The Birth Story....

Caution: this is long!

It was Saturday afternoon. I was feeling pretty miserable and asked Steve to go to the store and get some spicy food to make me some enchiladas for lunch, hoping that maybe it would bring about labor. Little did I know....

After lunch I went down to the basement guest room to lay down for a few minutes and suddenly felt like I had wet my pants. I stood up to run to the bathroom and immediately felt a gush and yelled up to Steve that I was pretty sure my water had just broken. I hadn't been having any contractions to indicate that labor was on the way, so I was pretty surprised by all of this.

I immediately called our midwife and she told me to hurry my way on in to the hospital. We got to the hospital and because I had tested positive for strep B, I immediately was hooked up to an IV. The midwife checked me and I still was only dilated 1 cm. She suggested inserting some cervadil into my cervix to soften things up a bit and hopefully help me dilate more.

I was hesitant at first, because I really didn't want to take any measures to speed things along, but because my water had broken and I was showing no signs of labor the midwife thought this was the best way to go. Within 20 minutes of getting the cervidal I was having contractions just 3 and 4 minutes apart and they were SO painful - mostly I felt them in my back. Also, I got really nauseated. With every contraction I had to vomit and it wasn't long before the enchiladas were out of my system and I was throwing up the acid in my stomach. So not fun.

Around 6:00 pm I really started to feel the pain and was having a hard time breathing through the contractions. I tried sitting, standing, laying down, walking, and bouncing on the exercise ball. Steve was so great and so supportive through it all as were the nurses in the birthing center. Finally, one of the nurses suggested I get in the whirlpool tub and that seemed to help a little bit, so I hung out there for the next 3 hours.

Still vomiting, my contractions were lasting about a 1 minute and were still 3 minutes apart.

Finally, the next morning at 8:00 am the midwife suggested we check my progress to see how dilated I was. I was so discouraged that I had only made it to 4 centimeters. It was at that point that the midwife became concerned that labor would not progress unless we helped it out a bit. I wouldn't have been that big of a deal if my water hadn't broken the afternoon before, but they normally like to have the baby out within 24 hours of the water breaking. So, it was decided, much to my dismay that I go on pitocin to speed things up. I was so nervous about this as I've heard the statistics and that many times pitocin leads to a c-section, but because it really was medically necessary we didn't really have much of a choice.

At this point I was going on 17 hours of labor, still vomiting with every contraction and having horrible back labor. I decided around 10:00 am that I just couldn't take it anymore and asked for an epidural. Holy mother, it felt nice! Despite being numb and having to have a catheter inserted it was so nice to not feel those contractions. The vomiting slowed down, although never really went away.

We spent the next few hours watching the monitor to see how the contractions were progressing. Often times they would come right on top of each other and I was so grateful that I wasn't feeling them. I was exhausted, after having spent the entire night in labor, but unfortunately even with the epidural was unable to get some rest.

Around 3:00 pm our nurse rushed into the room and immediately paged the rest of the nurses and doctors on the floor. Within seconds I was surrounded 5 nurses, my midwife and 2 doctors. I was put on oxygen and they were moving me from one side to another and then ended up inserting something into me to attach to the baby's head. I don't think I have ever felt so helpless or scared in my entire life. I still didn't know what was happening, but happened to glance at the monitor and saw that the baby's heart rate was down to 52. All afternoon it had been between 130-160 (the normal range). I still don't really understand everything that happened as it's all kind of a blur, but they somehow ended up shocking the baby and eventually his heart rate went back up. The whole process lasted just a few minutes, but seemed to drag on for an eternity. After everything settled down and I realized that we had almost lost our precious little boy I lost it and couldn't stop crying.

It was then decided that I needed an emergency c-section. Avoiding a c-section unless it was absolutely necessary was the most important part of my birth plan, (literally, I had underlined and put stars next to that part of the birth plan just to make sure they knew my thoughts on the subject) so naturally, I was devastated.

The surgeon came in to introduce herself before they were going to start preparing for surgery and could tell how upset I was to have to have a c-section. Since the baby was stable again, she suggested we check just one more time to see if I had dilated any. As it turns out in that 15 minutes since the incident I had dilated from a 4 to an 8. Everyone was shocked. The surgeon said that since the baby was stable if we'd like we could disconnect the pitocin to make sure we kept the baby safe and then wait it out a bit longer to see if I would dilate to a 10. I was so happy!

We waited for another 2 hours, monitoring contractions and the baby's heart rate. The midwife came in to check me and I was so hopeful that I had made it to 10 cm's. Unfortunately I was still at 8 though. At that point nobody felt comfortable with me waiting much longer. It was decided that we would take the lowest possible dose of pitocin to see if it would help and wait for an hour. If nothing changed in that time, we would definitely have to have a c-section.

Looking back, I was so happy for that hour. Steve and I spent that time praying and thanking God for keeping our little boy safe through the previous ordeal of the day and I spent some time praying for a miracle, while I also just asked God to give me a peace no matter what the outcome. As hard as it was, that was an hour I'll never forget. I really just felt a peace knowing that whatever happened God would be with us and submitted our lives and the life of our little guy to him no matter what the outcome.

Our hour was up and there was no change. As much as I didn't want a c-section, I felt a peace in my heart that this was the right choice. I didn't want to risk doing anything to harm our boy and whatever would get him out of me in the safest way was what I wanted to do.

They started prepping me for surgery and although I was at peace with the decision, I felt very scared to have such a major surgery. I had never been admitted to the hospital in my life, and the closest I have ever come to having surgery was having my wisdom teeth removed, so naturally the thought of them cutting me open and removing my insides to get to a baby was a little overwhelming.

They moved me to the OR and began prepping me for surgery. Whatever they gave me to numb me made me feel horrible and I immediately started vomiting again as well as started shaking uncontrollably. Steve got decked out in scrubs and after they had me fully prepped was able to join me in the operating room. Having him next to me for the surgery brought so much comfort to me. The surgery in itself didn't take all the long. After just about 15 minutes I heard the sounds of my sweet baby boy crying. They held him up for me to see before whisking him away to get tests done. I can honestly say that it was the most amazing moment of my entire life. Our midwife also attended the surgery and took pictures.

Here's my first view of our sweet Asher Struck Rodriguez.

Asher Struck Rodriguez was born with a boom on the 4th of July at 9:39 pm. He weighed 8 lbs. 10 oz and was 20 inches long.

Between my exhaustion and the medication, I was completely out of it at this point, but the one thing I knew was that I was so in love with this little boy. Steve went to join Asher for his tests and they started putting me back together. It's so crazy that it took only 15 minutes or so to get him out of me, and more than hour to put me back together. After Asher got all cleaned up they brought him over so that I could look at him while they continued to sew me up. I was still shaking uncontrollably, so I couldn't really touch him, but just to look him in the eyes was amazing.

For the rest of my surgery he just laid there and looked and me with not so much as a whimper. It was such a special time. Steve is such a proud papa!

We are so blessed to have this little angel in our lives! He didn't exactly come into the world in the way that we had anticipated, but we are just happy that he's here. After the surgery we were told that not only was he in a posterior position (hence the horrible back labor), but also had the cord wrapped around his neck twice. We are so grateful that God kept him safe and it actually made us feel very grateful for the c-section as who knows what could have happened otherwise.

Recovery has been rough. With the exhaustion of 29 hours of labor and all the emotional roller coaster this last week has been we've had a lot of ups and downs. My hospital stay was not the most pleasant. The day that my IV was finally disconnected and I was able to get up and take a shower I blacked out in the bathroom, hit my head and was unconscious for 3 minutes. Luckily, it was mostly due to exhaustion and the fact that I hadn't eaten in 3 days, so it wasn't due to surgery complications. My incision is very painful and I'm exhausted, but am healing up nicely and for that I'm grateful.

We were so blessed by all of the wonderful staff at Meriter. I can't say enough good things about all of the nurses and doctors that have worked with us.

We're all safely at home now. Asher is having some problems with his bilirubin levels and is on a strict 2 hour feeding schedule night and day. Between the c-section recovery and sleepless nights with all of the feedings we are absolutely exhausted, but that is to be expected with a newborn, so I guess I can't complain to much. Most of all we are just so thankful to have this little man in our lives!