Raleigh's Birth Story ~ Part 1

Welcoming Raleigh

He's here! Five days after my last post our baby boy was born, which is why I haven't posted for a few weeks. I know many of you like to read birth stories, and I need to document it while it's still fresh in my mind (not that I'd ever forget it.....), so here's the story of how little Raleigh came into our lives:

On Sunday, July 19th, Tennyson woke up really early, like 5AM early. So I went into his room to see what was the matter and laid down on the bed in his nursery. I was feeling "off" and uncomfortable, but thought it was just something I ate. Seriously, I did. Tom came in and I told him I needed to go back in our bed because I really wasn't feeling well, specifically I was cramping, but it definitely didn't feel like contractions. But around 6:00 I called RMH and paged the doctor on call. When he called back I described my discomfort and he, too, said it didn't sound like contractions and to take some Tylenol and see if it helped. An hour later as I tried to go back to sleep I noticed the waves of cramping/pain was every 3 minutes, but still in denial I felt my belly for the next one and was unnerved that it tightened. I went to the bathroom to see if it would help (Haha!!) and I was bleeding a little. Time to spring into action!!!! I yelled for Tom, told him to call my sister first so she could come watch Tennyson, and then we called RMH again. I talked to my doctor and obviously he said to go to the hospital since it sounded like labor. You've got to be kidding me! I was only 34 weeks and 4 days! I thought for sure I'd make it to 37 weeks (full-term). And, of course, I had no bag packed!

My sister, Courtney, got to our house in about 8 minutes and we rushed out the door. Thankfully we had just registered at the hospital 9 days before, so we checked in and walked up to L&D. Since I had a c-section with Tennyson I had to have an IV and a baby monitor, so in to the bed I went. For some reason it never occurred to me they might try and STOP labor, but that's exaclty what my doctor wanted to do. Over the course of 2 hours or so my doctor gave me 3 doses of Brethaine, which only slowed my contractions to every 6 minutes. He checked me (an extremely painful process) and found that I was already dialated to 4 cm. I think my exact words were, "Oh crap." :-) He said it was going to be hard to stop labor when I was already that dialated, but he really wanted to try. So they put me on 6 mg of magnesium, which is apparently a really high dose, and then leveled it off to 4 mgs, and then to 2. My doctor really wanted to see my contractions slow to 4 per hour, which they did for the first hour. I was on magnesium, or "Liquid Hell" as I now call it, for about 24 hours. It did slow my contractions, but never stopped them completely, and "the mag" made my throw up.....A LOT and well after I went off it. Horrible, horrible stuff! Somewhere in there they did do an extensive ultrasound and found out the baby was about 6 lbs. and that he was head down. So that was good news!

On the morning of the 20th another doctor from the practice came in to check me and I was at 6 cm. I was actually relieved. They turned off everything, knowing they couldn't do anymore to stop him from coming. Over the course of the next few hours we made phone calls to family and friends to be praying. We called my doula, Steph, so she could be there for support. Our pediatrician came in to prepare us that the baby may need oxygen for maybe a week or 2 since I was so early. At my last check I had progressed to 7 cm, not bad considering we tried to stop labor for a day, but unfortunately the doctor also discovered the baby didn't have his head way down anymore. His head was down but his body was at a 45 degree angle and since I had a prior c-section they won't turn the baby. And that meant one thing - another c-section. I was devastated. This was SO not how I wanted my second birth experience to go! Exhausted we just tried to trust that God had everything under control.

Raleigh Edward Davenport Bates came in to this world at 2:12PM on July 20th, weighing a healthy 6 lbs. 2 oz. Tom brought him over to me, all bundled and pink-cheeked. He was beautiful and it took my breath away. My little boy was finally here! Of course, they wisked him away to the nursery to make sure he was okay. Stitching me up took awhile, what with the scar tissue from before, and it didn't help that I was still throwing up during that. In the recovery room I was doing surprisingly well, especially since the nausea was suddenly gone. My parents were back there and we were excited to tell them the name of their new grandson! We made phone calls to my 6 siblings to tell them the news, as we waited for my epidural to wear off (they won't move you to a room until then). We had some of my family stop by that evening, but I was exhausted from the day and tried my best to get some much needed sleep. Little did I know the next few days and the following week were going to be so difficult....