Holden James
We are so happy to welcome a new little guy into our family.
Holden James Farnsworth was born on December 14th at 8:22 am weighing
8lbs. 2 oz. but the story of how he arrived is kind of a crazy one, so here
goes for inquiring minds.
Thursday morning I lost some mucus, (Sorry! too much
information? Birth isn't pretty but I figure I will tell the whole story
anyways). I called Daniel and told him to get ready for a baby soon as I
knew losing your mucus plug can be a precursor to labor, but I had plans to
make some Christmas treats with my mother-in-law, so I go over there and think
nothing of it but she was a little worried and made me call my doctor.
I talked to him and he said if I wasn't leaking any fluid or having
contractions I am fine. I then read that it could still be weeks before labor
starts after losing your mucus plug so I was a little disappointed
since I was set to be induced on Monday (due to having high blood sugar
during pregnancy and we didn't want the baby getting too big and that would be
one day past my "due date"). I was induced with Emilee and labor
was a long drawn out nightmare ending in a C-section and I did not
want to do that again! I was planning for a VBAC (Vaginal Birth after
Caesarean) with every fiber of my being!
Friday. If I thought I lost mucus yesterday morning, boy was
I wrong! Today was much much more but I go about my day as usual. I hung out
with my mother-in-law (and Emilee of course) again. We went to lunch at
Wingers and spent the entire day shopping at Wal-Mart, K-mart, and last
minute Christmas shopping at Rue 21 and Maurice's (I tried on a pair of pants
which was stupid! haha). Our plan was to shop until I drop or until my water
breaks! After all this shopping we got Wendy's for dinner since I didn't feel
like cooking. Later that night laying in bed, I was just about asleep and
I feel like what I thought was a super karate chop from baby and I
was like "ow" that kick kinda hurt! But it was actually more of a
POP! I feel a little leak of wetness, I adjust and feel a little more, I start
to realize what this means and start to panic a little bit. I kneel up in bed
and gush! Water goes everywhere. I shake Daniel and tell him my water just
broke! He says "Are you serious?" and I tell him, 'I'm
Serious!!"
Daniel wants to go to the hospital right away but I hadn't
started any contractions yet so I wasn't sure we should go yet just to be sent
home or something, plus it was midnight (Saturday) and we would have to
wake Emilee up. Daniel called the OB department and they chuckled at our
question and said I should definitely come in. So Daniel runs around
getting things loaded in the car, taking out the garbage cans etc. while I just
sit and gather a few things for Emilee to take to grandma's house. I was
calm...until contractions started! Then I agreed we better head towards the
hospital in Roosevelt, a 40 minute drive from Vernal. We hadn't been driving
for 5 minutes when red lights flash behind us! Are you kidding me! I'm in labor
and we are getting pulled over! He comes to my window and starts to ask where
we are headed, when Daniel just interrupts and tells him "my wife is in
labor and we are headed to the hospital right now!" and I give him a
pathetic glance as he informs us our license plate light is out and sends us on
our way. Good thing the light was out because our registration
was past due too but he didn't notice that in the dark. haha.
By the time we got to Daniel's parents house to drop off
Emilee and our dog, I was having contractions that were 40 seconds long and 4
minutes apart.
Checked into the hospital at 1 am, dilated to a 5. They called the anesthesiologist and he would be coming in shortly. 2 a.m. dilated to a 7 and having pretty intense contractions. 3:00 am I was finally getting the epidural. I was bent over on the bed and Daniel standing in front of me holding onto my shoulders. The Dr. was just in the middle of doing it when Daniel falls straight backwards and hits the floor. He fainted! He didn't even catch himself and he's laying there with his eyes twitching and he stopped breathing for a second. Here I am, not supposed to move a single muscle and I'm flipping out. The nurses are simply saying "Daniel, Daniel can you hear us?" and I'm crying and yelling "Somebody HELP him!!" Finally he comes out of it and then they want to send him to the ER to get checked out but they say he would have to be admitted as a patient, and I did not want him to be going anywhere at this point so the anesthesiologist checks him a little and says he'll be fine. I lay in the bed in so much pain by now (hoping this epidural kicks in soon) that I'm not even aware what Daniel was doing now, I guess he got some food and laid down on the couch to sleep. I'm enduring the contractions and feel my toes get tingly numb, my left leg becomes immovable but other then that it is not working. Let's be honest, I blame Daniel fainting for the epidural failure. Gotta blame something, right? I tell them I'm still in tremendous amounts of pain and my epidural gets adjusted and I roll on my side to get the medicine to flow to my other side. No relief still. By 5:10 a.m. I am complete and dilated to a 10. Every contraction I literally was praying to please help me get through this. I had inspiration quotes printed off about how women have been having babies for millions of years and it's natural, have no fear, you can do this, and that's what I would think about. You CAN do this! My Dr. was amazing and was there by 4am. I don't remember how long I was pushing but we tried that for a while. Holden's heart rate would drop dramatically with each push so we gave it a break and stopped pushing for a little while. Changed positions and tried pushing on my side. With each push, he would drop but would go right back up when it was over. It was like two steps forward one step backwards. I was put on oxygen to help and told not to push and let the contractions do the work of pushing baby more downward without the stress the pushing was putting oh him. Having contractions without pushing is absolutely excruciating. Pushing at least gives you something else to focus on; the pushing, counting, breathing; something besides just contractions. I couldn't hardly talk or even notice who the nurses were. I kept looking at that warming table where the baby goes thinking that all this really is worth it, but it got to the point where I was moaning and would throw my oxygen mask off when I couldn't handle it anymore. I broke down crying and told Daniel I can't do this, I want a C-section and to go get the doctor right now. The doctor comes in to talk to me, asks how I'm feeling and I tell him it is unbearable. He asks what I want to do, and I of course didn't actually want a C-section so I tell him I want to push again. I don't know what crowning feels like, but I swear it felt as if the baby was crowning this whole time. From the previous pushing and fetal monitoring he said that pushing any more would stress the baby even more and he didn't want the baby in distress then end up in a C-section anyways and turn it into an emergency situation. He checked me again and the baby had not gotten past my pelvic bone and he said a C-section was what we needed to do. I had done this before so it wasn't too shocking and after being up the entire night I was ready to be done. The anesthesiologist was going to come in and they can usually double the dose of the epidural and it is effective enough to do the surgery. I had to wait a while for him as it was around shift change. He ups the meds and we waited for it to kick in. And we waited, since the epidural in the first place was not effective, neither was this. I told him it was not working and I don't think he really believed me and decided to test it out. He touched my belly and asked if I could feel anything. Uh Yes! So then he asked if I could feel just a touch or a pinch. It was a pinch, I could feel everything. That would be a problem since they "use something sharper then a pinch."
Basically our only option at this point is for me to go
under general anesthesia. Since I was going to be out, Daniel had to wait
outside and watch from a window instead of being able to come in with me. As I
was laying on the table, the doctor checked me one last time just to be sure
and the baby still hadn't come down any lower. So it gave me some comfort
knowing we were doing the right thing and I had tried to give birth the
best I could but it just wasn't working out.
Holden James was born at 8:22 am weighting 8 pounds 2 ounces
and was 20.5 inches.
Daniel was able to go to the nursery and be with Holden. 2
hours later he heard that I was out and back in the room. I got to meet my
sweet baby. I kept asking Daniel over and over about his stats, how much did he
weigh, how tall was he, how much did he weigh (again haha) as I was kind of out
of it. I counted his fingers and toes and was able to breastfeed him. I
was still pretty tired so after we got acquainted for a while we sent him back
to the nursery and we slept. The lab came in to draw blood and check my levels,
I didn't think much of it until later when we talked to the doctor again
that we were told of the complications and why it took 2 hours after the baby
was out before I was out and ok. My uterus was weakened from an intense
labor and the small incision to get him out tore clear down to my bladder.
Holden was too high to be in the birth canal, but much lower then a usual
C-section so he had to reach down; his shoulders were where the doctor
usually grabs the head. These two thing lead to the tearing. They put a
blue dye in my bladder to make sure it didn't also tear and they could check if
my pee was blue I was ok, if anything else was blue that would be a problem
apparently. So my bladder ended up ok. The lab was checking my blood levels
because I had lost a lot of blood and they were checking if it was alright. I
had low blood pressure when the nurses would check me. It all sounds a bit
traumatic but the blessing of it was that I was not aware of any of it (the
C-section complications) which I am thankful for! I don't know what I would do
if that had happened and I had been awake the whole time knowing everything.
By Sunday I was able to get up and slowly walk around,
and by Monday the 16th I was good enough to go home, a day sooner then anticipated.
Holden had a big ol' hematoma on the top of his head
from trying to be born. His poor head was cone shaped, but only about half of
it. We have figured that my pelvis isn't big enough. Anyways, he here and that
is the important thing and he is heavenly!
Holden had a big ol' hematoma on the top of his head
from trying to be born. His poor head was cone shaped, but only about half of
it. We have figured that my pelvis isn't big enough. Anyways, he here and that
is the important thing and he is heavenly!
Emilee loved meeting her baby brother, and made him a
birthday cake and had to sing happy birthday to him and everything
(complete with a 'zero' candle she got to blow out, but got upset
when we told her he couldn't actually eat any of the cake.
 |
| Going home |
