Our little boy is finally here..late, but totally worth the wait. His due date was September 25th, but he was born on September 29th. Here is Wyatt's birth story...
Monday, September 28th I was scheduled to be induced at Sharp Mary Birch Hospital for Women at 8am. We arrived, got checked in and were taken up stairs to our birthing suite where we proceeded to do more paperwork with our nurse for the next couple of hours.
By 10am the nurse inserted a tablet called Servadil to soften my cervix. At this point I was about 80% effaced and 1 cm dilated. The nurse told us that they would check me again in 4 hours! If this first one didn't do the job they would be giving me another, and another until it worked. So we began to wait. My mom was working on a quilt and David was watching tv. I read magazines and watched tv as well. We were all expecting a very long day of waiting around for my cervix to soften.
At 1pm, about an hour before I was going to be checked my nurse comes racing in (i thought she was just bringing back my Sprite I asked for) with my doctor and 2 other nurses. The nurses began moving me from side to side, put an oxygen mask on me and before I really knew what was going on the doctor had broken my water. I caught eyes with David whose face had the same panicked look that I was feeling..."what the heck is going on?!!" Wyatt's heart rate had slowed down...WAY down.
Thankfully Wyatt's heart rate began to speed back up and stabilize. Apparently I was having small contractions that I wasn't feeling and they were somehow causing the umbilical cord to be pinched or kinked preventing the flow of blood. The doctor thought that Wyatt's umbilical cord may be wrapped around his neck The doctors and nurses told me that I had been 2 minutes away from being rushed down the hall for an emergency c-section! They also informed me that if these decelerations continued to occur that a c-section would be necessary to prevent any harm to baby Wyatt. Although my main concern was Wyatt's health and safety I definitely wanted to avoid the c-section if at all possible.
Because my water had been broken my contractions began to intensify and before long I wasn't a happy girl. For roughly an hour and a half I had raging contractions 2 minutes apart with no breaks in between! (no flat spots on the contraction monitor) At around 3 o'clock I was told the anesthesiologist was next door giving someone else their epidural and that I could be next if I wanted. I greatfully accepted and received my epidural shortly thereafter. I was really worried about getting the epidural because I am horrified by needles but to be honest getting my I.V. put in was much more painful.
From 3:30 to about 8:00pm everything seemed to be smooth sailing. Friends stopped by to say hi throughout; I was feeling great. Contractions were doing there thing and I was just relaxing and chatting with my friends and family. I LOVE EPIDURALS!
Little did I know, things were about to get scary again.
At around 8 o'clock I had 2 more serious episodes of the baby's heart decelerating about 15 minutes apart from one another. I was worried to death that I would have to get a c-section. We noticed that the decelerations happened only when I was on my left side so guess what...no more left side. Luckily I made it to 10cm at around 11 o'clock with no further complications and it was time to push! This would be the real test for Wyatt's umbilical cord issues. I began pushing with each contraction but each time I pushed Wyatt's heart rate slowed down. So we began a routine of pushing for 3 counts of 10 on my back and then rolling over onto my right side and applying the oxygen mask on me so that Wyatt's heart rate would pop back up as quickly as possible. Thank God for my labor and delivery nurse. She was awesome! So helpful. So encouraging.
At some point during the pushing my doctor came in and basically explained the protocol for a c-section. Not what I wanted to hear. She also mentioned that if I progressed enough that she may be able to use a vacuum to assist in the delivery as an alternative to the c-section. I continued to push for another hour or so and we began to see the top of Wyatt's head (I had a mirror placed in front of me so I could see while I pushed). The doctor came in to assess the situation and it was go time! Next thing I knew there were 4 nurses 2 NICU nurses and my doctor suited up and ready for the big moment. Because of the umbilical cord issues the delivery had to be fast. With my next contraction I was going to push like I'd never pushed before, the doctor was going pull with the vacuum and give me an episiotomy. The contraction started, I began to push, the doctor pulled and within a few seconds his head was out. All of a sudden, 2 nurses jumped up onto the side of the bed and began to push on my stomach! Wyatt's shoulders were stuck!! With a few more pushes from me and the nurses out he came...all 9 LBS of him.
David and I are completely in love! He is amazing!! Our lives have changed so much in the last 4 days and it just keeps getting better. Thank you to everyone who came to visit, called, texted and sent such wonderful messages on facebook and e-mail.
