I went to the doctor for my 38 week appointment on Tuesday March 3 at 3pm.  The nurse took all of my measurements and vitals.  The doctor came in shortly after and took my blood pressure manually.  He immediately was concerned.  My blood pressure had elevated from a normal reading 7 days prior to 144 over 104.  Very scary levels.  He immediately checked fetal heartbeat and checked the swelling in my feet.  As I have mentioned to all of you my feet were unnaturally large.  Not just pregnant large, but scary big.  The doctor ‘checked me’ and said I was only dilated to 1 & 1/2 and effaced to about 50%.  He looked me in the face and said, “Ok, I’m on call tonight so why don’t you go next door (St. Luke’s Hospital is connected to his office) and let’s do this tonight.”  He left the room, I got dressed and went into the hall.  By this time I’m shaking because I’m excited but also scared.  (Randy wasn’t with me because he had a meeting).  I grabbed the doctor again and asked him exactly what he meant by his previous statement.  He clarified and said he had already sent orders to the hospital (in the 5 minutes it took me to get out of exam room) and that I needed to go straight there and they would run some tests, but that he expected to deliver the baby that night.

Needless to say I texted Randy and said to call me immediately, I didn’t care what was happening in his meeting.  He called and I told him we were having the baby tonight.  Both of us were pretty speechless.  Like all of my accountant friends I am a huge planner and like to be prepared.  Unfortunately, I was not.  I didn’t have a hospital bag or anything except my purse.  Randy is wonderful and was the calm voice of reason.  He said he was shutting down his computer as we spoke and for me to head to the hospital and think about any last minute things I wanted him to grab at the house.

I went over to Labor & Delivery.  I walked in the door and they said “Are you Julie Baldwin?”  Apparently the doctor had told them to drop all other patients and tend to me the moment I walked in.  I was immediately taken to a room, hooked up to a fetal heart monitor and an IV and had lots of bloodwork drawn.  Finally I was able to talk to Randy and he was on his way to meet me.

At this point I did not want to call anyone to tell them the news because there was still a chance my labs would come back normal and they would send me home, but put me on bed rest.  The labs came back totally normal with no red flags.  I was sad and relieved at the same time.  As all of you know I really wanted to have the baby, but my doctor was telling me he wanted to do a c-section because he was afraid the baby was too big.  I have been pretty laid back about my pregnancy and about delivery.  I didn’t have a birth plan or any special instructions to be followed during delivery…except that I didn’t want a c-section.  Needless to say I was very disappointed.

The doctor ordered a sonogram to determine an estimate of the baby’s size.  Again, based on that result would determine what we did next, so I still couldn’t share the news with anyone.  The sonogram showed that he was wedged into my pelvis and the tech estimated that he weighed 8 pounds 5 ounces.  The doctor came back in and told me he wanted to perform a c-section immediately.  I voiced my concern and told him I would like to try to a natural birth if at all possible.  He agreed that I could try, but he needed to break my water and put me on pitocin.  He also told me that if I didn’t progress we would need to do a c-section.  I of course agreed that whatever was best for the baby was my first concern and all other requests were secondary.

At 7:30pm he broke my water and at 8pm the pitocin drip started.  I was at a 3.  I wanted to wait as long as possible before I took any drugs for the simple fact that medicine can slow down the dilation process.  Contractions started almost immediately and I was not a very happy person.  Oh yeah, at this point we finally alerted our families, and our bibles study group who was meeting at that time.  I told Randy he was the Director of Outside Communications from then on and I put my phone away.

At 10:30 I asked for the IV drugs.  Of all the things I did this is the one I wish I would have skipped.  All the drugs did was make me very groggy.  I was almost totally out of it, but would wake up for each contraction.  What a waste.  At 12:30am the doctor came back and checked me.  I was still at a 3.

At 1am I finally asked for the epidural.  The anesthesiologist was wonderful and very prompt.  By 1:30 I couldn’t feel my legs or the contractions.  It also gave me a chance to sleep.  Sadly, Randy didn’t get the same.  His bed was very uncomfortable and he didn’t get any sleep.  As a side note, I had no idea Randy had been updating Facebook this whole time.  I’m so thankful he did that because it helped him to fulfill his duty and still tend to me with every contraction.

At 3:45am the doctor woke me up, checked me and I was still at a 3.  Obviously I wasn’t going to progress and a c-section was ordered.  I didn’t argue in the least.  Clearly this is how God and Reed wanted this to happen.  Little did I know what a blessing that would be…

Randy called my mom and his mom.  They wheeled me into surgery and Randy got into his “rabbit suit”.  I won’t bore you with any surgery details except the most important one.  Once they cut me open and were ready to pull Reed out the entire staff below the curtain started talking about how “unusual” it was.  Randy stood up to take pictures (the wonderful staff allowed us to take pictures even though that is strictly forbidden).  Reed’s cord was tied into a tight overhand knot!!  They quickly pulled him out and got him cleaned up and in Randy’s arms.  During the whole surgery I could hardly keep my eyes open because of the drugs, but it was perfect.  Reed was perfect and a healthy 8 pounds 3 ounces (good sonogram tech, right?!) and 19.5 inches long at 4:31am.

We went back into my labor and delivery room and both our parents and both my sisters were there with tears in their eyes to greet us.

The next day we asked the doctor what the potential implications of the knot in the cord were.  He said that usually the child dies.  I almost broke down in tears.  If I had gotten my way and he had been born naturally he would have very likely died in childbirth.  I can not thank Dr. Gonima enough for making the decision he made to go ahead and perform a c-section.  It wasn’t what was in my plan, but it was definitely in God’s plan.

I love this little guy so much that I truly can’t describe it.  I hope you enjoy the pictures below!!

– Julie and Randy