What a week!--part 1

Introducing: TATE BARBEN

Born: March 4, 2009 at 2:44 p.m.

Weight: 8 lbs. 11 oz.

Length: 21.5 inches

As Jake says, "We caught the Tater!" Wednesday morning at 7:15 a.m. I went in to be induced to have our baby boy. My doctor came in, broke my water and we were on our way. Things were going very well, I dilated quickly, was very comfortable during my contractions, and besides some slight nausea with the pain medication, we were excited that my labor this time with Tate was seemingly going to be short and sweet......little did we know the change of events that would occur.

When I was dilated to a 9, they called my doctor and I was getting ready to push. My doctor arrived and was observing the baby's heart monitor and asked the nurse if that was the fetal heart rate or the maternal heart rate, and the nurse wasn't quite sure. Immediately I saw the concern on my OB's face and she said, "Let's get going." Apparently the baby's heart rate was dipping so I then proceeded to push as hard as I could while I continued to observe the looks on Jake's and my doctor's face. I tried pushing a few times, and then they pulled out the vacuum and I pushed with that to try to get the baby out, then they had 2 nurses pushing on my belly, used the vacuum, and me pushing to try to get him out, one of the last things my doctor said was "Push sweetie, like you don't want a C-section." Well no matter how hard we tried we couldn't get Tate out, and his heart rate by this time was dropping, so in a matter of seconds, they prepped me for a C-section. The nurse anesthetist pumped my epidural line with one last shot, unhooked me, and he and another nurse wheeled me to the OR. They tossed Jake a bag of surgical covers to put over his clothes and said they would be back to get him.

When I got to the OR, they immediately reclined me back and put the sheet up in front of my face, which I assume was so they could immediately sanitize the area, right after they reclined me I started feeling nauseous and began puking over the side of the table onto the OR floor. (Glamorous I know) I immediately felt tugging and said to someone "Will someone go get my husband." The nurse replied, "On my way" then Jake came in and sat on a stool next to my head. Because of the surgical garb Jake was wearing the only thing I could see were his eyes, and just by looking at him I could tell he was concerned. He was holding my hand and kept stroking it, then I heard the doctor say, "Here he is!" I heard Tate whimper a little, and then I said to Jake, "Is he ok?" I could tell by Jake's eyes that the baby was ok which was a relief. I next heard the doctor talking about "sutures" so I knew that they were sewing me back up, and the next thing I know I am waking up in my labor and delivery room and I can see my doctor and Jake standing at the foot of my bed. Jake is holding the baby and says, "Here he is honey, do you want to hold him?" I don't even know if I replied back to him, I was so drugged that I could barely keep my eyes open. The next few hours were a blur because I kept going in and out of sleep, with family coming in and out to see how I was.

Around 6:00 p.m. they moved me over to post partum, and I started feeling a little better. Come to find out the major reason I couldn't push Tate out is because he had a ginormous cranium of 37 cm, and was facing posterior (face up) but the major reason for the C-section was because of Tate's dropping heart rate. So apparently I like going through labor so much that I thought I would try both kinds this time, vaginal and C-section. Although the recuperation hasn't been fun, I am so grateful we were able to get Tate out and everything was relatively OK.

Because everything happened so quickly and was kind of a blur, it was interesting to get Jake's perspective on what happened. Here is what he had to say in an email to his friends about the delivery:

"We have welcomed a new little guy into our family after a scary turn of events last night. My wife and I were joking around in the labor and delivery room that the second time around has been so much easier than the first, and wouldn't you know it we jinxed ourselves. While delivering, the baby became lodged in the birth canal “sunny side up.” Meaning he was looking towards the sun…a bad deal. To make matters worse his heart rate suddenly dropped to a drastically low rate causing a panic in the labor and delivery room. What followed after that was chaos. Doctors were stripping tubes and IV’s from my wife, they threw an OR gown at me and told me to get dressed and just like that they were running down the hall with my wife. Can you say, “WHAT IN THE WORLD IS GOING ON?????”
I stood there in the labor and delivery room for what seemed like an hour, although it was probably only a few minutes. When they finally came to get me we pretty much ran down the hall towards the Operating Room. I turned the corner and there I saw two doctors on top of my wife jerking, pulling, shaking, and tugging to get the baby lose from the canal. I never knew child birth could be so violent! I didn’t tell my wife this but it reminded me of the end of the movie “Braveheart” when they were torturing William Wallace. Nothing worse than being in the unknown, my only gauge for the seriousness of the situation was the look on our doctor’s face and the frantic nature in which she worked to free the baby.
Despite the unexpected and dramatic first few minutes of his life, surprisingly he is doing great! My wife is fine too thank-goodness! The doctor told me later that she was very worried for a few minutes and my response was, “I work in sales and have learned to read facial expressions pretty good, your facial expression told me everything I needed to know!” It was wild!"

Little did we know that the delivery was just the beginning with our adventure with Tate. I will post Part 2--Tate in the NICU to give more details.