Member- danier
- 4 years ago
- Wedding: August 2014
Our little boy John was born at 9:55am on Dec 31, 41wks + 3days (10 days overdue) according to dating ultrasound. Weighing in at a healthy 7lbs 8.6oz, measuring 20.5 inches long and with a full head of hair! I am a FTM.
Internal exams found my cervix to be completely closed in the final weeks but it was becoming more favourable. On the evening of Dec 28th, I was 1cm and had a Cook’s catheter inserted and was sent home to return the following morning. No progress, so a second was inserted on the 29th and was literally pulled out still inflated (not fun), bringing me to 2cm. On the 30th I was brought in for induction with oxytocin/pitocin and was 3cm at the start. A couple hours later, they broke my waters and I moved from a 4, to 7 (got an epidural at this point, I was nervous because of the unknown but it wasn’t bad at all) and slowly up 1cm at a time until 9cm. Apparently there was some anterior lip in the way preventing LO from turning his head to get into position.
Things started to get scary at this point. LO’s heart rate would drop in certain positions, so I had to stay on my left side for hours. At one point, LO’s heart rate was dropping no matter what position they got me into, and this is when I heard terrifying things…. fetal cardiac distress. The room was suddenly filled with people, I was advised that a c-section was necessary and explained the risks all the while being thrown around from bed to bed as they carted me towards the OR. It was pretty scary, I could see the fear in everyones eyes and they were clearly motivated to get him out ASAP. From the call to operate to delivery was about 15 minutes, it was all such a blur and Darling Husband came in JUST as baby was born. The relief I felt when I heard him cry, there aren’t words to describe! Unfortunately, he was held up so I could see him and carted off just as quickly. He had some issues with breathing initially and was transferred to NICU to be hooked up to a CPAP where he stayed for 48hrs. The Dr who delivered explained to me that the umbilical cord was very long and was around his chin, so try as he might, he wasn’t able to turn his head and he was tiring from the struggle.
I had hoped for a natural birth but in the end, I have him and that’s all that matters. I’m amazed by the size (smaller than expected) and look of my scar (very clean incision), it’s not that bad! More looking at the bright side…. having a longer recovery meant I was offered more in-house hospital services (ie. lactation consultants available, amazing nurses caring for me, etc) and though seeing LO hooked up to a million monitors was a bit unsettling, the NICU staff were absolutely AMAZING!
