After insisting on having a dramatic entrance into the world, we are thrilled to have baby number 4 safe and sound in our arms. Hayes weighed in a 5 pounds 13 ounces at 3:10 p.m. October 4 2013. He was 4 1/2 weeks early and gave us all quite the scare.
After a month of multiple doctors visits, horrible back pain, more contractions than I knew what to do with and instructions to "Be on Couch Rest" we finally got a few answers to why I had been feeling so crummy. My other three pregnancies were a piece of cake. Aside from the fact that I was huge each time, I really felt great and continued to do everything that I had been previously doing. This pregnancy was different from day one. I never felt quite right, my energy was low, and I cramped a lot in the beginning. I always had a nagging feeling that something was wrong and I worried a lot. (Something I never did with the others) I told my sister multiple times that I needed to fill my freezer with meals and get my house in order early.
At 32 weeks I began having contractions. They were weird though because instead of coming and going, they would come and stay like one steady contraction for hours. They were horribly painful but uncomfortable and worrisome. The doctor gave me two shots of steroids for the baby's lung development, perscribed me medication to stop the contractions and put me on "couch rest". The medication made me feel so horrible that when I went in a week later they took me off of it. It also didn't help to ease the contractions at all.
Things continued the same until 35 1/2 weeks. I had pretty much done nothing except what was absolutely necessary for three weeks. On the morning that the baby was born, I just happened to do a little extra housework and all my laundry was caught up. My kids had been awesome helpers to me and I did very little. Grandma Crapo called and wanted me to bring the kids over to help her clean out the garden. ( This is what the little kids do during Spud Harvest so they don't feel so left out.) We had already been there twice that week making doughnuts and letting the kids ride in the truck. I told her no that we had to go to town and run a few errands. She was persistant that we 'make a memory" and so I complied. I didn't really help with the garden, mostly just supervised and then I headed into the house to put some cookies in the oven. I was sitting at the kitchen bar and stood up to get the cookies out when I felt a warm gush. Thinking my water had broke I hurried to the bathroom to find blood. A lot of blood. I yelled for Kallie who was upstairs, luckily she didn't hear me (it was a terrifying sight) I grabbed a sweatshirt to wrap around myself and went outside to find the other adults that were there.
Within seconds we were flying down the road headed to the hospital. One sister in law driving, the other on the phone to the doctor, and ambulance. We met the ambulance at the Salem church where Weston was just pulling in to meet us as well. The paramedics got an IV going and checked all my vitals which were fine but were unable to find a fetal heartbeat. I was panicked and sickened. I was sure my baby was dead inside me. I tried to stay calm knowing that freaking out would only raise my blood pressure and cause more bleeding. When we pulled into the hospital a team of nurses and anesthesiologists were waiting outside. Dr. Evans also pulled in right behind us. The rushed, flustered faces all around me scared me even more and I was in an exam room in seconds. It took a minute to find a heartbeat, and that minute felt like hours. Every eye in the room (and there were about ten people) was on the monitor, as soon as a very faint heartbeat came across everyone took a deep breath and relaxed a tiny bit. I couldn't stop the tears at that point, the relief I felt was indescribable. I was prepped for surgery within just a couple minutes and was being wheeled out the door.
My dad was there by then and the sick look on his face didn't help my anxiety. (Let me insert now that right after Hagen was born, my dad called me to tell me that he didn't think I should have any more kids and that three was enough. Even though I laughed about it then and shrugged it off, in the back of my mind I knew he was dead serious and maybe had a point. That conversation flashed through my mind as they wheeled me past him in the hall)
It was all kind of a blur and the last thing I remember was being strapped to the operating table with a mask shoved against my face that made me feel like I was suffocating. Within 15 minutes of being at the hospital a screaming baby boy was born and immediately admitted to the NICU. I woke up from surgery in horrible pain, but was relieved to be alive and to know that my boy was going to be okay. I know it sounds dramatic but from the time I saw all that blood until the time I was being suffocated by that mask, I wasn't sure I was going to live.
With my other c-sections I was given a spinal block which take about 8 hours to wear off, with this being such a rush I was put completely out using general anesthesia. The problem with that is that when I woke up, I had no pain relief at all. It was awful and luckily I was able to get a morphine drip pretty quickly, however it took me most of the night to get the pain under control at all. The doctor came in shortly after I woke up to give me a run down of the surgery. My placenta had abrupted about 50% which is a lot. Apparently most babies only survive a 20% abruption, so I was feeling very blessed. He also told me that my uterus was fused to my bladder which required bladder reconstructive surgery. He had me all fixed up but then left me with the awful news that I would have to have a cathedar for 10 days. (That was ten miserable days!) He told me over and over that I was lucky to have made it to the hospital so quickly and to be alive with a baby. This I already knew and a list of blessings a mile long was ticking through my head. I am so grateful a mother-in-law that insisted on making a memory that day. (And boy did we make one!) I am grateful for two sister-in-laws that calmly took action. Aside from instructing them to never let Weston marry someone that would be mean to my kids, I didn't say a word the whole way to the hospital. They completely took charge of the situation and did everything right, including calling the ambulance. I probably would've skipped that step thinking we could get there quicker on our own. The ambulance saved a lot of time though because they took us right to Labor and Delivery and had a team waiting, whereas we would've went to emergency and it probably would've taken longer. I am grateful for skilled nurses and doctors that knew exaclty what to do. I am grateful for leather seats and for a lot of family support that has gotten us through the last two weeks.
