Gabriel Aaron Vernon

I can't believe that we haven't made a blog post in so long!! To be truthful we have been so busy with school and life we haven't really had time to breath until now. On June 26th at 2 pm I was on campus with my husband when I thought my water started leaking. Having never had a baby before I wasn't quite sure so I decided I would just keep an eye on it. Our friends invited us to have tin foil dinners out by a creek so we headed that way and had an enjoyable evening visiting with our friends the Falkes, with a campfire and lots of mosquitos. As the night went on a began to feel pretty wet. I finally hinted to Aaron that we should go home and we left. On the way home I told Aaron to remain calm but I think my water may have broken. He was like what?! Are you serious?! I wanted to go home and check things out before deciding what to do so we went home and both agreed that my water had broken by how wet I was. We called our doctor and they said to head to the hospital. Luckily that week Aaron and I had finished getting everything ready for the baby. My hospital bag was packed and the house was spotless, we had even shampooed the carpets and cleaned the baseboards. Since I was all dirty from our evening at the campfires I decided to take a shower and clean myself up first. I did my make-up and talked to my brother before leaving. My brother Alex was so excited for us! He wanted to come with us but since I knew labor was usually quick I urged him to stay home and I would let him know if we were admitted. By the time we got to the hospital it was 10:30 pm. They took us into a room to see if my water had really broken. Since I had taken a shower there wasn't much evidence of the water, so they had to take this scratchy paper and rub it on my cervix and then send it to the lab to see if the water had indeed broken. They told me I may have just peed myself, but I was sure my water had broken. Around midnight the results came back positive and they admitted me into the hospital. They said once the water breaks you really only have a 24 hour window to have the baby do to increased risk of infection. At this point I was 1 1/2 centimeters dilated, 50% effaced and at a -2 station. I had no contractions yet, not even braxton hicks. Since natural labors are better for you and they baby they said they would wait until 4 am before inducing me with pitocin. I hoped dearly that my contractions would start on their own but they never did. Everyone said to get rest while I could, but try as I might I just couldn't sleep, I was going to meet my baby soon and was too excited! At 4 am they started the pitocin, they assured me they would only give me a little to kick start the labor. Unfortunately my body refused to respond so they had to increase the dosage quite a bit before my body would start contracting. I had learned hypnobirthing and was using techniques for relaxation up until 9:30 when the doctor came in to check on me. Right before he came to check on me I got so sick and had to go to the bathroom. I was in there for some time and going to the bathroom seemed to make my cramps worse and worse. By the time I came back I was in such excrutiating pain I was dizzy and shaking. I was also freezing and couldn't get warm enough. I had come out of my relaxed state and felt like I got hit by a wall of pain. The doctor checked me and said I was only at 4 centimeters and at the rate I was going I would have the baby late that night. He then told me that he supported my decision to have a natural birth and that he would just like me to know that its important to make sure I have enough energy for the pushing stage because often times in situations like mine where they were up all day then all night then all day, the mother becomes so exhausted that she doesn't have the energy to push and the doctor ends up having to use forceps or do a c-section. I realized that I had twelve hours left and an entire day ahead of me and I simply didn't want to deal with the pain anymore so I asked for an epidural. That was likely the best decision I made that day. I was still able to remain calm for my sweet baby and sent it encouraging thoughts. I waited and waited as the day dagged on for my baby to come. Around noon the nurse came in and said that based on my contractions she thoughts I would be having the baby pretty soon. She set up the room for delivery and then checked me, and I was at a 5. The same thing I was at an hour and a half previous to that. As they day went on my body slowly got ready. Everytime I had a contraction my babies heart rate was dropping. They assured me that it was ok because it always came back up. Finally the nurse came in and turned of the pitocin, thinking that might fix it. Well it did fix it, but only because I stopped having contractions all together. She turned it back on but at a lower setting and that seemed to help a little bit. Around 6 pm they checked me and I was 10 centimeters dilated, 100% effaced and still at a negative 2 station. They wanted him to drop as much on his own as possible so I didn't have to push for too long. So they had me sit for 2 more hours hoping he would come down more. After two hours he was at a -1 station and they decided to start pushing. They said I did a good job pushing, I wanted to push all the time but they had me do it only when I was contracting. The nurse starting looking worried and I asked what was wrong but she just told me he had one of those faces and that everything was fine. Soon after the doctor came in and she said something to him saying that we needed to get the baby out now and that the heart rate was dropping. The doctor asked me to push, I got the head out and then the doctor pulled the rest of the baby out. Aaron and I were expecting a dark headed little girl, but it turns out it was a blonde haired little boy that looked just like Aaron. I immediately thought wow he looks like Aaron, and Aaron really likes the name Gabriel, we have to name him Gabriel. He was on top of me at this point and Aaron had cut the cord, but no blood spurted out of the cord like it usually does which we thought was weird but didn't think much of it at that time. Gabriel was looking at me with these deep eyes and I noticed he wasn't crying or breathing, just looking at me calmly. I told him he needed to breath and told the nurse he wasn't breathing. She said he just needed a minute, but he never started breathing so she took him over to the baby station. About 10 nurses and the doctor were in there at that point. 9 of the nurses were with Gabriel, they were sucking liquid out of his mouth and lungs, and one of them had a defibrillator ready to use. It seemed like ages before I heard him cry, and it was just a short wimpery cry. I knew he was ok though. I looked over at Aaron who was next to me but looking worriedly over at our son. I told him to go with him and that I would be fine. The doctor was working on me. Apparently I could not deliver my placenta because the umbilical cord was only attached to the membrane of the placenta not the body and it had fallen of when I delivered our son. So the doctor put his entire arm inside of me and scraped me out with these metal tools. After he was done with everything and I was stitched up I had to wait about another hour. Then I took a shower and got to go meet our son. He was absolutely beautiful and so tiny! I was supposed to nurse him if he would take it, but he was to sleepy for that. He had to stay in the NICU for 6 hours while they monitored him, but once they got him breathing he was good. He only received a 2 on the APGAR test which is horrible, but he soon got much better. He was born June 27th 2015 at 9:22pm. He weighed 5lbs 6oz, and was 18 1/2 inches long. He was sleepy all the time and never cried, just occasionally groaned and wimpered. he picked up breast feeding instantly. We took him home the morning of the 29th and started our lives together. We didn't officially name him until mid day on the 28th, because we wanted to make sure we named him perfectly. We named him Gabriel Aaron Vernon, after the angel Gabriel, and his dad Aaron. We love him to pieces and could not have asked for a better son! My brother Alex was there through the whole thing, but waited outside during that actual birth. He brought us food and was so sweet through the whole thing. I am so grateful he got to be a part of something so special.