Birth Announcement and Story

I am a little at a loss for words in describing Gideon's birth. It was the easiest delivery I have had yet, and probably the fastest from when I had real pain to when he came out. I need to begin the story on the Sunday night nearly a week before Gideon came. Just before midnight that night I was sitting on my bed with my older kids and John talking about the scriptures and some of the recent things we had read from the Joseph Smith papers. I sat up and suddenly I felt a gal stone come out of my gal bladder and into my common bile duct. I have been having that for a year and a half. It is usually 30 to 60 minutes of a lot of pain and then suddenly it passes and it is as if it never happened. Twice a stone has taken two hours to pass through. I felt a bit offended at my body for sending a stone through this far along in the pregnancy, but thought I could endure an hour's pain before getting to bed.

Three hours later, the pain had not only continued but had intensified to beyond what I had ever experienced. John and I prayed about it and decided to go to the hospital. If the stone was not going to pass on its own, then I was in an emergency situation.

We got to the hospital and the pain was intense enough that I  could not even walk. They put me on the baby monitors to keep an eye on Gideon and spent an hour telling me that I could not know it was a gal stone without testing and if it was gal stones, I should be vomiting. I rolled my eyes at that. I sat in the bed with the baby being monitored while I writhed in pain and the doctors and nurses discussed what to do about me for another hour and a half. By this time, it was 5:30am. They decided to give me a bunch of medicine and preform an ultrasound on my gal bladder and other upper organs.

They gave me a shot of zofran for nausea I was not having and then made me drink a bunch of different medicines for indigestion, which I wasn't having. Then they began to wheel me to the ultrasound. I am not sure if this is fortunate or unfortunate, but the medicines for indigestion made me sick, in the hallway with nurses standing around me. I was horrified, because I hate to vomit. But when that was over, I noticed that the pain was too. Vomiting made the stone finally pass through. I went on to the ultrasound.

When I got back into the hospital room the doctor and nurses came in with new respect. Indeed my gal bladder was full of stones and sludge and my common bile duct was swollen from the stone that had been lodged in it for 6 hours. But it had passed, so there was no longer an emergency. There was mild discussion on delivering the baby, but I said that after that night of pain all I wanted to do was go home and go to bed. They agreed that was for the best. They told me I would need surgery to remove my gal bladder. Then they monitored the baby another half hour because the baby's heart rate had fallen with the contractions I had had that night. After assuring the baby was fine, I walked out of the hospital pain free.

On my midwife's appointment on Tuesday, they suggested that I go and be induced. I had been avoiding that topic for two weeks because John and I both felt like Gideon needed to stay in me longer than we normally had other babies stay because of the issues he had already had. But by this time, I felt like having him over the weekend would be fine. I told the midwife that Friday was the soonest I would be willing to go in for an induction. (I didn't want to be in the hospital for Josh's birthday anyway.)

Friday morning I had to call the hospital to see if they were not too busy for an induction and they said they were, but to call back in 5 more hours. I called back in five more hours and they were still busy, so I gave up on the idea of having Gideon on Friday. I didn't want to, but I knew that I could wait until Monday.

I think my midwife did not want me to wait until Monday because an hour or so later the hospital called me back and said they had a room reserved for me. John and I went in.

It took them a while to get things set up. In fact, it took them 4 tries to get an iv in. I have one very bruised arm. Then I sat for an hour while iv antibiotics drained into my iv. After and hour, they hooked me up to pitocin. I think that was about 3pm when that got started. Contractions started slowly, but they were never very painful. At 4:45 the midwife decided it was time to check me and break my water. I was 6cm dilated. I had been 5cm at my Tuesday appointment, so not much progress. The midwife broke my water and said that she would be going home and the doctor over her would deliver the baby.

Well, things went very quickly from there. They had my water broken at 4:50, I called the nurse back about 5:05. They checked and I was 8cm. The midwofe came back in the room. I rolled to my side to breath through the intense contractions. A few minutes later, the midwife looked at me and said she needed to check me. I said it was too painful to have fingers down there, but she checked me and said it was time to push. That rather surprised me. I thought I would have had more time than that. I complained that I missed the water birth. It's so much easier to move around in a tub of water than on a bed. They asked me how I wanted to push. I knew my side would not do, but moving felt impossible. I opted for the stirups as that seemed the easiest way for me to get in a better position. I got turned and one leg up and asked John to put my other leg up. Then the midwife said,"push". I was like "What? Already?" But I just pushed and I heard the midwife say, "the head is out." I looked down and without having to push again or wait for another contraction Gideon slid all the way out. John later said that he was worried the midwife was going to drop the baby, but she immediately put him up on my chest.

Labor and delivery was over at 5:13pm. They were hoping to keep him in me for another hour for the antibiotics, but he was not staying. I had pain for less than 30 minutes.

I then heard the midwife and the nurse discussing the odd position that Gideon came out in. His hand was up on his face, so his arm was up and his head and body were turned to the side. I had delivered his head and his hand and arm at the same time. I am guessing that is why he just slipped out once his head came.

I found that interesting. I have been reading the Old Testament this year. I read the birth stories of Rebecca and Tamar and how one baby came with a hand out first. I had mentioned how much more painful that must have been for them. I was astonished that a few weeks later, I had experienced a similar delivery and it actually hurt less.

John and I held Gideon and got to know him for an hour before we had the pediatricians come in to check him over. Then I went to the maternity room and John went with Gideon for the hospital mandated bath. When John got to me he stayed about a half hour before leaving for home to take care of things at home.

Because I was strep b positive, I had to stay in the hospital for 2 days. I got to leave Sunday at 3pm. We didn't bring the kids up to see the baby because the hospital staff told us that they could not have visitors under 12 because it is flu and rsv season. I had already thought that it might be a bad idea to bring in the little kids knowing those germs were already present at the hospital and not wanting a little one to crawl on the floor or lick something and pick those exact germs up and bring them home to the baby, our decision to just keep the kids home was made.

However, while I was there, I heard several toddlers and the nurses asked me why my kids were not coming. I guess they didn't expect people to follow their own rules. There was also some domestic dispute with yelling and swearing and security being called and all. It sure is a different world than it was when I first started having kids! Gideon and I were certainly glad to get to the peace of our own home and out of the worldliness of the hospital.

Gideon is as healthy and strong and beautiful as can be, and I am sure grateful for the gospel of Jesus Christ that teaches us how to have happy, healthy, and peace filled lives.