Sunday, December 9, 2012

Baby Auri's Story

When I had gone to the OB the week before, we all thought for sure she was going to be early.  Every day I'd be prepared just in case I went into labor, and every day passed. I was a bit surprised we made it to the induction date.  But once she finally arrived, I know that date was the day she was supposed to be here.  (I am also grateful I got to spend time with my mom and sister before she came.)

We got up super early Tuesday (Nov 13th) morning.  Mike gave me a priesthood blessing before we left.  I had a very uneasy feeling the night before and all morning getting ready.  I'm grateful I have a worthy husband who is able to give me a blessing when I need one.  On the way to the hospital, I was nervous.  I don't know why, but I had a bad feeling. (I actually felt it a few times during the pregnancy as well.) I seriously kept thinking that we might not bring her home!  It was a scary feeling. What's even crazier, Mike and I got to talking after she was born and he told me he felt the same way coming into the hospital. When everything was over and all as well in the end, it was a humbling experience for me.

We got settled into our labor room just a couple minutes after 6:30am. They hooked me up to everything, IVs, and all that good stuff.  Dr Smothers came by a little after 7am and said she was on her way to the OR with the anesthesiologist who would be doing my epidural.  Since the other two kids came fairly quick, she wanted to wait until they were out of surgery to start me. So Mike and I hung out till 9:15am just chatting and watching tv shows. (just fyi, one of the shows we watched was a Downton Abby, where one of the daughters gave birth then DIED! Of all the episodes to watch, it was then:)

Aurora was definitely meant to be born on the 13th.  While we were sitting and waiting for the doctor, I seriously started having contractions a couple minutes apart!  What perfect timing is that!?  So when the doctor made it back, she broke my water and then about 30 minutes later then came in to do my epidural.  That's when all the fun started!! :)

Mike told the ladies in the room that he passes out easy while they were prepping for the epidural. He wasn't in the room the last 2 epidurals I had because of it. So my nurse had him sit in front of me and support me so he couldn't see it. While I'm sitting there bent over getting the epi, Mike says, "Um, I think I'm going to pass out.  I'll just lay my head down on your lap."  He did, and within seconds he was out cold, head in my lap and seriously snoring very deep.  The nurse ran over and grabbed him, yelling "Man Down!" trying to get him to the floor.  When she lifted his head up, he was GRAY!  And (he doesn't believe me but I swear) there was white drool coming out of his month and his eyes were open.  I was freaked out, and of course I coudn't move at all.  It took 5 nurses to come in and help get him down to the floor.  It felt like he was out 1 to 2 minutes! They all kept looking at me, seeing how I was handling it. I was so close to bawling!  By the time he finally came to and was ok, I busted up laughing!  I coudln't help it!  It was either laugh or cry, so I chose to laugh!  Then everyone started to laugh, appologizing the whole time.  It now is quite hilarious!  But in the moment, I was so scared!  (It reminded me of an incident we had with Toni Southam's husband one Easter morning.) Michael, I am so happy that you didn't hit your head when you went out, and that all turned out ok, but you don't get to be in the next time!! :)

It was only about 2 minutes after all Mike's drama that I all the sudden didn't feel good.  I felt like I was going to throw up.  They got me a bucket, but then I just started to get really sleepy.  I remember laying there so tired and heard one of the nurses say my blood pressure was 85/40! I thought, "Oh, it's me who's not going to make it..."  But I was so tired I didn't care; all I wanted to do was go to sleep.  Scary!! They quickly gave me epinephrin and I slowly felt a bit better. They sat and monitored me and baby pretty close for a while. 

In between naps, I watched the monitor for contractions.  My contractions slowed down a bit after the epidural so they started pitocin and they started back up every couple minutes.  But the baby's movement with my contractions were really weird.  It was like she was going down, then went back up again on my contractions, and her heart rate would drop from 150's to 118.  The nurses were getting frustrated and wondering what was going on, so Dr. Smothers showed up on her lunch break to put a monitor inside me.  When she checked me, Auri's head was right there and ready to come. 

I was SO tired and still out of it during the delivery. They got me all ready, then realized baby was face up and kind of side ways. Great:(  I pushed maybe 4 different contractions and she wasn't budging, so they had to suction her out.  Bummer. Then at one point I noticed the doctor snipped something.  I asked her if she just gave me an episiotomy and she just calming said, "No," and kept working.  Right after the cut, they had me push really hard.  One of the nurses even pushed on my tummy pretty good to help push the baby out. 

I seriously didn't find out until an hour or so later from Mike that during all this crazy, the cord was wrapped around her neck!  I had no clue, Dr Smothers was so calm. She was cutting the cord to get baby out when she'd snipped me.  I'm glad I didn't know in the moment. Mike watched the whole thing and was just fine. I'm impressed:)

So they got little Auri out, it took her a good while to breath, they almost got oxygen.  But once she did start to cry, she was just fine after that. While they were taking care of her, Dr Smothers mentioned that I hadn't stopped bleeding. So they gave me a shot in my arm to help it stop, and a pill to swallow (yes to swallow, not to go anywhere else, poor nurse;)  The bleeding did finally stop.  I continued to take some pills over the next day and half to be sure.

What a crazy delivery!  When all was well, I was showered, medication out of my body, and we were on the maternity floor, I started to really think about everything that had just happened. I know our family was being watched over that day. It was then that Mike and I got to talking about how we were both feeling coming into the hospital that morning knowing that something wasn't right. I told him that before we got there, I was thinking about the cord. It was the strangest feeling.  So when he told me earlier what had happened during delivery, I had been humbled. I had come in with the feeling that the outcome wasn't going to be good and that this might be a huge trial in our lives. So when everything was alright and all three of us are healthy and here, I have never been so grateful for my family, my healthy body, a precious newborn, the plan of salvation, and my Savior. I was given a clearer perspective on my life that day. I'm grateful that Heavenly Father was watching over us that day and allowed everything to turn out well:)     

0 comments: