Trevor's Birth Story

In honor or Trevor's Three-month birthday, here is his birth story:

Trevor Snow

August 14, 2011

4:46 PM

6 pounds, 14 ounces

19 inches long

head circumference: 33 ¼ cm

On Sunday morning, I was scheduled for an “elective induction” due to the fact that I had precipitous labor (fast labor) with both Thomas and Toby.

James & I walked into the hospital at 7:30 AM. We made a quick stop at the registration desk and then made our way to the maternity wing.

After changing my clothes and being asked another thousand questions, at 9 AM I was finally given the first round of IV antibiotics because I was a Group B Strep carrier. These antibiotics needed to be in my body at least four hours before the baby was born in order for them to be effective.

The actual “game plan” for the induction kept changing before anything ever happened. I didn't really care how the labor was brought on, but what I did care about was getting the epidural. My labors had been too fast with Thomas and Toby, so I was unable to have one, but I knew that I really wanted one this time around.

After expressing my concern to my doctor, Dr. Thomas, she suggested that I may as well get the epidural first and then they could start giving me doses of Pitocin, which is very unheard of.

Sometime during the 11:00 hour I was given my epidural. It was instantly wonderful! I guess I got a “good epidural” in that I could still feel quite a bit and had control of my legs.

At 12:15, I was given my first dose of Pitocin and I immediately started having some pretty heavy-duty contractions and couldn't feel any of them! This went on for about an hour and a half...I was sitting up in my bed in a way that was comfortable for me and was relishing no longer feeling the constant pain of carrying a baby, the urge to empty my bladder every 15 minutes (I had a catheter), or the ache down my right leg. It was the best I had felt in months!

When suddenly, Trevor's heartbeat plummeted. My nurse came rushing in and had me lay on my side. That seemed to do the trick and she half-joked that the baby just didn't like me sitting like that any longer.

Unfortunately, there were a few more of these episodes and my nurse kept saying that she “really wished he would stop giving her gray hairs”. I had to wear an oxygen mask for much of the remaining time.

Meanwhile, I was dilating but not extremely fast so it was decided that my water should be broken. After that, things go blurry. Sometime after my water was broken, Trevor's heartbeat dropped from normal down to almost nothing in only a matter of seconds. There was a surge of nurses that flew in my door and I went from left side to right side and was told that they were going to get me up on all fours to find the heartbeat again. Luckily, a turn to the side and he recovered.

By this time, I was dilated to a 9 and Dr. Thomas said that when my water was broken, the baby probably moved down rather quickly and was under a lot of distress. The pitocin was taken away and I was told that they were going to give my body a few minutes to dilate to a 10 on it's own, give the baby some time to recover before pushing, but if I didn't dilate to a 10 soon, I was going to have to push through to the 10.

A NICU team was called in. It seemed that nurses were flying in and out of my room. The NICU nurse came and talked to us and told us that when the baby was born, we wouldn't be able to spend any time with him, they would need to take him to the NICU right away and check him out.

Dr. Thomas came in and coached me that the baby was under a lot of distress and so when it came time to push, I needed to focus and get him out fast. Every push needed to count and hopefully there wouldn't be too many pushes (talk about pressure!)

I was able to grab my nurse, Nadine's, attention and asked her if she thought the baby's umbilical chord was wrapped around his neck and she admitted that that was what they were guessing.

Fifteen or twenty minutes later, it was pushing time. My body did dilate to a 10. We waited until the next contraction and I started to push. Since I had an epidural, obviously it felt different, from the other two times, but I pushed with all my strength and I instantly knew something was wrong. I knew he wasn't budging. Dr. Thomas then asked, “Did you have episiotomies the last two times?” which I replied that I did not.

It a matter of seconds, she apologized and explained that she would have to give me one because we needed “to get the baby out fast”. After that, I was told to push. Even then, the pushing was really intense. Soon, it was discovered that Trevor  was coming out face up instead of face down, which explained why it was so difficult to push this time around. His head came out and then his neck. The chord WAS wrapped around his neck tightly(I don't know how many times) and they cut the chord before I had finished delivering him. The next thing I saw was a brief glimpse of my blue-gray baby.

Seconds later, though, there were cries coming from him and no rush out the door from the NICU team. They decided to stay and assess Trevor in-room and about five minutes later, he was brought to us, and we got to keep him. He was no longer blue, but was very pale. He quickly pinked up, though.

It was an intense, fast delivery. I pushed him out in less than three minutes. My induction was only 4 ½ hours long if you don't count the time that I sat in bed just getting penicillin.

My recovery this time around was the most difficult of the three. There was a lot of healing involved.

Until later,

Emily