Carters Birth Story

Our computer crashed the other day, and I thought Carters birth story was on there. I was devastated! But then I found it on the main computer. Whew. So in case something ever happens to our computers and I lose it, I want to put it in here...

It should've been the happiest time for me, enjoying my new son with my Husband. It may have been the hormones, or the fact that I never got sleep, but I can honestly say it was my worst week ever. This is my labour story, with all the nitty gritty. There my be other women who have had a much more traumatic experience, but this was traumatic for me. (This is long).

On the Monday before my son was born I thought that I was leaking. My friend Ashley and I went to the hospital so I could get checked. I was nervous because I knew that the amount of liquid I could feel was not normal. I got checked out by a nurse that I felt, was "seasoned" and "hardened". In other words, didn't care about anything I had to say. She checked me and concluded I wasn't leaking but "are you feeling any of these contractions"? I wasn't, so I got sent home. On the Wednesday, I went to see my OBG/YN and I was 1 cm, and he didn't see any reason to worry. I had continues on and off contractions all week, but nothing ever came from it. On Saturday Cam and I were at Tony Romas and the contractions were so strong I couldn't eat and we left to go home. But again, they went away. I woke up to use the wash room at 1 am and I was bleeding. We went to the hospital and again I was asked "are you feeling these contractions"? Again I wasn't, I got sent home. The next day I could tell I finally went into active labour and at 8 pm we started to time them. From about 11 pm to 3 am they were 5 minutes apart. But they didn't change, and I wanted to stay home as long as I could to stay in my bed. We finally decided to go to the hospital even though my contractions were not getting closer together. As we started to get things together, they suddenly went to 10 minutes apart. Frustrated, we went back to bed. At 5 am the start to quicken again and we went to the hospital. The nurse checked me out, and I was only 1-2 cm's. They wanted to give me a shot for the pain, and send me home. I told them to give me the shot, but to shove the other idea, I wasn't going any where. I was so tired by this point and have been having contractions (since I started timing) for 10 hours at every 5 minutes. I couldn't help but cry. I was very frustrated. At 7 am, my Dr stopped by, and I had progressed to 3 cms and I was admitted, and he broke my water. I went right into the shower, and I spent a couple of hours in there. It was wonderful!! At 11 am, the shower started to hurt and I got out. I started feeling sick to my stomach with how intense the contractions were. My nurse checked me, and to my dismay, I was only 3-4 cms. I was so tired!!! And I hurt in my back so I wanted an epidural. While waiting for the guy to do it. The nurse started asking me a whole bunch of questions about leaking. "Do you think you had any"?, "Did you fall at any point"?, and "Unusual amount of fluid while going to the bathroom"? I told her how the weekend before I thought I was leaking all weekend, came to the hospital and got sent home. Looking quite put out the nurse went to check my story. When she came back she looked quite worried and told me that I had NO fluid coming out. Nothing when he broke my water, and nothing since then. Great.. So they gave me some potocen to help the labour along just a bit. I finally started to get my epidural and Cam got up to hold me while I got the needle in my back. Cam started to put a lot of pressure on me and I asked him to lean back a little. But then he started to lean away from me. I realized what was going on and told the nurse that my Husband is fainting. She caught him in mid fall and he nearly took me with him. But Luckily he let go of my hand, and she literally threw him into a chair. Cam started to fell better right away, and he realized that he hadn't eaten since lunch the day before. I told him to go eat while the epidural was working wonders and he left. I got to relax for a couple of hours, but I had to get a catheter in because I couldn't us my legs . At 2 pm my nurse was about to check me and asked how far we thought I was. She guessed about 6, Cam guess 7-8, and I wasn't feeling to confident given my track record and I guess 5. While she was checking me she asked me to push on her fingers, so I did. And she said "Well we were all wrong, your 10 CMs and ready to push". Crazy. The nurse told me that she thinks my body wasn't relaxing enough to allow me to progress. So whenever I had some relief I would relax and progress. I pushed for a hour and a half, and was told that I wouldn't get much time with my baby because he was going straight to the ICU. The DR came after the nurse was pacing for 10 minutes, and he delivered Carter Franklin at 3:59pm on Monday Nov 26, 2007.. 8 7oz, 21 1/2 inches long. He went straight into a warmer where the nurses were cleaning him up. He had had a bowel movement in me which shows that he was in distress, and it was old, so he had been in it for a while. Waiting for him to cry felt like an eternity. When he did, it was an amazing/scary/relieving feeling. I got to hold him for about 1 minute and he went to the ICU with Cam in tow. Carter was having breathing problems. I got stitched up ate some toast and they put me into the shower. After about two minutes I could feel myself get light headed and I called for Cam who pulled the nurse string. 3 nurses were there in a blink of an eye! It was amazing! But I didnt make it past the toilet. So they sat me on it. Its amazing how many people were in that bathroom with me while I was naked! My head was spinning I couldn't hear anything and I wanted to close my eyes. The nurse was talking to me telling me to keep my eyes open. She sounded miles away. But I did as I was told. I barley remember telling her that I was going to throw up. Which I did. But I felt 110% better after I did. I started to wake up and I was put back into bed. After a little while, I still couldn't use my legs, so Cam wheeled me to my room and to the ICU. Looking at my baby (who had had a bath and was nice and clean) was so terrifying. All I wanted to do was hold his ENORMOUS shrek hands! Cam talked to the pediatrician, who explained what was going in with Carter. They believe that when I thought my water was leaking, that I was right. And that I had been having contractions all week, which squished his rib cage into his lungs. From that, air was forced around his heart. They have no idea how this happens, but the air somehow gets there, and it usually corrects itself. His breathing had steadied and in the morning they would do more X-Rays of his heart. I went back to my room and they took out the catheter. About an hour later I stood up to go into the bath room and I felt something all over my legs. I lost control of my bladder.. goodie. That night I was told to sleep because of how long the labour process had been. So I did, not knowing any better and Cam went home. The next morning the XRays were done and the DR was happy with what he had seen. The nurses wanted me to start pumping to get my milk flowing and I was left with an intern nurse to show my how to use a pump that she didn't even know how to turn on. Well as a result, my nipples became VERY sore. The ICU then called me to go breast feed carter because he was hungry. The ICU was soo busy and we always heard them complaining about how they were short staffed. I was left to try and figure out how to breast feed on my own. I thought Carter and I were doing all right. And every so often a nurse would come in and say we were doing well. But man was I getting sore. I was encouraged to continue to pump (which i didnt know that I was using wrong, because that is how the intern showed me). Finally around 8 pm, I couldn't figure out why Carter hadn't been released from the ICU when he had gotten the OK about his heart at 9 am that morning. I FINALLY started to ask questions about 24 hours to late. When a baby is in the ICU they are ona 24 hour clock, if ANYTHING goes wrong with the baby, this clock gets reset. The baby needs to be happy and healthy for 24 hours straight before the can go. Well they had been feeding Carter formula for feedings that I wasnt there for and he would throw it up, thus resetting his clock. I was so mad! Why hadn't they told me? So this meant I was for sure not going home! Which devastated me! I told them I would feed on demand. When he was hungry they were to call me and I would feed. So they did. Carter started to improve! I was so happy! I got my hopes up, that there was a chance I could go home the next day. But as the next day went on, those hopes were dashed as the hours grew later. I was so bored, and the food sucked!! I cried a lot. Finally around 3 pm Carter showed up in my room. Cam was gone at the point to eat and I was left alone with Carter. I was so scared. It may have been the lack of sleep, but I was terrified. For the last two nights, Cam had been going home, which I was fine with. But I bawled at the thought of him leaving me alone with the baby and begged him to stay. Being the great man that I married, he had already decided that he was staying. I felt 1000 times better. When I was 4 months pregnant we were told that Carter may have a condition called club foot. Where his feet are twisted and turned in. Later that night the foot DR finally came to see Carter and we were told he does have bi-lateral club foot and that he would need casts put on the next day. Luckily we had a few months to prepare for that and I didnt take it 'to' hard. During the night, the nurse discovered that I had been breast feeding wrong, and tried to help me. She told me she would put in a request for a lactation consultant for the next day as I was blistering. This night wasnt bad, mainly because Cam was there, and the nurse was kind. The next morning came and at 8 am my Dr came to see me, and said I could go when the baby could go, and the family Dr came to see us too. But I didnt know that it was the Family DR who would discharge Carter. So the morning went by and Cams work called him begging him to come in because they were so far behind. And I told him to go and he wanted me to call him when the DR was coming to put Carters casts on. Right after he left the nurse came in looking all awkward. She asked "Are you staying another night?" I said " I certainly hope not!! Im waiting for Carter to be discharged and for the DR to come and put Carters casts on." She replied "Oh well you've both been discharged since 8 am this morning!!" Oh brother... So she ran off to get the DR there ASAP to get Carters casts on. She came back and said that the Dr would be there in about an hour. And I asked her how to bath my child. She realized that i had been shown NOTHING and tried to tell me everything in an hour!!! She also told me that no order was put in for a lactation consult and I would not be getting one because they weren't even at the hospital that day. So I called Cam and told him to be there at 2 pm. Well the Dr came about 15 minutes before that. I ended up having to be there alone with Carter while he got the casts on. The Dr told me that he would cry, but not because he was in pain, but because they were restraining him and not letting him move. Well he cried bloody murder! There were also about 8 interns in the room watching, and I did a great job at not crying in front of everyone! After all was said and done, Carter and I were in my room and I started to pack. I was in a panic and not thinking straight. Cam wasn't there and I wanted to leave this place that makes me and my baby cry! Cam got there about 2 minutes after we did. I threw myself at him and started to bawl!! And I could tell I was losing control of my bladder again, and mid bawl had to run to the bathroom. Cam was great! He did everything for me and helped me get dressed!! He got everything put together and ready to go. I have never been so happy to leave a place in my life!!!!!! Well we got him home, and I was over come with so many emotions. I couldnt stop crying. I was scared, frightened, over whelm, depressed, panicked! You name it I had it! Cam gave me a priesthood blessing. I dont remember what it said, just the feeling of peace and calm that came over me. And for the first time I could look at my baby, and feel love, and happiness. I started to feel better. Later that night, it was all torn out from under me. I heard Cam calling my name and I went to go see what was going on. He had his hand in the back of the toilet and asked me to turn of the toilet. As soon as I did, he went running downstairs and told me to turn of the washing machine. Our sewer line had backed up... We turned off our water. Que.. panic! (I wish we had food storage!) If we couldnt get our water back on, that means my mom couldnt come and stay which I really needed! We called our friend that is a plumber and he said he would try to come help us, but that night was very busy. Just to add to it, Carter wouldnt stop crying. Most likely he could feel my stress. Our friend came at 10 pm, and sent an auger down our pipes. Turns out roots had grown into our pipes and caused a clogged. The roots were soo big that he actually broke his auger. But he new he was about 70 ft out, which was city property. We called the emergency service and they said they would be out the next morning to see if they could do anything. That night my nipples started to bleed and I was in so much pain and under so much stress. I called the Alberta health link at 4am and BAWLED to the poor woman on the other line. Luckily she was so kind and just let me vent!! She got me set up for a home visit with a lactation consultant. The next morning the city came at 9 am and finished the job! the guy who came said they werent even suppose to work in dirt basements anymore, but he did it for us anyways. My Mom could come!! I asked for another blessing from Cam. I didnt get the same immediate results, but I could feel myself being comforted. Monday the nurse came and breast feeding started going much better! Then Wednesday came, and Cam and I had to take off Carters cast. We had to do it every time the night before his DR appt. It was horrible. The DR told me that we needed to soak the casts in water and vinegar and then try to figure out a way to pry them off from there. One night I had a dream about it. That we scored the casts with a router and cut them off there. We decided to try it! Carter BAWLED the whole time!!! But we got his casts off afer an hour and a half. (Which is fast for a first timer). By the time we took off his last pair off casts, we had it down to five minutes! The DR said he was going to pass on our idea to other parents because of how easy and good it was! I honestly believe that my dreams was inspiration! 

Well thats my story and things have improved so much!!! I more wrote this so I dont forget the details because it is such an infamous part of my life. But had so many experiences that helped bring me closer to God and my family. I hope you can see that from reading this. My son is my hero for having to go through what he has~ And hes only 4 months old.  I couldn't be happier, and I hope that i can take these experiences and learn from them. My son is amazing!