Alex's story

Here is the story of Alex.....

After my miscarriage I was told that I would get pregnant right away but I didn't. We weren't trying but we knew if it was in Gods plan we would have one soon enough. Actually it was after thanksgiving that I found out that I was even pregnant. I usually know the second that I am pregnant. This time I had no clue. Not sure why this one was different. Anyway I had went in to the dr b/c of my asthma. They had asked if I was pregnant and I said I have no clue b/c I haven't been regular. SO they tested me and the dr came in and said do you have an obgyn? I was like yup! He said call and make an appointment. I took that as a yes I was pregnant. What no congrats! Good grief! He was a real winner ya know it!

After a few weeks I started bleeding and I don't usually get an appointment till I am 12 wks along but this kind of made it an emergency. So I get in to see the obgyn(same lady who did my D&C for my M/C). SO she gives me an ultrasound and said that I am a month further along than what I was originally told. And the reason for the bleeding was b/c I had placenta previa. WHAT! They say it happens in people who have had multiple pregnancies. Thankfully my placenta was covering my cervix by only an inch. So I had to be on bed rest for a few weeks until the placenta grew up enough that it would uncover it. Any activity that I did when I did would make me start bleeding. Do you know how hard it is to have 2 toddlers and be on bed rest? It's not real easy but thankfully my husband has been there to help. Plus my two older kids helped. Oh and by the way, I go to a midwife and so I switched to her after I found out about the placenta previa. She is a midwife that works through the hospital. I use her b/c I am always high risk.

I was really exhausted through this whole pregnancy. At first I was having a hard time walking from the living room to the bedroom and it felt as though I had walked a mile on a hot muggy day. They tested everything. Everything from anemia to blood sugars and several other things. Only thing I can think of is that God wanted me to lay down for a reason so He had to make me tired enough to do it. Otherwise I felt great and I felt good enough to get up and move. Just when I did I got exhausted.

I didn't gain that much weight until the end of the pregnancy. I always gain a lot and I always have high blood pressure and severe swelling. Well the last 6 wks I started actually gaining. Which I was hoping to only gain 15. My midwife only wanted me to gain 13. Didn't happen! At three wks till my due date I actually started putting on 10 pounds a wk! Not sure what happened b/c I was making sure I ate healthy most of the time. My fall back was a sonic blast that I would have when we would go to play volleyball w/church every wk. So in total I gained 51! Yes 51 pounds! I was shocked too. I ended up swelling up and blood pressure was good until that last wk and even at that it was only 130/80. So not too bad.

I suffered w/my pelvis bone hurting b/c of a previous delivery complication that I had w/child #3. That complication would soon come back again this time around.You see I always seem to have large babies.Or at least they keep getting bigger every time I have one. Child #1- 7.11, Child #2- 8.10, Child #3- 9.13, Child #4- 10.2. So we were thinking this one was going to be 11 something! So that worried the midwife. She constantly was feeling of the baby and seeing how large he felt and she kept guessing 10 pounds at birth if we waited until my due date to have him so she made get another ultrasound. By the ultrasounds measurements the baby should have only been 7 and some odd pounds. The dr said the machine can't measure body fat so he said add on another pound and that should be his weight. I told that to the midwife and she was hesitant about letting me go to my due date.

So she swept my membranes(OUCH!) to see if that would do anything. Well it didn't. That was at 38 weeks along. I did start contracting at this point. It was at every thirty minutes though. For the whole week it was staying at every 30min until the 39th wk. Then it moved to every 15 then 10min and at this point I was only dilated at a 2. Contractions stayed regular at 8 min at the last three days. I was dilated to a 4 at this point but they wouldn't let me stay at the hospital. Can you believe that!

Finally the day before I had Alex the midwife says why don't we induce b/c he is going to be too big if we wait any longer. I agreed happily b/c I was so ready! That morning though I started having 5 minute contrations. Only thing though was my cervix was not like it should be so they couldn't break my water yet. Therefore I had to be put on pitocin. I really hate pitocin! It wasn't too bad though. Not at this point anyways. As the day passed the contractions got closer together and a little stronger. I got to sit on the birthing ball and walk around. They didn't like it too much b/c the baby's heartbeat was really irregular. It was going to be irregular until they were able to break my water and put a monitor on the babies head.

So at this point it's about noon sometime and I get checked again. I am finally at a point where they can break my water. This is also where it got scary. So my water is broken and the funny thing is that I had tons of water. They had to change my towels three times just after they broke it. The midwife says "that sounds like a faucet running". We all were laughing. I wasn't laughing too long though b/c when your water breaks that's when you have a rush of hormones come on. The contractions came on like 100 fold! I could no longer handle the pitocin. I had to have an epidural. I wish that I didn't have to have one but I did.

45 minutes after the anesthesiologist was called in he finally came in and gave me an epidural. The thing is that it didn't work like it should. I got the little button to push if I needed more but I couldn't push it for 20 minutes. Since I had to wait I had told them PLEASE, PLEASE, give me something else. That pitocin was kicking me down while I was down! KWIM? So they gave me a shot of ______.

Finally after 20 minutes I was able to push the button b/c that shot was not working either. Right after that I guess I finally started to relax and it was not a good thing. When I did relax my cervix went from a 6 to a 10 in just a few minutes. That made the umbilical cord start coming out first. B/c that happened the baby started coming. Which at that point his little heart beat went from 160's to 40 w/in just seconds.

Now the midwife hurries and unplugs me from everything and gets me scooted out the door before I realize anything. You'll have to remember not only am I relaxed but I still have the affects of the shot working on my head and thinking. I start praying God please don't let this be happening. God Please don't let this be happening. I am at the operating area but all the rooms are full. I get stuck in this room. I think it's like a storage room and the dr is just going to do the crash section right there. EEWW!

Also at this point they send in a chaplain to talk w/Tony. Now why in the world do they have to scare us like that. When Tony met w/him he knew it meant death. He wasn't sure if it was me or the baby. He just totally lost it at that point. This is also the point at which things change for my husband. I'll talk about that later.

Well they got me rolled over onto my right side and all of a sudden the babies heartbeat went back to normal. They checked me and the umbilical cord and the baby went right back up. That never happens and I knew right then that it was God. Although the dr was still intent on giving me a c-section. Well my midwife is saying please, begging the dr she does not wish to have a c-section and she was my advocate, my voice. I love her so much for that! So they let me go. Dr's never let you just go back to your merry little way. I guess God spoke to her too!

So I get wheeled back to the room and they tell Tony "well she's still pregnant!" I thought everyone was going to start bawling then. So as I get in the room my body starts contracting on it's own. At the right timing and it knows what to do. No pitocin, nothing. Although I am still numb from the epidural and doped from the narcotic.

So the midwife checks me and says oh you're having the baby! So three and a half pushes later Alex is born. But the reason for the half push is b/c his shoulder got stuck. The nurse hopped up on the table and they stretched out my leg. She pushed and pushed and pop there he goes. Less than thirty seconds being stuck and it is not considered shoulder distocia. Praise God! Also I learned that my midwife does NOT cut the cord right away. She let it stop pulsing which it ended only lasting like 5 minutes. So Alex had a pretty exciting birth I guess you could say!

That's not the end of it though. After he was delivered I had a hard time delivering the placenta. It took like 35 minutes and she was starting to get worried b/c women have 5 main blood vessels in the uterus and if the placenta does come all out then you could bleed to death. So they have me nurse Alex to see if that helps but finally it came out and she just had to move over a bit and out it came! She said it looked really healthy and it weighed like 4 pounds. Apparently that's really cool b/c they were carrying it out as if it were on a platter or something and telling all the nurses who went by.

SO Alex at this point is doing great. He's breathing great and color was good. He was nice and fat. He weighed 9.14 and 22 inches long. The only thing was since he was a fat baby they had to constantly do the glucose testing. Oh that is so horrible! Poor baby! After a day in the hospital he starts feeling warm. So I say he feels hot which I should have just not said anything b/c at that point things turn to bad.

They say he has some kind of infection they don't know what but they are going to give him 2 wide range antibiotics and several doses of it. Then he starts looking yellow so now he is jaundiced. The first baby out of all 5 of mine to be jaundiced. So I get all worried and by Sat I just totally lose it. I am bawling all day long and no one to talk to. Well I had friends but no one was up there w/me. It was not a good day at all. Finally by the end of the day my two best friends come up there and talk w/me which makes me feel better. Then my pastor and his wife get in from their trip from Tx and they come up and see me. Yea!

So after many doses of antibiotics and staying under the bili lights we are about to go home. We were thinking we had one more day to be up there and my chiropractor pays me and Alex a visit. If you want to know more about that and why I can discuss it later. So he adjusts lil Alex and at that point I feel peace. There's nothing like getting a treatment to make things work like they are suppose to. Thank you Dr Young! We love you!

I really believe b/c of him getting adjusted his blood cell count went back to normal and the dr released us that evening. He was still jaundiced but all is good. After a week his jaundice levels go down and he is all good. He was one suntanned baby though! LOL!

So finally here is some pics.

Alexander

Adoring mom!

Proud big sis!

Silly daddy!

Grandma w/lil tots. Gabby and now big sister Alyssa.

Finally a brother for Zach! Just what he's been praying for!

Eyes opening for the first time! Wow Mommy!

Under the bili lights.

LOL! I wonder what he's dreaming about.

Poor baby!

All yellow and his little IV's for his antibiotics.

LOL! They look like little froggie feet!

Sun therapy.

He has been such a blessing. I am so thankful that I trust God in my fertility b/c I would have never been blessed like this if I had stopped having kids at 2.7 kids!