The Day our Miracle Arrived

     

It was Sunday August 9th, and I was extremely stressed about giving a lesson on chastity to the Young Women in the third block of church. The lesson went well except for the girls hardly breathing a word throughout it. Can't get anymore awkward trying to explain to the girls, as I stood in front of them almost 38 weeks pregnant, not to have sex.  Nothing sounded better than when that buzzer went off to tell me my time was up.
      The plan was to have burgers for dinner and Brett started the Traeger grill once we got home. I opened the cupboard to get a glass and one of them came out and shattered to pieces on the floor. Brett was upstairs, so I ran downstairs to get the shop vacuum to quickly clean up the mess. About ten seconds of me bending over to clean it up and my water broke and Brett was standing in the kitchen as it happened. Brett asked me if I was sure, and I reassured him it was like a water balloon exploded in my pants. On Friday at my doctor's appointment, they tested me for Group B strep which came back positive. Apparently a third of women test positive and if you do, you are to go straight to the hospital once your water breaks. By some miracle one of the burgers was cooked and Brett put it together for me on a plate, grabbed our hospital bags and we were out of the house in under 10 minutes. 12:20, only 20 minutes after church that all happened. Pretty sure I would've cried if my water broke during that lesson. At least it would've happened in front of women if it did.
     On our drive there, Brett said a prayer and when we arrived in emergency, there wasn't a soul there. The nurses took me in and asked me multiple questions to confirm that it was my water that had broke. Several of the staff said you usually go late on your first baby, and here my water had broke almost two weeks before my due date. After checking for my baby's heart rate, I started on IV antibiotics to prevent our baby from getting an infection.
    They moved us to labor and delivery and we were in room 10. Brett said,"Hey we were here last week when Haley had Clara." What were the chances of that? My sister and I delivering in the same room one week apart?
   After letting our families know the status of where things were at, we got a lot of phone calls. My mom was in Montana and planned on coming the next morning, in hopes we would've had him by then. My mom had just left back to Montana after Haley had her baby 9 days late and I'm sure she thought mine wouldn't be arriving for at least a few weeks. Wrong. Sorry mom. My mother-in-law then called and asked if she could come to the hospital to be there when he arrived. She was very excited for the arrival of her first grandchild that I had made her wait a long time for.
   Thet doctor checked me after I got off the phone with Linda, and Brett knew we'd have a few minutes. He then gave me a priesthood blessing. In the blessing, he said the doctors would know what to do and that I would be strong throughout it.
   It was only a waiting game from there. The contractions started and each time a nurse would come in, they would bump up the drugs to get things moving. Brett walked around with me for a while the contractions started. After thirty minutes of that, they gave me an exercise ball, which was awesome! Two minutes of me bouncing on that thing, my dad called me and we visited for a bit. At that point the contractions were about five minutes apart, and the pain wasn't bad at all. Linda then arrived and we just visited about random stuff as I tried to bounce the baby out.
  When the nurse came to check on our vitals, she said it was hard for the monitor to read the baby's cause I kept bouncing on the ball. Dang it, it really helped take my mind off of the pain which seemed to be only in my lower back. At least I got to enjoy it for an hour. She said if I had back pain to go sit backwards on a chair and get Brett to push on my back each time a contraction came. That worked wonders for a few hours but then I was getting really uncomfortable. They offered me the nitrous, which my boss Ed told me to take cause its great. I had never had it but thank you Ed for recommending it. Nitrous is so strange. You feel pain, but you don't care you're in pain. No wonder dental patients love that stuff.
   Finally around 12:00 a.m. the contractions were two minutes apart and one contraction absolutely took my breath away. Brett asked me how my pain was and I couldn't even respond. I turned to him and said, "get me that epidural." Brett was so good for the few hours I was on that chair and he would give me the nitrous during each contraction. Hearing his voice got me through it all I swear.
  The anesthesiologist arrived and she warned me that the needle hurts when inserted. My response was it couldn't be any worse than what I was feeling at that very minute. Once those drugs were in, I was on cloud 9. Apparently it was such a shock to my body though that both of our heart rates dropped off the charts. (I don't remember any of this, Brett told me) They pressed two code buttons and within seconds Brett said there were two doctors and 5 nurses scrambling and moving me around to get our heart rates back. The c section team arrived because we were both still in distress. When they said we need to do an emergency c section, all of a sudden our vitals went back to normal. I do remember through all of the chaos reaching for Brett's hand. He said he was ready to pass out up until that point. It was a rather traumatic experience for him almost watching both of us almost die. My hubby isn't much of a crier, but that made him cry.
  When the adrenaline settled, I slept for an hour. Sleeping while your body is busy trying to get ready to push out a baby is pretty amazing. Once I woke up, I was eight centimetres. Almost there. Brett was keeping me occupied by making jokes and visiting with me. An hour later I was at 10 centimetres and ready to push. Pushing was my favourite part. I'm an extremely competitive person, so it felt like a race how fast I could get him out. They told me if I didn't get him out quickly, they'd have to use the vacuum. That's when I got into my determination mode. Twenty-three minutes he was out. No words can describe the feeling once that baby is out. I guess I would compare it to making all of the orange buoys water skiing ten times in a row. That would be really hard to do, and it will never happen.
  Baby Ro arrived with a set of lungs like you wouldn't believe. They put him on my chest and immediately he stopped crying. That's when the flood gates opened. Brett and I just stared in awe that he was finally here. Towards the end of my pregnancy, my ribs were very bruised from his frequent kicking and it was a relief he was out of me.
  If I could do it all again, I'd have another baby tomorrow. The experience was spectacular and the staff were out of this world wonderful to me.
  Brett and I were extremely grateful to our amazing photographer for capturing moments that remind us of the emotions that were felt that day. Can't believe Jamie came to the hospital just before 4 a.m. and then went to work after that. She is so unbelievably talented and no one believes us that it was her first time doing a baby delivery shoot. Thank you Jamie.