Cutter's Birth Story

A fair warning :
This post is fairly verbose – for those with weak retinas I do apologize! I thought I could really condense this down, but it just doesn’t seem to be happening. Read of your own accord or disregard completely, I won’t be offended either way.

Tuesday morning, as I blogged about here, I had my 39 week 4 day check up with Dr. Russino. He didn’t really have any news for us, I was still 1 cm dilated and not any more effaced – and in fact he felt Cutter had moved higher into the birth canal instead of dropping down. We left the appointment fully convinced that we would be pregnant for at least another week. Fast forward to Tuesday night and Steve and I were trying to pass the time by playing Jenga and Scrabble. I was getting really annoyed during Jenga because I could barely bend over to reach the table to grab a piece, and my back was really bothering me. We chalked it up to pregnancy back pain since I had a lot of that throughout the pregnancy. After I lost at Jenga, we took up Scrabble and truth be told, I was finding it really hard to focus on the game at hand (that’s why Steve beat me) and finally gave up and went to find a comfortable position to make my back feel better.

I eventually went to lie down and Steve started to rub my back in the hopes of alleviating some of the pain. No sooner had he done so than my water broke! I distinctly remember jumping off the bed in disbelief – wondering what had just happened. By this point it was 10:15 pm and I called the doctor. As luck would have it, Dr. Russino was on call and was dumbfounded that my water had broken since he had just seen me that morning.

Regardless, he told us to take our time and decide for ourselves when we wanted to come to the hospital. Are you kidding me!? First of all, it was already snowing pretty heavily at this point and if we needed to go to the hospital, it was now or never. Second of all, I knew I was Group B Strep positive (GBS +)and would need as much time as I could to get the antibiotics going in me before he was born in order to prevent him from getting an infection. Of course we decided to go to the hospital, and it was a good thing we decided to go when we did. We had planned for my Mom and Steve to be with me through labor and delivery and I’m so happy that it worked as we had hoped. Steve drove the three of us the short distance to the hospital and although the roads weren’t impassable, they were getting covered quickly – and had not been plowed yet at all.

I started to have contractions on our way to the hospital and by the time we arrived at the ER, I was having them about every 3-4 minutes – and feeling all of them in my back.
They put me in a triage room (holy small closet) and proceeded to check me and get me registered. There were so many questions to be answered and thankfully Steve and my Mom could answer most of them for me – I was not in the mood at all to be talking. I was 1.5 cm dilated when I came into the triage room at close to 11 pm. It took three nurses to finally get an IV in me. First they tried both of my hands – failed, then my wrist – failed. They finally had to do my elbow which was the most painful place to have the IV for the duration of my stay. I was so relieved once they got the IV in because I knew that would be the start for the antibiotics. They also took my temperature and I was running a fever of 100.3 – not a huge deal but had to be noted especially since I was GBS +. Steve and I stopped to pray together at this point – just putting everything in the Lord’s hands. It was getting a little scary, but we knew that He would carry us through whatever was going to happen.

It was finally time (in my book it felt like ages) to be moved to a regular labor and delivery room, and I could not have been more relieved to get out of that small triage room. The “real” room was a million times better. The whole time I was in the triage room my contractions were getting much stronger and closer together, coming about every 2-3 minutes and again all in my back. Once we moved to the new room they moved to every 1-2 minutes and never let up on their intensity and duration. I continued to have back labor with each contraction.

One of our goals if we could stick to it was to go for a natural birth and not have any pain medication. We wanted this not to prove some point, but just because we both felt it was in the best interest of not only the baby, but for me as well. I give credit where it is due and I could not have done this if it weren’t for Steve and my Mom. Steve was the ultimate supporter and coached me through each contraction letting me know when each one was coming down, and with every contraction he pushed on my back to counter-act the pain. He was my rock through the entire labor and delivery and I absolutely could not have done it without him there. He was encouraging, supportive, loving, and attentive - just exactly what I needed, and he never left my side. We had taken a few classes at the hospital to help with alternative methods to dealing with pain, and I found that deep breathing really helped me to cope with the contractions. I didn’t get any pain medication throughout the birth. And I don’t say this to act as some martyr – just simply that it was our plan and we were able to stick to it.

As my contractions intensified, the nurse checked me one more time and revealed I was at 4 cm. By this point it was probably midnight. A lot of the rest of the labor comes to me from Steve’s perspective as I was so consumed with my contractions I really wasn’t paying attention to much else since I was in such a zone. I could hear the baby’s heartbeat on the fetal monitor and could tell it was changing rapidly with each contraction. I remember asking what was wrong, and the nurse quickly turned down the monitor so I couldn’t hear it anymore. At that point I had to have oxygen, which I was told later was to help regulate the baby’s heartbeat. He was having a hard time getting adjusted to the hard and fast contractions, and descending so quickly down the birth canal. Later, too, we found out the cord was wrapped around his neck a little, which was adding to his distress. Steve said at this point the nurse had to call the doctor and convince him to come in (in the snow) because he still wasn’t convinced I was going to have the baby anytime soon since it was my first (ha!).

The next hour was intense – I went from 4 cm to 9 cm in about 45 minutes. The doctor arrived at about this point, and literally had just enough time to change into his scrubs before I needed to push, which happened rather quickly and suddenly. The nurse was a little surprised when I told her I felt like I needed to push and so she checked me – and sure enough I was fully dilated and ready to go. I pushed for about 10 minutes (weirdest sensation ever) and Cutter was born at 1:06 am – just under three hours from when my water had broken. I had to stop pushing momentarily as they unwrapped the cord from his neck, but then they placed him on my chest and I was overwhelmed. Steve was crying and I was just so numb from everything that had just happened – I couldn’t stop staring at him.

They took him to the side to do his apgars and stats, and I turned to the nurse. I knew that my labor had been short (less than three hours from start to finish) and that there was no way I had been on the antibiotics long enough for him to benefit from them. I asked if he would need the antibiotics and she said he would need them only if my fever was 101.1 or higher. Well, you guessed it! My fever was 101.1. As soon as they were done measuring him, they brought him over so that we could snuggle with him, but then he had to be taken to the NICU for a four-hour observation period, an IV to be placed, and a septic work-up to be done. I was so upset to see him go so soon after meeting him. It was eerily quiet in the room with just Steve and I after he was gone. I wanted my baby back! Steve and I prayed again for God to protect our baby from any infection and keep him healthy – we were optimistically ignorant at this point which was probably in our best interest anyway.

When he came back at around 5 am, I cried when I saw the IV in his arm. The nurse had told me what to expect, but when you see your newborn baby with a needle in his arm, splinted up – it just brought tears to my eyes! He would need to have the antibiotics every 12 hours until his blood work came back from the lab, about 48 hours. We were able to nurse and share some kangaroo love and I was so pleased that he latched on so quickly and efficiently. My milk was in already, so he was pleasantly gorging himself. After that, he had to go back to the NICU and Steve and I were left alone again.

Thankfully, his blood work came back with no infection and they were able to take the IV out on Thursday evening. I could not have been more thankful to hear that news. Big prayers were answered and we could not have been more thankful for those praises!

I continued to have the IV in and receive antibiotics throughout the next few days just in case I did have an infection. Holding him and nursing him with the IV in was rather tricky, but we managed to work it out. I was able to have that taken out about the same time his was taken out, on Thursday, and I felt so much better when it was gone. I also continued to have high blood pressure (which set in at week 37 of pregnancy) while I was at the hospital. Friday morning rolled around and we were so anxious to get out of the hospital and go home. I had to have one more round of bloodwork cleared before I could be discharged. They were still concerned about my high blood pressure and just wanted to be on the safe side.

I was beside myself because I had visions I was going to have to stay and be monitored and given medication for the high blood pressure. Thankfully, that was not the case and I just had to have a follow-up appointment with my doctor that Monday (which I passed with flying colors!). After I was cleared we had to wait for the NICU doctor to evaluate Cutter one more time and discharge him. That took a little longer than we had hoped, but finally at 12:30 Friday afternoon – we were on our way home with our precious son.

Words cannot express how absolutely amazing Cutter’s birth was for both Steve and I – though I’m sure by the length of this post you might disagree! We were so blessed by God’s provision of health over our family and His continued support has just been unparalleled. We are so in love with Cutter.