*Hope for Addy Grace*: Bryson William Garner

My last week of pregnancy was full of lots of anticipation as I really wanted a VBAC (vaginal birth after cesarean section) but had a C-Section planned with my doctor for Thursday August 1 if Bryson hadn’t come by then. Sunday-Tuesday (July 28-30) my body was showing signs aka teasing the heck out of me making me wonder if today was the day. James, Addy and I went on long walks Sunday and Monday and throughout those few days I continued to have lots of Braxton Hicks Contractions but nothing consistent! Sunday I had told James we had three more nights as a family of 3 so he could choose one of those nights to work downstairs but the other two would be spent together as a family! He picked Tuesday, as Randy could come over that day at help him. Jump to Tuesday July 30….Addy is doing her evening chest pt, James Randy and my dad are downstairs working and I’m typing up Addy’s diet plan for Tracy for when Addy stays with her during my hospital stay. Around 7:30pm I went over to the printer to grab the diet plan and when I bent down I felt and heard a “pop” sound and stood up immediately wondering on my goodness did my water just break (I had read that a lot of women experience that “pop” when their water broke) so I ran to the bathroom and sure enough there was some fluid but definitely not a gush like you see in the movies. I wanted around for a couple minutes to confirm if it was my water breaking or not and then a few minutes later once the contractions started back up I knew so I called James up and the phone calls began to get his parents to our house as soon as possible to get Addy! I called the doctor on call which was Dr. Swisher and he told me to come on to L&D Triage to confirm so off we went. Once we got to the hospital I was taken straight to a room versus L&D Triage because it was full. I joked that passing Triage was like paying Monopoly and getting to pass go and collect $200! Haha! Once we were in the room the nurse began her assessment to see if my water had broken but had a little trouble so she called in Dr. Swisher. He didn’t even have to check just looked and said yes my water had broken so the IV was started with penicillin (I tested positive for strep B which is pretty common with pregnancies) and he went over his opinions and plan for a VBAC. He put me such at ease about the VBAC and I knew as long as my body and Bryson cooperated it would definitely happen! He said he wasn’t opposed to trying Pitocin IF I needed it but we wouldn’t push the limits with it since it can increase the risk of uterine rupture. Arriving at the hospital I was 2cm 80% effaced and Bryson was -2 station (a week ago in office I was only a finger-tip and 50% effaced so a little progress..woo hoo). A few hours later I had progressed to 5cm, 90% effaced and still -2 so I decided to go ahead and get my epidural so I could try and get some rest. Right before shift change Dr. Swisher said I was between 6-7cm and felt we should go ahead and start Pitocin. Dr Arliss came on and my wonderful day nurse, a friend of mine Jennifer started the Pitocin. Dr Arliss thought it would be beneficial to use an internal monitor that way they could measure just how strong my contractions were so they knew how much Pitocin I could receive without causing harm. Throughout the morning and afternoon she would come back and check me and I really wasn’t make much progress so they kept upping the Pitocin. By lunch time my contractions were coming very strong and consistent and the last time Dr. Arliss checked me I was only 8cm 90% effaced and -1 station so she said made the call to do the c-section. After 18 hours of labor I was exhausted and definitely upset that the VBAC wasn’t going to happen but I was ready to meet my little man! .

C-Section:

Jennifer (my nurse) started prepping me for the section and the anesthesiologist (Dr. Coury) came in to up my epidural. Then Dr. Arliss came in to go over consent forms and have me sign. Once this was all complete I was pushed to the OR and the rest of the prepping began while James waited outside for our good friend Sandra to come get him. Sandra works on Mother/Baby floor and works in the nursery so I was so thankful to have her there with us in the room while we waited and of course to be in on Bryson’s delivery and give him his first spanking! Haha! The C-section went well but I started having a reaction to the meds which caused me to become VERY sleepy. I had to fight to keep my eyes open so I could get a glimpse of Bryson once he was out. The C-section its self-went smoothly and it was definitely weird being numb but also being able to feel pressure/pulling/etc. Bryson was born at 3:45pm screaming so we knew he had a good set of lungs! Everyone kept talking about how big he was and it wasn’t until he was weighed that we learned he was 8lbs 11oz! No wonder he wasn’t descending into the birth canal!! Addy was only 6lbs 15oz so I was shocked to hear how big he was. Once I was out of the OR and in the PACU (recovery) I continued to have severe reactions to the medications- unable to keep my eyes open and very bad shakes…I’m sure there was more but that’s all I remember! We spent some time in there and then I was taken down to the Mother/Baby floor only be to taken right back up to L&D so I could monitored more closely over the night. During the course of the night I guess my nurse started noticing other things going on with me and it wasn’t until the morning when I had lab work done that they learned my H&H (hemoglobin and hematocrit) blood levels had come back critically low (before surgery they were at a 12 which normal range is 10-16 and mine was a 5) so Dr. Keen ordered a blood transfusion of 2 bags of blood and we all prayed this would help! We were told that I had suffered some kind of internal bleeding from the C-section and that if this didn’t help I would have to go back into the OR and be opened back up to make sure the bleeding had stopped. Everyone was so worried about me and I remember them talking about how pale I was. My nurse (Jennifer again) and a few others tried to get me out of bed but I ended up passing out on my way back. Needless to say I wasn’t allowed of the bed until the next day! Later in the evening Addy was able to come up and meet her new baby brother! I told James I didn’t want her to come up the first night because I didn’t want her to see how bad I felt and looked…after two bags of blood I felt like I was feeling a tiny bit better, plus I missed my girl! I spent another night on L&D and this night my doctor, Dr. Curtis was on call so she came to visit and go over everything that happened to me. I spent Friday still on L&D but was moved down to Mother/Baby that evening after the doctor on call, Dr. Gaines learned I had been able to get up, finally take a shower and had definitely taken a turn for the better! Friday night was the first night Bryson stayed with us in our room and boy was it a long night! Both James and I were exhausted from the past few days and Bryson wanted to stay awake pretty much the entire night! I was discharged Saturday afternoon and was told by Dr. Gaines to be prepared to pretty exhausted for the next few weeks. She said it would probably take a least 2 weeks to get my H&H levels back to normal on top of the C-section recovery. Bryson’s birth was definitely an adventure in itself and I’m so thankful the issues were with me and not him. He has done great since day one and is loved so much by his big sissy! Addy adores him and wants to hold him 24/7. She is such a great big sister and gets very worried anytime he cries. Life with a newborn is definitely exhausting plus throw on top of that the extreme anemia and you can probably guess there have been lots of naps the past week but I wouldn’t trade it for the world!!