Paige's Birth Story

Morning, we were prepared to go to the hospital for an extended stay, but didn't know what type of stay it would be. We got up around 7:00am with enough time for showers, breakfast (for Hubby), changing sheets on our bed, etc. I checked my voice mail at 7:25am and found a message from Labor and Delivery asking us to be there at 7:30 to check in. Um. What?!!!! I quickly told Hubby, called L&D back to tell them we'd be there as soon as possible, and we got into hurry up and go mode. Thankfully we were fully packed and so all we had to do was get dressed and get into the van.

We arrived at the hospital at 8:00am, checked in, and situated to await the version procedure.

The last prego shot... getting excited and anxious about the day

My pretty "let's have a baby" toes, thanks to Erin

Hooked up to the IV, waiting for the Drs

Waiting and wondering what's going to happen

Once we were situated, my doctor came in and told me the outline for the day-- first, epidural before the procedure to make it more comfortable, then, the procedure, finally, either starting on Pitocen right away OR scheduling the OR for a c-section during his lunch time.

Since I didn't want an epidural (the thought of having a needle shoved in my back scared me), I wasn't exactly thrilled with the idea of being forced into one, but I also really, really wanted that baby flipped, so I decided to just breath and go along with the plan. Around 9:00am the anesthesiologist came in and gave me the epidural and I was surprised that getting my IV put in actually hurt worse than the back needle. During this little procedure, my nurse was sitting in a chair by the window chatting it up with the Dr and gave me something to talk about (she ran the Boston Marathon this year and was actually across the finish line before the bombing). With the epidural in, we sat to wait some more. My ob, Dr Porter came in and wanted to check to see how far along I was and to see the baby on the sonogram. According to the sonogram, there wasn't very much fluid around the baby and he was disappointed.  Then, he checked me to find I was 90% effaced at at 3 cm. He looked up at me and said, "You are the prefect candidate for induction, but with the baby being breech, we just need her to turn around." Then, he added, "I can feel the baby's feet. She's in a different position than I thought she was. This is going to be challenging to flip her, but I still want to try."

We sat and waited some more at this point for Dr Porter's colleague to come in. Porter sat on his chair, the nurse sat down and the four of us chatted about Obamacare, eBay, medical malpractice and other random topics until about 9:45am. The other doctor finally arrived and they checked the sonogram one more time to check her position. Then, Porter found the baby's bum, Dr England found her head and they started pushing and shoving to move her counter-clockwise. I was advised to keep breathing many times through the procedure because it felt like I was being run over by a spinning truck. After some minutes, the baby's head move to the middle of my stomach and the Drs stopped and decided to try the other way. Again, pushing and shoving, and the baby moved clockwise to right where she started from. I was breathing hard by this time and Dr Porter looked up at Dr England and they both nodded and Porter said, "Well, I think that's it. She's not moving." Then, Porter said, "And her heart rate dropped. Let's go."

Immediately, the room erupted with noise and people and movement and the next thing I know, the nurse is yelling into her little pager thing, "Are you ready? We need the OR right now. We're coming."

A woman walked into the room and handed Hubby a stack of scrubs and said, "Here you go. Change now and I'll take you to her." I glanced at the clock and it was 10:05am.

I was being wheeled into the hall and I remember pulling the sheet over me so I wouldn't go down the hall part naked. I felt like we were going really fast down the hall and there were people all over talking. The anesthesiologist appeared out of nowhere are started putting more medicine into the IV tube on my shoulder. We got to the OR and someone said to me, "Welcome to the OR." All I could see was a round light on the ceiling and people buzzing around the room calling out names of instruments. I was moved onto a table and I looked up and saw a mirror reflecting the room and in the middle of the mirror I saw myself. At this point, I almost panicked. The anesthesiologist came over to me to put up the blue sheet, put my arms on arm rests out to my side, hook me up to an EKG, told me to keep breathing and gave me oxygen. He stayed behind me the whole time, reassuring me here and there that it would be ok. When Hubby arrived, Porter was in scrubs and told him, "So, update, the heart rate is ok. We're doing this as normal."

Someone said, "Let's do the test." Then, I was asked if I felt anything and I shook my head and someone said, "Ok, let's do this." I didn't feel anything until I felt my stomach being smooshed and shoved and pulled and finally ripped out. It was the most uncomfortable thing I have ever felt and I think I was grunting because someone asked if I was ok and all I could do was nod. This part felt like it was going on forever. Hubby held my hand and occasionally peeked around the sheet to see what was happening.

Finally, amid feeling like all my internal organs were going to explode because of pressure, I heard someone say, "We have a baby." Hubby looked over at me brimming with excitement and repeated, "Honey, we have a baby." I told him to go see her and he was conflicted because I was still being worked on and I still felt like my insides were being smooshed and yet ripped out.

Baby Paige

cute baby

Waiting to hear my baby cry felt like eternity, but at last, I heard some suctioning and my baby cry. I tried to look around to see her but all I saw were the backs of nurses. I was trying to listen for all the nurses talking, but found it hard to focus since I was having a hard time breathing. Things I did hear: 10:18 official time, 7, 14, 19 and a half.  Hubby came back to me to tell me "She's perfect," and then he looked around the sheet, turned slightly pale and held my hand tighter. Finally, I heard someone say, "Ok, she's done," and then, someone (finally) brought me my baby.

love at first sight

We were given a couple of minutes to get acquainted, before Hubby had to take her and they moved me back onto the bed from the table. We were then wheeled back to the first room we were in. I glanced at the clock at this point and it was 10:35am. Then nurse left us to go get something and Hubby and I looked at each other and the baby in shock. It was less than 3 hours after we'd checked in and we had a sweet newborn baby.

Part of the challenge ended up being that the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck, making the flip impossible and then made pulling her out hard, too. The pulling and pushing I felt ended up being them trying to get her feet first, even though they were below the incision, and having to push her up. Then, with the cord, they had to do some maneuvering to get it off and pull her out.