An Ideal Birth Experience

I have dreamed of having a very calm water birth from the very first time I got pregnant. It wasn't an option when we were expecting Piper due to Wes not wanting to go to anyone other than a Dr and deliver the baby at the hospital. When we were expecting Kendell he was more willing to consider a midwife as long as the delivery still happened at the hospital. I searche and searched for a midwife that was close enough to us that we could go that route. I checked with Mom and she asked her midwife who was just finishing up her last few patients before she retired. The only midwives locally that I found I was told to not go to them by mom's midwife Janet. She had been in the practice for 30 some years and knew about those women. Anyway, we went back to the Dr that delivered Piper and were very happy with her. We clicked from the very start and we all felt very comfortable with each other. When I was 9 weeks pregnant this time we went to tour a birthing clinic in Rigby and meet the midwives. I loved the facility, the birthing tub looked awesome, hearing other people's stories really made me desire the water birth more than ever. The hang-ups? I have low thyroid that needs constant monitoring during pregnancy and also have always test positive with Group B Strep. the midwives don't monitor the throid and dont really treat GBS. Those 2 things made me rather uncomfortable with this option. We decided to stick with our original Dr. who has been awesome and I trust to have the best interest in mind for my child and my personal health.
The pregnancy continued without complication. I dealt with the constant neausea, vomiting, and heartburn. I struggled with Pubis Symphosis Disfuction. I loved feeling the baby kick and move inside me. At times those movements felt strong enough to start controling my movements and that my stomach would guide my body, if that makes sense? We decided not to find out the gender of our sweet baby and be surprised as the Dr or Wes was able to announce "It's a ______"! Piper was so very upset with us when we came to pick her up after our 22 week ultrasound. She desperatly wanted a sister and Kendell for a while said girl then switched to boy and never looked back. We talked with both kids to let them know that no matter what we will love our baby. We asked Piper how she would feel if baby is a boy. She said that would be fine. We asked Kendell how he would feel if baby is a girl. He didn't really understand that and just said no I am a boy.
As time got closer to our due date we talked about how we wanted the birth to go. Since the water birth was not an option my plan was...
I went into labour naturally during spring break, I laboured at home relaxing in the tub and bouncing on the exercise ball. The Lindley's would take Piper and Kendell and Wes and I went to the hospital. Dr. Merrill had already told me that no matter when I went into labour I could call her and she would come in and deliver the baby. Since I go to a Women's clinic they have a rotation for Drs and who ever is on call is who usually will be delivering. We got to the hospital and Dr. Merrill was called. I was fully dilated, baby was born super quick and easy. No complications, no waiting, no tearing, we would be released to go home within hours of baby being born and we could spend our first night as a family of 5 all together. Well that is what I wanted to have happen. It DIDN'T
What actually happened... We headed to Twin Falls the afternoon of April 1st for a family event that night. We knew it had to be a quick down and back trip that night. Wes had to work the next day at 6:30 in the morning and I had my Dr appointment at 9:30.  We left town and it started raining. As we got closer to Pocatello the rain turned to sleat and then to snow. People who really know me also know that I HATE traveling in bad weather. Snowy slick roads make me physically ill. As we passed Pocatello I got even more nervous and finally asked Wes if it was to late to turn around. He said no and he was thinking the same thing. The roads were slick, the snow was sticking, driving home on them at midnight would have been trechuraous. We decided to turn around and go home. the family event happened without us and we got home as the sun came out behind the clouds and set. We discussed the desire to go into labour naturally and felt the need to schedule an induction. At my appointment I was dilated to a 2! that has never happened before actual labor for me. Dr. asked me what I thought about an induction and we discussed it, it was scheduled for 4/4/14 at 5:00 AM. UGH! I really didnt want to have to be up so early. I spent all day Wednesday and Thursday finishing up everything I could to get work and home ready for baby. At 4:00 AM friday morning I was up taking my medicine, getting a shower, breakfast protein shake, called the hospital. We arrived at 5 and things got started. I became a pin cushion and got poked 4 times before they could even start the iv antibiotics because yet again I was positive for GBS. The bruises from those 4 pokes took 3 weeks to clear up. The pitocin was started by 6 and we were on our way to having a baby.Wes napped off and on and did stuff on his phone. I had my phone out and check facebook and the What to Expect group forum that I joined. Mostly I had my contraction timer going checking how long and how quickly the contractins were coming. At 1:00 the nurses let me know that my Dr. was on her way over to break my water and really get things going. The contractions were already unpleasant and they let me know that when my water was broken things would be a lot more uncomfortable and painfull. I had no idea how much longer I was going to be in labour. Really was planning for a natural labour but by 3:00 I was ready for a break. The epidural worked great and I felt nothing. I looked at the clock and told Wes we should have a baby by 4:00. I was checked and dilated to an 8 when my water was broke. After that the nurses kept coming in about every 5 minutes to check on baby. The heart monitor was showing huge drops and not recovering as it needed. They adjusted the monitor a couple of times and it still wasn't improving look of baby's heart rate. They needed the internal monitor to get a more acurate reading of how baby was really handling the contractions. Pitocin was turned off. Baby still was not handling things well. I was not progressing past that darn 8. Baby wasn't coming down, turned out the position of baby was posterior. Dr Merrill tried turning baby twice and the baby kept turning right back. Dr and nurses were concerned and it was decided to try pushing to get baby out sooner. Pushing for 3 contractions and nothing. At this point baby's heart rate which normally is around 130 had gotten down to 60 and wasn't going back up. Dr Merrill says we can't wait any longer the baby needs out now. As soon as she said that the room flooded with people. So many nurses all over the place, some changing out iv's, others grabbing the stuff needed for the baby, one gave me a super nasty tasting drink to help neuralize the enzymes in my stomach so that I didn't get sick on the operating table. The antesticiologist doing something to boost the epidural. One nurse brought in clothes for Wes to put on so he could be in the OR with me. In absolutly no time at all I was wheeled into the OR. I was scared and nervous. I wanted to cry because nothing was going as planned. I was shaking uncontrolably. Wes asked if I was ok. I could only say yes I am fine. My arms were on boards stretched out to my sides. Wes was on my left, the antesteciologist on my right. I had an oxygen mask on and a screen put up right in front of my face. Some iodine scrub, tugging, pulling, and an announcement of "It's a BOY! I couldn't belive it. We had a baby boy and I could hear him crying. They quickly checked him out and said he is perfect and handed him to Wes. Dr Merrill then pulled out the remaining cord and placenta. Then comes the announcement, Oh we found the reason baby boy was struggling during labour. Near the end of the cord was found a true complete knot. With each contraction I was having the knot in the cord was pulled tighter and tighter. As we all know the cord is the life line to the baby. That knot pulled so tight that it was literally cutting off the life line and slowly killing our baby.
An emergency c-section was certainly not in our plans. The epidural was not in my plan. The induction was not in the plan. We felt the need to schedule the induction so we did. I felt the need to get the epidural, so I did. Taylor Alex Jones was born with so much guidance from the Lord. It started when we decided to stay with our Dr and not go to the birthing center. They do minimal monitoring during the labour process. This is normally not a problem but in our situation constant moniroting saved his life. The scheduled induction made the constant monitoring a necesity. If I had not gotten the epidural there wouldn't have been time to do anything other than to put me under and Wes would not have been able to come in to the OR. An emergency c-section may not sound like an ideal birth experience and it certainly wasn't mine going into it. After seeing the knot, hearing how rare it is for it to happen, and even more rare for the baby to survive I no longer needed to cry about it. As long as we have a healthy baby and mom no matter how the delivery goes we had
our Ideal Birth Experience.