Labor and Delivery!

Ok so here's the baby story...the long version (if you want the short version check Facebook). 

I don't know why I ever expected to have a "normal" birth, I should have expected some curve balls. I have been so blessed this whole pregnancy with no Pre-Eclampsia...and healthy healthy healthy, and normal. But my last couple weeks we got thrown some curve balls. Week 38 I found out I was Group B Strep positive (fairly normal, but just add it to the list) which meant I would have to receive an antibiotic before birth so baby didn't get sick. Or to avoid the small risk that baby could get sick I could have a C-section. (NO!) Then week 39 I found out baby was breech (he had been head down up until then). Great. So then we had to get busy flipping baby and making some decisions. I went home and tried everything to try to get baby to flip: swimming, chiropractor, pelvic rocks, polar bear position, rocking on hands and knees etc. Then I went to talk to the doctor the next day to see if he would be willing to manually turn baby. If we wanted to go that route we had to do it asap as to avoid going into labor or having contractions while trying to turn baby (this is a procedure they usually do at 37-38 weeks). Then if successful they would induce labor right away to avoid baby flipping again on his own (also add induction to the list of unnaturals- and not in the Hypnobirthing plan). Or we could wait it out and hope baby turned naturally and hope for our natural vaginal birth, with the risk of baby not turning in that case the only alternative for our footling breech was the dreaded C-section. So the doc (Dr. William Parker-who has delivered 7500 babies) was willing to turn baby but wanted to do it asap. We fully trusted that he would be our Hero. He said we had a better chance of manually flipping baby than waiting and hoping he flipped on his own. So it was a go. He told us to be at the hospital by 6:30am the next morning. (eeekk! EARLY!) So here is a picture of me at 6:30 am at the hospital ready to have a baby at 39.4 weeks pregnant:

This picture is of me holding up what I thought was a joke, but what they called an "ice pack". Thanks American Fork Hospital. Seriously? A woman is in labor and needs an ice pack for back pain and you give her a rubber glove filled with ice because you can't have real ice packs anymore cause some idiot got freezer burn or something once and now we're all being punished?? Thanks. Awesome. Hilarious. 

So apparently flipping a baby can be wicked painful...so with all this unnatural stuff anyway, I thought bring on the epidural. I'm glad I did cause I could still feel them trying to turn baby and it was SOOOO painful even with the epidural. So with all the pushing and pulling, trying to turn baby either way, he wouldn't go. So then they asked me yet again..."C-Section?" NO! I'm not giving up yet! I asked if we could try again. By then I was having contractions every 2 minutes with all the pushing and pulling my uterus around. They said ok, let's wait an hour then try again. Meanwhile we were talking about how if you put frozen peas on the baby they don't like the cold and will turn away from it. So we didn't have peas, but we tried an ice pack. I sat there for an hour with an ice pack on my tummy where baby's head was hoping to scare him down. They also gave me some medicine that was supposed to temporarily STOP contractions so they wouldn't have to work against them while trying to turn again. Doc and Midwife came back to try to flip baby again...and within 2 minutes he gave in and flipped right around!! I TOTALLY attribute it to the ice. We ICED him! And the doctor helped too. 

Ok next: bring on more drugs...start the pitocin, the induction and give me that antibiotic for the Group B Strep. Contractions started right away...I was having them every 3 minutes...getting more painful.....and my epidural from flipping baby had worn off by now. I had the epidural thing still hooked up in my back with the option to push a button for a dose if I wanted to. I wanted to see how things went, and be free to push it only if I wanted to. So....again, pitocin, bla bla unnatural....push the button, things are getting painful. 

And I know you're telling yourself...too bad she went through all that practice of Hypnobirthing only to have a totally unnatural birth. But to you I say NAY! NOT a waste of time at ALL. In fact I'm very glad I was prepared with it cause I totally used it and it totally helped me relax and stay calm and breath during the flipping, contractions...and what was to come.

Ok so by now it was like 3 or 4 pm and Robert and I were just hanging out watching movies waiting for labor to progress and baby's head to get engaged. His head was still down, but very high up and not even close to being in my pelvis yet. I was only about 3 cm dilated. So we wait. We wished we had some board games to play, I wasn't in the mood to watch Sports Center or a movie like my husband. Then while talking to the midwife about what to do...we could try to manually move baby's head more over into the pelvis (doc would have to do that, and he had left to go back to the office for some appointments, but he was just minutes away) I had a HUGE LONG 5 minute contraction. She wanted to break my water but with baby's head being so high up and slightly off to the side we didn't want to risk something else like the cord slipping out before the head. Then with that HUGE contraction baby's heart rate dropped from 140 to about 60 beats per minute. They called the doc immediately for him to get down there in case they needed to do an emergency C-section. They threw an oxygen mask on me and had me get on my left side. Meanwhile amongst pandemonium I was just doing my deep breathing and relaxing knowing that everything was gonna be fine. And a minute later baby's heart rate went back to normal and we were fine. 

About 10 minutes later while still lying on my left side, something scared me out of my hypnosis- a burst! WATER!! My water broke and it felt like 20 gallons of water rushed out of me. Weird feeling! (remember I'm a first timer, my first was a C-section and I had never been in labor or had contractions before). 

That was fun. So then my midwife checked my dilation and to see if she could feel the head. And she felt......FEET.    

WHA????!!!!!!????!!!!!!

Seriously????!!! They thought maybe during that big contraction he had flipped or that that was what caused the contraction. So now with water broken, and feet down: C-Section. You CANNOT deliver a footling breech baby, way too many risks. So we got the doctor in, and got prepped for our last resort, the C-Section. I still had the epidural in, so they just gave me another dose of it instead of doing the spinal block (where you can't feel anything).

Here we are getting our surgery gear on:

You think that you shouldn't feel anything for a C-section, but...either that's just the way epidurals work, or it didn't work that well for me, cause I could fee A LOT of pain! I'd say I could probably feel at least 50% of it. The anesthesiologist kept telling me he could give me gas and knock me totally out so I wouldn't feel anything, but I didn't want to be OUT while my baby was being born! So I toughed it out! 

Right when they cut me open...they saw that the head was down......AND the feet!!!! WHA??!!  So they then realized had they known that they could've still tried for the vaginal birth just trying to move the little feet out of the way. They regretted not doing an ultrasound to make sure he was a footling breech, but then again they had never seen anything like that, so they didn't even think it was possible. But then again, ANYTHING IS POSSIBLE!! So we are a little bumbed we didn't know that, but oh well. We did our best. 

Again those Hypnobirthing techniques came in very handy. I was hardly able to relax, but just trying to stay calm, and breath and relax really helped get me through. But there was also a lot of tenseness and screaming. I kept wanting them to tell me why it was hurting and what they were doing exactly so I knew what was going on. They would tell me things like, "Yes we are cutting away your old scar tissue, yes we are using scissors", and  "We are cutting open your uterus", "we are pulling out the baby", "we are pulling out your uterus", "we are stitching up your uterus, then we will put it back in"  (OOOOUUUUUUWWWWWW!!!!!!!!) 

Thank goodness for Robert for letting me squeeze his hand and for helping me to relax. Bless the Anesthesiologist, he wanted to give me more meds so bad so he didn't have to see me in pain. I kept asking him, well is the pain gonna get worse? How long would it take for it to kick in? I wanna hold my baby asap and I don't wanna be knocked out, I think I can do it.  YIKES, it was painful, but luckily didn't last too long. He gave me some morphine at the end, which helped a lot. 

So when they pulled baby out...and I heard that cry, I just started crying. What a mind-blowing experience at it's climax. The poor anesthesiologist thought I was crying out of pain, but I told him, "it's just emotional"....I was overjoyed. What a sweet sound.

Mom crying. Cute little baby. Happy and Proud Daddy. 

Cute little baby boy still with out a name:

And the name we decided on is:

Catcher Jacob Potter

born at 5:24pm on June 22, 2012

8 lbs. 8 oz. 19.5 inches long

Robert came up with the name "Catcher" in a day dream-moment of brilliance-one day about 5 months ago. He presented it to me. And of course I was like, "WHA?? HUH?? NO." I came up with a huge list of names, and he didn't like any of them. Great. So we decided to wait till he was born and then decide. It was torture not having a name till he was born. Then after looking at him, I didn't really think he looked like a 'Catcher'. Out of the blue I thought he looked like a 'Jacob'. Robert liked it right away, so we decided that would be his middle name. Brady already thought his name was Catcher and was set on it. We figured if we gave him any other name, Brady would be very mad and confused. Robert was set on it too, and it had grown on me, so there it was. Catcher Jacob. 

    

Here is Brady meeting his brother for the first time. He just woke up and was still not aware of what was going on yet. But he got some cookies and warmed right up and then was so excited to finally meet his brother.

My brother Ben was our first visitor that evening. Proud Uncle:) Ben also helped out taking care of Brady while we were in the hospital. Brady loves Uncle Ben!

My Grama Ruth and Grandpa Jo came to visit the next day. They are proud Great Grandparents again!

Robert's sister Wendy holding baby Catcher. She just had a baby herself about 2 months ago, his name is Walker. She and Lance were awesome enough to also help take care of Brady for a couple days while we were in the hospital. After spending so much time at their house, when Brady got home he kept calling our baby "Walker" :)

Here are the cousins Catcher, Walker, and Brady:

We got a visit from the Derricks in the hospital, Becky holding Beatrix, Mike, Meiken holding Catcher.

I'm outnumbered:

Our little family of 4:

Me with my new CUTE baby! (Brady took this picture:))

Going Home!:

Recovery really has been a breeze. With Brady it was so much worse for some reason. I remember I was so loopy and didn't feel I could get out of bed for days. I didn't feel ready to leave the hospital after 3 days, and then when I got home I stayed in bed for weeks. This time I took a shower the day after Catcher was born, and wanted to walk around.  I felt great, took a different medication than I did with Brady which made me not as loopy and drowsy. I was in and out of bed and walking around and feeling almost 100% except just tired and with some minimal abdominal pain. 

We are so happy to have tried our darndest to have a natural vaginal birth, and in the end we are happy that we are all healthy and happy. We love our rolly polly little Catcher Jacob and couldn't be happier to have him in our family.