The Whole Story

So I thought that I would finally post the whole labor story.

WARNING: If you have a weak tummy or don't care about medical things you might not want to read this post.

My whole pregnancy I had been planning on having a natural birth using Hypnobabies. I had practiced a ton and felt really comfortable that I could do it. I was planning to labor at home for awhile so I could be comfortable as long as possible and then head to the hospital a few hours into my labor. Baby Ryan had other ideas. He decided that he wanted to be a breach baby my whole pregnancy. We tried EVERYTHING to get him to turn. We did acupuncture, chiropractic, and all the weird stuff you find online like laying upside down and different exercises to try. Early in my pregnancy I tore a ligament on my right side of my uterus and my chiropracter decided that probably my left side tried to make up for the right side because all my muscles stayed tight on my left side and wouldn't let the baby flip.

We were left with the decision to keep waiting and probably get a C-section since Ryan would keep getting larger, or try to turn him at 38 weeks and get induced if it worked and have a C-section that day if he didn't. We prayed a lot about it and at first thought we would just wait it out. The next morning we felt awful about that decision; it just didn't feel right. We prayed some more and decided to go ahead and try to get little Ryan to turn.

I had been going to the midwives, but had seen one of the doctor's with the practice a few times as well towards the end since Ryan was breach. I really liked Dr. Young though and he seemed like a great doctor. We scheduled the turning for 6:30am on Friday November 20th. Again, it felt really weird to schedule having a baby. I don't really beleive in inducing unless it becomes dangerous for mom or baby, but we were going in with faith that we were making the right choice.

Our alarm clock got accidentally set for pm instead of am so we didn't get to the American Fork hospital until 7am. By 7:15 they had me prepped and had given me drugs to relax my uterus to make it easier for the baby to turn. It hurt so bad, but Dr. Young was able to turn the baby. To us it seemed like it was easy for him, but he said it was REALLY hard and he didn't think that it would work once he had started. After the baby had turned they broke my water, started me on pitocin and called Roberta, the midwife on call that day (also my favorite midwife) to take over.

The first little bit wasn't too bad with no drugs. I went 10 hours with no drugs going from dialated to 0 cm to 3cm. By then I was so worn out that I was falling asleep in between contractions and going straight to REM sleep. The contractions were about 1 min to 2 min apart and were just getting closer but I wasn't dialating at all. I had been at 3 cm for a few hours. I decided that I better get an epidural because if I was in this much pain I didn't know how I would react when it got time for transition or pushing.

The epidural actually wasn't bad at all. The anesthesiologist was great and did his work in between contractions. The numbing shot was the only thing that hurt, and it was just like a bad bee sting and went away after 10 seconds. Immediately the contractions died down and I felt so great. The next 6 hours went by really fast and I got a little nap. Ryan was still doing great. I had read up on the pros and cons of epidurals and had decided I didn't want one before hand just because of some of the side effects that can happen to mom and baby. Luckily the side effects that I was scared of didn't happen to us.

About 15 hours in baby Ryan's heart rate started to drop as he made his way through the birth canal. This is pretty normal but they put me on oxygen to just help him to get more oxygen in between contractions. It helped, but when it came time to push his heart rate started to go all over the place. It would be at 190 and then jump down to 50. Roberta decided to call Dr. Young back in case I needed a C-section or help with vacuum or forceps. Dr. Young came in a told me all the pros and cons of using a vacuum but said in my case he'd reccommed it to get the baby out as fast as possible. I said ok give me three more tries and then we'll try the vacuum. I tried for three more contractions and he was getting closer but his heart rate was starting to really scare everyone. There were a ton of nurses in the room for when he came out to act fast. Dr. Young took over and used the vacuum. Once the vacuum loses suction 3 times then he can't use it anymore legally. Somewhere around this time I got so overheated that I threw up. Not so much fun when you are trying to get a baby out quickly. The vacuum lost suction twice and then he told one of the nurses to go and run and get the equipment for a C-section in case we needed it. At this point I got a surge of adrenaline and was determined not to have a C-section. In my head I was like "he's coming out on this one I just know it." With the help of the vacuum and a huge epistiotomy he came out on my last push just before haivng a C-section.

He ended up having the cord wrapped around his little neck twice which is why he was having such hard issues keeping his oxygen levels up. He wimpered a little when he came out and hearing that was so great since I was scared about things being wrong.

He was breathing, but was struggling breathing, so they showed me Ryan and then James and him went away to the nursery to get things checked out. My roommate from college, Heather, is certifying to be a doula and so she was there during the labor for training. She stayed with me until I was able to see Ryan and James again.

So in the nursery it took them an hour to get an IV into Ryan. He still has little bruises in his hands and feet from attempts. His fluids were really low and blood sugar because of the cord being around his neck. Finally they got an IV in his arm, which the next day they took out and put in his head because he kept moving his arm around and making it bleed. His oxygen and fluid levels and blood sugar came back up so they thought he could come to my room for me to finally hold him. By now it was about 3am and the nurse brought him in and since I hadn't pumped yet we tried to feed him a little formula through a syringe and tube. He seemed to like it, but then started choking so the nurses took him back to be re-evaluated. About an hour later the pediatrician came to our room to let us know that Ryan had started throwing up bile and had been admitted to the NICU to do some checks on his intestines to see if there was blockage. They did some x-rays and they couldn't find any blockage and he had started to have poopy diapers so they stopped being worried and the bile stopped. He ended up just being stressed out so his body reacted by throwing up bile. Now all we needed to do was to get him to breastfeed really well for a whole day and then we could take him home. I got released from the hospital at 9am on Monday morning and then we stayed on as boarders that night. It's a sweet deal for only 35 bucks we could stay in the room; we just couldn't get medication or help from nurses anymore. By Tuesday morning the pediatrician Dr. Wilcox said we could take Ryan home that afternoon. They started to wean him off his fluids and he kept his levels up by breastfeeding and we were so happy to bring him home.

All in all, even though things didn't work out the way we had planned, I am so happy to have Ryan here healthy and strong and considering everything that happened I am so grateful for the midwives, nurses, and doctors that knew what to do and that handled everything so well. I'm still going to try to have a natural birth for our next baby, but I'm still really happy and pleased at how everything worked out for little Ryan's birth as well.

Ryan James Meyer Enters The World

What a crazy experience for a first time father to go through. The birth was not that uncommon from other stories I've heard, but until now, they've all been stories. Reality is quite a bit more taxing.
But after 16 hours of labor, we've got a new baby boy, born 11:49 pm 11/20/09 weighing in at 6 lbs 7 oz and measuring 18.5 in long. He's seriously the cutest thing ever. Check it out for yourselves!

Here's one of the proud mother: