If you have ever spent any amount of time with me, you know that I am obsessed with plans and schedules. I live for planning everything—from trips, to weekends, to daily routines—I love to plan. So, needless to say, the prospect of giving birth was already scary enough for me. I couldn’t really plan that out. You can’t tell your body, “Ok, let’s have a four hour labor, push twice, and be done with this.” You can’t decide how much pain you will be in or how the birth process will go. Heck, you can’t even decide what day it will happen.
It became very evident on Labor Day, Liam’s due date, that things definitely were out of my hands. Liam was not planning to make his arrival any time soon. I wasn’t dilating and it didn’t seem to the doctor like he would come willingly. So, an induction was scheduled for September 7. We were told to call at 3:30 and see if a bed was ready. If so, we would go in and get started. But. A room was not ready. We were told to call again at 7:30. We called. Two rooms were available! We rushed to the hospital and checked in. And then we waited. We waited until 10:00 PM. Apparently some emergent labor mothers arrived right before us and took the open rooms. But, by 10:30 we were in our room, paperwork completed, and monitors all hooked up.
I was supposed to start Pitocin at 11:00PM. But, at 11:00 Liam and my body had other plans. All I did was roll over to lie on my right side. Nothing big, right? Well, as soon as I did, Pat and I noticed that Liam’s heart rate dropped significantly. We are talking a drop from 140s/150s down to the 50s and 60s. Just as Pat and I opened our mouths to ask each other what was going on, three nurses rushed into the room. One yanked an oxygen mask onto my face while the others pulled back the covers and asked me to continually roll onto my right side and then to my left. After a few minutes, Liam’s heartrate finally began to climb back to normal. The nurses informed us they were not sure what caused it, but it could be him lying on the cord or the cord wrapping around his neck. Regardless of the cause, I would not be allowed to start the Pitocin until he was stable for a couple of hours and I also would not be allowed to get out of the bed or move at all.
1:15 AM arrived and Liam had been stable for a good while. So, they started me on the Pitocin. But, I was stillw not allowed to get out of bed. Torture. But, at 2:40 I was given the all clear to move about. So I got up to use the restroom. Once I got back to the bed, Pat hooked me back up to the fetal monitors. But, they didn’t seem to be working. Liam’s heart rate was in the 60s and then it was gone. I reached to call the nurse to see what we did wrong. But before I could, the door burst open and five nurses rushed in. They reclined the bed all the way back, put an oxygen mask back on me, and asked me to continually switch the side I was lying on. Still, I didn’t hear Liam’s heart rate pick back up. After two minutes of this, they had me get on my knees on all fours. They started moving my belly around, trying to jostle Liam. No heart rate.
At this point, I looked over and made eye contact with Pat. He kept telling me “it’s ok. It is going to be ok. Liam’s ok,” but I could see the panic in his eyes.
After four minutes, a doctor rushed in. One of the nurses filled him in as the other nurses kept looking for a heartbeat. FINALLY, after five minutes, I heard a heartbeat. Relief flooded through my body as they had me lie on my side. I was told I would no longer be allowed to get up or move and that at this point, it appeared I would be having a c-section in the morning. Sure enough, my OB arrived at 3:30AM and said as much. He also informed us that if Liam’s heartrate dropped too low again, I would be rushed back for an emergency c-section immediately.
We made it through the rest of the night with no issues, and at 7:40 AM my doctor and an anesthesiologist came in to tell us what to expect. We were scheduled for 8:30. However, just before 8, I heard Liam’s heartrate slowing again. The nurses burst into the room and began yelling orders and unhooking me from machines and the IV drip. By 8:00, they were wheeling me out of the room and on to the operation room. As they rushed me down the hall, I asked if Pat could come with us. He was told no and to wait in the family waiting room. I promptly burst into hysterics.
Upon arriving to the operating room, the nurses attempted to get a heartbeat again. It took nearly five minutes to finally get one. Within minutes, I had received a spinal block, was hooked up to monitors, and they were about to begin the surgery. Noticing my hysterics, my OB came over and hugged me as I cried, reassuring me that it’s the nurses job to panic, but that Liam was ok and it would all be ok. Within ten minutes of wheeling me into the room, the doctor had cut me open. Several minutes in, I asked “is someone going to get my husband?” To which the doctor yelled, “did no one go get the husband yet!?” Thankfully, Pat made it in to the room mere minutes before they pulled Liam out. The moment we heard him cry, Pat and I both cried with relief. Our son was alive, he was breathing, and he was safe.
Pat was an amazing dad in those moments. He stayed with Liam the entire time after and made sure he was ok. Once the nurses cleaned him up, Pat brought Liam over to me so I could finally meet him. Never in my life have I been so overwhelmed with joy and relief as in that moment. Pat went with Liam to the recovery room while the doctor finished closing me up. When I joined them fifteen minutes later, Pat was cuddling Liam and giving him his first bottle. Finally, we were all together, a happy, healthy, safe family of three. The doctor told us that Liam ended up having the cord wrapped around his torso. Whenever I moved, he moved, and the cord constricted him, cutting off his air supply most likely. Unfortunately, there’s no way to know if that was happening prior to my admission to the hospital. But, what we do know is that it is by the grace of God that Liam is alive, healthy, and with us. What a mighty God!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
