Jacob's Birth Story

I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom for the millionth time. Just as I was about to swing my legs back into bed my water broke. The mild contractions that I had been having off and on for the past month kicked into high gear. I could feel his head sinking into my pelvis and knew I better head to the hospital because the contractions were now 2-3 minutes apart. I was going to have a repeat c-section due to the complications I had with Alex left the doctors feeling that a c-section was the best option.

Luckly, Howard was at the point in his job that he could leave work. He met us at the hospital just as my mom got me to the Maternity floor. And they thankfully were able to get me prepped for surgery pretty quickly. It was a good thing because I could feel the labor progressing very fast and I was in desperate need of pain meds.

It seemed like as soon as it started it was over. I strained to hear the baby crying in the distance. "Howard go with the baby and make sure he is ok" I quietly said. But after he left Howard didn't come back. As seconds turned to minutes I knew something was wrong. As they were finishing the operation he came back to tell me Jacob was struggling to breathe and they had to start an IV. When I was in recovery I had Howard stay with him and take a picture of the baby on the phone. I didn't even get a chance to see his face before he was wisked to the nursery.

The LDRP floor was busy that night so I was being assigned the last room on the floor in the farthest place from the nursery. I saw that he was in an isollette when they wheeled me by heading to my room. A few hours later our pediatrican came to tell me that he was going to be in the nursery for awhile and that I should take a rest until I could walk around.

This is where the determination of motherhood came into play. I sent Howard home to take a nap and he figured since I still had all the tubes that confined me to my bed I wasn't going anywhere. If only he knew what I planned to do when I got the chance even though I was in real pain emotionally and physically. The nurse came in right after he left to go home and asked if I wanted the cath out. YES was all I could say because I was going to see my baby. The nurse left my room and I started the long trek of heading to the nursery. I made it and they gave me a rocking chair to sit in. I pushed my hand thru the little window on the side so I could stroke his hair and see his little pink face. There he was my little Jacob 6lbs 7 oz. 19 1/2 inches long.

His breathing became regular and pulse ox went into a normal range. The nurse took him out of the isolette so I could finally meet my little boy. "Jacob, if you want to get out of the box you have to breathe" I whispered. Howard came back and got nervous when he couldn't find me. They convinced him to take me back to the room. By then I knew I missed a dose of pain meds and I could barely move. He had to get a wheelchair to get me back to bed. Jacob was doing so well they felt he could have a bath. Big mistake. He went backward and they had to restart the oxygen.

An hour later I went back and again told them to give him to me. As soon as he was in my arms his breathing regulated. However, Satan the nurse from Woman and Infants (another hospital) was working a shift in the nursery. I kept asking when could he come in the room with me. Her response was that he may have to be brought to W and I and he was a little premature yadda yadda. She knew best and I knew nothing. Anybody that knows me, also knows that I was determined during my previous pregnancy despite preterm labor to not deliver at the baby factory in Rhode Island.

I would have held Jacob 24/7 before he was going to Rhode Island. As long as he was in my arms he was fine. This nurse didn't know who she was dealing with when she met me. I knew he'd be ok if they just left us alone to be mommy and her child.

I didn't break down until later that afternoon. This was not the birth that I wanted and what I was promised after recieving 20 weekly shots of progestrone. My baby was supposed to be healthy and as long as I got to 35 wks he'd be fine. I got to 36 wks 6 days. Why was this happening to me was all I kept thinking?

Later that night, they finally figured if he was going to be on an IV and oxygen monitor he could just as easily be on in my room. Once we started the rooming in process things started to get better. We got rid of the IV a day later and lost the monitor too. I told Howard to keep the dragon lady out of my room and all would be good.

The day we were being released a nurse came in to tell me that Jacob failed the newborn screening test for hearing twice. They had me on a phone with the department of health to make a follow up appointment to recheck his hearing before I could absorb what she just said. "Don't worry, 9 times out of 10 its because there is some fluid left in thier ears from the c-section" was how she said it. I really wish she never told me that. We didn't know we'd be on the bad side of the statistic and the journey that was going to become our lives with Jacob.