Derrick's birth (really long -but fun- story)

Brandon got up with the girls on Saturday morning and let me sleep in until 9.  Then after I got up he started feverishly working on the pinewood derby track for our branch activity next week.  He told me, in all seriousness, that I could not go into labor until it was finished.  And I agreed with him in all seriousness.  He worked on that thing all day and finally finished cleaning up his tools at 7:00 PM.  Then we had dinner.  

After dinner I stood up to get the girls out of their high chairs and had such bad back pain that I could hardly walk.  I hobbled over to the couch while Brandon took care of the girls.  I'd been having random back pain for days so I didn't think too much about it.  I told Brandon to take a shower so he could be clean just in case we needed to go to the hospital.  

While Brandon was in the shower I started to have back pain, tightening in my belly like braxton-hicks contractions, and a little bit of crampy pressure all combined.  I'd had each of these three things before, but this was the first time all three of them had happened at the same time.  I tried to time how often this was happening, but the girls were entertaining themselves by putting rocks down my shirt so paying attention to the clock wasn't my first priority.  Brandon finished his shower and with his help I timed the "whatever was happening" to be about 5 minutes apart.  

We debated whether or not to call my parents.  On the one hand this was probably nothing.  On the other hand we knew that with the girls I had been dilated to a 5 and joking and laughing with the hospital staff.  We reasoned that with my apparent high tolerance for pain I could potentially be in labor and not know it.  We didn't want to wait too long and risk a freeway delivery.  I asked Charlotte if she thought we should call Grandma and she held up her shoes.  I took that as a yes.      

 We called my parents.  When my dad answered the phone I told him I thought it was baby time.  He said, "just a minute let me put you on speaker phone so you can tell Mom."  Lydia was starting to cry because I didn't let her have the phone so I replied with, "we don't need to have a conversation about this, just come get the girls!"  My parents arrived within record time.

I think my parents were a little surprised at how calm Brandon and I were.  We'd got the girls in their sleepers, cleaned up the apartment a little bit, and even remembered to find someone to take care of copying and distributing the flyer for the pinewood derby in case we didn't make it to church on Sunday.  My "whatever was happening" feelings were less intense.  I felt a little silly saying goodbye to the girls and my parents.  I joked the hospital would probably just laugh at me and send me home, but at least I'd get to sleep in the next day if they did that.

 Brandon drove calmly to the hospital.  My back and belly tensed up once on the 20 minute drive there.  We parked in our usual spot and walked through the construction maze around the front entrance.  Once we were on the 4th floor I hit the communication button for Labor and Delivery and told them, "We think I'm in labor."  They let us in and we walked up to the desk.  I was giggling about something, and I told the attendants, "I'm probably not in labor, but I'm dilated to a 5 so we wanted to come and make sure."  They said, "you seem too happy to be in labor."  And Brandon and I both laughed and said, "that's what we were told the night we had our twins."

They took me back into a room and I changed clothes.  Brandon and I waited on the couch for the nurse to arrive.  Brandon called his friend Trevor and casually chitchatted with him.  The nurse came in and hooked me up to the monitors.  This was the first time I had to be on monitors this whole pregnancy.  She went through all the standard check in questions with me.  By this time I wasn't even having pain and I figured we could just get the answered saved for when I came back for real.  Then at about 9:45 after being there 45 minutes she finally checked my cervix (this was the most painful thing yet) and said,  "Oh you're at a 6! You're staying right here because you are also having regular contractions."  I replied with, "you mean I'm not crazy?"

One look at the clock told us that we were going to have an Easter Baby.  Brandon and I laughed at the odds that we would have the girls on Halloween and Baby C on Easter.  The nurse started me on a fluid IV (this became the most painful thing) and went to call my doctor.  My doctor happened to be the one on call that night so soon she came into say hello.  Then Brandon and I were left alone for a while.  Brandon and I passed the time by playing cards.  

At 11:00 my doctor came in to break my water.  I was having regular contractions, but they weren't close enough together to really help the baby along.  We hoped that breaking my water would kick things into gear.  Breaking my water didn't hurt very much at all.  My IV continued to give me the most pain.  Brandon and I were having a great time playing cards and joking.  The fact that I was laughing so much was causing problems with the monitor.  It was hard to distinguish between giggles and contraction on the display.  So at 11:30 my doctor came back and inserted an internal monitor into my uterus.  She also checked me and I was at 7 cms.

About this same time my new nurse walked into the room.  I did a double take when I saw her.  It was none other than Lynnette T, my Beehive adviser from back when I was 12.  We hadn't seen each other in at least 10 years, but she recognized me right away too.  I was so excited that she was going to be my nurse.  She'd always been so nice to me when I was an awkward teenager.  

I caught up with Lynnette for a little while and then she left to see other patients.  Brandon and I were sick of cards so we started watching The Matrix on TV.  At 12:30 Lynnette came back in and told me that my contractions were 8 minutes apart.  My doctor wanted us to start pitocin to see if we could gt them closer together.  I was just fine with that decision so she added pitocin to the second tube on my IV.

Over the next hour she gradually turned up the pitocin.  And for the first time I started to feel strong regular contractions.  By 2:00 they were getting very intense.  Brandon was helping me breath through them.  Each one hurt terribly, and I'd consider getting an epidural.  Then the contraction would end and I'd feel so much relief.  I'd think, "I can do this."  And then another one would start.  

I began to shake uncontrollably during each contraction. I hated the shaking.  Lynnette checked my cervix and I was still at 7 cms.  "Okay," I decided, "It's time for an epidural."  I saw the writing on the wall.  It was 2:00 am.  Brandon had been awake for almost 21 hours.  I knew there was no way that he could stay alert enough to get me though dilating 3 more cms PLUS pushing.  And if he couldn't hang in there then there was no way I could do it without him. My main goal was to have the baby vaginally.  So I didn't feel like I was giving up by asking for an epidural.  

Lynnette called the anesthesiologist and within a few contractions I was on my side getting an epidural.  Brandon held my hand the whole time.  It was just like the epidural I had with the girls except for this time he did something and I felt an electric shock in my knee - which was pretty cool.  

They hooked me up to a bunch of stuff to get monitored for a little bit.  For a brief period of time I had 9 things on me.  The uterus monitor, the baby monitor, an oxygen monitor on my finger, a blood pressure cuff, a catheter, the epidural, an oxygen mask, and the two IV lines.  Here I am with all my cords (this was right before the oxygen mask).

I don't know what my decision epidural wise would have been if I'd been in labor at 2:00 pm, but I know I made the right decision for 2:00 am.  As soon as all the monitoring things showed that everything was going okay Lynnette turned down the lights and let us sleep.  At 4:00 she checked me and I was at 9 cms.  Then at 4:50 I was at 10 cms.  The baby was still high in my pelvis so we all opted for more sleep/labor while the painless contractions brought the baby lower.  Lynnette left me with instructions to call her if I felt a lot of pressure in my bottom region.

At 5:50 I woke up and knew what she meant by that pressure description.  The only problem was the call button was on the side of the bed behind me. The epidural made my legs useless so I couldn't roll over.  I called out to Brandon who immediately sprang up and pushed the button - even though he was probably still asleep.      

Lynette came in and started telling me how to push.  And then at 6:00 we started pushing with each contraction.  Lynnette would hold one leg and Brandon held the other while I grabbed my thighs and curled up into a ball while holding my breath (easier said than done). It was slow going at first.  They'd set up a mirror so I could see; however, it was so far away I couldn't see the little bit of head that peaked out with each push.  They moved the mirror closer and I could see the head, but it didn't look like a head.  It looked like a wrinkly water balloon.

Our room window faced East and as the morning sky gradually got lighter the head gradually got bigger.  Soon it was time for the nurses' shift change. Our nurse from the night before came in and took over.  She directed me on how to push even more effectively.  Lynnette stayed as the second nurse.  The water balloon head got bigger and soon my doctor came in.  She raised the bed as high as it would go and everyone stood around me and continued to help me push.  

 I could feel the pressure of each contraction, but none of the pain. I knew the baby would come soon but it still seemed like a long ways away.  Sometimes there would be 5 minutes between contractions and other times there was barely a minute.  Brandon started to talk to the doctor about the things he'd seen her do during the girls' C-section.  He asked, "It looked like you pulled her uterus out of her body when you sewed her back up."  The doctor started to explain that yes that was what happened.  Just then I started into another contraction.  Everyone started helping me.  I thought this was just another push, but then Brandon said, "Wow there's the head." The doctor was blocking my mirror view, but I could see the cord between my legs as she maneuvered something with her hands.  And all of a sudden I had a huge baby laying on my chest.  This was at 7:45.

"Wow, that's a big baby," was probably the first thing I said. He had a little bit of trouble crying, but a couple sucks with the bulb syringe fixed that.  He cried, then whimpered, then calmed right down.  The nurses rubbed off some of his white gunk and then put him on me for some skin to skin time.  The doctor delivered the placenta and started stitching up my level 2 tear. Brandon watched her intently.  There was a big knot in the cord that we all admired.

  Someone came in to weigh Derrick.  I didn't have to let them measure him yet, but I was curious how big he was.  I thought that maybe he was 8 pounds.  The girls combined had been 8 lbs 6 oz.  I was shocked when they said he was 9 lbs 2 oz.  My doctor commented that she had no idea how I'd been storing him - especially since I'd only gained about 13 pounds the whole pregnancy.    

They gave him back to me and I was able to nurse him.  He latched on so easily.  We started calling family so they could know about Derrick before church.  Brandon ordered breakfast for himself.  I got crackers, but later was able to eat a meal.  I was even able to get up and walk to the bathroom.  Mt doctor asked me which I would recommend, a C-section or a vaginal birth.  I told her a vaginal birth was way better recovery-wise.

Soon it was time to go to our post-pardum room. Brandon and I were falling asleep as our new nurse talked to us about something.  Eventually she left us and we just crashed. Derrick stayed in our room and slept too.  I was basically asleep while the CNA took my vital signs.  

Later, after getting some sleep, Brandon went and helped give Derrick a bath.  Turns out this kid is blond. 

In the afternoon my parents brought Charlotte and Lydia to see their new brother.  The girls liked poking him in the nose.  I think Lydia said baby for the first time.  Other than that they were more interested in eating graham crackers, jumping on me (I am so glad I didn't have a C-section incision), and pushing the buttons on my bed - than doing anything with the baby.  

 And now we are catching up on sleep and enjoying our little boy.  He is so calm.  We love that we can hold him, and snuggle with him, and see him as much as we want. We also enjoy the hospital room service.  For weeks I've been looking forward to not having to cook.

So that's the story of how we got our Easter baby.  We found out later that Derrick was the first Easter baby of the day at LDS Hospital.  They gave us a blanket as a prize.