3 years ago

i really cannot believe this, but today is Kellen's THIRD birthday! I know this sounds contrite, but it feels just like yesterday that i was in the hospital, being induced, not knowing if I were having a boy or a girl. (I am one of those believers that it truly does not matter, and that you only get a few real surprises in your life, this being a big one!) not knowing what the day would bring, wanting to have a natural birth, but fearing the unknown. I had given birth naturally before, but that was a 21 year old body that did that, and an uninsured one at that, so pain meds were not in my single parent budget! now i was in my 30's, and had not progressed into labor on my own, so i was unsure at best. the day is still one of the very best, yet very worst days of my entire life thus far. my induction did not go as planned, my body and the baby were both reacting adversely to the pitocin. the baby kept going into "distress" as the nurses like to term it. laymens terms- its heart rate kept dropping very low. so low in fact a team of strangers would invade my room, flip me upside down on my head, and 1 designated "prober" would stick their fist up me and poke at its head, to "stimulate" it back into breathing. (yeah this is great fun!) no stress there! HA i was a wreck, my husband was a wreck,(this being his first biological baby, having adopted my oldest at age 6) my best friend jen put on a good face, but later admitted that she was a wreck! labor was on and off all day from 8:00 am til his emergency delivery at 9:42pm. i think the length at which the whole process took shocked even my veteran doctor, Susan Probst. (I LOVE HER by the way) she is the hero of the whole day in this story. the baby's heart rate dropped so very low around 9:30 pm. i was almost "complete" but i had not even pushed at all yet. i do not think the baby was even crowning at this point, but she came into the room and told me " Kristin, this room is going to FILL with people, do NOT look at them! look at me, only me and we will do this. this baby needs to come out right now! when i say push, i need you to push with all your might as hard as you can." her look was SO very serious, but calming in the same moment. i trusted her, i believed in her, she said "we" were going to do this , so we sure the heck were! you don't mess with Susie. she takes no prisoners. just ask any nurse in that hospital, or any of her devoted staff, or patients. when the chips are down you want Susie on your side, and she was. no pain meds mind you since i wanted a "natural" birth, and now it was too late for any interventions. the baby needed to come out , and come out now! so 2 pushes (that i can remember) and 2 giant pulls on Susie's part, and his head emerged . she had to then rush and cut the cord. he had a double neucal cord. meaning the umbilical cord had wrapped around his neck, not once, but twice and was choking him with every contraction. that explains the plummeting heart rate, he was stragling on his very own life cord the entire day! after the cord was cut, she ripped the rest of him from me (yes truly ripped) passing him to the waiting NICU staff. i know now i was in shock, i felt no pain, i kept asking "what is it?" quite a few times before "it's a boy!" sunk in... a boy... a beautiful, breathing, baby boy. Kellen Armond Zecchinelli welcome to the world. the birth left me with a 4th degree tear, and let me put it this way, you do NOT want a 4th degree tear! i was told that it only goes up to a 5th degree, so god bless anyone who has had that! i feel for you. but as so many moms write, it is not how they got here, just that they got here. and he had. he was fine. he was more than fine, he was awesome!
could it really be that all of this was 3 years ago??? no, not possible. but it has been 3 wonderful, blessed years. Happy birthday Kellen! I love you so.