Paxton Nicholas Garrett

 

As most of you know by now, Paxton Nicholas joined our family nearly 4 weeks ago. I've been wanting to share his birth story for weeks now, but I have simply been too busy enjoying my little guy. I guess since daddy is getting snuggles at the moment, this is the best time to share our story.



 

On Tuesday, April 1st, I went to my last OB appointment. I was 40 weeks and 5 days at that appointment and was on the list to be induced 2 days later. Hoping to go naturally, I asked my doctor for a sweep to help things progress on their own. Little did I know, I would be returning to the hospital only 2 hours later. I was in a great deal of denial when contractions started since the previous 2 weeks were full of false labor. However, when I started timing them I realized after an hour that they were all 5 minutes or less and getting closer. Parker came home in the midst of these and I told him we may be having a baby tonight! I started getting anxious and asked our close friends, Jenessa and Derek to come over as we had arranged for them to stay and watch Paisley for the big day! We love the Kramer's and don't know what we would do without them.




Early Labor Stage

Once we arrived at the hospital, my contractions were only 3 minutes apart and pretty painful. I was admitted around 5:30 pm and dilated to 5 cm. I received my epidural around 7 pm and dilated to 6 cm by 7:45 pm. Following the epidural, my blood pressure started plummeting as low as 50/40. I could tell things weren't going as well as we all hoped as the nurses started panicking and giving me several doses of epinephrine. The baby's heart beat was also dropping. We realized that epidural was the culprit and the doctor lowered the dose in hopes of regulating our vitals. Experiencing more pain than I had originally hoped, we successfully made it to 8 cm by 830 pm and my doctor wanted to break my water. The doctor quickly realized that the baby's hand was in front of his head and held off breaking my water until he moved his hand. By 9 pm, I was 9 cm and my nurses excitedly told me I would be holding my new baby soon and that he would be an April fool's baby! I was elated and the thoughts of seeing him helped in pushing through the pain. Little did we know, things were about to take a drastic change.



Monitoring Contractions

Around 1030 my doctor broke my water as the baby's hand finally had moved. Upon breaking it, meconium passed through and the doctor seemed alarmed, but reassured me that it was normal as the baby's vitals were doing good. I spent the next 2 hours pushing and getting no where. The baby's head was compromised and not moving down into the birth canal like it should have. Exhausted and feeling more pain at this point, the nurses started preparing me for the possibility of a C-section. I was incredibly emotional about it, as I had never even educated myself on one. The nurses told me I would have to stay in the hospital for 3 days to recover following the procedure and I fell apart. The procedure, itself, was never discussed with me, nor the recovery. The doctor told me over the phone why he felt that it was necessary and the next thing I knew, we were being pushed to the OR.

The procedure was quite intimidating and I'm thankful to have had Parker at my side the entire time. After lots of pressure and drowsiness from the anesthesia, our baby boy entered our world at 2:44 am. He didn't breathe immediately and was rushed to the nearest evaluation station and was met by the respiratory specialist as he had ingested lots of fluids and meconium. They showed him to me briefly before whisking him off with Daddy to a recovery room. I fell asleep as the doctor stitched me back together. It was definitely not the birthing experience I had ever imagined, nor something I would ever recommend, but I am grateful for the technology that assisted in safely getting our little boy to us. Looking back now, I know several things did not go as they should have and that the doctor did not do several things correctly; however, the important thing is that my little guy made it into this world and we are both well.