So, Brandi already has written up a real long and detailed birth story, but of course she wanted me to write one from the “mans” point of view. The birth of our baby son is a day that I will never forget. We had a doctor’s appointment on Friday just to check how things were progressing with Brandi. Our midwife found that there was not a whole lot of progression going with Brandi (me on the other hand I was progressing just fine). Because we were already about a week past our due date our midwife thought that it would be a good idea to start induction that night. Of course we did not bring all of our bags to that doctors visit. So, we headed back home to grab the rest of our bags and tidy our place up a bit. As soon as we were done we headed on our way to the beginning of a journey that would have us in a whirlwind of emotion. We arrived to the hospital at 7:15 and got all checked in and settled into our room. Our room was actually very nice and big, which was perfect because Brandi’s mom was on her way to join us and stay at the hospital. It was a crazy feeling to actually be at the hospital knowing that we would not be leaving without a baby! As soon as we were settled in and Brandi changed into her hot hospital gown the night nurse came in and got Brandi and baby hooked up to heart monitors, which she would be on until Ryland was born. We spent our first couple of hours at the hospital talking and watching TV and just trying to past the time. We had been there about an hour before the on call midwife Lynda came in and started the first induction procedure. I remember thinking that we were going to have a baby by morning. Little did I know I was far from right. Around 11:00 we attempted to go to sleep, well I attempted Brandi had a little help from Ambien. It was hard for me to sleep because I kept on listening to the heart monitors and making sure that the baby was still on pace, which he always was but I still liked to worry. I was also worried about Brandi’s mom traveling over the pass because of course when it was time for her to come over, Snoqualmie Pass had one of the worse snow storms of the year. Dee finally made it over the pass and arrived around 3:00 in the morning. Brandi was kind of awake when her mom arrived and we were both glad to see her. We all eventually got some sleep and I am glad we did because the day ahead was about to be very long both emotionally and physically. We all woke up pretty early that morning around 8 or so. I was all excited thinking that Brandi would have a lot of progression and that she would be going into labor any minute and once again I was wrong. Are you seeing a trend here? After the midwife checked Brandi’s progression we found that it was very minimal. So, we moved onto the next procedure, which was supposed to get her contractions more intense and hopefully start her into labor. Once again that failed to bring Brandi any closer to reaching labor on her own. The last procedure we tried was the dreaded pitocin. Brandi never wanted to have to use Pitocin but we both knew that it had to happen to try and get things going. Once she had been on pitocin for a while the contractions started to get really intense especially in Brandi’s back. The midwife and on call OB both started to notice that during each contraction Ryland’s heart rate would decrease but recover quickly. Because he was recovering so quickly they were not too alarmed but knew that we needed to get him out ASAP. They kept on doing pitocin and the contractions kept on getting stronger and the heart decels kept on happening. The medical staff was very attentive and supportive of both Brandi and I. The midwife and OB both thought that he was having the decels because of low fluid level and he was probably just laying on his cord, so they wanted to wait and see if they could get the cervix to dilate a bit more and inject some fluid into to help with the decels. They eventually took Brandi off of pitocin to see if the contractions would continue on her own and to see if little Ryland could handle the contractions. We soon found out that he could not handle even the littlest of the contractions so the midwife and OB came back in to talk to us once again and we all decided that it was time to do a c-section. One thing I forgot to mention was this did not happen until about 7:00 at night so Brandi had a long day of going into labor and she was exhausted physically and emotionally and I had, had enough of seeing her in pain and not making any progress. We were both really worried about our baby too. The Midwife and OB both agreed with us on the c-section and before we knew it we were in the operating room. Both Dee and I were able to join Brandi, which made things a lot easier for everyone. I was so impressed with the care that was given to Brandi during the operation everyone was very calm and it went very smoothly. Dee was especially excited to watch the surgery and I remember her once saying to the anesthesiologist that “this was much cooler then the TV show House” he laughed and said that “it is a little less dramatic in real life”. Before I knew it my little baby boy was here and I cannot describe the emotions that I felt it was very surreal! They quickly had Ryland on Brandi’s chest and soon in my arms. Everyone was very relieved to see Ryland here safe and sound and we soon found out that Ryland had at some point tied a knot in his umbilical cord, which was making the decels happen and proved to everyone that a c-section was the right and only way to have Ryland delivered. We are both very happy with our baby boy and it was instant love from all of us. I am grateful we had him delivered at Group Health and I was impressed with everyone on the medical staff both before and after the birth. I know my version of the story was not as detailed as Brandi’s but I hope you enjoyed it.
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