Baby Carson’s Birth Story

Here is the story of Baby Carson’s birth.

Had 8.30a appointment for a NST (non-stress test) on Thursday April 2. Emily came with me – she was off work that day and nothing better to do apparently. Thank goodness she did come with me, seeing as how the day played out.

Checked my fluid levels and they looked great. Got on the monitors and it took a while for the baby to wake up. I had one real contraction while on the monitor and when Dr B came in, she checked me (still ~4cm dilated) and said that she saw one thing she didn’t like – the baby’s heart rate dipped after the contraction – so she asked if I wanted to have this baby today. I was hoping to avoid an induction, had heard so many stories about them leading to c-sections, etc and Dr B knew this. But she assured me that already contracting and being dilated meant that I was favorable for an induction. I started to cry and Dr B went to go find out if there were any rooms available for me. Emily got a hold of Rick and he headed to the hospital to meet us.

Emily & I walked over to L&D with Dr B – she led me into this GINORMOUSLY huge room, like I could have a dance party in it. It was very strange walking into a room to have a baby without all the hype surrounding “hurry up and get to the hospital, get admitted through Triage” stuff. I sat down on the bed and Dr B explained what would happen. They would start my IV (I needed antibiotics prior to delivery), then she’d break my water, and then I’d have a baby. I made sure she knew to insert “get an epidural” before the “have a baby” step.

They started my IV and once I got my dose of antibiotics, I was able to take a bath (yes, my room has a huge tub – have I mentioned how much I love my doctor?) and then Emily & I walked the halls for a bit while Rick grabbed some food and moved cars, etc. I was starting to have more contractions but they still weren’t painful yet but they were coming about 6 minutes apart.

Dr B finally showed up to break my water and then I got not one, but two epidurals (happened with Mallory too – first one didn’t take or something). Shortly after the epidural I started to feel MISERABLE – dizzy, hot, and nauseous and then I threw up. I guess my blood pressure dropped and after they got me repositioned in my bed I felt a million times better. Emily went and got Mallory from school so I could see her but she wasn’t too interested in me since I was stuck in a hospital bed so she went home with my mom. I was still only 5-ish so they decided to start me on some pitocin to see what would happen. The contrax started up more frequently and Dr B checked me. I was dilated to a 6 at 6:15p so she was going to run out and grab some dinner and be right back.

At 6:45p, Rick & Emily went to grab food from the cafeteria and at about 7:10 (my dad was there but Emily & Rick weren’t back yet), the nurses came in sort of frenzied and turned up all the lights and made me turn to my side, put an oxygen mask on me and then made me turn to my other side and then they were calling for doctors (something about bradychardia?) I told them that Dr B should be right back and the new nurse said “she’s not on call tonight” – apparently this nurse didn’t get the memo that Dr B has been waiting since July to deliver this baby ;-)

Rick & Emily showed up about this time (THANK GOD) so Emily started trying to track down Dr B. The doc who was on the floor at that time checked me – I was complete (10cm) and zero station and when the nurses moved me to my right side, I was starting to feel some pressure and was starting to freak out that Dr B wasn’t back yet.

Emily tracked down Dr B finally ~ she was just parking her car and would be up in two minutes. When she came into the room, she was already scrubbed up and asked if I wanted to do a practice push. This was at 7:45p. I guess they were good practices, because she let me start actually pushing at 7:49p – I don’t remember how many pushes I needed but Dr B needed to use a vacuum at the end because the cord was wrapped around the baby’s neck and she didn’t want to wait another 5-6 minutes for me to push enough to get the angle of his head right – but I only pushed for nine minutes (only NINE MINUTES? I pushed for 221 minutes with Mallory!) and out came a ginormously huge baby boy.

Carson William was born at 7:58pm on Thursday April 2, 2009. 22 inches long, 10lbs, 8 ozs.

Amazingly, I didn’t feel anything during my pushing – another contrast to my last delivery (where my epidural ran out and I was screaming during my pushes). I suffered from nausea a couple of more times after the baby was born and that just SUCKS. And the cord wrapped around his neck combined with me dilating to a 10 so quickly probably caused his heart rate to drop, which is why there was such a huge flurry of activity at ~7:10p with them getting my positions switched and stuff.

I am so happy to say our family is complete. Mallory has had a rough go of it so far, we’ve had a ton of tantrums and she refused to go potty on the potty all weekend long. My milk is in and Carson isn’t eating nearly enough to keep me comfortable so that isn’t so fun. Other than that, things are going pretty well. Carson is a pretty chill baby – and I don’t want to jinx that so I’ll leave it at that!

I’m ready for us all to settle in and try to find our new normal.

Wish us luck.

(I’m still working on pictures…)