Dax's Birth Story

Wow I'm seriously the worse blogger ever, but I'm going to try to do much better!! I created this blog to keep all family members informed and to have a place to record all my memories and I've done a horrible job! But if I don't ever blog again I wanted to make sure I recorded this one memory.....for a few reasons....1) because Dax's birth was one of the best days of my life (becoming a Christian and marrying Waldo are the others) 2) because I loved reading other people's birth stories when I was pregnant, so if someone stumbles upon my blog I want to share mine!! So here it goes, yes he is 9 months old and I'm just getting around to typing this out.........

So really it starts a few days before he made his entrance.....I was ready to meet my boy, I was sick of being fat, not being able to breath, but most of all I was sick of waiting!!! I wanted him here and in my arms, not kicking me in the ribs :) So I literally read every web page there is to read about getting labor started.....I did not want to be induced, I wanted to go in to labor. So I walked everyday sometimes twice a day, Waldo even walked with me (that's how you know its bad), I bought a yoga ball and bounced while watching TV, I drank some tea that was suppose to help, me & Waldo did stuff married people do ;)....and nothing! I was 1 cm dilated and 75% effaced at 37 weeks and I stayed that way until 1 day before my due date when I only progressed to 3 cm dilated and 75% effaced.....Not much progress!!! I left the doctors office that Tuesday (July 3rd) depressed and I'm sure I cried at some point. Even though the 4th was my due date we went ahead and made plans with our friends Julie & Wes to celebrate the 4th, it didn't seem like anything would be happening anytime soon......however, when I went to sleep that night I had a feeling he might come the next day.

July 4, 2012

I woke up around 6:30 because I had to pee.....shocker that's pretty much all you can do when you have a small person sitting on your bladder! Anyway, I woke up at 6:30 went to the bathroom and right before I sat down water goes every where.....Crim follows me to the toilet in the mornings and it was literally inches from going all over him!! I wasn't sure what had just happen my first thought was "really did I just pee on myself, that's it I need this baby out," but then the water just kept coming so I knew this was different. I went back to the bedroom and said "Uh Waldo I think my water just broke." Well he shot up and said "What do you mean you 'think' your water just broke?" I said "Well a bunch of water just came out and my pants are all wet" to which he responded "Well of course your water broke Candice whens the last time you peed on yourself." Very typical Waldo response. So we started getting ready...we packed our bags, grabbed Dax's bag, took showers, got dressed. I text Dr. Edwards and told him I thought my water broke.....he immediately called and confirmed he thought that it had indeed broke and we should go the hospital. It was July 4th so of course Dr. E was off, but he said he would check in with the on call doctor and probably let her get me through most of the day, but he would be there for the delivery. So we got in the car and headed to the hospital...we called our parents and let them know to head down we were going to be meeting Dax that day! Then we called Julie and Wes to let them know we would not be providing ice cream for the 4th of July cook out, we were going to be having a baby instead!

We got to the hospital and Dr. Emig (the on call doctor) was waiting on us, we got checked in and the nurse check to make sure my water had broken and she confirmed it did and I was in labor. I was quickly hooked up to the contraction monitor and the fetal heartbeat monitor. To my surprise I was even having contractions, I couldn't feel them at all! Dr. Emig came in and checked me and of course NO PROGRESS....3 cm dilated and 75% effaced. She told me she would give me about an hour and a half and she would come back and check again, she said my water breaking might speed things along. So we waited. In the meantime a friend of mine, Olivia, came in (on her day off) to be my labor & delivery nurse. Our hospital puts a nurse with you at all times once you are in labor....so Olivia came to wait with us.

Dr. Emig eventually came back to check me again and still no change so she decided to start pitocin to help speed the process along. Which seemed to work, shortly thereafter I could definitely feel my contractions. In the meantime mine and Matthew's parents showed up. Dr. Edwards stopped by as well and he too checked me...I was still at 3 cm but he said my contractions were looking much better. My family ask when he thought Dax would come and Dr. E said since it was my 1st it would probably be a long process so sometime later that day (after 5ish). Dr. E left and said he would be back later, that everything looked great and he'd see me later. So we waited.....My family left to go get some lunch and my mom went to our house to rest for a bit. The hospital room was small and there was no need for everyone to be crammed in there, plus my contractions were starting to hurt and I was ready for an epidural. Olivia paged the anesthesiologist (he took FOREVER), but eventually he showed up and I got my epidural. Oh the epidural what a wonderful invention....why you would have a baby without one I do not know. It was instant relief. 

So, shortly after the family left and I had received the wonderful epidural Olivia starts noticing Dax's heartbeat was dropping. She had me move into different positions and put me on oxygen and it seemed to come back up. The oxygen mask however freaked my sister out and when she saw me in it she began to cry....I assured her all was ok! Isn't that suppose to work the other way around, wasn't I in labor and she should reassure me?? Anyway, Dax's heartbeat went back up and we kept moving along...Olivia called Dr. E just to keep him in the loop and he told her to call him back if it happened again. At this point I'm perfectly calm, didn't even realize a drop in heartbeat was that big of a deal....but then it happened again and apparently this time it was really low. Olivia ask my Dad and Cara to leave and she had me move around again. His heartbeat didn't go back up, some other nurses came in and tried, but it still stayed down. I could tell the nurses were starting to panic a little, so I started to worry just a bit. One nurse checked me to see if I was dilating which could cause the heartbeat to drop, but I was only at 4 cm so that couldn't have been the call. The nurses kept ripping off the pages of Dax's heartbeat from the monitor and running them to Dr. Emig who was preforming a C-section in the OR. I later found out that outside my room the nurses seemed to be in a panic and my Dad knew something was wrong, so he ran home to get my mother. Back in the room I felt like everybody and their brother was checking me....I think literally every nurse in the hospital "checked me".....I felt like yelling "I'm not dilated, quit checking!!!!" Eventually Dr. Emig made the call that the heartbeat wasn't coming back up and we needed to get Dax out ASAP! This meant emergency c-section. Olivia looked at me and said I'm so sorry Candice be we have to get Dax out now, your going to have to have a c-section. Although I might have appeared to have it together on the outside my thoughts were...."A what? A c-section, I didn't even pay attention to that part of the birthing classes, I don't want a c-section!!!" Then I realized how panicked everyone was....they started ripping the machines I was hooked up to out of the wall and throwing the cords on the bed and next thing I know I'm being wheeled down the hall toward the OR. So now I'm upset and worried.....I just want Dax to be okay and I have no idea what is going on. Did I mention that although I loved the epidural it gave me a case of the shakes. So now I'm crying and that makes my shakes worse.....I'm literally convulsing and I can't talk, I can only whisper.....strange I know but the epidural messed me up and now my panic is adding to it. So we get to the OR and Dr. Emig runs out of the other OR tells me things are going to move fast from here on out, but we needed to get Dax out and it would happen quick but just to calm down and everything will be okay. Being calm didn't seem possible but since I had the shakes all I could do was cry, shake, and nod my head. I was then rolled into the OR and lifted onto the operating table/bed and then the anesthetists gave me the numbing agent.....Everyone is still running around crazy getting everything ready to operate and I'm searching the room for Waldo. I'm strapped to the table with my arms straight out and I feel completely helpless and I can't find Waldo anywhere which is about to make me panic even more. Eventually the nurse antithesis leans down and tells me he can't come in until I'm completely numb. Waldo later told me he was about to break the door down and come in or put on a surgical mask and sneak in like he was suppose to be in there! Although it felt like eternity I'm sure it wasn't and Waldo finally came to my side. He kissed my forehead, ask if I was okay, and told me everything was going to be fine. At this point I'm suppose to be numb and when they pinched my belly to ask I could feel the pinch but it didn't hurt so I shook my head yes. However when the c-section began it was horrible, it hurt so bad, but at that point I didn't care I wanted my baby OUT!! I do remember whispering to Waldo (b/c again, I couldn't talk) that it hurt bad, but he was so scared he couldn't really tell the doctors to stop. Finally I felt them pull Dax out....WOO HOO.....but then he didn't cry so I started panicking again!!! I kept staring at Waldo like HELLO whats going on???? Finally he said "Oh yeah all is good they are suctioning his mouth he can't scream yet!" And, as if on cue, I heard him scream. Praise God our baby boy was out and alive. The nurses took him and started cleaning him up and Dr. Emig started to finish up my c-section. So now I'm in pain again.....after he was cleaned up a little they brought him around for me to see him and Waldo got to hold him. Of course Waldo got to hold him first....I only carried him for 40 weeks and had him ripped out of my stomach, so of course Waldo should hold him first..haha...I'm glad Waldo got to hold him, because once he was in my arms I didn't plan on sharing! Anyways Waldo was holding him and all I remember of this was kissing his forehead and thinking I was so glad he was ok, but I really wanted this c-section to be over!! I remember thinking I was a horrible mom because I didn't want to just stare at him forever, but at the time I was hurting so bad I just wanted to get out of that OR!! The nurses eventually took Dax he needed to get cleaned up, weighed, and checked to be sure all is good! Did I mention I was blessed again...one of my friends happened to be Dax's nurse, so off he went with my friend Tara, I knew he was in good hands! Dr. Edwards showed up about this time, Olivia had called him right before we rushed out to the OR.....he felt so bad that he wasn't there, but who would have know, everything had gone so well until then. Dr. Edwards did go tell my family everything was ok and then he came back and helped Dr. Emig sew me up. Again this was so painful and I kept asking Waldo if it should hurt that bad....but at that point what could they have done....finally they were done and I was wheeled back to my room.

When we got back to the room there were still a few things Olivia had to take care of before I was ready to see my sweet little man and have visitors, but I remember my Dad coming in the room (I was not decent, but quickly covered up) with a panicked look on his face. He said are you ok....."Uh yes?" Apparently his little girl having surgery was a scary event and he didn't care if I was decent or not he was coming in to see for himself how I was doing. I assured him I was ok and he could come back in just a bit. It was about 30 minutes later when I was finally ready to have visitors and see Dax. He was still in the nursery and his temperature had dropped so I would have to wait just a bit longer to see my little man, but they eventually brought him to me!!

He was perfect! I know I'm his mamma but he was and is the most beautiful baby I have ever seen! Praise be to God for giving me that tiny miracle. He was born at 4:11 p.m. on July 4th, he weighed in at 7 pounds 11 ounces and was 20 inches long. Matthew and I were instantly in love and we are so grateful that God chose us to be Dax's parents. We can't wait to see what God has in store for our sweet boy and our hope is he grows up to be an amazing man of God!! We love our little Daxie Doodle!!

Grandparents and Dax 

Dax's first few visitors at the hospital! 

Going home!

Dax's first visitors at home!