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April 23, 2003
Carson James Thomas
Born April 16th, 2003 at 6:15am
Weight: 6lb 6oz
Length: 20 % ¼ inches
This entry is Carson’s birth story and a short update on how we are doing now. This is going to be long and I am including lots of details so that I can have it for my records. I want to start by saying that if you are bothered by stories of difficult births, don’t read any further and catch up with us in the next entry!!
*Birth Story*
Monday April 14th I went to my scheduled prenatal appointment. I had been having severe swelling in my feet, hands, and face for the past few days (I even wore Eric’s shoes to work on Sunday). My BP was fine at the start of the appointment but after laying down for my MD to listen to the heartbeat and sitting back up again, I got a horrible headache and felt dizzy and nauseas. They took my BP at this time and it was elevated, there was also protein in my urine. My MD had me lay on my left side and checked to make sure the baby was okay, then he sent me over to Labor and Delivery for some tests to rule out pre-eclampsia.
At Labor & Delivery, my BP was really high and I was still dizzy with a severe headache. They hooked me up to monitors and drew a ton of blood for labwork. I was instructed to lay only on my left side and my BP was monitored every 15 minutes.
My lab work turned out fine. They decided to keep me over night for observation. On Tuesday they were sending me home and when I stood up I got another severe headache and threw up, my BP was 165/115. They decided to keep me and induce labor. The baby was fine the whole time and his heart rate remained perfect.
They began induction at 1pm on Tuesday. At 5pm my water was broken and pitocin was started. The contractions were steady and hard from the time my water broke and my BP was still very high.
I requested my epidural at 9pm. I had to get 3 epidurals. The first was placed to far into my back and caused an air bubble in the wrong part of my spinal canal, causing a horrible headache. The second only worked on the right side of my body. Thankfully the 3rd epidural took and worked for 4 hours…I was in heaven.
Around 2am, the epidural stopped working. They tried everything to get it working again and shot my body so full of medicine that my legs became numb, but my stomach and uterus were not affected and I could feel everything. I don’t know how you ladies that have natural childbirth can do it, I respect you so much!!! I was in a lot of pain. To make matters so much worse, my uterus was hypercontracted. This meant that I was having really strong contractions and then instead of a short rest period, I was having another contraction. Basically, my uterus was contracted the whole time, talk about pain:!
Throughout all of this, my BP remained very high and was rising dramatically due to the pain of the hypercontracted uterus. At my checks, I was dilating and effacing fine but the baby was not moving down the birth canal and was stuck in my pelvis. He had a ton of swelling at the top of his head due to the pressure and his heart rate was starting to show signs of impending distress. My MD decided to take the baby by c-section at 5am.
Because of my BP (now 165/120) and the fact that my uterus was hypercontracted, this was considered an emergency c-section. The papers were signed and I was on the operating table in 15 minutes. I was still having contractions at this time so I was in a lot of pain. I was put under general anesthesia and Eric was not allowed in the room.
My MD told me that the baby came out crying and was pink and perfect. His apgars were 8 and 9. He had been stuck so hard in my pelvis that they had to pull him back out. It turns out that my pelvis is too small to deliver vaginally.
The baby was brought to the nursery and Eric was allowed to see him and take pictures. I was in recovery for 5 hours because my BP was still very high. I did not get to see Carson or Eric for 4 ½ hours after the birth. It was so amazing when Eric brought the most beautiful baby boy to me in the recovery room. I couldn’t hold him yet but I got to kiss him and tell him that I loved him.
Although the birth was traumatic and nothing went the way I had planned…I have the most beautiful result and I would do it over again if I had to. Carson is wonderful and we are so in love with him. The idea and process of c-section was so scary but everything turned out okay and we are both healthy and happy.
*one week old, april 23rd*
Today Carson is one week old. We are doing fine. He had his first appointment today and is almost back to his birth weight, we go back next week to make sure he is gaining enough weight.
Nursing is still an issue for us but we have seen the lactation consultant a few times and I think things may slowly be getting better. I have a case of the baby blues and they are focused mainly on the fact that we are having such a hard time nursing.
He is the most amazing little boy and Eric and I are so blessed to have him in our lives. I am already having trouble remembering what life was like before last week.
I went to have my staples removed today and am healing nicely. I am still in quite a bit of pain but am doing much better.
Carson’s webpage designed by daddy is:
http://carson.jujuby.com
his hospital picture is on
http://www.growingfamily.com/webnursery/babypage.asp?UrlID=0J0C1K9M5Z
thank you for reading and I will write again soon!:)
Jenni and Carson (born 4/16/03)
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