Goooood morning! Today (almost 9 months later) I’m finally sitting down to publish our birth story with Ben on the blog. I shared most of it on IG stories, and those stories are now saved to a highlight called “Ben’s birth story” – you can watch them here. I threw those up because I wanted to share the highlights before I forgot everything! It was such an incredible, unexpected, and emotional experience. The human body is AMAZING, and the labor and delivery teams are literal SAINTS.
Our birth story starts with a normal Sunday. It was August 22, and Ryan, Lucy, and I woke up and went to Starbucks and Einstein’s Bagels to start the day.. it’s our Sunday morning tradition! I remember sitting in the drive thru line waiting for our bagels and I said to Ryan, “I haven’t felt the baby kick yet today!” I was a little worried because he was normally very active in the mornings. Ryan told me not to overthink it, and then the baby fluttered a little, so I shrugged it off.
When I was pregnant, I was sooo in tune with the baby kicks. At the time I was 35 weeks pregnant, so I had a good idea of when Ben would typically move a lot, and what time of day he was calmer. If I didn’t feel him kick for a bit, I would lay down and stay still until I felt him move again. Sometimes I’d feel strong movements, and other times it’d just be a small flutter.
That Sunday morning in the drive thru line, all I felt was a small flutter. Normally in the mornings I’d feel larger, stronger movements, but I tried not to overthink that since I DID feel him move. That entire day I was moving around, which was rare for me at that point in my pregnancy. I cleaned the entire house, and we went for a couple walks. By 6pm, I said to Ryan, “I haven’t felt him move all day!! I’m really worried!” I drank some juice and laid on the couch for an entire hour… but I didn’t feel any movement.
I was pretty freaked out, so we decided to call my doctor. She said since you drank juice, laid down, and didn’t feel anything, I want you to come to the office to get checked out. I had laid out all my to-go bag items on our guest bed, so I threw everything in the bag *just in case* and brought it with us to the hospital.
As soon as we got to the hospital, they hooked me up to a fetal Doppler, and they immediately heard the baby’s heartbeat. Praise the Lord!!! Twenty minutes later, I began feeling him move around again!!! So Ben was totally fine. 🙂 However, they took my vitals and found that my blood pressure was high.. and they found protein in my urine.
They were concerned that I had developed pre-eclampsia. They decided to keep me overnight to monitor my blood pressure. That night, they took my blood pressure every two hours. It was not fun. Luckily, I had my overnight bag with me… I didn’t actually think I’d need to use it though. I was only 35 weeks pregnant! I was extremely reluctant to stay at the hospital overnight, but the doctor was pretty adamant that I stay and have my bp monitored. I’ve always had “white coat syndrome” (high blood pressure when I get to the the doctor’s office, normal blood pressure after I’ve been there for a bit) so I totally brushed it off.
Ryan ran home to grab a change of clothes for himself, my blanket, and my own pillow haha. He also threw in the car seat “just in case!” but we figured we’d go home the next morning. I thought my blood pressure would come down.
I didn’t sleep at all that night because the nurse was coming into our room every 1-2 hours to take my blood pressure. I was so stressed out about it. My bp was reading high all night long and into the morning. Finally, the doctor called it. I had pre-eclampsia. It can cause health problems for the mother I guess, and the only way to cure it is to deliver the baby.
I was in complete shock when the doctor told us they were going to induce me. I just wasn’t mentally prepared at all. That was at noon on Monday. Ryan ran home to get some stuff I wanted, some food, and The Office on DVD lol!! While he was gone, the doctor came back to check my progress and discuss induction methods. While discussing induction methods, she checked me and found that I hadn’t naturally progressed yet.. I was not dilated at all. I asked her, “when do we get to find out the position of the baby?” i.e. I wanted to know that he was head down!
She said to me… I just felt his head when I checked you. But we can bring him up on the ultrasound if you’d like. I said YES please!!!! I hadn’t seen him on an ultrasound since 22 weeks, and I was 35 weeks at the time, so it had been 13 weeks since I’d seen him!
We were all shocked when the ultrasound showed that Ben was in breech position! His head was up by my ribcage! My doc told me, looks like we’re having a c section! Let’s do it in one hour. (cue tears) Ryan was still out running errands at this point. I told her, “My husband HAS to be here!” She promised we’d wait for him to get here, but tell him to hurry back.
Can you imagine going to the hospital thinking you’d just hear the baby’s heartbeat and head on home.. but then finding out that you’re having a c section in an hour?! I was crying pretty hard, but I had an amazing nurse who made me feel better while Ryan was gone. I just couldn’t believe we were going to have a baby in hour. And at only 35 weeks!!
Ryan knew I was FREAKING OUT so he came running into the room and yelled, “Who wants to have a baby?!?!” lol!!! He always knows how to make me laugh!
I was talking/crying to my parents on the phone before we went into the operating room, and my dad said, “you can be brave!” So that was my motto for the day.
The entire labor & delivery team was amazing. I didn’t even feel the spinal tap at all. It was surreal being in the operating room, though. I started to cry, and Ryan said to me, “You can be brave!” So I quit crying lol!
The c section went by SO fast. They immediately put Ben on my chest, which was so great, but I didn’t feel that instant connection that everyone talks about.. that feeling took a day or so to kick in. I remember feeling surprised by that.
My nurse was AMAZING! I asked her if she could take some pictures, and she took some amazing photos! Here’s our first family picture together! She even wrote my iPhone password on her scrubs haha!
About 5 minutes after Ben was put on my chest, I stared to feel nauseous. Apparently that’s normal for a c section? I told Ryan to take Ben, and then immediately began dry heaving. I remember the anesthesiologist gave me peppermint to smell, and it was the best thing ever.
Ryan went with Ben to the NICU while I got stitched up. He was in the NICU for 20 hours, while I was in the labor and deliver recovery section of the hospital. I didn’t get to see Ben for 20 WHOLE HOURS after delivery. That was so hard! But Ryan and I were able to FaceTime and snapchat so I could see what Ben was up to.
The hardest part of the recovery for me was being on Magnesium. If you’ve had to be on mag before, you know how much it sucks. I believe it’s given to patients who had pre-eclampsia to prevent seizures (don’t quote me on that.) Limited water intake, a catheter, leg massagers, and being so doped up I could barely open my eyes was the worst. It was honestly probably good that I couldn’t hold Ben because I was so out of it.
The nurses did sooo much for us. I was amazed! Labor and delivery nurses are literally angels sent from Heaven. They taught Ryan how to bottle feed, change a diaper, and so much more. Ryan said when Ben ate my colostrum (the first milk that I had pumped), Ben opened his eyes for the first time. So cool!!!! God is so good.
Ben weighed 5lbs 4.5oz when we took him home. He had to pass the “car seat test” before we could leave the hospital – meaning he had to sit in a car seat for an hour while they monitored his oxygen levels. I guess they require that for preemie babies.
SO, moral of the story for moms to be… if you have low fetal movement, go get it checked out! And TRUST YOUR GUT! I knew something was off, but didn’t want to seem like I was overreacting by going to the hospital. Moms know best. <3
