Charlie's Birth Story: Part 2 - To the Hospital We Go

If you're just tuning in to this post you need to start here (Charlie's Birth Story: Part 1) . I've been working on writing Charlie's birth story over the last few weeks, so the posts have been a bit spread out. Thanks!

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As I was leaving the doctors' office my mind entered what I can only describe as a state of shock. It was very much like I was watching myself in a movie and my body was just going through the motions. Looking back on it all it's very hazy and "other worldly," and that's not just because it's been 7 and a half weeks since it has happened.

Sweet Sosha walked me up to the front of the office and offered to go to the house when she got off of work so that she could bring me my bags. I was obviously concerned about not having them. I was so frazzled she had to explain to me to take my key off of the ring to give to her! I was also quite shocked that in my current state the girls at the check out counter were asking me to go ahead and schedule my 6 week follow up appointment! Yeah, ok, like my head was really clear to think about my schedule!

Before I even got out the doors of the office I was on the phone with JD. He was leaving work mere minutes before his big meeting. It was around 2:30 in the afternoon at this point and his meeting was scheduled for 3:00. He asked if I wanted him to go ahead and call our parents. The plan had always been for him to be in charge of making all phone calls. I told him I wanted to see him first and at least wrap our heads around what was happening. I did tell him to go ahead and call our friend Josh though. Josh is a nurse anesthetist and we knew that if I got an epidural he was the only person in the world that I would trust to do it. He had been at the top of our list of people to call on the way in because he said he would come in for me even if it was his day off.

Fortunately Valdosta isn't that big of a town and the hospital is less than 5 miles from my doctor's office, and JD's office is also less than 5 miles from the hospital. We both pulled into the parking lot at the same time. JD parked right away but I was so frazzled I tried pulling into the parking spot beside him at least 5 times before giving up and having to park somewhere else. By the time I parked and got my door open JD was standing right there waiting for me. I got out and gave him a huge hug and told him we were about to have a baby! I remember feeling like I was supposed to be crying, but that I was just very numb instead. Again, it's like my body went in to auto pilot mode and was just moving on its own as I stood back in utter shock. My plan? How I thought it would happen? Yeah. It was all out the window. We were flying blind.

When I get nervous and anxious I tend to talk a lot and really fast. I also get into a very take charge, here are the facts, down to business mode. I tried explaining everything to JD the best I could, but all the while still feeling like I had no idea what was going on. That became very evident as we checked in as well. The conversation with the girl at check in went something like this...

"I'm here to have my baby."

"Ok... But you're not in labor." (Obviously)

"Right. But my doctor told me to come here. Now. To have my baby."

"Why? Does labor and delivery know you're coming?"

"I have no idea. I'm just here to have my baby."

Several phone calls later we were sent on to registration where the conversation repeated itself. While we were sitting there and I continued to say over and over again that I was here to have my baby the weight of the whole situation hit me. I simply turned to JD and said to call my mom... NOW. He went back out to the lobby and called both sets of parents while I finished registration. I also sent a text to my best friend Allison that simply said "Call JD. 911." I'm sure that was fun!

When I was finished with registration we had to wait for someone to take us upstairs. JD told me he hadn't been able to get in touch with Josh, so I called his wife Terri and filled her in on the details and asked her to try to find Josh. It turns out he was already on call and working that day and at the hospital! How easy!

At this point JD was on the phone with his mom. Apparently all JD had said to my mom when he called her was something like, "Jessica is having the baby. You need to get on the road and come down." God bless my mother. She didn't even ask questions! She just said OK and hung up! It must have hit her what he said because she started calling back while he was on the phone with his mom. I talked to her and started explaining everything. It was SO surreal. I couldn't help but laugh when she said that Daddy was at the gym and she'd have to wait for him to get home before they could leave! No big deal!

I had also realized that waiting for Sosha to bring our bags from the hospital wasn't going to work. My oh so important epidural paperwork was in the bag, and I knew I needed it if there was any chance of me getting one. I didn't know what the plan was for the afternoon or if I could stand to wait until 6:30 to get my epidural. This is why we texted Allison. Thankfully she works at school with me, and the school is only a half mile from the house. I knew school would be ending shortly and asked Allison to go by the house to get our spare key and then bring everything to the hospital for us. God love that girl, when she heard what was going on she just told her paraprofessional and another teacher she had an emergency and walked out the back door of her classroom before school was even over! No questions asked!

By this point Transport had come downstairs to take us up to Labor and Delivery. I might have just been self conscious, but I feel like I was getting some strange looks being wheeled through the hospital. I obviously was not sick or in pain and I had this good looking man in a fancy suit following behind me!

We got upstairs and were sent into one of the triage rooms to get my vitals taken. I was glad at this point to have taken a tour of the second floor when we had our hospital classes. I knew exactly where we were going and what would happen. As I was getting on the scale (202 lbs), my nurse, started asking all about what was going on and why I was there. It became more and more clear that I had beaten the info from my doctors office to the hospital. Everyone on L&D knew I was coming, but they didn't quite seem to know why or what to do with me. Alyce told me that she needed me to explain my baby's condition because she didn't know much about it. Her exact words were "I was trying to Google it on your way up but I figured you could probably tell me more about it yourself." First of all I wasn't sure what "condition" she was talking about. I assumed she meant the IUGR since that's what seemed to have me here. It turns out she meant the Mega Cisterna Magna. Second of all, don't tell your patient that you were Googling her condition on the way up!

As I explained things to my nurse (whom I ended up loving), I was taken to room 2007 and given a gown to change into. The nurses still weren't sure of a game plan, so they just told me to change and get comfy in the bed while we waited for more information. Everything was very much in slow motion as I processed that THIS was it. The room where in *hopefully* a few hours I would be having my baby!

Not long after I got changed and was getting settled in bed, Allison showed up with all of our stuff. She was SO excited! It was nice to have her as a distraction while Alyce got all of my monitors hooked up and started going through the routine questions. Since Valdosta State University is minutes down the road I also had a nursing student. I can't remember her name for the life of me, but she was nice. She fluttered around the room as Alyce worked too.

By now it was about 3:30 and everyone was under the impression that I was just checking in to be monitored for a while. It wasn't until I explained that my midwife said I was having the baby TODAY did everyone realize what was actually happening! Thankfully Teresa showed up minutes later and got the show on the road. She checked mine and Charlie's monitors and said that we both seemed to be doing well. Everything started to happen VERY quickly! Allison had to leave and it's probably best that she did. Teresa explained that I was indeed going to have my baby TODAY one way or another. The plan was to break my water, start a pitocin drip, and see how things went from there. I had heard horror stories about Pitocin, but all along my birth plan was "Happy healthy mom. Happy healthy baby. They're the experts." I said ok and things got going.

A few minutes after 4:00 Teresa came back in and broke my water. I can't even describe that situation. JD stood by me and held my hand as I made some of the ugliest faces in the world and stared at the ceiling so hard that I'm surprised it didn't come down! It was quite uncomfortable, but it didn't hurt either. Teresa have me a warning what was about to happen just seconds before I felt the gush. Oh it was the strangest sensation, and I'm not even sure I could describe it. Let's just say I'm glad it happened in a hospital bed and NOT in the middle of my classroom when I wasn't prepared for it!

Before I really knew what was happening I realized Teresa was doing something else down there. She was attaching the kind of monitor that screws into Charlie's head. Honestly I was NOT happy about this, not because I really had any medical reason to be unhappy, but just because I hated the thought of something being SCREWED INTO HIS HEAD. It was already over and done with before I could ask why we were doing it or voice any opposition. This is probably the only thing about the whole experience that really upset me. I just had to trust that everyone knew what they were doing and why. As Dr. Yarborough and I had said throughout... They are the experts

My IV was put in at some point by now and they started me on fluids and my Pitocin drip to start increasing contractions. They had my monitor set up right by the bed where we could see the contractions. At this point they were only minor tiny rolling hills that would get up to about a 1-2 on the little scale and they really didn't have any regular consistency time wise. It looked like we would be here for a while, or at least until they turned up the Pitocin!

I was officially all set up. It was baby time... Or I guess LABOR time!

Jump to:
Charlie's Birth Story: Part 1
Charlie's Birth Story: Part 2
Charlie's Birth Story: Part 3 
Charlie's Birth Story: Part 4

Charlie's Birth Story: Part 1 - A Change of Plans

March 3rd started out like any other day up until that point. It was my seventh day of strict bed rest, and my plans for the day included grading papers for school and going to my doctors office for my 4th and final level 2 ultrasound. Throughout the morning I noticed that Charlie wasn't being as active as he usually was and mentioned it to JD. He assured me everything was fine and that I'd be getting to see Charlie shortly. I proceeded to have my mac n cheese for lunch and loaded up to head to the appointment. I was going to this appointment alone since the previous appointments went so well and we figured JD could stay at work for a big meeting.

Once arriving at the office I noticed that I was feeling Charlie move again and felt much better. Eventually, anew girl that I'd never met came to get me for the ultrasound which made me nervous since Mrs. Cheryl had done the rest. We went to a new room and got started. A second technician was in the room because she was learning how to do level 2s. I thought nothing of it and we began.

Pretty soon into the ultrasound the tech asked how much he weighed at his last scan. I explained that he'd been an even 5lbs at his 32/33 week scan. This started a back and forth with the tech about "Are you sure? When was that again? Did we do that scan?" etc. The tech got a certain look on her face that was undeniable. I asked how much we weighed today and she said plainly, "five pounds five ounces" and continued scanning.

The whole tone in the room changed. The other tech had gotten up and was standing right at the screen with the first tech. There was lots of hushed conversation and looks. You could cut the tension in the air with a knife. I knew right away something wasn't right. There should have been more growth than that in 4 weeks. This was the point in the pregnancy where he should have been gaining about half a pound a week. According to that estimate he should be about 8 pounds. Something. Was. Wrong.

After having already had 3 scans I was pretty familiar with what they looked at on these scans. At this point I could tell they were no longer looking at his heart and brain as they usually did. Instead she was doing a lot of measuring. I noticed immediately that all of his gestational age predictions were several weeks BEHIND where they should have been. I was 37 weeks that day and the scans were estimating 32-34 weeks. I knew this wasn't a good sign because those scans had been measuring a week ahead since 18 weeks. Now they were several weeks behind. Again, I didn't have to be a tech to know something wasn't right.

I also noticed that she was spending a lot of time looking at his umbilical cord and watching the blood flow through the cord. This was very different than any of the scans before. She also started watching his chest and focusing on his nose and mouth a lot. I couldn't handle the tension so I asked... "I know you're not really supposed to tell me anything but can I please ask what we are looking at???" She simply said, "We are just doing a biophysical profile and watching how he breaths and moves."

Alarms went off in my head as I had read about these before. I knew that of they were doing this there must have been some concerns. Something. Was. WRONG. I was starting to lose it. Then I saw what I didn't want to see, and convinced myself I didn't see. What was that there near his neck? Why did it have blue and red blood flow patterns like when they were looking at his umbilical cord? We obviously weren't going to talk about it just yet...

The scan was over pretty quickly without even looking at his heart or brain, which, remember, were the whole reasons we were there. I was ushered off to the waiting room where I was used to waiting close to an hour before the MFM doctors were ready to Skype.  Because I didn't know what else to do, I text JD, my midwife, and my friend, Sosha, who works at the office. I quickly asked for prayer, explained that Charlie was too small, and said that they looked at the cord a lot. I was freaking out. Teresa, my midwife asked where I was and said she would be right there. I love that woman :)

At this point I was taken to get vital signs, which I had only done once before with these level 2 appointments. I was alarmed when by blood pressure was the highest it has been yet. I don't remember at this point exactly what it was, but it was definitely over the preeclampsia guide of 140/90. Bells. Alarm. Panic

I was sent back to the waiting room. I did the number one thing you aren't supposed to do. I got on Google. I started typing in things like baby too small, pregnant, ultrasound, gestational age is behind, etc. Every single search result said the same thing. IUGR -Intra Uterine Growth Restriction. Right as I was about to dive in to reading, Teresa walked up. She sat with me and discussed what had happened in the scan. She quickly told me she wanted to sit in on the Skype conference call with me since I was there by myself. I didn't know if this was a good sign or not.

Not even 5 minutes later I was called back into the room where we always Skype. The fact that it was only about 15 minutes after the ultrasound alarmed me. It usually took close to an hour for my office to send the scans and then for the MFM doctors in Atlanta to interpret them and get back to me. Not today.

The doctor appeared on the screen and I was relieved to see a familiar face. At each of my appointments before I had met with a different doctor. This was the same one from the third appointment. I knew that she was thorough and to the point. She quickly started by telling me I did have preeclampsia, the first time the word had ever actually been used by any of the doctors throughout the pregnancy. She then jumped right in to saying that the baby was too small and had IUGR. Yup. Google was right. She also said that he wasn't moving enough and seemed to be struggling with "breathing." He only got a 4 out of 8 on his biophysical profile (which measures things like movement, fluid levels, breathing, muscle tone, and heart rate), and anything below 6/8 is concerning. The shock of my life came when she said it was time to have the baby. Today. And soon. She didn't want to keep me any longer and was sending me to the hospital.

Questions flooded my mind - What? The hospital? It's 3 weeks early. JD is in a big meeting. And IUGR? My baby is too small? What? Is he ok?? What about his heart and brain? Are they ok? Am I being induced? Am I having a c section? How am I getting to the hospital? WHAT?!? I immediately texted JD and told him to get to the office right away.

Thankfully since Teresa was in the room she was able to talk to the MFM doctor and work out some details. I went numb and just heard Charlie Brown teacher "wah wah wah." The next thing I knew Teresa told me to call JD and tell him we were having a baby TODAY. She was going to go talk to Dr. Yarborough, my OB, and she would come back to see me with a plan.

Numb. That's all I can say to describe how I was feeling. Then the door opened as Teresa left and my friend Sosha was standing right outside. As soon as she saw my text from earlier and finished with her patient she came to find me. God love that girl. She came right in the room and prayed with me. She had just the right words to say and helped me process what was going on.

Teresa came back and said we were definitely having a baby today. Surely I had time to go home, change, get my bags, and wait for JD, right? WRONG.I was told to drive myself to the hospital and have JD meet me there. Teresa would meet me there in about an hour. The plan was for me to have some tests run once I checked in so that we could decide if I could labor on my own or if we needed a c section. Bottom line- The next time I went home it would be as a new mommy. It was go time.

Jump to:

Charlie's Birth Story: Part 1
Charlie's Birth Story: Part 2
Charlie's Birth Story: Part 3 
Charlie's Birth Story: Part 4