Nolan's Birth Story

So I've finally had some time to type up Nolan's "fast and furious" birth story.  Although it didn't go anything like we had planned, looking back on how things happened, it really was the perfect way for Nolan to enter this world.

Sunday evening around 6pm, I went to the bathroom and noticed a very little bit of fluid and a small part of me wondered if my water had broken.  I mentioned it to Bryan but didn't really think anything of it or that it was out of the ordinary.   We kept an eye on it for the rest of the night and it would come and go, but no dramatic gushing like in the movies and never increased in volume.  We thought that maybe it was my fluid leaking but honestly didn't really think that was the case.  I was having occasional Had non-painful contractions but nothing out of the ordinary.  So we went to bed figuring that if it was my water, I'd start having stronger, timable contractions or much more fluid would leak out.

Monday morning, woke up and felt pretty much the same.  The occasional trickle of fluid but not a whole lot and no timable, regular contractions.  At around 11am, we decided to call the doc and of course she said come in to be checked.  I seriously thought they would check me and send me home.

Got to the hospital at 12:30pm and was checked into the L&D ER soon after that and was told that yes, my membranes had in fact ruptured!  Bryan and I were shocked but excited that this was it!!  I think we even high fived each other :)  Nolan's heart rate was reading high on the monitor so they started IV fluids and decided to start some IV antibiotics because my water had been broken for so long and I had a very slight fever, indicating a possible infection.  I was only 1.5cm dilated and 80% effaced but not really contracting so we decided to start inducing with a cervical ripener and then start pitocin in a couple of hours.  Bryan and I started calling/texting family and friends to tell them it was time but it would be a while and we started wondering if he would arrive that day or early the following morning...little did we know!

This is when things started getting really crazy, really fast.  Just as the induction drug dissolved, the OB on-call (remember my own OB was in Italy on vacation at the time!) came in and said she was really concerned about the pattern of Nolan's heart rate.  He was tachycardic with a heart rate in the 170-180 range.  But the major concern was that it was decelerating with each contraction, which is a major sign of fetal distress.  The fact that my membranes had been ruptured for so long and that I was only 1.5cm dilated, she knew Nolan wouldn't handle a prolonged labor so we made the call to go right to a c-section.  I knew a c-secion was a possibility because Nolan had been measuring big for weeks (9 lb 1oz was the estimate taken while I was in L&D) but I thought I would at least get the option to try laboring.  

I guess I still didn't realize how urgent it was to get him out until I asked the nurse when the c-section was going to happen and her reply was "within the next 10 minutes"  WOW....guess this is serious and I started crying.  The OB and nurses were great telling me I didn't do anything wrong and that everything was going to be fine.  Bryan was also really calm and reassuring which was so helpful even though I know he was scared on the inside.  They gave him scrubs to change into and he kissed me good-bye as I walked into the operating room.  

There was a slight delay in my surgery because a lady pregnant with twins was about to start pushing (guess two babies trumps one baby!)  They let Bryan into the OR to be with me and soon they gave me my spinal which numbed me from pain from the ribs down but I could still feel pressure and movement.  They got me draped up and I heard the OB ask for a scalpel...this was it!  Within just a few minutes, they told Bryan to look up as they pulled Nolan out of me.  We heard him make his first cries and Bryan and I started crying with him.  He was here!!!  Bryan watched as the pediatrician checked Nolan out and then he was able to bring him over to me to see my son for the first time.  While it wasn't the exact moment I had been dreaming about, it was so special that Bryan was the one who got to introduce me to my son.  Bryan then went with him to the nursery to be further checked out while the finished my surgery.  The OB said it was 22 minutes from cut to close and that everything went perfectly.

They brought me into the recovery room and within about 30 minutes, Bryan brought Nolan in and we were able to spend our first real time as a family.  Nolan nursed within a couple minutes and we both just stared at this little person that we created.  

We spent the next 3 days in the postpartum unit where Nolan and Bryan both stayed in the room with me.  Because of the possible infection, Nolan and I both needed more IV antibiotics which made me feel bad for the little guy getting stuck with the IV all over.  I won't lie, it was really hard those days dealing with the pain from my surgery and wanting to do things for Nolan that I wasn't physically able to do.  But in the long run, I think it was really good for all of us because it forced me to give up some control and allowed Bryan to do more which I think bonded our little family together even more.     

So there you have it!  4.5 hours after walking into the hospital thinking I would be sent back home, Nolan Robert made his appearance at 4:59pm on May 30th.  We think he might have known I would have had a tough time with a vaginal delivery and was sparing me that trauma because he weighed in at 9lb 10oz almost 22in long!!!  All the surgery staff were commenting on how big he was, how big his shoulders were, and how it was probably much better to have done things this way because I might have ended up in the same spot after a long labor or if I was able to vaginally deliver him, I probably would have been in BAD shape after!  

So moral of the story is:

1.  Your water can break and you not know it.  It isn't always a dramatic gush!  (they say less than 15% of women have their water breaking as their first sign of labor and I didn't even realize I was one of them!)

2.  I know everyone says growth ultrasounds can be very off at this late stage and that baby is probably smaller than predicted....for me, it was just the opposite :)

3.  No matter how your child enters this world, you will love him or her more than you could have ever imagined loving anything.