Mine and C's Birth Story

It all started on January 31, 2012. I have a really good friend who was due on the same day as me, Jan. 27. She was in labor on the 31. I was super jealous, but how could I not be? At that point, I was willing to try absolutely anything, and I had tried pretty much everything, to put me into labor. But desperate times calls for desperate measures. So what did I try? Castor oil. That's right. Castor oil. Can you say disgusting? Oh because it was. But it worked. I know that there are a lot of mixed emotions about it, but it worked. After a few hours of going to the bathroom, a lot, my contractions were finally getting stronger. Drew and I finished packing up our bag and hoped that we when we came home, we would have our little Creighton with us. We arrived at the hospital at 11:30 pm. I checked in and was told they would watch me for about an hour and if I progressed enough, they would keep me. Oh how we were crossing our fingers! I changed into the hospital gown, they hooked me up to the monitors, and checked to see how far along I was. As soon as they checked me, Creighton's heart rate dropped, drastically. The nurse had me switch sides a few times, but his heart was not going back up. As the nurse called the doctor in, she told me I was staying for sure, and that if they couldn't get his heart to go back up, they would be doing an emergency c-section. The doctor came in, popped my water, and put a monitor on Creighton's head so that we would know exactly what his heart rate was at all times. As soon as they popped my water, his heart went right back up. We all breathed a sigh of relief, and I asked for the epidural immediately. They were slightly worried because Creighton had a bowl movement while still in the room, and they were hoping he hadn't inhaled it. When they checked my cervix, I was dilated to a 2, and fully effaced. With my water broke, I progressed quickly! Withing 2-3 hours, I had increased to 6. Suddenly the doctors came in and said that Creighton's heart had dropped again. My contractions were too close together and too strong. He didn't have enough time to breath and relax in between each contraction. The nurse gave me a shot to slow the contractions down just enough that he could breath. The problem was that then for hours at a time, I would not progress at all. The doctors wanted to start me on a pit drip, but were worried with how Creighton would react to it. Eventually they started slowly giving me pitocin. Hours and hours later, when I finally reached a ten, the doctors suggested I wait an hour before pushing because they have seen that it goes much faster that way. I had waited about thirty minutes, but my epidural was starting to ware off and there was a spot in my back where I could feel the contractions and it was killing me! The nurse told me to push a few times to see if that would help. Nope, nothing. So they gave me another dose of the epidural, and I started pushing. I started off to a great start and was told that I was going to have this baby in no time. About ten minutes into pushing I started to feel a little weird, and I wasn't quite sure what was going on. Anytime anyone said anything to me, it took me a long time to respond, and I was feeling super delirious. I was so exhausted and all I could do was push when I felt I needed to, then lay back down and close my eyes until it was time to push again. Besides that, I really don't remember much. I remember being super confused because they kept telling me one more push, but one more push wasn't doing it. I was too out of it to ask questions though. I remember the doctor telling me she was going to give me an episiotomy, but I didn't understand why, since she told me earlier that she likes to steer away from them.  I remember the epidural wearing off and being in so much pain, all I could do was cry and scream. I remember suddenly having doctors rush to my side and frantically starting pushing on my stomach, and pulling Creighton as hard as they could. Finally, he was out. They rushed him away from me, and I layed there, not being able to keep my eyes open. Suddenly Drew was telling my that Creighton was crying. I was so out of it that I didn't realize that he wasn't for so long. After quite a few minutes, they handed him to me for the first time. I held Creighton for only a few minutes, and then they rushed him to the NICU. It wasn't until they rushed him off away from me, that things were explained to me and I started to understand what really happened. I had somehow gotten an infection in my uterus that caused a fever of 104.5, which caused me to be delirious. And that was my fever after labor. Who knows how high it was while I was pushing. While I was pushing, Creighton got stuck. He was just too big for my small body, and I was not stretching enough for him. That was why she gave me the episiotomy. But I still continued to rip, even after the episiotomy. But even after all of that, his right shoulder was still stuck. Once again, Creighton's heart was dropping rapidly and that is why they were all pushing on me so frantically. That was the doctors only choice. He was too far out at that point to do an emergency c-section. Creighton also came out with a high fever, and very sick. His right arm was also not moving from being stuck too long. After staying in the NICU all night, he was ok. I had a third degree tear, which is the most painful thing I have ever experienced. Because both of us had a fever, we had to stay in the hospital until we no longer had a fever for 48 hours. We were finally able to go home on Saturday. Creighton was born on Feb. 1, 6:49 pm, 9 lbs 1 oz, and 22.4 inches long. He was born with gorgeous, long, brown hair that stands up on its own. When I first looked back at how it all played out, I was frustrated that it didn't happen how I wanted it to. I was expecting to have them hand Creighton to me as I was crying and smiling at Drew. Now when I look back, I realize that it was all a blessing. If I would not have had a fever, if I would have realized how high stress of a situation it was, I would not have been able to do what I needed to. Drew was so strong through all of it. I don't know what I would have done without him by my side. Having Creighton here is such a blessing. I am so grateful that he is healthy and has recovered perfectly. Thanks to my amazingly talented mom, we have the gorgeous pictures that tell the story perfectly.