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Bradley's Birth Story

Written by his Momma Naomi

"And I Thank You For Choosing Me
To Come Through Unto Life To Be
A Beautiful Reflection Of His Grace
See, I know That A Gift So Great
Is Only One God Could Create
And I'm Reminded Every Time I See Your Face"

Lauren Hill
'To Zion'

Well, Little Bradley decided to make his entrance in to this world early. I was scheduled to be induced tomorrow 10/14/03. But last Tuesday, I woke up at 4 in the morning feeling as though I was having some pretty strong menstrual cramps and needed to use the bathroom. I didn't immediately get up to go because the feeling would subside and I would drift back off to sleep. However, after the 5th or 6th time this happened, I decided to go to the bathroom and see if relieving myself would help. Well I peed but nothing else and those cramps kept coming. They weren't exactly the kind of cramps I expected. I was told they would radiate from my back to my abdomen. I was just feeling crampy in the abdomen and pressure on my bum.

I went to the living room and paced the floor for about half an hour. Tried sitting down, tried standing up, the whole time thinking, "This isn't labor, I'm probably just having some Braxton-Hicks'…or I'm constipated." But they kept coming closer together so finally I called the Doc on call and told him I thought I might be in labor. He asked me if my water had broken and I said no but I was having what felt like contractions every 5-7 minutes. So he told me to go in to the Hospital and get checked. I woke up Josh and told him we had to go to the hospital. By this time it was about 5:30 in the morning. He immediately brightened and said "Really?" then jumped out of bed and started dressing. He asked if he had time to have a cigarette before we left and I shouted, "Hell NO!"

I decided to leave my hospital bag at home because I just knew they were going to send us home. I brought my pillow a blanket and a book to read just to make myself more comfy, and just in case by some small chance they checked me in. I'd send Josh home to get the bag if that happened.

So off we went on a cold drizzly Tuesday Morning. The whole ride there I was thinking about what a beautiful morning it was, even though it was raining, and how I had grown to love the fall here, even though I was a native California Girl and often missed the Sunshine and Warm Ocean. Portland had been a big change for me and I had often thought of returning with Josh someday to my native Los Angeles or maybe San Francisco where I had lived for a few years. But I have grown to love Portland in a way that is different from the love I felt for California but just as strong. Then a contraction would hit and all those thoughts would fly out the window.

Once we arrived Hospital I went inside and slowly made my way down the Maternity Ward hallway breathing heavily (Josh was parking the car) I was checked in quickly and immediately hooked up to a monitor. The monitor showed I was having contractions about every 5 minutes. They were becoming painful so they gave me fenatyl for the pain. The nurses there consulted with the Dr. on call and he advised them to give me something (can't remember the name) that once injected would prove once and for all if I was really in labor or if it was false labor I was having. After I received this medicine my contractions did in fact slow down but did not stop. The nurse came in and told me that she wasn't saying I'd be admitted or not but it looked like I might be sent home. She said maybe labor was going to happen in a day or two and this was pre-labor. In the mean time we waited for my real Dr. to arrive, as he would have the last word.

Lying there I hoped that this was "it" but stayed pessimistic about it. I am well aware that false alarms happen all the time for anxious first-time mothers just like me all the time. Then I felt trickle between my legs and called the nurse in to tell her I thought my water had broken. She looked and said, "Yup, you're definitely wet. I'm going to go get something that will tell us for sure."

"Well, I sure hope it isn't pee!" I joked.

It was pee.

She said it happens all the time. I saw Josh smirking.

When my Doc got there he also said I might need to go home. But then he checked my cervix and it was FULLY effaced and the Baby was waaaaay down low and I was about 3 centimeters dilated. The Baby was so low, he explained to me that this was the reason I had felt like I needed to have a bowel movement for the last couple of days with no luck. He said he could send me home but chances are I'd be back at the end of the day or early the next morning, so he'd admit me. In the mean time he again began to check my cervix and this time it hurt like hell. I was screaming and arching my back. He told me to relax and I yelled, "I CAN'T!" He at that point stopped and said I had better get an epidural because if that hurt, it was only a taste of what actual childbirth would feel like. I didn't argue.

I was moved to a birthing room and the anesthesiologist gave me the epidural. I was really scared because I heard it hurts like hell. But to my surprise, I hardly felt a thing. After a few minutes I was completely numb from the waist down. My Dr. came in and broke my water to get things going. I had light meconium which can be an indication of fetal distress, so he said he was glad we were inducing sooner than later as meconium is sometimes a sign of fetal distress. He theorized that the fenatyl and the other medicine the earlier Dr. recommended had slowed down my contractions and breaking my water would speed them back up along with a little pitocin.

Well I lay there for hours. The contractions came back strong (and painlessly thanks to the epidural) but I wasn't making any progress in terms of dilation. Then when a nurse came in to check on me she noticed the Baby's heart beat was dropping fast. She called in all the staff including my Dr. who explained to me that the Baby was in trouble and he may have to put me under immediately and deliver him by C-Section. As he was explaining this, the Baby's heart rate went back up. So he decided to just let me labor a little longer. I went about 2 more hours in which time the baby's heart rate plummeted and went back up several times. Finally, I pushed the emergency button when I looked over and saw the worried looks on Josh and my Mother-in-laws faces as they tried to sound calm and talk about other cheery things while staring in thinly veiled alarm at the fetal monitoring screen. The nursing staff, c-section team and my Dr. all came rushing back in. My Dr. said we were doing the C-section. He apologized and told me not to be disappointed and that these things sometimes happened but he wanted to be absolutely sure the baby and I came through healthy and this was the best way. But I wasn't at all disappointed. I secretly had wanted a c-section, believe it or not. I know it's major surgery and it takes longer to heal but for some reason I felt better about him coming through a small incision below my bikini line instead of through my Vagina. Didn't want to deal with the stretched Vagina, the possible farting and uncontrollable bowel movements while pushing, the possibility of tearing as the head pushed through my stretched to it's limit vagina, and then being afraid to take a poop for days afterward. People kept telling me it didn't matter and the staff is used to this sort of thing, but personally I didn't want it to happen. Just my thing I guess.

So they prepped me for the c-section including injecting my epidural line with a stronger narcotic. Josh sat at my bedside the entire time. I really wanted to look and see what they were doing but they had the screen up of course. I had no idea when they cut me or anything. I was so darned numb pretty much all over even though the anesthesiologist said it would only affect me from just below my breastbone down.

I didn't get to witness this myself of course, but my Dr. told us afterward that when they made the incision to open the placenta the first thing they saw were two little eye's staring back out at them. Funny, huh?

So they pulled him out and wiped him off then wrapped him and brought him to me to hold and look at. I couldn't hold him because my arms and hands were basically dead but I tried to stroke him. Unfortunately I was so numb I had no real control over my hand movements so I ended up smacking him instead... twice. After that Josh decided to keep him away from me for a while, at least until the epidural wore off.

So we went back to the recovery room and I was given something to help with the pain and put me to sleep for a while. When I woke up my family was in the room and Josh was holding Bradley in his arms. He was beautiful, perfect and had a little round head except for a smashed nose, which is now cute and small and looks like mine. He actually looks a lot like me although I think Josh would say this is debatable. Well, he's a good mix of the two of us, that's certain.

We are home now. I feel great and tomorrow Bradley will be one week old. The c-section is really not bothering me. I go up and down the stairs with out a problem. I hardly take my pain medicine and breastfeeding is going great! No engorgement, baby eats well, and with the help of some Lansinoh cream it really doesn't hurt much. And to my surprise I haven't got one stretch mark.

So that's my story. I think my labor went really well. Even with the scare. I was never afraid because I trusted the staff and knew everything would turn out fine in the end. I also trusted that God wouldn't have brought us this far only to let harm come to my child. Bradley's coming in to being was a happy accident that I wasn't sure I was ready for. But I know now that He came at exactly the right time and I love him so much. I feel blessed and very lucky.

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