Luke's Birth Story

Finally, the news you've all been waiting for...

Just kidding, I don't suppose you've all been holding your breath waiting to hear Luke's birth story. :)

For those that are interested, here is the story.

Introductory Note to the story:

At 38 weeks, I had noticed a great decrease in fetal movement. At that point in pregnancy it’s fairly normal to have less activity, but it was such a difference that  I was concerned. Eddy and I asked the advice of a friend (Pam, who delivered Janna) and decided I should go to the hospital to check things out. I spent an hour in Labor & Delivery while they monitored Luke. After drinking juice, eating crackers and peanut butter, and just waiting, he finally began to move a good bit. They sent me home, but the concern was still great for us over the next few weeks. I had several non-stress tests and ultrasounds to measure fluid levels, which at one point was low enough (@40 wks. 1 day) that we believe they should have induced. Unfortunately, my doctor was a resident and could not make that final decision. Her superiors held firm to making us wait until 41 weeks, and we’ll just say we had a rather emotional and tumultuous week right before Luke arrived.

On Sunday evening, January 8 (2012) the first signs of labor commenced. The time was about 5:30 and we headed out to Pizza Hut for dinner. I’d been having some contractions with a bit of discomfort to them and while we were out they seemed to become more frequent and a bit more uncomfortable, so I began timing. I didn’t want to get too excited considering how I’d been having pretty painless contractions for a couple weeks. I was also nearly 41 weeks and Luke had been in no hurry to make an appearance.

I spent most of the rest of the evening sitting on the couch timing contractions with my phone. They were averaging 10 minutes apart and slowly gaining intensity, but nothing to really rush to the hospital over. Around 9:00 they started averaging 6 minutes apart, but I still wasn’t sure that it was time to go yet. We decided to stay home, and go to sleep and just see how I progressed.

As some of you may have guessed I didn’t really sleep that night. My contractions spaced out to between 12-15 minutes during the night, but they were a good bit more intense (enough to keep me awake…not that I’d been sleeping at night the last couple months anyway). When morning came the contractions picked up again, but lessened in intensity some. I was back to a 10-minute average and also had a doctors appointment scheduled for the afternoon. We decided to go on up to the office to see if they could check my progress (Luke’s activity was still minimal). They hooked me up for a non-stress test first. He didn’t do a whole lot of moving, but after the test the doctor checked my progress and I was 3.5 cm and 80% effaced. Thank goodness! Otherwise they were going to send me for another ultrasound. L

We headed over to the hospital and up to Labor and Delivery. They got me all checked-in (about 10:30am) and then checked my progress again. 4 cm and 80%. Yay! Unfortunately, my contractions were still pretty spaced apart, 7-10 minutes, and weren’t really progressing. So I got up and walked the floor for 30 minutes. That helped some and the contractions got a little closer, a little more intense, and I progressed to 5 cm.  They went ahead and broke my water. Things were moving along and becoming more intense. I was still feeling pretty good, but decided I was ready for the “good stuff.” Bring on the epidural.

The epidural did a little number on me…I got a little sick, which also happened with Janna, but then my blood pressure took a pretty significant drop. This of course raised concern because Luke’s heart rate dropped. There was a pretty good stir of commotion and they put me on oxygen and loaded me up with some warm blankets. I’ve never experienced something like that before, but I sure was cold and sleepy. Things re-stabilized fairly quickly, but it slowed my progress. It took several hours for me to progress any further and they started me on pitocin. Luke was in NO hurry. Thankfully, our friend Karyl came by and helped us pass the time. I think she was there for 2 hours! J Anyway, about 9:00pm they checked me again and I was fully dilated and effaced, time for Luke to come on out.

An hour later (at 10:02 pm on Monday, January 9, 2012), our little guy made is debut weighing in at 9 lbs. & 13 oz., 21 inches long, and with a full head of hair. However, he was working a bit too hard breathing. So they took him away fairly quickly. We later discovered that he was sick with pneumonia when he was born (the pediatric doc on call believed he’d probably been sick in the womb already), that combined with the pressure of pushing and him being such a big boy caused his lungs to collapse. He spent the next couple of days on oxygen to aid his lungs in healing themselves and re-inflating. They also started him on antibiotics to treat the pneumonia. This, of course, meant we could not take Luke home when they discharged me from the hospital. He had to stay a week to receive the full amount of antibiotics for the pneumonia. However, once he came off the oxygen I was able to start nursing. I was concerned he wouldn’t be successful, but he’s been doing well. It certainly was a long week, and we can speculate all day about whether the decreased fetal movement was a sign of him being sick and whether inducing would have prevented this. We’ll never know, but we are thankful that God took care of him and us and we brought him home on January 16^th and he’s a healthy growing boy! (Already weighing in at 10 lbs. at his 2-week check-up!)

(Total labor time: 28.5 hrs. So, when I was told your second labor time and pushing time can be up to half the amount of your first, it’s not necessarily true. Mine doubled!)

First picture with Luke

Sweet Little Guy