Friday, March 20th started out normally. Jut left early. The kids and I cuddled and watched a bit of tv, had breakfast, cleaned the upstairs and had our school lessons for the day. I even squeezed in one of my science activities for my college class. I had my second NST scheduled for 3:30. Jut came home at 3 and I left for the drs office.
I get to the office and he had just been called away to deliver a baby. So, I wait for a half hour and Abby (the nurse) comes out to at least get me started. She can't get much of a reading. So, she gets Deb the midwife. She can't find much with the NST either. So, she gets the ultrasound. The beat was slow and then would speed up and the computer was having a difficult time giving a reading. The dr came in about then. He listened via the Doppler for about 5 seconds and told me to head over to the hospital to the labor and delivery floor. They'd hook me up to the NST and we'd go from there with a probable VBAC.
I go, call my mom and Jut (at 4:45), go through admitting, head up to the floor, gown up and then everything went crazy. The baby's heart rate was 70 beats/minute. All of a sudden, I have an oxygen mask on and an IV running with fluids. The nurse says something about this not being a VBAC but an emergency section and she pops her head out the door and I hear, 'Get the dr here now!" Dr comes and says something about baby's heart rate being a little too low and making everyone nervous ("baby is giving everyone a little heart burn", were his exact words, I think) and asks if I'm okay with a C-section. I agree. The dr goes into the hall and tells someone, 'Get whomever can get here the fastest!' There was a bit of chaos regarding my wristband because they didn't give me one at admitting and they couldn't give me any medication without one. A nurse says 'You have someone coming? If not, they are going to miss the delivery! You had better call.' she hands me my phone. I call Jut again. It is 5:23. He and Mom are in the parking lot. They keep giving me pills and things to swallow and pushing fluids through my IV. I have the anesthesiologist asking me questions. The nurses are talking to me. Jut arrives and surgical apparel is thrown at him. It all seems very surreal. Then, we are off. As we leave, the dr asks me if I have all my undergarments off. But, I still had on my bra (the nurse told me it was okay to leave on initially)...so they creatively had to take it off over the IV pole. I heard that it got caught in the wheel of the bed and was flapping after us for a bit as we went down the hall. The dr wheeled me down the hallway and bumped into everything. He obviously didn't have tons of expertise driving a bed. As we were entering the doors to the surgical room, a nurse came running after us with the consent papers that I needed to sign. Chaos...that is what I remember.
In the delivery room, the dr held me while the anesthesiologist administered the spinal. There was a very nice surgical tech named Shannon that gave me warm blankets and was very reassuring about all that was happening. The OR was filled with people. Jut said that the dr came out in the hall while he was waiting to enter and said tersely to a nurse, "Get every available person inside that delivery room right now!" He (the dr) wasn't as calm about everything as he was presenting to me...but I'm glad he presented a calm face to me.
As soon as the numbness, took over, the surgical staff got to work delivering the baby. They had the surgical screen so high that Jut almost missed them pulling M out, but the anesthesiologist told him to stand up really quick...so he did. It was 6:05. Less than three hours after kissing my other kids goodbye and telling them I'd be home before supper, I had a baby. It all happened so fast.
M was screaming as soon as he was free. Dr told us that we had another boy. I was a bit surprised. I was so certain early on that it was a girl and I told Jut while we were waiting that it had to be a girl because the boys were much less stressful deliveries. It was a wonderful to hear his screaming upon delivery because things were so tense. The pediatrician looked at him and said, "His color is good. He's screaming. He'll be fine." They whisked him away to the nursery very quickly. I got a 5 second peak at him (without my glasses on) before they took him away...no pictures...no welcome to the worlds...no beginning cuddles. Not as peaceful and calm as I would have liked...I got much more time with E when she was born via C-section, but he was okay and that was the important part. They stitched me up and wheeled me back to my room. It was a crazy couple of hours.
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