Birth Story

So there will be multiple posts to get caught up to Cole being almost a week old.  We'll start with his birth....

We went in to the hospital Tuesday night to start the induction process.  They put the monitors on my belly for his heart and my contractions, and gave me Cervidel (spell?).  It was supposed to soften my cervix and could start labor.  I started having contractions but couldn't really feel them.  I did however, decide to try and speed the process up by walking in place.  For an hour.  :) We were supposed to sleep through the night.  Yah.  Right....

Wednesday morning at 5:30 they started the Petocin.  My doctor came in at 6am and broke my water.  There was meconium in it, which is the baby's first poop.  There wasn't enough to worry right away, but they were going to monitor the amount of fluid, and they went over that when time came to push, they would tell me stop so they could suck any out that had gotten in his nose and lungs. 

Contraction picked up and were about every 2-3 minutes from about 6 to 10:30.  For those first few hours I labored sitting up because it felt better to sit up.  At 10:30 my nurse came in to check how far I was dilated, but I was only at a 4, so she had me switch positions to laying on my side to try and get Cole to move a little and allow for my cervix to dilate the rest of the way.  From them on, my contractions came one right after the other.  I will say that it was absolutley miserable.  MUCH worse than I had thought it would be.  Ryan would watch my monitor and tell me one was ending then the very next words were, "OK, here comes another one."

A little after 12:30 my nurse came back in and said my doctor wanted to put in an internal monitor and she was going to add more fluid.  She laid me backwards and did everything.  All of a sudden I couldn't breath.  I told her so and she had me go back to my last  position, which I had been on all fours, and she put oxygen on me.  Then she said, "Baby doesn't like whatever's happening either."  From there on gets a little fuzzy.  She started calling people in to the room.  Pretty soon it seemed the whole floor staff was in my room, and Ryan was in a little corner.  The NICU doctor came running in with the anesthesiologist, and they said they were taking the baby out now.  My doctor was not there yet, but had been called, and apparently had an app on his phone where he could see both Cole and my vitals and he came running, literally, to get there.  They ran me down the hall and in to the OR.  I just started praying for God to keep Cole safe and let him be ok.  They threw me on the table, stripped me down and had me scrubbed up in literally seconds.  I heard a doctor say, "I'm going to cut!".  Then I heard the anesthesiologist say, "Christ no!  I don't have her out yet!".  About 5 seconds later he told me to take 4 deep breaths, and I was out. 

Ryan had texted our parents as soon as things started going down hill to come immediately.  We didn't want them just waiting at the hospital for us, so they weren't there yet.  However, my mom said she just had a feeling she needed to be there, and as soon as she got there, she got the text.  I saw her for literally 1 second as they wheeled me down the hall.  I was very glad that Ryan was not by himself.  They started praying immediately for Cole and me.  Ryan said he just knew that he was going to lose us both.

Apparently the whole process from the time I couldn't breath to the time he was born was 5 minutes.  My doctor didn't make it to do the cutting, but he sewed me up and told Ryan he sewed me up internally and I'd be ready for bathing suite season and his c-sections were more like plastic surgery when he sewed you up. :)  They took me back to my room after I'd woken up, although I don't remember.  I do remember waking up on the operating table and asking if Cole was ok, and he was.  Came out screaming is what they said.  They brought him to me right away in our room, and to my amazement he nursed right away.  Don't remember alot of that either.   

So, little Cole is a true miracle.  And he is absolutely precious in every way.

Some pics:

Last belly pic

Ryan seeing Cole for the first time

The BEST nurse ever.  Saved our lives.  Literally.

Cole's going home outfit.  He looked like a little yell leader :)