Brooks Ned Larson

Almost 3 weeks postpartum now and it's about time I write down our Brooks' birth story.  He was due on June 15, 2016.  The plan was to wait things out until Tuesday, June 14th, which was the day that my doctor was on call and the day that my mom was scheduled to arrive.  We had everything planned out.  Sunday rolled around and I was pretty much counting on being induced Tuesday, as nothing seemed to be happening on its own.  When I went to bed that night, I was feeling a tiny bit crampy, but didn't think too much of it.  Isla woke up to go potty that night around 2 am.  When she woke me up, I noticed that I was having occasional contractions.  Nothing too bad, but enough to keep me awake (although that may have been the nerves).  I tried timing them, and it seemed that they were coming about every 10 minutes or so.  I took a warm bath and tried to go back to sleep.  I was able to sleep for a couple more hours, until Nathan woke up to get ready for work around 6.  As he was getting out of bed, I told him that I had been having regular but widely spaced contractions for the past few hours, but that he should just go to work and I'd call him if things got more intense.  So then I was up.  Got Sawyer off to school, and started cleaning the house and trying to get all the things done that I wanted to do that day before the scheduled induction the next day.  My friend Mandy called me in the morning and asked if she could watch my girls while I got stuff done.  I think she was inspired, because by then the contractions were starting to get a little closer together and I was thinking I had better make some other plans for the girls.  She encouraged me to pack their bags and let them stay the night.  She then came over to help me while I tried to finish everything up. What a friend!  I wasn't too worried about things going quickly, but it was nice to have another adult around just in case.  By 8 I had started messaging Nathan that he better think about heading home in about an hour.  The contractions were getting more painful and more frequent.  I made arrangements for the girls to go to our friends, the Skinners, house for part of the day, and then Mandy would pick them all up before Sawyer got home and they would sleep there.  Nathan stopped by the bus office right before heading home and got Sawyer a pass to ride home with Mandy's son, Austin.  I can't remember exactly what time it was, but Nathan and I got to the hospital around 11 or 1130 I think.  They hooked me up, checked my cervix, and we decided that I would stay.  I was about 4-5 cm dilated and contracting regularly.  I had been 3 cm in the clinic at my previous appointment, so I had made some change, but we weren't sure whether I was in active labor or not.  I told them I thought I should stay, and they were happy to let me.  And it was a good thing, because an hour later and I was really considering my epidural.  I had debated going without it, but because I was GBS positive this time, I had to get antibiotics for 4 hours before delivery (if possible), and there was no way I was going to put up with those contractions for that long.  My water was still intact, although it was bulging.  In my previous experiences, I tended to get stuck around 5 cm until my water was broken.  And my doctor wasn't going to do that until after we had gotten the 4 hours of antibiotics.  By 12:30 I was really struggling.  The pain was pretty intense and I told Nate (who was getting food) to hurry back and call for my epidural.  The Bishop of our ward is an anesthesiologist at Landstuhl and he happened to be around at that time.  Nate gave him a call and he was so sweet to come over and do my epidural.  By 1:30 it was in and we were waiting for it to work.  Unfortunately, this took a little longer than normal, for whatever reason.  He had to give me quite a strong dose of medicine through my epidural in order for it to really cover the pain of the contractions.  My feet and butt were super numb, but I was still feeling a lot of the pain.  By 2 pm I was pretty comfy.  The first antibiotic went in around 12:30, so 4:30 was going to be the next dose.  At this point I was SO tired.  Sadly, the pain of the contractions kept coming back and we would have to bolus the epidural.  I was getting so much medication, that I think it was starting to make me nauseous too (or maybe that was just the labor).  So between the contractions that were coming every 2 minutes and the nausea, I wasn't able to get any sleep.  I was pretty uncomfortable for a lot of the time and really hoping for 4:30 to roll around.  Finally, at 4:30, I got my second dose of antibiotics and Dr. Skinner broke my water.  It was a flood.  Nate and Dr. Skinner got splashed a little.  And I was about 6 cm dilated at that point.  So then I sat in misery for another 30 minutes, not sure whether I wanted to puke or scream from the contractions.  I finally begged them to check me again around 5.  And as predicted, I was complete and ready to go.  I worried that I was going to feel everything during the delivery, because of how much I was feeling the contractions.  But the nurse convinced me that I would be able to just push through without another anesthesia bolus (since those didn't seem to be helping much anyways).  My legs were completely dead, so Nate was literally unable to do anything but hold one of them up while I pushed this time.  I was surprised at how much better it felt when I pushed.  The contractions were so much less painful when I was pushing--so I started pushing like crazy!  I barely had a break between contractions, which at this point was a good thing because it felt better to be pushing.  After about 5-10 minutes, our baby boy made his entrance into the world @ 5:16 pm.  He had the cord around his neck, pooped as he delivered, and was super purple when they put him on my tummy.  Throughout my labor, his heart rate was a little less reactive than we would have liked.  No scary decelerations, but very little acceleration.  I suspect now that this was because of the cord around his neck.  So as he lie on my belly, we all rubbed and stimulated his little body as vigorously as we could.  He was still so purple and had very little tone, so I encouraged the nurses to take him to the warmer and help him out.  His 1 minute apgar was only 6 and his 5 minute apgar was 9 (because he lacked tone and color and didn't cry initially).  Nate couldn't believe how purple he was.  I don't think he'd ever seen that before!  He exclaimed it, almost enthusiastically, about 5 minutes after birth.  I said, "Still?!?  He's still purple!?"...and the nurses corrected him and said he was getting much better now.  They thought it was funny how excitedly Nathan had exclaimed it, as if it was a good thing, and then how upset I was to hear it, because I knew that would be a bad thing!  :)  Brooks pinked up and toned up just fine, and has done fine ever since.  We also had an ultrasound the next day, to check on the cyst that they thought they had seen in his brain during ultrasounds at 32 and 36 wks.  Miraculously, that cyst was no where to be seen!  But they did discover some type of mass in his bladder, which warranted follow-up with a pediatric urologist.  Otherwise, our little boy seemed healthy as could be.  The night that he delivered, Mandy brought our kids to the hospital to meet their baby brother.  It was so fun to share that moment with them.  And they actually did quite well.  All were excited and happy, and no body was too crazy this time.  We then got some much needed sleep and prepared for my mom to arrive the next day!

Not flattering at all but definitely shows how crappy i was feeling!