Birth Story: Short Version

Well here is the short version of the birth of our baby Chase.

The weekend started out with us going to our weekly appointment. We brought all of our "baby" things just incase. Our midwife Heather asked if we wanted to have a baby that weekend, we said yes! I thought it would be great to have a baby for Mothers day.  We went back to my brother place for the night anticipating the next day. They helped labor start by giving me some "herbal remedies" and natural stimulants. It started working! So this is Saturday afternoon, about 4:30 that we had gone in. contractions started and were getting steady. I continued to labor through the whole night. Time seemed to fly by for me, I was really shocked by that. I know it wasnt for all of our midwives and Brett though :) So 6:00 Am came on Saturday and labor still wasnt picking up, but it was still going. We tried walking, which oddly slowed everything down. I had started to run a fever by then. Chases heart rate would peak a little, so they decided some anitibiotics were in order. Thus the beginning of my endless IV pokes. I continued to labor for the next few hours. Now if I remember right,part of the problem why I wasnt progressing really well was the placement of my cervix? It seemed to float around, n ot really staying in the right place. Unfortunately this meant a lot of painful interventions.  They would check me during a contraction, and pull and twist on my cervix at the same time. Somehow I was able to withstand 12-15 of these throughout the day. I used the technique called "hypnobirthing" to help me through labor. Brett said he was surprised at how prepared I was, and how in control I stayed. Although my labor was slow, I was progressing at a consistant pace. I had reached a 7 I think, almost 8 and I decided to get into the warm water for relief. Once I did I felt crazy back pain. The midwives said they could actually feel the bulge of the baby on my back.  I had begun to become very emotional and overwhelmed at this point. It was going on 24 hours now. Brett and I began to have the feeling that we may need to transfer to a hospital. Something wasnt feeling right.Even though his heart rate was great, and there really were no problems.

They checkled me again and somehow the little guy had moved and I regressed back to 5 centimeters. He had moved out of position and we were almost starting over. We knew that was our moment, it was time to go. The midwives were great, really supportive. They called surrounding hospitals to find the right doctor for us. We decided to go to the University of Utah Hospital. Heather drove her car, Darby ( student midwife) drove hers and Brett drove me and Eve( student midwife) in the last car. Eve was great, I think I had about 5 contractions in the car, and she helped me through each one. We arrived and they were already expecting us. We got an epidural going and everything was calming down, I began to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  It was now about 6 on  Sunday evening, I think.  Everyone left to get some lunch and I was able to relax... for a few minutes... I began feeling contractions again. I was having to use hypnobirthing through it again, I knew the epidural wasnt working. I was panicked and trying to call for the nurses but couldnt find the button. Finally I just took all the monitors off of me to get their attention, and it did! She assured me it was just the pitocin kicking in, and I would be feeling some pressure. I looked at her and said.. NO its not working... she looks up and says "oh they didnt turn your epidural on, let me get the anestesiologist back in here! " They got it going again and all was well :) I was able to fall asleep for a bit, but not much, mostly just close my eyes. I was now going on no sleep for about 32 hours. Myabe longer. they came in again at who knows what time and said I was almost ready! 9 centimeters! It was abour 2 am, on Monday I had missed my Mothers Day baby, who would have thought! Pushing started and I was truly exhausted. I was afraid that I was already too tired to do this! I had a great support system and Baby Chase was born at 6:12 Am on May 14th. Labor had begun May 12th.  Apparently the epidural had worn off too, and I had pushed for 2 hours without pain medication. Which I am greatful for, that was my original desire. When I think back on the whole experience, the pushing stage is what I remember the most. The intensity and sheer adrenaline I was running off of.He was born and it was amazing. Finally the end result of all of this! He was a trooper the whole time, had a great heart rate. I was at the final stage of exhaustion. The docto started calling for more pitocin for blood loss, and I started getting a little loopy. then an injection to slow blood loss, then they called the head OB. Apparently I had torn internaly and was bleeding quickly. I began to come in and out of consciousness. I received 3 more IVS, each had to be done twice, and they got everything under control. I could hear my baby crying the whole time and there was nothing I could do, but I knew Brett and the midwives had him so he was ok.

We were stablized and move to the recovery room. I had never felt an exhaustion quite like this before. To make a long story short. I continued to black out throughout the next day. Could hardly walk, and basically had to be carried to the bathroom. Obviously we had a hard time with feeding the first day or so. I was finally able to go to sleep at 1 in the morning on Tuesday.  Our baby ended up on anitbiotics, which was awful to see him with an IV. His IV went bad, so then they had to put one in his head, it brought me to tears to see. I still wasnt recoveing. I has no color to my skin, except a yucky yellow color. I would have "blackout" spells where I would not be able to talk and not be able to move or use any muscles.My blood was tested and it was decided I would need a tranfusion. I was told by a friend of mine who is an OB/GYN that a normal birth is a blood loss of about 300 ml ( not sure how accurate that is) it was estimated that I lost around 1200 ml. They brought in the "air meds" team to my IV for this, as I had so many IVS in there was no where else to put one! And even THEY had to do it twice! Ive never had an IV before in my life, that weekend, I got my lifetime supply.  The blood started pumping and I was already feeling better within hours.  We spent the next day recovering, and we were finally able to go home! In a stranger way I actually enjoyed our time in the hospital. It was just Brett and I and our new baby. Now that may not have been a really short version, but as I write more memories keep popping up! I didnt write this to " toot my own whistle" of what I had been through. It needed to be documented for myself :) We were finally able to go home on Thursday afternoon. It had been almost a week since we had left our house! We came home and slept :)