December 12th, 2015 was the long awaited day to welcome our surprise baby-baby #3! A few weeks back it was decided that I would be induced because of the gestational diabetes and I decided that if induction was how things were going to go that I wanted my doctor to be delivering the baby. That is why, I was induced on a Saturday and it seems crazy to people that inductions can happen on a Saturday; but they can when your doctor is on call! I am also grateful that I went ahead with induction, because about two weeks before delivery day I really started to struggle with fear and anxiety over delivering another baby. Now, I admit that I always get nervous, because lets be real-delivering a baby is no walk in the park…it is one of the most painful experiences of my life yet amazing experiences that I have done twice before. But, this time the fear was a new feeling that I was experiencing-I didn’t like it, this wasn’t my typical self. I spoke with my doctor about it at my last appointment before induction and I cried about it with my husband. I just kept praying that when 9 a.m came on Saturday that I could put the fear aside and put my game face on.
Saturday came and I actually woke up feeling rested! I enjoyed a light breakfast and just focused on keeping myself busy after a mini meltdown with my husband. I was able to keep my composure pretty well until it was time to say goodbye to my boys. I just couldn't get over the fact that the next time I saw them I would be holding baby #3 in my arms.
I was thankful that as soon as I arrived to my hospital room that the nurses were quick to get me settled in and ready for the day before my doctor came to see where we were at. I had only been 1/2 a fingertip dilated for that two weeks prior and my doctor wanted me to be at a 2 so he could simply break my water. I was hopeful. Unfortunately, while yes I had progressed more it was very slight-I was almost a fingertip. This was not how we wanted to start the day. My doctor gave me 50 grams of cytotec in an effort to get things moving and get baby to descend with contractions. After receiving the cytotec I had to stay in bed for 30 minutes to have baby monitored and then the walking began. We lapped the labor and delivery floor a gazillion times-or so it felt. At 2:40 my doctor decided to check me and I was barely at a 2 and baby was still high. My doctor decided to go ahead and break my water as he left his fingers inside me to make sure the cord didn’t drop first. I had a lot of fluid, just like I did with Justus-I filled 5 chug bags and gushed through to my mattress and with that came instant back labor. Oh what joy that was! Thankfully, I had the use of the whirlpool and was allowed to labor in there-a new experience for me I had never been allowed to do that with my other two boys. I could feel the contractions getting stronger; but the use of the tub took the edge off. I just knew I was progressing.
At 6:30 my nurse took me out of the tub to monitor baby for a bit and check my progression…Joseph and I were pretty sure that I had to at least be dilated to a 6 because that is when I usually start to really feel the contractions. My doctor checked me and I was only at a 4 and 80% thinned. I immediately vocalized how ridiculous this was and was unsure of how I was going to handle the 6 centimeters I had to go…it really felt like I was in hard labor already. I asked to get back into the tub after a few minutes of monitoring because the contractions were feeling intense. My nurse Beth, told me no that with how the contractions were going that she thought it could be soon and told me that things could be drastically different in a matter of 30 minutes. That annoyed me because I couldn’t see how that would be possible. At a few minutes before 7 my doctor came in, without being called and said it appeared it was delivery time. Um, really? I couldn’t believe it. But, then I had to push! Apparently, my doctor is a doctor for a reason-he knows more than me! Ha!
At 7:00 I started pushing and at 7:10 Kolton Miles made his debut into our world! This was the best job I have done with pushing a baby out, I always stink at that; but my doctor was awesome and encouraged me between pushes with awesome instructions that I could follow. I felt proud of my “pushing job” and with popped blood vessels I just look at them as marks of being a good pusher! This was also the first baby I didn’t have any tears with, but I assumed it was because he was SO tiny. I couldn’t get over how tiny he was-he looked smaller than Justus was at birth. I asked for them to weigh him because I couldn’t wait to see how tiny he would weigh…was I in for a surprise when I discovered he was my fattest baby and shortest baby weighing in at 8 lbs 5 oz and measuring 20 inches long. We still can't believe his size!
In spite of labor taking forever, there were no issues. I felt silly for being so fearful and I was also grateful for a successful delivery. However, about 11 that night the nurse decided it was a good time to give Kolton his first bath and his first mohawk! Holli (the nurse) and I were laughing at how even only being a few hours old he could already pass for a baby with an attitude. She laid him on the bassinet and was getting ready to dress him when he suddenly started to roll over. I would like to say it was because I birthed an advanced baby; but it was because his body stiffened up and he stopped breathing. She called for help and I took myself out of the room. He struggled to breath for 5 minutes and once it was under control they took him to the nursery for observation and to run labs and tests to see if they could find the root cause of the episode. They could find nothing, chest x-rays looked perfect…the initial blood work came back fine. The pediatrician was baffled. The following morning when my doctor arrived for his rounds he was surprised to see us sitting in the nursery with our baby hooked up to monitors. He went over the labor and delivery notes and looked over it all to see if he missed something; but once again it was a “textbook” birth. At the 24 hour mark some blood cultures came back positive for some sort of skin contamination; but the pediatrician reordered that test because he didn’t believe it. However, until the results were received we had to put Kolton on antibiotics and he was unable to be released. Those results came back negative and on Tuesday we were able to be released from the hospital! Kolton hasn’t had any episodes since and no signs of problems since, it continues to remain an unexplained mystery. Or just maybe it was God working?
