Baby Kevin's Birth Story - Part 1
May 10th, 2012
7:00am: If you saw THIS post you know the day before Baby Kevin's birth day was a rough one so when we came out to find that the battery in my parent's car was dead it came as no surprise. In fact we joked that we would have been more surprised if it had started. Ironically my mom had just picked it up from the shop before dropping it off to us.
Kevin just so happened to have a battery charger in the garage so we were on our way in no time.
8:00am I get settled in the labor and delivery room. Dilated to about a 4. The nurse hooked me up to an antibiotic for Strep B and some pitocin. I told her I didn't need pitocin. I know how my body operates when it comes to birthing babies, but she didn't listen and hooked me up anyway.
Kevin helped pass the time by reading to me. We're still reading "Unbroken". It's a very long book. We had no cell phone service so we relied on facebook to keep our family updated. My siblings and I had a running facebook message that kept me entertained as well.
Long story short. The pitocin did it's job far too well. I had estimated (from the way things had gone with my last several births) this baby would come around 3 or 4 in the afternoon. By 11:30am I was having some serious contractions. By noon I was dilated to a 9 and any chance of getting my epidural was no more! I pretty much had to demand they turn the pitocin off. Things were moving way too fast. I had Dakota natural and swore I would never do it again. It was horrible. Kevin told me if I ever tried to go natural again I'd have to do it by myself :).
Kevin was out in the parking lot calling the photographer to tell her to come now (I'd told her to plan on coming later in the afternoon) when I realized I'd have to have the baby natural. When he came back I watched the look of worry and concern fall across his face as he realized what I was about to have to go through. He didn't leave. He's all talk :). Thankfully I didn't panic and felt pretty calm. I had about a 2 minute break between contractions so I was able to regroup and KIT :) before the next one came.
12:26pm: Baby Kevin came out with 2 pushes. Dr Byrne knew as soon as she saw him and said, "Yes, I'm quite certain this baby is Trisomy 13".
My heart sank. When I saw him I knew as well, there was no question. As painfull as it was, I was grateful to know. Kev and I proceeded with the plan we'd hoped we wouldn't have to follow.
Our only focus now was to love him for as long as we could have him.
He had some trouble at first clearing his little airway but as soon as it was clear he cried and cried for over 10 minutes. He was alive. He'd made it. Such a little fighter!
A great big thank you to the nurse who offered to take pictures right after he was born. Our photographer came as quickly as she could but arrived about a half hour after the birth, so thanks to that kind nurse we have pictures of him alert and crying. I wish I would have got her name.
