Casey's Birth Story - Part 1

Wow…where do I even start? I have been dying to share Casey's birth story with everyone and I am finally catching up on naps and sleep and have a few minutes to sit down and share with you all! I am going to split the story into two parts because there is so much that I want to share!

First of all I want to say thank you so so much for all the love and prayers you have all sent our way over the past few days - especially Sunday and Monday. Casey is so loved by so many all around the world and Chris and I are amazed and in awe of the people who love and cherish him already - it's truly amazing to us!

So where do we begin? Sunday morning we did the usual, errands, a huge grocery shopping trip - I think somehow subconsciously I knew because I stocked up on tons of stuff saying we have to be ready for whenever Baby Wik decides to show. We also got all the ingredients for the special Easter basket we wanted to put together for the nursing/hospital staff at the hospital when we delivered as well as got some TTC mail ready to head to the post office!

We did all of our running around in the morning and by 1 pm I was ready for a nap! I laid down on the couch, Chris was on the computer and we started watching the HBO movie called "You Don't Know Jack" about Jack Kevorkian in the 90's - random I know. I woke up around 3:30 saying to Chris "Babe, I think my water is breaking" - not that it had broke but that it was breaking that minute - and sure enough there was a huge gush and there was no denying it - we were having a baby! This may sound silly but I had always said that my dream was for Chris and I to be hanging out at home on a quiet day/afternoon just watching movies and be surprised by my water breaking. In movies and TV everyone's water breaks - so you assume that's how it happens - but in reality this only happens to about 20% of women. So as weird as it sounds I feel blessed that I got to experience it! 

I was shaking like crazy and we both started to get really really excited and just kept saying how cool this is it! I called my folks and my mom said "Please don't lie to me - are you serious?" and they jumped in the car and headed up. We called Chris' folks and they were excited to hear the news also! Next call was to Rita our doula. At this point in time I had zero contractions or pain - I felt totally normal except for the fluid gushes every couple of minutes - thank God for depends - mommas to be if you don't have them yet - run, don't walk - and get them. Now. Rita suggested I hook myself up to the breast pump and bounce on the ball to try to start contractions. We also showered, picked up the house, I did my hair, nails (yes at 38 weeks 3 days I managed to give myself a pedi) and finished getting the bags packed and in the car. Oh and I of course had to take one last bump pic - well ok a few!!

First bump pic vs. last bump pic - hahaha!

I was having a hard time relaxing and we were worried it was stopping my body from doing what it needed to do so we tried everything - I even resorted to coloring! We called the on call doc and they mentioned that they wanted me in the hospital within 6-8 hours of my water breaking so they could monitor everything so my folks arrived around 7:30 - still no contractions - so we ate some dinner, colored some more and at 10:45 headed in to triage!

We had our first real contraction in triage!!

Once they did the unnecessary speculum test to confirm that the what seemed like gallons of fluid I was leaking was indeed amniotic fluid we were given a labor and delivery room on the 8th floor around 1am.  Once we arrived up there one of the members of our doula team Bridget - met us up there and it was go time! I got an IV (after two tries), met our nurse and we all just kind of hung out. To try to start contractions we walked around a little, did some lunges, and bounced on the ball. Nothing. The good thing was that the doctor was in no rush, he had two other deliveries going on and wasn't pushing Pitocin at all - we were happy campers! Bridget did some amazing energy movement and massage to get me to finally calm down (seriously it was amazing!) and so we decided that we would try to get some rest. About the time Bridget, Chris and I all got settled in, the contractions started. Holy smokes - much more intense than I thought. I finally woke Bridget and Chris up as I needed their support. I labored for a while on the ball, in the bed pulling at the rails, braced with my hands against the bed and some of the contractions were pretty intense. This began around 3:30 so we labored different ways until about 6:30 when the doctor came in for my first internal exam to find we were just dilated to a 3. A 3?!? Are you serious? I was in some crazy pain and thought holy smokes I cannot go 7 more centimeters and maybe hours and hours more of this - so I did what I didn't think I wanted to do and I said bring in anesthesia, I need an epidural. Yep me - I was the one more scared of the epidural than labor and I called it in! In hindsight - I wish the doctor hadn't told me we were only at a 3 - for me that put a total mental block in my mind and I hit the wall and said you just can't do this.

This is where the scary part comes in. They sent Bridget and Chris out of the room as no one can be in the room during the epidural. The nurse - Shar - held my hand and the anesthesiologist was a nice guy - took him a while to get it in the right spot and the numbing shot hurt the worst of all but we made it through and all was well, my legs started tingling and I thought ok, we are in the clear. Wrong….all of the sudden a second anesthesiologist was in the room and they were looking at the monitors along with the nurse. They were calm but firm at this point and said get the pulse monitor on her - then everyone started rushing in. The threw an oxygen mask on my face, and by that time there were about 12 people in the room around computers, monitors and me. I felt fine but just kept saying what's wrong, what's wrong and no one would answer. They shot epinephrine into my IV and put nitrous under my tongue. The resident came in and said baby wasn't tolerating what we were doing and both of our heart rates were dangerously low. They had me try laying on both of my sides and then immediately had me get on all fours and did an internal exam. They tried jiggling Casey from the inside to wake him up and help him out and realized I had went from a 3 to a 5 with a huge contraction in a manner of minutes as they were administering the epidural. I just remember being so scared and asking is the baby going to be ok and no one would answer and in that moment I thought I had made the biggest mistake of my life. I had went into this thinking I wasn't going to get an epidural, I broke down and took it, and now the baby was in trouble….