Wylie Jewell Collier- a Birth Story

So on Friday, May 2^nd (my due date),  after I left the doctor’s office for my 40 week appointment that showed really no more progress than the week before, I ran to the mall to get some sandals my friend has that I liked.  I then went home and took a hot bath to help reduce the low back pains I had been having off and on since the night before.  After the bath, I was feeling a little better so I then asked Caleb for his help with a certain induction method.  We decided to go eat at Bonefish grill and use our gift card.  On the way there, around 5pm, I was having waves of stronger contractions unlike I had felt before.  I began to use my contraction app, that tracks their length and intervals.  When I sat down across from Caleb, he began to take notice of how fidgety I was and saw me timing something.  Needless to say he freaked out and wanted to leave at once.  I assured him it could just be early labor and we should just finish dinner.  The whole way home, I was still having contractions that were starting to get stronger, longer and closer together. He debated going to the hospital right then.  When we got home, he loaded up the truck and I stayed calm and just let the dogs out and fed them.  I began to test the “position change” to see if it were true or false labor.  It was leaning more on the verge of true, so I called the after hours phone line.  I spoke with the mid-wife and she said if they were less than 5 minutes apart to go on in.  We arrived at the hospital around 8:30 and they put me on a monitor.  The contractions were coming, but not with a steady pattern.  I had dilated to one.  She said they would monitor me for an hour before they would admit me.  After one agonizing hour, no more dilation had been made, so they sent me home with 2 Percocet’s.  I had to walk all the way back out to the main garage, stopping for contractions looking quite silly I guess.  The ride home was awful, but Caleb wanted to stop at Krystal.  As we were waiting to order, the contractions just kept coming so he decided he better go inside to order instead based on my vocalizations.  We got home and I went straight upstairs to take another bath that this time did not help at all.  My usual comfortable positions were now awful.  I then laid down and they just kept on coming.  I walked.  I stood up.  I swayed.  I sat down.  I straddled chairs.  Nothing was helping.  I called the admission nurse again after having taken the pain medicine 3.5 hours prior and she advised me to take the Lortab Rx he had given me earlier that day for the back pain.  She said that in 30 minutes nothing had improved to come back to the hospital.  30 minutes later, we were heading back to the hospital.  Just before we left, I began to shake and vomit.  I had not thrown up in about 6 years.  I knew this was the real thing.

We arrived back at Erlanger around 3am and this time managed to find the Stork parking that was a closer walk than before.  She already had filled in my sign in sheet again.  They took me back and checked for dilation, and this time I was a 3.  I was so relieved, but asked her if she was just lying for me to get me admitted.  She laughed.  She was so sweet.  They again hooked me up to monitors and I waited as she called the on call doctor, luckily MY doctor.  She came back and told me I was being admitted and an epidural was on the way.  I could no longer hold conversations with anyone at this point, so I was just moving along as I was told.  I finally was able to “focus” on relaxing by staying as still and quiet as possible.  I remember singing silently “you are my strength when I am weak, you are the treasure that I seek, you are my all in all.  Seeking you as a precious JEWEL, Lord to give up I’d be a fool, you are my all in all.”  Caleb had gone to move the truck to the garage at this time so I just laid as still as I could praying over and over that the epidural was coming.  Ginny, our amazing charge nurse, soon came and so did the anesthesiologist.  They helped me get in position and talked me through getting the scary, yet wondrous epidural.  As crazy as it made my legs feel, it was worth it to have relief from low back pain for the first time in 30 hours. 

I could now hold a conversation with my nurses and get to know them a little.  I managed to fall asleep after 4 am and so did Caleb.   

 Olivia came in around 6:30 before her shift to say hello.  Not too much later, Caleb’s parents also arrived.  I soon progressed to a 5 and they broke my water.  My parents arrived and the excitement was building but I was able to take little cat naps as diffusing lavender with my diffuser helped me stay relaxed.  I made it to 10 cm by noon and my nurse said it wouldn’t be long after that.  There was intense pressure building down below despite my epidural. I really couldn’t get comfortable again and it was all too familiar of the pain from the night before.  At this time, I had to go back into focus mode, so all my updates to my friends/family ceased as I couldn’t multitask.  My awesome day shift nurse Hadleigh, came back and said I was stage 2+ and we would start pushing.  She had high hopes it wouldn’t take long.  An hour later, after my mom and Caleb were helping hold my legs and Erica was holding my back, we were getting no where fast.  My doctor then came in and monitored the pushing process.  He said due to her size and my size that it probably wasn’t feasible for a vaginal delivery but he would allow me to try as long as I wanted.  I was so very torn as I didn’t want to “take the easy way out” and give into a c-section, but I also didn’t want to push for 3 more hours and still end up having one anyway.  I was beyond all exhaustion both mentally and physically by this point as I had not slept in almost 36 hours time.  I began to have a breakdown feeling disappointed in myself especially since I had had a great pregnancy this whole time.  I agreed to the c-section, but was not happy about it.  More epidural came and therefore more uncontrollable shaking. I had to take this awful liquid junk and they made me lay flat after that.  I began to feel nauseated, fearing if I need to throw up how in the world I would be able to since I couldn’t move myself.  I was afraid of aspirating to death on the surgical table.  Everything from there was a big blur.  My friends and family came to say things to me, Caleb had on his brave face and my father in law prayed over me.  I remember being in the OR, still nauseated with both arms strapped out to the sides like a crucifixion.  The nausea and fear returned.  I kept thinking “this is supposed to be a happy day and I’m beyond miserable.”  The shaking worsened, causing my neck to tense up in great pain and then my entire jaw line did too.  I couldn’t even hear what everyone was saying.  I just felt Caleb and Erica’s hands on mine.  Erica was there to take pictures of Wylie, but she ended up just being the awesome person she needed to be to support me as well.  I dozed in and out of sleep only to finally be awakened by the cry of my baby girl.  At least she was safe is all I could think of.  It seemed like forever before they brought her to see me and I kissed her over and over.  I could then begin to feel more pressure and the doc explained they were putting me back together again, layer by layer.  The neck and jaw pain and shaking continued.  They finally weighed her, 8 pounds 14 ounces.  She was a big girl, but she was also face up and her head was bruised from being rammed up against my pubic bone, stuck.  She would have never come out vaginally.  I had made the right choice, although it was not my first choice.  Erica continued to take pictures of just my head, having the not so perfect birth experience.  I kept falling asleep.  Exhausted, they finally wheel me into recovery, and hand me my perfect baby girl.

We immediately got to do skin to skin contact and begin breastfeeding, although I had no idea what I was doing.  I was just so happy to be sitting upright and with Caleb and my baby girl.  Our parents got to come in a little while after and then we were moved to mother-baby room.  I am pretty sure I was delirious as I don’t remember much else that night.  I managed to get a couple sets of 3 hours of sleep in that night between nursing checks for both Wylie and me.  It felt great to finally get the IV out of the crook of my left arm and the foley out.  Around 5am Sunday morning, I stood up out of bed for the first time in 26 hours.  No wonder I hurt all over. Who stays in the bed that long and has a c-section? It was not my ideal plan.  But God kept both Wylie and me safe and that’s all that matters. 

Looking back today, I am so thankful for the amazing nurses, anesthesiologists, surgical techs, my doctor, my husband, my family and my friends who were all there for me and looking out for our best interest.  It was very scary but I felt the Lord’s presence around me.  Today has been great as it started out with me getting to take a shower and move around the room.  We have had lots of visitors and of course everyone is in love with our Wylie Jewell.  We are extremely blessed.  While I’m very sore, stiff, and swollen, I know I will recover eventually.  It didn’t occur to me until this afternoon exactly what a major surgery I endured yesterday. While I didn’t have the birth story I was expecting, I did get the sweetest girl in the world and to see the most awesome husband and daddy jump in like a pro.  My heart is full and I couldn’t ask for more.