These pictures were taken just 4 days before my water broke. I was hoping when I took them that they would be the last pictures of me during this pregnancy.
Saturday, April 8 at about 9:45 pm I was walking upstairs after putting the kids to bed and my pants were suddenly wet. I was unsure what had happened and thought maybe my water had broken, but I wasn't having any contractions. I told Chris what had happened and that I felt hesitant to go to the hospital because I wasn't having contractions. Over the course of the next hour I had a few more gushes of fluid, and felt more sure that my water had broken, but still thrown off by the fact that I wasn't having contractions at all. Chris talked me into going to the hospital anyway. It felt SO weird driving to the hospital and not being in labor.
We got to the hospital at about 11:45 and I was 2 1/2 cm dilated and 75% effaced. After being in triage for about an hour we got the results back on an amni-sure test that confirmed my water had broken. Still no contractions, but we were admitted to the hospital at about 1:00 am. I got an IV and they started antibiotics since I was positive for Group B Strep. We waited for the antibiotics to run for a few hours before they started me on Pitocin at 4:30 am to induce labor.
About 2:30 am, soon after we were admitted. Super excited that our baby would be here soon!
At 6:15 am our doctor came in and checked on us. I was dilated to a 4 and he broke the rest of my water. Over the next few minutes, my nurse noticed that the baby's heart rate was decelerating, so she checked me and felt the umbilical cord. She called the doctor to let him know that the umbilical cord had prolapsed, which means that the cord was coming out in front of the baby's head. This causes the cord to be pinched, and cuts off the baby's supply to life support basically. The doctor came rushing back in with about 5-6 other people who started running around preparing for an emergency c-section, while our doctor tried to manually reduce the cord prolapse. This means that he was trying to reach in and push the baby's head back, move the cord out of the way, and then let the baby's head come back to rest in front of the cord. It was pretty unbelievably painful while he was doing this, but we are so grateful that he was successful! At 6:30 when he started trying he said I was dilated to a 5. By the time he was done, around 6:45, he said I was dilated to a 7. He had me lay on my side and try to be very still so that the baby's head could start descending. We were worried that if I moved around, the baby would move, and the cord would prolapse again.
He sat by my bed for close to an hour, watching the baby's heart rate and making sure she was ok. During this time, he had the anesthesiologist come in and give me an epidural, just in case we ended up needing an emergency c-section. I couldn't move because we didn't want to put the baby at risk, so he gave me the epidural while I was laying flat on my side. Since epidurals work with gravity, it wasn't quite able to work the way it is supposed to. I felt numb in my chest, arms, and stomach, but my legs and pelvis had full feeling.
At 7:30 I was dilated to an 8, and I started feeling lightheaded and dizzy. My blood pressure had dropped to about 80/40 so I got a few boluses of IV fluid. I started feeling nauseated and throwing up. I got some medication to help with the blood pressure as well. At 8:00 I was dilated to a 9 and still dealing with these symptoms. The nurses and doctors left my room for the first time during this whole ordeal so I could hopefully get a little rest. I was feeling pretty concerned and freaking out a little bit. I was telling Chris that I was so worried because I was throwing up and feeling like I would pass out at any moment, but the baby's life depended on me being able to push her out very soon. I was also realizing that the epidural wasn't going to work the way I was used to, and I was going to be feeling the entire delivery in my pelvis.
Just as I felt like I was starting to be able to manage my symptoms a little better, at 8:45 the doctor and nurses came rushing back in because the baby's heart rate was indicating distress. My doctor checked me and said even though I wasn't quite a full 10 cm dilated, we needed to deliver the baby. He said he would just push it out of the way. He used a suction vacuum, and I pushed as hard as I could to get that baby out and save her life. A few minutes later, at about 8:58, Reese was born.
I cannot describe the relief and gratitude I felt. I'm always emotional and overwhelmed with how heavenly my childbirths are, but this was to a level I hadn't quite experienced before. We were so grateful that our baby was ok, and that I had been supported through the harder things about this delivery and was able to get her here. I know I couldn't have, and definitely did not do it alone. I know that no matter how hard it seemed, I would do it all a million times again to have this precious baby. After she was checked and wrapped up and I was holding her, I could have just burst into a million pieces of love and gratitude! This is the best thing I could possible do, and I'm so grateful for Chris, and my kids, and the heavenly plan that allows me to do it.
Reese Kimberly Brower
6 lbs 13 oz
19.5 inches long
Reese's poor little sore head from being suctioned. I felt so heartbroken about her sore until later when a nurse was telling me how good it looked. I was kind of surprised and said "Really??", and she told me that sometimes they have pop-offs, where the skin that they attach the suction vacuum to literally comes off! After she told me that, I was SO grateful for Reese's little sore, and that it wasn't much much worse!
One of the sweet nurses took these pictures of Chris putting on Reese's first diaper. I'm so grateful for them <3!
After she was born, my arms were still struggling to get feeling and coordination back. Chris had to help me when I was trying to hold her and feed her for an hour or so.
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