On Monday, March 27th I was exactly 38 weeks pregnant with baby boy #2. At dinner I realized I hadn't been feeling him move very much that whole day. I had been feeling pretty sick with a low fever, chills, head and body aches etc. As we got in bed I finally said it out loud, "Chase, I haven't felt baby move, like all day....". He asked if I needed to go in. I wasn't sure. So we went to sleep and I tossed and turned the entire night. I got up probably 5 times to drink ice water and see if that woke him up, and then just laid in bed poking my stomach trying to get him to poke back as he usually does. Finally at about 4:45 am I sat up and told Chase something wasn't right. So I threw on some sweats and slippers and drove myself to the hospital.
They asked me what brought me in... I felt silly so casually saying, "I haven't felt him move for a while...". They got me all checked in and situated and quickly came in with a Doppler. Soon as I heard that little heart beat, I felt my whole body relax. He was okay!! They left me in the room alone all hooked up. I text Chase and told him everything was okay. I felt so relieved and a little silly for coming in.
The nurse came back in a little later and asked me if I've felt him move since being in the room. I told her I hadn't at all. Nurses kept coming and going, looking at the monitors and quickly leaving again. After about an hour and a half, they told me I would need to have an hour long ultrasound done. They explained to me that babies move around a lot in the womb but as they get closer to delivery they periodically do big bursts of movement and for some reason they weren't picking up his movements.
A biophysical profile, is what they called it.
I called my mom and Chase's mom to let them know something was up and that baby could be coming sooner than planned. I had an induction scheduled for the very next week. I walked to the ultrasound room and laid down in the dark. The tech came in and began the test. From my perspective everything seemed fine. I could see his heart, he was moving around a bit... The tech left and the doctor came in. She told me that my doctor was out of town for the day and that she had filled her in on what was going on. She then explained that the test has a score from 0-10. 8-10 being normal, 6 is borderline, and below 6 is worrisome. Baby scored a 4.
The doctor explained all this to me and then basically said, since you're to term, we will induce you right now. So with nothing packed, no one to watch the kids, and not even freshly showered, I called Chase and said that today's the day! I quickly called my mom and let her know that he would be born today! Her, my dad and brother had flights for Friday so they would be up soon! Next I called Jennifer and she said, "well shoot, Pat and I will come right now!" And they jumped on the next flight they could.
My wonderful Aunt Lisa dropped everything to take my other kids for the day. And Chase's brother Trent and his girlfriend Kelsey, helped so much too! Once Chase got to the hospital, I got my epidural, and everything kind of slowed down. I was able to rest a little bit and baby actually started moving more which was a good sign! Jennifer's flight landed at 4:45 pm and she got to the airport right as I was getting ready to push.
After pushing for 2 hours with Bingham, I wanted to let my body move baby down more on its own before I started "helping". I waited until I felt like he was going to fall out before I called the nurses in. Sure enough I was fully dilated and effaced and at a +3. They had to have quite a few pediatric doctors and nurses in there because he failed the biophysical profile, so it was a little chaotic. I did one round of pushing and they saw some meconium. So they called in some more people just in case. 3 more rounds of pushing and he was here. 6pm on the dot. 7 lbs, 8.8 oz, 19 inches long. He came out stiff, with no color. He had the cord wrapped around him, and he wasn't crying.
I barely got to see him before they whisked him away to be worked on. I couldn't see what was happening, but Chase said they had 5 people working on him, one person massaging each limb, and someone performing CPR. He wasn't moving, wasn't breathing. Finally they got a few whimpers out of him and they quickly took him to the nicu. Meanwhile, I was being cleaned up and moved into a recovery room. Being in the recovery room without my baby was the most awful feeling ever. Chase got to be with baby for awhile, but I was running a fever still from being sick, so they wouldn't let me see him yet.
When the nurses made their shift change, I was sent an angel. She got me all situated, called the nicu, told them my fever had broken with the tylenol, physically lifted me into a wheel chair because my legs were still numb from the epidrual, and took me to see my baby. We were pretty sure his name would be Truman before he was born, but I can't commit to a name until they are here in my arms. When I met him I knew this was our Truman Mac. Seeing him connected to all the wires and iv, broke my heart. They told me he wasn't breathing on his own, that his white blood count was high and he had a slight fever. But he was a fighter and should be able to go home within 10 days.
Luckily he progressed MUCH quicker than they expected. We were able to finally hold him at 4am the next morning! He was still all hooked up and he couldn't nurse until later that eveing, but things were soo much better than we expected. His cultures came back negative, meaning he didn't have the infection they believed he did. And they had him off the Cpap machine and breathing completely on his own within 48 hours! They geared us up for almost a week in the nicu after I was released from the hospital, but that turned into only one day and they were able to get us a room right down the hall and he got to stay in the room with us. So many answers to prayers.
I'm not sure if it was because I was so distracted by everything or that I actually slept through the night right away because he wasn't in the room with me, but my recovery this time around was amazing. I felt like myself within a day! Only one little stitch needed, and since I only pushed for a few minutes I wasn't near as exhausted as I planned to be. Which was such a huge blessing!
Not sure why each of my deliveries has had to be so complicated and scary, but they all turned out okay. Truman's included. I am so grateful for modern medicine and the doctors and nurses that cared for my boy. That I was able to bring him home so quickly and things seemed normal pretty quick! He was healthy, Elsie and Bingham adored him right off the bat, and he turned out to be a pretty easy and happy baby! We love you so much Mr Tru and were so grateful you're ours.
