Gavin Oliver. A Birth Story...

....and a bunch of other stuff....

Yeah so, I haven't blogged in forever. Forever. Seriously. Ryleigh came and I started working part time again and then I got pregnant again. Seriously. That was unexpected. Haha, Ry was only 9 months old. Sooner than expected but that's ok. Great actually. It's not about our plans for our lives, it's about Heavenly Father's plan for us. 

He knew we were ready. 

So here we are...

Fast forward to October 17, 2013 

Due Date

40 weeks pregnant

Induction date 

I had been working full-time at two different jobs and needed to be back to work exactly 6 weeks later. Thanksgiving. It wasn't the best timing, we had to work with it. And I know that people might hate on me for being induced when it's not "medically necessary."

But.....there's more to the story. Everything happens for a reason. And I didn't just choose to be induced, I had a feeling the whole time that maybe something might go wrong. I was terrified. And honestly, those "feelings" matter more than anything else. I went 11 days over with both girls. 3 cm dilated and nothing else going on, for weeks. My body doesn't exactly work the way it needs to for some reason. It was frustrating with the girls. Super frustrating. Especially when you gain up to 50 lbs per pregnancy. No lie. But we'll get to that later....

Anyways....40 weeks and baby is healthy, big enough, head down, 3 cm dilated {called it too,}but fluid is kind of low. But that's ok.

I go into L&D at like 8 am and they hook me up to the pitocin and antibiotics for the group b strep. And we wait.

4 hours of antibiotics later, an epidural and they break my water. Still a 3. awesome.

And we wait.

Longer than I had expected.

I was shooting for 2 pm. 

Nope.

Our doctor, Dr. Allred had to go to his son's soccer tournament at 330, I knew we'd probably deliver when he was gone.

Of course. 

Waiting and waiting....

Then, they empty my bladder to make sure, I'm at a 9, not bad.

She calls Dr. Evans to let him know it'll be soon.

But I can tell what's going on after this...his heart rate was dropping out. Sometimes that happens when baby descends more. But it woudn't come back. It wasn't decelerating, it was gone. 

I started to worry a bit.

{I find out later} She called Dr. Evans again and told him he needed to come right away. Like NOW.

They are setting up the room and I'm trying not to alarm Drew. 

I know what's going on.

Dr. Evans storms into the room, ripping off clothes and getting dressed into the paper covers. He barely says hello and sets up the rest of the stuff. He asks he what's the rush, the nurse points to the heart rate monitor and he says okay.Then he reaches under my legs and pulls me down rushing to get me into position. He tells me I'm going to need to push -- good -- like really good -- or he's going to need to take him out. 

I push. 

Big. 

Hard.

I fell like I could pass out I'm pushing that hard and holding my breath.

He has to turn him around since he was facing the wrong way. How, you ask? Yeah, manually, reached in there and turned him. Yep.

Next push.

Seriously going to pass out.

Trying not to cry.

Scared to death.

Next push

Praying that he's okay.

Praying that he's not stillborn like I feared.

Praying he's okay.

please be okay.....

And He's out.

I'm so relieved.

I am distracted by Andrew hugging me. Telling me I did a good job.

They don't give him to me right away though -- like they said they would. I don't get immediate skin to skin like they wanted me to do. 

I'm terrified

Then I hear him cry --oh sweet relief!

And then I realize what is happening around me.

There is blood everywhere, on the cabinents, in the nurse's hair and on her face. It looks like a blood bath. Seriously. They are joking about the blood and the mess. I'm apologizing, of course.

Dr.. Evans explains what I obviously missed {thankfully, or I'd be more freaked out.} He said he's never seen anything like it before. {what?!?} The cord was like paper. Gavin's head was out and he was undoing the cord from his neck, it was loose enough, not tight, it gave away easily, but it snapped right in two. {He says that most cords are tough, like bungee cords} Not Gavin's. That explains the blood. It wasn't clamped off yet, they usually leave it until baby is fully out. That's why they took him to get looked at first.

He was ok.

They checked him and he weighed in at 6 lbs 15 oz and 21 in long {we don't have big babies} they gave him to me and he had these big brown eyes and black hair. Lighter skin {surprising} and I was in love the moment I got to hold him. So glad he was ok.

Glad to have my baby boy in my arms.

The boy I feared wouldn't make it from the begining. 

Maybe my fears were irrational. Maybe not. I googled a broken umbilical cord, and where sometimes things are fine, it is very common in stillbirths. I think about my fears in the beginning. What if I went longer? What if we went all the way to 42 weeks? I don't know if we would have had a good outcome. I know we wouldn't have. The basis of my fears - well, my Grandmother had a stillborn baby boy. My aunt had a still born baby boy. I wanted this little man more than anything and I'm very glad I was induced at 40 weeks. Sorry haters :)