Cole’s birth story

At my 38 week appointment I spoke to the Doctor about when they wanted to schedule an induction knowing that the OB’s were not comfortable with me going past 40 weeks. The Doctor scheduled my induction for August 9th, which was the day I hit 39 weeks. I thought for sure that the baby would decide to show up on his own over the weekend. He didn’t.

We arrived at the hospital at 7am on Tuesday the 9th. After a while the nurses came in and got my IV in and finally started the pitocin around 9am. For a few hours they just kept adjusting the dose trying to get my contractions in a good pattern. None of the contractions really hurt all that much and Jack and I just sat and watched movies on the laptop.

At 12:30 the OB came by and decided to break my water to try and get things to progress. When she did that it became obvious that my belly was pretty much all fluid. It deflated like a balloon. Unfortunately, we also discovered that the amniotic fluid was providing a nice cushion for the umbilical cord. As soon as the fluid was gone, Cole’s heart rate would decelerate during each contraction. The nurse watched it for a while and told my OB about it. The nurse put oxygen on me and we started trying laying on my left and then right side to see if that would help the situation. The OB came back into the room and the nurse and Doc talked about it for a while and decided to place an internal monitor to get a better read on his heart rate and the contractions.

As the Doctor was trying to place the monitor she was talking to the nurse and they were speaking in somewhat hushed tones. I was trying to breathe through the fact that I had my doctor’s hand shoved into my lady parts. I was concentrating on not kicking her in the teeth and not on what they were saying to each other. The Doctor finally removed her hand and then the nurse jumped on top of me, placed her hand back in my lady parts, hit the call button for the nurses station and then told them that she had a cord prolapse and to prep the OR.

Cord prolapse.

I knew that was bad. Very, very bad.

The Doctor then came to me and said that they were going to have to do a c-section. The baby had the cord in his hand and his hand over his head. She said that I would have to go under general anesthesia. She asked if I understood and I told her to do whatever she needed to get the baby out safely. She spoke to Jack briefly to tell him what was going on and then a bunch of people came into the room. They started unhooking everything that was on me and had me in the OR within a couple minutes. Then I had to slide onto the OR table and there was a flurry of activity. People telling each other what to do in very tense tones. The energy in the room was freaking me out. I had to close my eyes and just concentrate on remaining calm. I still don’t know how I managed to not flip completely out.

I felt the betadine being splashed all over my abdomen and then that plastic stuff that they stretch over you being placed. The anesthesiologist came into the room, introduced himself to me and then started telling people what to do. About a minute later I inhaled a sharp gas and that is the last thing I remember.

When I woke up I was very disoriented and wasn’t really sure where I was or what was going on. I have never been under general or had any sort of surgery, so I had no point of reference for what it was going to be like when waking up. The nurse leaned over me and the first thing she said was, your baby is okay.

Reality came flooding back at that point. I also realized then that I was freezing and in a tremendous amount of pain. They put a heat blanket on me that blew hot air over my body and gave me more morphine. I was then wheeled back to my room and saw Jack and they brought the baby in shortly after.

I found out later that they wouldn’t let the baby stay with Jack because we have different last names and Cole was given my last name on his band. I thought that was ridiculous since it is 2011 and a lot of couples have different last names. I indicated on the forms I signed that Jack is my husband and the father of the baby. I am shocked that someone couldn’t take the time to look that up given the situation. Moving on…

Jack told me that the baby also had a true knot in his cord and had the cord around his neck twice. Cord prolapse and a true knot in his cord. Both very rare. I expect nothing less from this crazy pregnancy and now birth experience.

The first few hours after I came out of surgery are very foggy. I was on a lot of morphine for a while. I wish I could remember more about the first time I laid eyes on my second son, but the surgery was absolutely necessary to save his life.

When I started to feel a little more lucid, Jack and I started discussing what to name our little miracle. We settled on Cole Reid. The nurses dubbed him the circus baby since he must have been doing all kinds of flips in utero to get his cord in a knot.

I believe that I didn’t go into labor on my own for a reason. I needed to be in a controlled medical environment in order for Cole to be brought into this world safely. I am so thankful for modern medicine.

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