Our birth story

On Thursday August 18th (41 weeks pregnant) I went to my last OB appointment and my 2nd to the last stress test, it was then that our little man was served with an eviction notice for Tuesday August 23rd. I was disappointed to hear that I was being scheduled for an induction but I knew it was coming so I had tried to prepare myself for the news as best as I could.

Monday August 22nd (the day before induction) I woke up at 4:50 am with terrible period like cramps and awful back pain. I got up to stretch and use the restroom, it was at that point I had my “bloody show”. I freaked out, I knew this happens before labor comes on but seeing blood in the toilet freaked me out so I rushed to our bedroom to wake Chris and tell him what was going on. The cramps/back pain came and went every 30-45 minutes, by 10 am I was walking into Kaiser for my last stress test and by this time contractions were every 20-25 minutes apart. During my thirty minute stress test I had two decent contraction register on the monitor (Yay, exciting!), my OB went over my readings and told us to go home to labor and come into the hospital soon as the contractions were 3-5 minutes apart, my water broke or 6:15 am the following morning for my scheduled induction. After my appointment Chris and I picked up some lunch and came home. As the afternoon progressed so did my contractions, I laid down to nap on two separate occasions and both times I was awoken by strong contractions. Chris and I were on cloud 9, we were sure that my body was finally working with us and that an induction wasn’t going to be necessary after all. The night progressed and so did my contractions, I didn’t sleep a wink that night. Unfortunately my contractions never got to the point of 3-5 minutes apart and clearly my water never broke, but I was in active labor and knew my baby boy was on his way!

Tuesdays August 23rd (the day of induction) I wasn’t able to sleep the night before our scheduled induction, I was so uncomfortable. The back pain was the worse and the contractions kept coming, but by this time they were 8-10 minutes apart. I woke Chris up at 4:30 am so he could shower and load the car up, we decided to leave early since I had been in active labor for nearly 20 hours. As we left our house I took one last look around, one last look of a child-free home. The drive to the hospital was so surreal, between contractions all we could talk about was how excited we were to meet our son and how the next time we were in the car our little man would be with us too! Once we arrived to the hospital they took us back to admitting, this tiny office with ZERO air circulation, doesn’t mesh well with a women who is 41 wks pregnant and in labor. Once we were officially checked into the hospital our nurse (Audrey) greeted us and took us back to our labor/delivery room. Our nurse spent the next 20 minutes going over what our day would consist of and how different things would play out. Everything started feeling so real once I put my hospital gown on. After an hour or so the OB on shift came in to introduce himself and get the ball rolling. The OB was a funny guy, he lightened the mood when he wrote up on our white board that our patient goal was “Marcus”, he then explained to us that the plan was to continue on with an induction just to speed my already active labor up. Unfortunately even after 20 hrs of active labor I was only 90% effaced and dilated to 1cm, during my exam he asked if I wanted to go from a 1cm dilation to 2-3 in 30 seconds. HOLY COW, I was not ready for the pain that was going to come with being stretched but that procedure was successful and I went from 1-3cm dilated. I really felt after this point we were hitting the ground running and our baby boy would arrive that evening, little did I know what was in store for us.

The first few hours at the hospital were pretty laid back, I was on pitocin, the nurses were pretty much leaving us alone because at this point I wasn’t needing much attention the drugs just needed to their job. Shortly after 9 my OB, Kim Kopecky (LOVE her!) came in to see us, she gave me a high five and said “Girl, I’ve been trying to get into that cervix for weeks now!”., “Right, isn’t that the truth” was my reply. Dr. K just assured me all was going well and we were going to do everything necessary to deliver a healthy baby and avoid the OR. The afternoon was pretty uneventful, Chris went to get something to eat and return home to feed out cats and grab a few things. While Chris was out my dad stayed with me, I really enjoyed this time with him we spent that hour reminiscing about my childhood and how excited we were for Marcus and his childhood. Eventually my in-laws arrived to the hospital as well, we were all anticipating his arrival!

After several hours and sadly very little progress I was starting to get very uncomfortable but decided to keep pushing on. Dr. K at this point figured breaking my water was the next step in the right direction, after a quick procedure (with what looks like a crochet needle) water was broken! This next hour was awful, the contractions were getting stronger, coming quicker and lasting longer it was as if I wasn’t getting a break at all. I had enough at this point, I was looking at 30 hours of labor in the face with zero sleep in those 30 hours and I just needed some relief and some rest. I hit that wall and asked for an epidural. I was in luck, the anesthesiologist was available and on her way! Desiree was her name, and she was awesome! During the preparation for my epidural our L/D nurse removed the fetal heart rate monitors not realizing how long it was going to take to prep and administer the epidural. Our L/D at this time was sweet but VERY high stress, she told us that she was very uncomfortable with the amount of time that had passed with him not being monitored so as I’m receiving my epidural she decided she needs to get the monitor hooked backed up. I thank her for having my son health/best interest in mind but she was worrying us all. The anesthesiologist has me leaning forward with my back arched and is telling me to remain completely still while our L/D nurse is in front of me telling me to lean back so she can find his heart rate, these two women were not at all on the same page and our L/D nurse is starting to freak out and is calling for an emergency ultrasound because she is unable to locate a heartbeat. This was our first scare of the day! We ended up having to put my epidural on hold so the nurses could put a internal monitor in so that we wouldn’t have to worry about not being able to find his heart rate again, once the monitor was in the anesthesiologist (My new BFF) was able to get back to work on my epidural.

Once I had my epidural I felt fabulous, little did I know I would only feel like this for a very short time. After about two hours with my epidural it completely failed! I had a team of nurses, an OB and a different anesthesiologist at my bedside trying to figure out what went wrong and if it truly had failed. I couldn’t paint the picture more clearly for them, I was feeling EVERYTHING! Within in hour I went from very uncomfortable to a train wreck, I had my dad on one side of me and Chris on the other. My body was shaking uncontrollably, I couldn’t even open my eyes, the pressure in my pelvis was unreal, I had the urge to push yet I was only 4cm dilated at this time, my so called “contraction(s) felt like one never ending contraction. This was the first time the “C” word (c-section) was mentioned, I remember feeling completely out of it and when I heard that word I snapped out of it and started freaking out, crying, saying No…no, asking a million questions and trying to get Chris to tell them no way was I having a c-section. The nurses talked to us, more less talked to Chris about a few options and we decided to try a different pain relieving drug that went through my IV. Finally! I had some relief, we decided to send our family home so I could try and rest since we knew we still had a long road and 6cm to go before he would arrive. About an hour after we sent our family home we had a nurse come running into our room telling me to get on my left side because the babies heart rate was dropping. Unfortunately by this time I was back to feeling everything and being on my left side was causing so much more discomfort but I knew I had to be on my side to help him, so it made it a little more easier to swallow. It wasn’t to much longer after this that a new OB came in and gave us the news. His heart rate was continuing to drop (they believe the pitocin is causing him stress) and that an emergency c-section was necessary. I’ve never felt so completely defeated in my life, I was looking at 37 hours of labor at this point , I was tired, drained and was just given the worse news imaginable as far at this birth experience goes. Of course I knew it needed to be done, my baby boy was stressing and he needed to come out NOW. The next 30 minutes were such a blur, I was being prepped for surgery, Chris and I are being filled in on what is going to happen, I signed the papers and was wheeled off to the OR. I cried start to finish, this was not at all what I wanted. I didn’t want my son cut out of me and whisked away, I wanted to push him out, have him put up on my belly and watch my husband cut his cord.

Once in the OR the process moved rapidly, they had to pull out my epidural and do a spinal block, I’ve never felt so disconnected from my body before! The spinal block made everything from my chest down completely numb and super warm. I was curious as to why they strapped me down to bed, and figured out why towards the end of my surgery my entire body just started shaking and my teeth were chattering it was so bizarre! After 20 minutes or so in the OR I finally see Chris come through the doors, I’ve never been SO happy to see him (my did he look super handsome in his “blue suit”) he sat next to me and started to wipe the tears from my eyes and said anything and everything to try and calm me down. I remember the OR anesthesiologist asking Chris if he wanted to watch them pull Marcus out of me, he very anxiously said “Oh, yes!” and at last within 5 minutes and TONS of pressure Chris was told to stand up and look over the drape. August 24th, 2011 at 1:08 am Marcus Alexander Hampton entered the world at 8lbs 3oz and 21inches long. Chris wasn’t saying anything and it had me worried, he asked me if it was okay to step away and go see our son I of course crying said “go, go!”. I wont find out until the day after when Chris tells me that Marcus came out blue and he wasn’t breathing. So here is what happened, little mans cord was wrapped around his neck twice and with every contraction the cord would squeeze a little tighter, since I was on the pitocin the contractions came so often that he was under stress. No one knew his cord was wrapped around his neck so I thank God for looking after us that day, our son could have been ripped away from us so quickly. Marcus and Chris left the OR to the recovery room where they waited for my surgery to wrap up. Once I arrived to the recovery room from the OR I was still pretty out of it and still trying to grasp everything that had just happened. I’ll never forget the moment I held my beautiful baby for the first time, he was so precious! He truly is a blessing and I’m forever grateful to have him. Those first few minutes that I held him I felt like the world around me had froze in time, it was so magical. While I being checked out and cleaned up from surgery a nurse stopped by our recovery room and told us our dad was in the waiting room and asking about us. My dad is amazing, when we got the word that I was going in for a c-section I told Chris that we should call our family and let them know, it wasn't until after I was wheeled off to the OR that Chris did so. I wish I was able to hear their conversation, although its not difficult to picture. Chris said the moment he told my dad I was going in for surgery my dad replied with "I'm on my way". Shortly after 2:30 that morning my dad was able to come back into recovery and meet his grandson, its a moment he or I will never forget.

Love,

Chris and Katie