The Coolest Thing I've Ever Done

WARNING:  This is a long-ish post.  Do not commit to reading it unless you have sufficient time.  If the sheer length of it puts you off and you don't read it, I wouldn't blame you. 

Dallin Copeland Lott was born on Monday, April 30th, 2012 at 4:05pm.  He was 8 lbs. 1 oz. and 21 inches long.  Everything about his birth was filled with miracles, tender mercies, answered prayers, and earthly angels.  It was honestly the coolest thing I have ever done. 

First, a little background:  I was very lucky and blessed to have an easy pregnancy.  I didn't really have morning sickness except maybe four or five times, there were no complications, I didn't gain that much weight, the only thing that I could really complain about was sore hips and occasional acid reflux the last month or two.  (Oh and crying at random times for random reasons.  That was fun for my husband!) 

So anyway, I owe this wonderful pregnancy to my wonderful mother, who also had easy pregnancies.  In addition to this however, I also knew I was going to be late.  In fact, I was about 95% sure.  All my brothers and I were late.  I was late by 12 days! 

After my due date had come and gone, I went in for another doctor's appointment just to see how things were going.  I hadn't started dilating at all, Dallin hadn't dropped, and I hadn't felt a single contraction yet.  My doctor decided to do an ultrasound to check things out and make sure the baby wasn't under any stress or anything.  During the ultrasound, we found the the cord was wrapped around Dallin's neck three times!  I was worried, but my doctor didn't seem to be at all.  He said that plenty of babies are born with the cord around their neck.  He had even delivered one that had the cord wrapped around six times!  Nevertheless, as soon as I left the office, I asked family and friends to pray that everything would be ok.

Preparing to leave for the hospital to have Dallin.

We went in to the hospital on Sunday at 8:00pm to get induced.  We had gone to the doctor the day before and found that I had dilated 1cm and at the hospital nothing had changed.  I was supposed to get some stuff to help me dilate some more along with Ambien to help me sleep through the night, but right as the nurse was leaving to go get this stuff, my water broke!  This meant I had to wait through the night through the contractions.  The nurses came to check me at 3:00am and I still hadn't dilated anymore, so they put me on pitosin.  Man, did I feel those contractions after that!  Needless to say, I didn't sleep at all that night.

When I got checked in the morning I had dilated to 3cm.  My doctor also told me that apparently my water had only partially broken further up.  He went ahead and broke it completely.  When he did so, we found that there was meconium in the amniotic fluid.  (This means that Dallin had had a bowel movement.)  This meant that there was a greater risk for Dallin to breath in the meconium either inside or when he takes his first breath after being born which could cause further complications.  Stressful!

After a couple more hours, I decided enough was enough and I got that epidural.  SWEET RELIEF!!!!!  I really wanted to try and do it natural, but after that pitosin kicked in, I just couldn't do it anymore.  Can I just say something here?  Epidurals are amazing! 

When I got checked again later, I was still only at 3cm.  My doctor said that due to the circumstances and the fact that I was just not progressing, I was probably going to have to have a c-section.  He asked me if I wanted to just go ahead and have it done or if I wanted to try and wait a little while longer.  We decided to wait even though he was sort of trying to persuade us to do the c-section.  After he left I was a little teary.  Brandon and I decided to put our faith in the Lord and we said a prayer. 

Now, I need to take a time out to tell you about my nurse:  Kristine.  I have absolutely no doubt that this woman was sent from heaven to be my nurse.  She was our little Earthly angel.  She was nothing but positive and supportive.  When she heard that the doc. said we would probably need a c-section she said, "Well we are just going to have to make sure that doesn't happen!  We need to think positive thoughts!  This room needs to be filled with nothing but positivity!  Those doctor's aren't always right!" 

This is us with Kristine right after giving birth.  She was amazing!

I was checked a couple hours later and I had dilated to a seven!  Another hour or so after that, I told Kristine that I was feeling a lot of pressure and that I thought she should probably check me.  When she did she said,  "Oh!  It looks like you are ready to push!  I'll go page your doctor and then we will start pushing."

It was amazing!  I don't even know if I can describe why or how exactly it was amazing though.  Maybe it's just one of those things you have to experience.  Or maybe it was because I sort of felt closer to heaven at that moment.  I believe that the spirit of an infant comes into the body well before the actual birth, but I don't know... maybe the veil between our world and the spirit world was thinner because... don't think I'm crazy but I wonder if there were other spirits (and when I say spirit I mean people who have not yet received a body or those who already have and then passed on), I wonder if there were other spirits in the room to sort of welcome him to Earth.  Sort of a sending off party.  Angels maybe.  Or ancestors.  Both. 

All I know is that it was a miracle.  I pushed with Kristine on one side of me and Brandon on the other.  (And might I just say that Brandon was awesome!  He gets the best husband of the century award!) 

After he was born I didn't get to see my baby boy right away.  Because of the complications he was whisked away to the NICU.  He had indeed breathed in the meconium so he was having trouble breathing and when they took an x-ray of him, they found pockets of air outside of his lungs.  His doctor explained all of the possible worst-case scenarios that all of this could lead to, none of which I really remember because I'm pretty sure all of the blood had not returned to my brain after labor and I was having trouble processing information.  All I remember is that it sounded scary.

Here's our little trooper!  He looked like he had been through a battle!

We visited Dallin in the NICU as often as we could but we couldn't even hold him until the second day when he was a little more stable and had had some of the tubes and cords removed from him.  He was in there for a total of four days.  The hardest thing I have ever done was leave my baby at the hospital while I went home.  I have so much respect for those parents who have to leave their babies there for weeks and even months at a time.

When we were finally able to bring him home it was wonderful and I was so happy.  None of the possible complications that could have happened did happen and even the doctor said he was surprised at how quickly he recovered and how strong he was.  The pockets of air had even disappeared.  Like I said, there were miracles, whether you believe in them or not. 

All buckled up for his first car-ride home!

I labored a Lott (hehe), which was definitely a labor of love.