it had been a long day of walking laps around the mall with my mom and eating pizza because everyone know's those two things can thrust you into labor. right? right. my achy feet were being rubbed by my caring hubs as we watched the lord of the rings {the whole trilogy} that saturday night. when we finally went up to bed i found myself pretty disappointed that my due date came and went with no fire hydrant gush of my water breaking in a public place. because that's just how i wanted it to happen, dramatic i know. {i thought it be funny.} at 2:30 in the morning after a few hours of what i thought was painful gas i finally decided to google "what do contractions feel like". to my surprise i found many women describing the feeling as extreme gas pains! holy moly i was in labor! after waking my hubs up and making him time the contractions with me we finally decided to go to the hospital after downing
a bowl of oatmeal {big mistake!}.
i was actually scheduled to be induced the next day so i knew my doctor wouldn't send me home.
they admitted me to the hospital and right away my nurse came in and started filling us in on what typically happens during labor/delivery etc. then she started to inform us about the "red button" on the wall. she said in the case of an emergency she would push that button and between 15-20 doctors and nurses would come running in the room to attend to the situation. then she assured us "that never happens". . . right.
the time came for them to break my water and a doctor "in training" was the lucky guy to do the job. he started jiggling around the little hanger, hook, whatever it is and we noticed he was having a little bit of trouble. after several minutes of this i could tell by the look on his face something was wrong. apparently paisley's heart rate began to drop rapidly and to top it off instead of water, a gush of blood poured out of me when he tried to break it.{thankfully i couldn't see any of this.} i looked over at my mom and husband and could tell by the looks on their faces this wasn't good.
the nurse looked at the doctor and said "should i push it?" he nodded his head and this is where the chaos begins. she pushes the button and immediately 15 doctors and nurses come flying in my room. one is putting an oxygen mask on me while another is sticking me in the arm with a shot and the others are trying to reassure me everything is going to be ok. looking back now i see how serious the situation was but in that moment i was at such peace in my heart because i knew God was going to take care of us.
the shot they gave me was intended to get more oxygen or blood or something to paisley but it caused me to shake, well more like convulse, uncontrollably. remember that oatmeal? yeah i started throwing that up all over myself, so that was really cool. i remember looking over at my mom and noah and them mouthing to me it's ok, and praying under their breath. everyone was rushing around, looking at monitors, making me breath oxygen and from this point on things were kind of a blur.
my mom followed one of the nurses out of the room and asked her to shoot straight. she wanted to know what was really up. the nurse probably shouldn't have told my mom this but informed her that they were concerned of the possibility that my placenta was pulling away from the cervix and that's what caused the bleeding. if this was the case the nurse let my mom know that during the delivery while i was pushing it could cause unstoppable hemorrhaging and i could die. wow great news! so that's on my moms mind the rest of the delivery and
she is praying and believing God that she won't lose her little girl . . .
to be continued . . .
{all photo's by lisa christine photography }
part two:
sorry to leave you all hanging for a couple days. when you have a 1 year old begging you to push her around on a toy car, feed her baby doll pretend avocado and dance like you've never danced before to the fresh beat band it makes it hard to find time to write!
if you are just joining us you can read the first part of this birth story here.
so where were we? ah yes. my mom had just been told there was a possibility i could die during the delivery. awesome. being the strong women of God that she is that was clearly not an option so she immediately found my dad {my parents are pastors in case i never divulged that info before} and they went to a quiet place away form all the insanity and presented their case before the lord.
meanwhile back in my room, doctors and nurses are still tying to figure out what's going on. paisley's heart rate was continually dropping off for what seemed like minutes at a time. the nurse was having me lay every which way possible to see if it would help but nothing seemed to work. my husband was up and down from the hospital chapel every half hour or so. he did a lot of praying that day. we all did.
they were continually checking me to see if the bleeding was slowing down or had stopped and thankfully it had slowed down tremendously. at that point it was decided they were going to pump water back into me. {i had never heard of this before but at this point i didn't care what they did!} the nurse told me it was possible that paisley's head was so low in the canal that she was blocking any water from coming out when they "broke" my water. they also thought it was possible she was either laying on or "playing" with the umbilical cord which was causing her heart rate to consistently drop. {i have a feeling it was the latter of the two. little stinker.} they thought if they pumped more water back in it may help move her away from the cord and get her more comfortable.
so here they come with bags of water. they pumped them in {however the heck they do that!} and to our pleasant surprise everything started to calm down. paisley's heart rate started to level out. no more dropping off for 5-10 seconds at a time. finally we all felt like we could breathe. well except my parents who were the only ones that knew it was possible i could die during delivery! ha! {sorry, that is so not funny. my bad.} for everyone else though things started to lighten up and even though my parents knew this unsettling information i never would have known. i believe they genuinely put 1 Peter 5:7 into work and really cast that care on the Lord. {if you don't know this verse look it up. it's a good one.}
and here is just an interesting side note. i had gone to the hospital about a week prior to this because
i knew, i mean i knew, that i was leaking fluid. i know what you're thinking "oh steph, you were probably just peeing yourself and you couldn't control it." no no, i am telling you i was leaking fluid. i went to the hospital and they ran a test and it came back negative for amniotic fluid. according to my doctor they should have done an ultrasound to make sure, but they didn't and just sent me home. i believe with my whole heart that i had leaked out a lot of fluid prior to my labor and that's why when they tried to break it nothing came out.
i dilated from 5cm to 10cm in about 2 hours. my doctor arrived and it was finally time to push out this babe. the nurse told me it could take anywhere from 10 minutes to 2 hours to push her out. i chuckled under my breath and thought "2 hours is not an option. i'm pushing this girl out like a mad women. " so we started the process of delivery. a nurse holding one leg, my mom holding the other and my noah holding my hand. {he didn't really want to see what was going on down under till her head was coming out and i don't blame him!
{there is some yucky junk coming out down there! hello!}
out in the hall some of my best friends, my dad and brother were listening to everything that was going on during the delivery. we put a cell phone in my room and they had a cell phone on speaker so they could hear it all! we used them like walkie talkies! so fun.
my mom said every push she was watching with excitement and concern. she new that at any minute it was possible for a flood of blood to come gushing out and the joy of this moment would be abruptly over. thankfully that never happened. and in 20 minutes, yeah let me just brag on myself for a minute i pushed an 8lb. 7oz. 22in. baby out in 20 minutes. and if you don't know i am a fairly small person so to me that was quite an accomplishment! ok enough patting myself of the back.
after 20 minutes this beauty arrived.
just perfect.
i can't imagine the relief my parents felt at this point. their daughter and first granddaughter made it safe and sound. my mom snapped a bunch of pictures and ran out to show the gang.
noah making sure the nurse is doing everything right. ; )
just lovin' on my baby girl.
after the delivery we started noticing that paisley was losing her coloring and turning slightly blue. i know right? like we needed any more drama. the nurses took her from me, everyone had to leave the room and they hooked her up to some oxygen and monitored her breathing. after they had everything stabilized they gave her back to me with a monitor attached to her foot. they said if the reading on the monitor dropped below 80 to push the "red button" on the wall. that darn red button! about 3 minutes after the nurses left, paisley's numbers dropped below 80 and we had to push it. doctors and nurses came rushing in all over again and whisked her away from me.
they told us she may have to go in the neonatal unit over night and the head of the unit would be coming over in a few minutes to look her over. we immediately prayed over paisley that all of her levels would normalize and by the time the doctor examined her she was just fine. the doctor said all paisley needed was some skin to skin time with mommy. and that i could definitely do.
by the end of the day paisley ended up being just fine. mommy ended up being just fine. {all thanks to Jesus!} however naoh and my mom needed a much deserved massage and spa day. i think they both had heart palpitations for a few days after this dramatic event!
afterwords we discovered the gush of blood that came out was from two things.
1. we believe the doctor slashed my cervix when he was trying to break my water {the water that wasn't even there due to my leaking} and the pressure that paisley was putting on my cervix was causing blood to gush out.
2. the top of paisley's head had anywhere from 20-30 bloody nicks on it from the doctor jamming that hanger around up there. break. my. heart. it was awful to see and she still has scars on her head from it.
but a year and a half later we are all healthy. we are all fine. and we know despite all the drama and insanity our God was faithful and kept us all safe in his hand. i am so thankful for my little family.
thank you for reading this whole birthing story! i hope i didn't jerk your emotions around too much!
{all hospital photo's by lisa christine photography}
