified. I remember asking the anesthesiologist "What if I can feel them cut into me?" And, I remember him telling me "They already did." Weird! I didn't feel any pain, but I quickly started to feel them tugging him out of me at which point I went into all-out panic mode and kicked off the leg strap, it left a bruise across my thigh. The anesthesiologist said "I'm going to give you a margarita." I thought "I'm going to NEED one when I get out of here!" The room started spinning. Next thing I knew, I was awake, my husband was holding little Beemer and I felt like I was suffocating from the drugs. Apparently he was born at 1:34am. I couldn't tell you, I was out cold.

We made it to our room around 4:30 and the next three hours were the best part of the whole experience. My husband slept, but I couldn't bring myself to do it. I just hung out with my little man, tried to nurse, looked at him. It was wonderful and was a huge blessing considering what was about to come.

Fast forward 9 hours or so. My in-laws and my best friend and her husband are in my room (remember, the one who hugged me and my water broke). My parents were on their way to the hospital. The baby went to the nursery with our pediatrician, I never saw them come back. I started experiencing immense pain in my side. My husband took everyone to the waiting room. The nurse came in and gave me pain meds, they weren't even touching the pain. I said I think I'm just being anxious, I'm seeing fireworks. She took my BP, it was 60 over 40. She said, nope you're not being anxious. My husband, in the waiting room, heard "Rapid Response Team Room 225." Without saying a word, he high tailed it to my room where they were wheeling out a crash cart.

Click here for Part 2.