Mathis’ Birth Story

^{“Babies are angels that fly to the Earth,
their wings disappear at the time of their birth,
one look in their eyes and we're never the same.
They're part of us now and that part has a name,
that part is your heart and a bond that won't sever our babies are angels, we love them forever.”  Author Unknown}

^{8-9-12:  Such an exciting morning!  Surprisingly Thankfully I slept well last night and actually did not want to wake up when our alarm went off this morning.  Charlie headed off to class around 6:00am and I took a shower, got ready, and finished packing my bags.  The Mentzers are watching Madison for us while we are not home, which is so nice!  So I took her over to their house before my appointment.  Both Jeff and Mischika prayed for me – it was so sweet and comforting – I love them!} 

^{I grabbed some Chick-fil-A on the way to my appointment – knew this would probably be my last good meal for a while.  My appointment was at 9 am.  My blood pressure was 150/101.  She came in and checked me and I was 70% effaced and 1 cm dilated!  Some progress – an answer to prayer!  My doctor was really surprised!  She was planning for me to come back this afternoon to be admitted, but since I was already there and my blood pressure was high, she said we would just get started early.  So she had me wheeled over to labor & delivery.  My blood pressure was 130/80 – laying down, yay!  And Mathis’ heartbeat sounds good and he is moving all around!} 

^{It’s 11:30am and my nurse just placed the Cervadil.}  

^{8-16-12:  So this is where I left off in the hospital, as I am typing this Mathis is now 6 days old so I will try to remember as many details as I can .} 

^{The plan was for the Cervadil to stay for 12 hours and they would remove it if I started progressing before then.  I started to feel contractions around 4:30pm – they were mild.  The contractions started getting stronger as the day went on.  That evening we had some friends/family come visit and the contractions were getting stronger.  I think I was a little distracted that they were getting worse.  Until my blood pressure was reading 175/100.  My nurse had everyone leave and had me rest.  She said that if it did not start to come down that my doctor would want to start Mag.  It came down some but I think a lot of it was associated with the pain.  At 11:30pm my nurse removed the Cervadil and checked me. I was still 1cm dilated and 90% effaced.  The contractions were pretty strong in my abdomen and back.  After showering and getting back to bed, my nurse told me to try to get some sleep.  I laid there trying to relax but the contractions were coming every 2 minutes and getting stronger, especially in my back.  At 1:30 we decided it would be a good time to get my epidural and hopefully I could get some rest.  My nurse placed my IV and then the anesthesiologist came in and placed my epidural.  It was not painful at all, just uncomfortable having to sit up bent over getting the epidural while having contractions.  But not bad at all and once the medicine started to work it was wonderful!  I never slept that night but definitely was able to relax.  After I got the epidural my doctor wanted to start the pitocin.  When my nurse got ready to starting my contractions were happening too frequently so they could not start it.  After IV fluids and the effect of the epidural, around 4:00am they were able to start the pitocin.  My blood pressures were good at this point.  They increased the pitocin every 30 minutes.  The couple times that my nurse checked me I was still at 1.  Around 7:30am my doctor came to break my water and place an internal monitor.  She checked me and I was still at a 1.  I might have been completely effaced, I can’t remember and he was low and in a good position.  My doctor named my cervix “the cervix of steel” because it was so hard.  She said that it hurt her when she was checking me, ha ha.  She said it was like someone that has scar tissue and once it starts to dilate it will happen quickly.  I have never had any biopsy, cervical surgery, etc. to have scar tissue – guess I just have a hard cervix.  Once the internal monitor was placed, they saw that I was having contractions every minute and they were not completely relaxing in between.  My doctor stayed in the room for an hour watching the monitor and making adjustments.  They stopped the pitocin and were later able to start it back up again.  Around 9:30am I was starting to feel the contractions again.  I pressed my PCA button on my epidural but it was not providing any relief.  The CRNA came and gave me a bolus, which helped tremendously for about 2-3 hours.  Then the pain started to come back.  At 11:00am I was fully effaced and 4cm dilated.  Another anesthesiologist came and gave me another bolus dose.  This dose worked for about 2 hours.  I started to feel something leaking on my back.  They said there was some fluid under the epidural dressing.  The anesthesiologist thought that it was still in place just having some back flow :/.  I had called for the anesthesiologist again, but this time it seemed like it took him forever to come back.  I was having so much perineal pain/pressure/contractions and was not getting any relief between contractions.  My nurse checked me at 1:00pm and I was 10cm and ready to push.  My doctor came up and could not believe it!  She said “we broke through the cervix of steel!”  ha ha.  The anesthesiologist gave me something that he said would take longer to start working but was a longer acting medication.  I don’t know if I ever felt the effects of this medication, it did not seem like it provided any relief.  My doctor was there to check me and thought I was 7cm not 10, she said she could still feel some cervix and that he was really low.  They left the room and I called for them about 5 or 10 minutes later.  I felt so much pressure from his head I was feeling like a really needed to push.  My nurse checked me and said, “Okay I know you are a 10!”.  She called my doctor and we started pushing.  I actually felt some relief  when I would push, like I was doing something about the contractions.  The anesthesiologist came back since I was still in pain and said that he could take the epidural out and place another one.  My nurse said I probably had 20 minutes of pushing and he would be out.  With the pain I was having I did not think I could lay there and let him put in the epidural and then by the time it worked he would be out.  So we just decided to push.  My nurse was so sweet, after he was born she said “I am so sorry that you were hurting, I hated to see that”.  I think the epidural was providing some relief, but obviously was not doing what it was supposed to.  Every time I would push a golf ball size area of his head would come out, but it would not get past that.  My nurse said that I was really tight and that I might need an episiotomy.  Then they saw that I had a band inside that was not able to stretch and so he could not make it past that.  Once my doctor came up and cut the band it took a couple more pushes and he was out!  I pushed for 45 minutes.  He was born at 2:50pm.  There was a lot of fluid, she suctioned him but he was not crying at first.  She quickly cut the cord and passed him off to the nursery nurse at the incubator.  After a little stimulation he quickly started crying .  Mathis tolerated the labor very well, never having any problems during labor.  His Apgar score was 8.  They suctioned a lot of fluid out.  His color looked great but he was having some retractions and grunting, so they wanted to send him to the nursery to be evaluated.  I got to see him and hold for a minute then he was off.  My favorite moment was when he was placed in the incubator and watching Charlie tear up as he met him – the sweetest thing!  Makes me tear up just thinking about it again!  It was so sweet meeting and holding him for the 1st time!  I already loved him so much.  I am partial but I thought he was such a cute newborn!  My sisters were in the room to take pictures and video.  Thank goodness I was distracted with watching Mathis and everything that was going on around me, because I was feeling the sutures that I was getting.  I had a grade 2 tear.  My doctor noticed that I was flinching and said, “can you feel this?”, I said yes and she said “why did you not tell me!?!”  I just thought that it was normal to feel it.  She injected lidocaine for the rest of the sutures.  My doctor and nurses did such a great job!  I loved them and am so thankful for them.  And Charlie was a great advocate for me and Mathis!  He was great during labor with me and when Mathis went to the nursery he was back and forth checking on him – such a good daddy!} 

^{After delivery Mathis and I both had fevers, they said that this was probably related to a long labor.  From the placement of Cervadil till delivery was 27 hours and from when I started feeling the contractions to delivery was 22 hours.  They drew a CBC and blood culture on Mathis which both came back normal, so they did not give him any antibiotics and his fever resolved that night.  I received antibiotics through the night and my fever resolved that night as well.}

^{We did not get Mathis back with us until around 6:30pm, it seemed like forever!  We got up to our post-partum suite (which was awesome) and then he joined us.  It was right at shift change.  They brought him in for me to feed him and gave me a few pointers, but we were on our own.  Thank goodness he was a natural and knew exactly what to do!  He latched right on and was nursing great!  He had a couple episodes of spitting up and choking so in the middle of the night we decided to send him to the nursery.  It made us a little nervous and since I had not slept in about 2 days we decided to send him to the nursery.  We got a couple hours of good sleep!  The next day was filled with visits from sweet family and friends.  We are so blessed and thankful to have our family so close and friends that love us so much!  Mathis had his hearing test the next morning which he passed and the rest of the day he basically slept and ate, just like a perfect little newborn!  The nurses and staff at Medical City were fabulous – we did not want to leave!}

^{So that is Mathis’ birth story, just wanted to make sure that I jotted it down, so that I could like back on it.  It is such a miracle!}