Birth Story

My birth story starts when I was 33 weeks pregnant. I had already been diagnosed with preeclampsia and had been put on bed rest. On July 2nd I felt weird the whole day so we finally checked my blood pressure and it was 156/116. We went to the hospital and they put me on magnesium so that I wouldn't have seizures and they started preparing me for labor. Different doctors kept coming in and out and everyone had a different plan. By the end of the day they had decided that they were going to keep the baby in. The magnesium had lowered my blood pressure considerably.

The next day they admitted me into the maternity ICU and they said they were just going to keep me there overnight to monitor my blood pressure. I guess the nurse on duty didn't get that memo because she was taking my blood pressure but it was crazy numbers and she wasn't even concerned...like 100/30. We were concerned and asked for a doctor and the doctor said, "that's not even a blood pressure." We asked for a different nurse and they realized the machine was broken and had to bring a different one in.

One of my friends came to visit and she just kept saying, "I can't believe that they didn't deliver you. They always induce in these situations!" She was in shock. I know that it was God's hand over me.

A couple of days later one of the doctors broke the news to me that I was going to be in the hospital until delivery which our goal was to keep the baby in until 37 weeks and induce at 37 if I made it that far. If that is what I needed to do then I would do it. My mother-in-law came down from Oregon to stay with the boys and Eric stayed with me at the hospital. The boys got to come to the hospital every day.

After a week they saw that I was pretty stable so they let me go home on bedrest and I had to go to the doctor's office twice a week to get the baby monitored and for them to check on me.

I made it to 37 weeks and we went into the hospital at 5:30 in the morning for the induction. I told them that I didn't want an epidural and they informed me that they could put an epidural in me without me having to actually use it so that we could be prepared for an emergency c-section. I said that I would think about that option.

The first 7 hours on Pitocin I had regular small contractions, but no real progression. I decided to switch positions to my left side and within minutes a whole team of nurses were in there talking about preparing me for a c-section. I freaked out! They said the baby's heart rate was dropping and they needed to get this baby out. I turned back onto my right side and the baby's heart rate was back up again. I told them that the baby is okay and it was just because I changed positions. Luckily, my nurse backed me up and it was decided that in order for me to not have a c-section that I would have to lie on my right side for the rest of the labor and I had to get an epidural put in. I was willing to do that.

They stopped the pitocin for the next couple of hours while they unsuccessfully tried to put an epidural in. The 4th try they partially got it in. It was ridiculous. During this time, Eric decides to pull out the video camera to set it up to video tape after the birth. The nurses freaked out! Apparently, it is illegal in the hospital we were in to video tape anything. Eric was MAD! We weren't even allowed to take pictures of the baby right after the birth. They didn't want any pictures of any medical people's "hands" or equipment. Talk about paranoid of being sued (that was the reason they gave us).

So about 4pm they started me back up on pitocin. This time the contractions were coming harder and more frequently. By 2am I was still in hard labor, but nothing was progressing so they decided to break my water. With my other 3 boys whenever my water broke the baby was there within 45 minutes. That is what I expected this time of course. 45 minutes later Archer had not come out. I had to push and for the next 2 hours I did just that.

I have never had such a hard time before. I think I was the loudest I have ever been, yelling things like, "Get this baby out!" "Help me!" "Why isn't he coming out?" At one point I think I prayed, "Lord, save me through childbirth!" I wasn't feeling pain as much as I was feeling a ton of pressure. When he finally came out he had his hand next to his head. He had been stuck like that.

I never want to go through that again. Eric said it was his best delivery ever because he felt like he could be a support to me. It was my hardest one ever.

The best part and probably one of the only positive things that I can say about the hospital is that they immediately put him on my chest after he came out. They practically ripped off my hospital gown so that we could be skin to skin. They bathed him on me and did everything they needed to do right on me. I am so thankful for that because he was taken away 45 minutes later. That is a whole different entry.

Eric snuck this picture in because the nurses had left to get the scale
This nurse said that we could take a picture. She didn't care about being sued. Her words.

Archer David was 7lbs 15oz and they 20 1/2 inches long. They said that he would have been 10lbs if he had gone the full 40 weeks.