Let's go back to my 36 week ultrasound. Typically my Dr. does not do a 36 week ultrasound, but after measuring so far ahead throughout my whole pregnancy they were concerned about the size of baby boy and wanted to get a better look at him with an ultrasound. The measurements on the ultrasound said he was an astounding 8 lbs 11oz! Obviously at this point I was very concerned about going full term and thought that we would schedule an induction at my 37 week appt. My amazing, but somewhat hippie, OB did not seem too concerned about his size using Madison's 9lb 3oz birth weight and Julianne';s 8lb 9oz birth weight as data for why I would be just fine delivering a big baby. Yikes! So onto week 38...Christian came with me and we were ready to schedule a time to meet baby. After checking me, my Dr. said she thought baby might be in a somewhat wierd position and sent me directly to ultrasound. At this point I was joking about breech thinking it wasn't even a possibility- boy was I wrong. We got called back by the same ultrasound tech that told us Julianne was a girl when we were so planning on a boy! He pulled up the ultrasound and sure enough said, "breech." I started to cry and told him he is a really nice guy, but I don't think I want to see him again, because he always gives me news I don't want to hear. Thus begins the week of flipping baby boy. We opted not to do versions as I was not a good candidate. Baby was big and my placenta was on top, so they would have to put pressure on the placenta which is not necessarily the best thing and could be very dangerous for baby. I did, however, follow several suggestions from friends on facebook including:
1. washing the kitchen floor on my hands and knees
2. Spinningbabies.com (inversion technique)
3. PRAYER- lots of it!
Low and behold we went into our 39 week appt hopeful that maybe little man had flipped positions and he had! I was so thankful I started crying and wanted to go directly to the hospital to be induced!
For those of you who don't know I was TERRIFIED of having a C section- not sure if it was mostly the fear of the unknown or the idea of the recovery with 3 small children at home. Either way I wanted to delivery vaginally on all accounts as long as it was safe for baby and me.
So, we urged the Dr. to get us in for our induction. Initially she said they don't schedule weekend inductions, but with Christian's Dad leaving that Sunday for a long trip we really wanted to have baby before so he could meet him and be there. She made some calls and determined that we could go in the next night (Friday) to begin cervical ripening and get the show on the road! We were ecstatic!! We were finally going to get to meet our little boy!!
That night we got to the new birthing center at St. Cloud Hospital. I was so excited/nervous/ready to meet Mr. Man. Christian had on his Daddy shirt, so we knew this was for real :) We checked in and got to our room where we first found out we had Nurse Alice! I was ecstatic as I immediately recognized her as the Nurse that was with us to deliver Julianne and remembered the amazing experience we had with her. She was very nice and numbed the site for the IV before inserting it (my veins are very finiky and getting an IV in can be extremely painful) She then checked me, inserted the cervadil and away we went. At this point I was dilated to about 1 1/2 cm. It just so happened to be the opening ceremonies for the Olympics, so we had a fun time watching them in the hospital room. Jan and Morgan were watching the girls for us so they brought them to visit and my Mom stopped by later in the night. We were looking forward to meeting baby within the next 24 hours! They gave me something to sleep and we waited out the night.
Saturday morning I woke up early and excited to be checked! The Cervadil was removed and I was dilated to a whopping (3 cm) :( I did get to take a shower which was amazing. We now had to wait for the Dr. to decide between breaking my water or starting pitocin. At 8:45 Dr. Stacia Anderson arrived and decided she would do an ultrasound to make sure he was still head down- confirmed! and then chose to start the pitocin to get contractions started. They started the pitocin and contractions began, but nothing too strong, so I kept asking them to up the dosage to get things going! They were hesitant as we were having trouble with the monitors getting a steady heartbeat for baby, so we just trudged along. At 11:15 the Dr. arrived to break my water. I was not nervous about this at all, as with the girls this was no big deal and I didn't feel a thing! Wrong. Dr. Anderson broke my water (tons of fluid which explained my extra large measurements) and then discovered the craziest part...Baby had his hand out of the cervix essentially above his head. She explained to me that she was going to try to pinch his fingers so he would pull his hand down as I would not be able to deliver a baby in that position because the shoulder and head would come at the same time ( not good) So she pinched the fingers (extremely painful) and was successful in getting him to pull his hand down. She did however warn me that he could push that hand up again so we would need to keep an eye on it. I told Christian if that was going to have to happen again I would need the epidural- so that was the next request!
12:30-The anesthesiologist arrived and the epidural was inserted. This relieved a bit of the discomfort I was feeling from the contractions. It was somewhat of a high epidural though and I did have a little trouble breathing and got the shakes hardcore.
I am only going to mention this briefly so I remember, but around 11:00 they took Nurse Alice away from us and gave us another nurse with a trainee. I understand the need for training, but I really had trouble being a guinea pig. We ended up requesting a change in Nurses and got Nurse Alice back around 3:00.
We got Nurse Alice up to speed with everything that was happening with baby and his hand and discussed a couple of other things before she started looking closely at baby's heart rate on the monitor. It seemed to be dipping with each contraction and not coming back up quite as quickly as they would like to see, so...she decided to check me. I was excited to hear what she had to say, hoping she would say I was at a 7 or 8 and almost ready to push! Negative. As she was checking me her face changed and I said, " His hand is out again isn't it!" She said no and explained that what she was feeling was actually umbilical cord. Obviously I am no OB nurse, so I immediately assume if they can move a hand they can move a cord! Alice has me flip onto all 4s and says she is going to call the Dr. to see what she would like to do. The Dr. arrived in like 30 seconds which I found somewhat suspicious, but I just assumed she was right there, so no big deal. She went to check me and said oh yep there is a loop and another, yes I feel 2 loops of cord. At this point she explained to us that what was happening was called a prolapsed cord and that I would no longer be able to deliver vaginally- I would be heading across the hall for an emergency c-section. She said she would not have a floppy baby and that it was imperative that we got baby out as soon as possible. Therefore, she explained that they may have to put me under, as they might not be able to get enough meds through my epidural in time for me to not feel it. This also meant Christian would not be able to be in the room. I was scared out of my mind at this point, but I just went into prayer mode and told God that Baby and I were in his hands and I trusted him to take care of both of us. The nurses all came rushing in our room and they whisked me in my bed across the hall. Nurse Alice held my hand as they flipped me to a different table and the anesthesiologist arrived. He asked me if I wanted him to try putting stronger meds through my epidural or if I wanted to be put to sleep. I told him that he was the expert, so whatever he thought! There were people everywhere and all I could hear was them saying, "Category 1" and "It's OK Melissa we are going to take good care of you." Next the anesthesiologist asked me to tell him if I felt anything and I asked, " What are they doing something?" To which he said, " We're good- let the husband in!" Christian was rushed in and the show was on the road. I felt some tugging and pressure on my hips, but definitely not any pain. Dr. said he had the cord around his neck as she pulled him out and I heard him cry for the first time. A nice strong loud scream and I was so relieved! They brought him to a warmer to my left side and I could not believe how big his head was and how much hair he had!! :) Such a little cutie! They wiped him off and brought him to me in a blanket as soon as they could. I couldn't really hold him, but I could touch my cheek to his and that was so special for me. Christian and Clay left for a couple of minutes when they were finishing putting me back together and then we were whisked off to a post-op room where they did some more testing on Clay. He had 8 and 9 apgars which is just outstanding. I requested oxygen for about 30 minutes after surgery as I was having some trouble breathing. After a short while I felt ready to hold little man and they brought him over to snuggle me and do some serious skin to skin. It was very special bonding time for Mom and her boy. I looked up at Christian and said, "I'm not sure he's a Clayton..." Christian agreed and the 2 day adventure of determining a name began. We had decided on Clayton long before we even got pregnant with a boy. It was a name that came up to both of us at the same time and 1 of the only boy names we could agree on...however looking at him we just weren't sure right away! We spent the first night looking up names and meanings online. WE considered Luke/Lucas because we liked the name, we like the biblical connotations of Luke and he seemed kind of like one and we also toyed around with Finn or Finnley because he basically tried to come out with his hand on his head like a Fin. On day 2, however, we decided we needed to give baby boy a name and Clayton "Clay" just seemed like the name for him. Allen is Christian's middle name and a family name on his Mother's side of the family. Only fitting as Clay has a dimple just like Christian's Grandma did :)
So...since this is long overdue I will cut myself off here or this will never get published and I will never be able to blog about anything else we are up to.
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