Enzo's Birth Story

WARNING! TMI!!!

I feel like I have told this story dozens of times over the past week and a half, but I know there are a few people who I haven't talked to who want to know the details. Also, I am writing this down for myself before the details become fuzzy.

We will start the week before Christmas. I completed my last day of work Thursday Dec. 16th, swollen ankles and all. I had a great day with many customers dropping off gifts. I was excited to start my disability leave. With a little less than 4 weeks till my due date I was looking forward to prepping for Christmas, spending time with family(as all of my side of the family would be in town), Christmas festivities, and having time to nest before my little guy was to finally get here. I went to the Dr. on the 17th, processed my disability paperwork, went to the post office to mail Christmas gifts, went to the mall to get some makeup, and got in a nap. It was wonderful! Saturday was spent wrapping presents with my MIL. Sunday was spent with my Hubby. We went to Ikea to buy a dresser for the Baby's room and put it together that night. Monday was spent with my Aunt, Uncle, Cousin, Wife and Baby, then visiting with my Nieces! Tuesday was lunch with my Grandma, Mom, Dad, and Nieces. Wednesday my Brother came in to town to stay with us, and we had our ultrasound. Thursday was an all day Birthday party for my Grandma Adair. Friday was Christmas Eve, which was spent finishing up presents and spending the evening at Jeremy's parents house.

Christmas Eve was a little different than normal. We usually spend Christmas morning at my in-laws, then I make my way to my Parent's house before ending up where ever dinner is at. This year however, Jeremy's Grandma suggested we open our gifts Christmas Eve as we were already going to be up there, and it would make it easier on me Christmas day. Boy am I glad we did presents Christmas Eve! My water ended up breaking Christmas Eve, although I didn't realize it until I was actually in labor the next day. I thought it might have broken, but wasn't sure, so I figured I would wait to see if contractions started. I read too many stories where a woman went to labor and delivery because she thought her water had broken and it turned out she had just wet her pants. I didn't want to be that lady. So I stayed up late finishing up Christmas presents for my family and went to bed.

Jeremy got up Christmas morning at 5:45 to put his hog leg in the smoker as we were planning on having Christmas Dinner at our house. My alarm went off at 7, but I put off getting out of bed until around 7:30. I finally got up, took a shower, got semi dressed, and put curlers in my hair. I knew I needed to eat breakfast that morning, but wasn't really feeling hungry. So I tested my blood sugar and forced myself to eat breakfast (whole wheat waffles with peanut butter and turkey bacon.) I woke up my brother, told him we were leaving in 15 minutes and tried to finish getting ready. Well that lasted all of 5 minutes. I started feeling really horrible. Super crampy, which was weird. So I took the curlers out of my hair, and laid on the couch whimpering. That is what I do when I don't feel good, I whimper. I decided that I wasn't going to make it to my Parent's house for presents which was big for me. I love Christmas! I love opening presents, watching other people open presents, giving people presents, all of it. But I wasn't feeling good enough to even have my brother drive me. So I called my Mom at 9 and told her Greg was going to come without me. I called labor and delivery and told them how I was feeling and was told to come down and get assessed. I had to finish packing my bag, Jeremy had to take a shower, then we finally left for the hospital.

My contractions (which I didn't realize were contractions) were about 5 minutes apart when I was laying on the couch. In the car they were about 3 minutes apart. Jeremy dropped me off at labor and delivery, and went to park the car. I went in and filled out the paper work in the middle of a contraction(that was fun), and was put in triage. Jeremy came in and then was whisked back out to finish filling out paperwork. I was all alone in the room when I realized I needed to puke. I kept looking around for somewhere to puke, but with the curtain drawn, I couldn't see anything. I kept thinking I was going to puke all over the floor. I really didn't want that to happen. So finally I jumped up, pushed back the curtain and puked in the sink. That was when I saw the garbage can. So I puked in the garbage as well. It was lovely. The sink was full of bacon and peanut butter vomit. So I cleaned it out as well as I could(because it was gross and I didn't want anyone else to have to clean it up) when Jeremy came back in. He asked why it smelled like peanut butter. I told him I had vomited everywhere and he helped me get back into bed. Finally a nurse came back in and gave me a bag in case I had to puke again, which I did during the next contraction.

So they hooked me up to monitors and the mid wife came in. She checked me and I was a 3/4 and the baby was really low. She didn't see any membranes, so she was pretty sure my water had broken, and she said the baby was so low that she could see the top of his head. And his hair. She said he had a full head of hair. So she took a swab and said she was going to examine it under a microscope to see if there was any amniotic fluid. She came back and said it was negative for amniotic fluid, but that probably meant that my water had broken the night before. She said her gut instinct was to admit me, but she was going to check with the Dr. on call, just to make sure. In the mean time, I kept having to run to the bathroom, and my contractions kept getting more intense, and closer together. They were about a minute and a half apart by this time, and I was in pretty bad pain. I kept whispering epidural to Jeremy, but apparently I wasn't showing anyone else how much pain I was in, because they hadn't admitted me yet. I really wanted to be admitted so I would have a bathroom in my own room and not keep having to run down the hall in triage. The mid wife finally came back and said the were going to admit me(they had an emergency c-section in the mean time which is why it had taken so long), so they hurried to do the admitting stuff on the computer and had me walk to my room. One of the nurses saw how uncomfortable was and asked me if I was ok. I whispered "epidural" to her. She was all hurried after that. She said, "Ok, so Michelle is very uncomfortable right now and would like an epidural as of yesterday." Which was true. So we got into my room, and they were still setting it up. I laid down on the bed, and tried to get comfortable.

Jeremy told the nurse in the room that the mid wife had said I needed to be checked again asap. The nurse didn't listen to him. She said, "I don't know why she would need to be checked again, the more she is checked, the higher the risk of infection." He told her look lady, her contractions are close, together, she wants an epidural, and the won't give her one until she is checked again. So finally she checks me. "Oh my god" the nurse yells, "she's a 10!" Crap! was all I could think, that meant I was not getting an epidural. I could have still gotten one, but it would have slowed things down, so I did without. The panicking nurse calls a bunch of people in, and things finally got started. There were a least 4 nurses in my room at any given time, plus the midwife. They started my iv, which didn't hurt as bad as I thought it would. I just laid on my left side, closed my eyes, and tried to breathe through the contractions. Every time I started to whimper because of the pain, Jeremy would massage my back and tell me "You can do it Honey!" So I would continue to breathe and make it through the contractions. The nurses kept commenting how I had great control. I guess because I wasn't screaming or crying. I was just trying to keep my mind off of it.

They finally told me it was time to push. I never really had the urge to push. The mid wife had to tell me when to push. Jeremy held one knee back, the mid wife held the other, and I pushed. I pushed for about an hour. Everyone told me I was a really good pusher. The baby kept yo-yo ing. Everytime I pushed, you could see his head, but when the contraction was over, he would go back. Because he was so low, they were having a hard time keeping the fetal heart monitor on him. His heart rate was around 120 until I would push, then it would go to around 60. This concerned the mid wife, so they decided to attach a monitor to his head. Well that monitor wouldn't work, so finally the mid wife ask permission to do an episiotomy. I said sure. At this point I hadn't had any pain medication. I expected the mid wife to numb me. Nope. As soon as I said sure, she started to cut. That is when I screamed! I was not expecting her to cut immediately. Jeremy says he will be haunted by the sound of the mid wife cutting through my flesh for the rest of his life. After she cut me several times, my Baby was out in less than a minute. Posterior, with the cord wrapped around his neck once, but he was out. A little less than 6 hours of hard labor, and I had my little Christmas miracle.

From there on the rest was pretty much a blur. They put the baby on my chest, and Jeremy chose the name. He said, "I think he looks like an Enzo Carter, what do you think?" I agreed. So Enzo laid with me for about 5 minutes, then they took him over to the warming table so they could finish up with me. The mid wife numbed me, the sewed me up. She noticed that I was losing a lot of blood, so the gave me a shot of something to help my uterus contract, which would slow down the bleeding. I was given quite a bit of fluid through my IV. My face started to swell up pretty quickly. Every time they tried to elevate my head, my blood pressure would drop. So I spent the next two hours resting. I needed to use the restroom, but they wouldn't let me out of bed due to my blood pressure. So they gave me the option of a catheter or a bed pan. I chose the catheter. I never did get to use the bathroom in the delivery room.

After all the usual baby stuff (weight, measurements, etc.) Enzo was given back to me so he could nurse. He did have to have his glucose level checked 1 hour, 2 hours, 6 hours and 12 hours after birth. His first 3 checks were within range(although at the 2nd check they had to try 3 times due to broken machines before they got a reading), his 4th was too low, so we had to start supplementing with formula. I am getting ahead of myself. So it comes time to move me into my room. The nurse brings a wheelchair. Jeremy suggests the nurse bring a gurney instead because I wasn't feeling that great. The nurse insisted that I would be fine in a wheelchair. So Jeremy picks up Enzo, and the nurse helps me into the wheelchair. As I go to sit in the chair I notice blood on the floor. I ask if all that blood is from me as I notice it running down my leg, and that was it. Jeremy told me I slumped over and started convulsing out of the chair. The nurse yanked the emergency cord on the wall and yelled at Jeremy to help her. So Jeremy puts Enzo back on the warming table, grabs my bottom half and attempts to put me back on the bed. The nurse had, my shoulders, but wasn't strong enough to handle my dead weight, so I started to slide off the bed. Luckily 4 nurses rush in and I was put back on the bed. I wake up face down as I am being put back on the bed, wondering why I was being woken up from a nice dream. I had no idea that I had passed out. So immediately they put oxygen on me and start waving around the smelling salts, which was really annoying since I was already awake. Jeremy about had a heart attack after it was over. He said he had an adrenaline rush that lasted 30 hours.

After a CBC and staying in the delivery room for a few more hours, I was finally transferred on a gurney. I had a few family visitors that night and tried to get some sleep. I wasn't allowed out of my bed without the help of Jeremy, a nurse, and a silly cart thing, so Jeremy was in charge of all diaper changes and handing Enzo to me when he needed to nurse. At some point, Enzo's glucose level dropped to 36, so they had to start supplementing him with formula. I was really against this, as I knew it would make breastfeeding harder, but he needed the nutrients, so it had to be given. The next morning after very little sleep, Jeremy's Parents came and he was able to go home and take a shower. During this time a mid wife came in to talk to me about a blood transfusion. She suggested one as it would help me feel better faster than just getting iron. My hemoglobin level was 8.5 the first time they did a CBC. 6 hours later it was 7.5. A normal female adult should be between 12-16. So I decided that a blood transfusion was necessary.

Hours later, after putting in a second IV, getting the blood from the lab, I finally got my transfusion. It took about 6 hours to get the 2 units of blood in me. While I was having the transfusion, I had several visitors, friends and family, dinner, several trips to the bathroom, since they had taken my catheter out, etc. I also tried to nap, but that didn't really work. Once the transfusion was finally finished, I requested that the IV in my hand be removed, so I could try to sleep.

Monday brought circumcision for the little guy, more blood work for both of us, I was able to see my mid wife, finally was able to take a shower, and we were released. Hooray!

I am so happy to be home with my little boy! My recovery is going to be more difficult than a normal delivery, but it was all worth it.