Ramey Michael- Birth Story and Hospital Stay

This is more for me to remember, than for all of you.  So I am going to be very detailed because I ask my mom every year to tell me my birth story on my birthday and I don’t want to forget a single thing about Ramey's!!!!

Warning!!! A lot of TMI but not as much as there could be  = )

Harry went to work at 2:00 pm.

Mom came over at 4:00 pm.  

Dad was boarding a plane for Minnesota at 4:30 pm.  

At 5:00, I sat up in bed and felt a pop.  I went to the restroom and I was pretty sure my water broke.  If it hadn't broken all the way, I was at least leaking something.  So we called labor and delivery and they said, “Come on in, girl.”  So I called Harry and told him what I thought was going on and he didn’t believe it.  He said he would stay at work until we knew what was going on. 

Mom and I gathered all my things and headed to the hospital.  Meanwhile, Dad was in the air somewhere between Oklahoma and Minnesota.  

Warning TMI:  as soon as I got out of the car my water gushed down my legs and I said to Mom, “It’s happening!”  I stood there in shock and Mom told me to go into the hospital.  I walked up to the counter.  I told the lady at the counter that my water had broken and mom walked in and saw my pants and said, “Oh my gosh!” That is when the nurses actually looked over the counter and saw my pants.  It was pretty embarrassing, but since it was after hours and a Sunday no one had been in the waiting room to see anything. Once the nurses saw my pants, they sprung into action.  No one else was in labor so I had three nurses taking care of me when I got there.  They took me to a room and mom texted dad so when he landed he would turn on his phone and see that my water had broken.  I was kinda of out of it because it was all so crazy that I put my gown on backwards and had to go back and change it.  

They got me checked in and I signed all of the papers and they got my iv started.  Of course my little veins gave them trouble and my first vein blew so they had to do another one.  Mom called Harry and he was trying to find someone to come into the pharmacy so he didn’t have to just shut it down.  Finally someone called him back and came in so he could come to the hospital.  Shortly after that Nini (my aunt) showed up. I wasn’t having any contractions, my luck… I have them for 14 weeks and then nothing!  They checked me and I was a 2-3.  

At 8:00pm they started pitocin to make me have contractions.   They nurse told me to tell her about 30 minutes before I wanted the epidural because the anesthesiologist would have to come in because he wasn’t at the hospital.  I wanted to wait and not get the epidural for awhile, but my mom and Nini really wanted me to get it as soon as I could (which was now.)  Then Liz, my nurse came back in and said that the anesthesiologist was already on his way anyways so I could get it as soon as he got there if I wanted, so I told her okay.  

Well the pitocin started working right after I told her I would take the epidural when he got there.  The contractions would not stop.  I didn’t have 5 seconds between the end of one and the beginning of another.  I was in so much pain and couldn’t breathe or catch my breath between them.  I called Liz and told her and they stopped the pitocin. I laid on my side because Ramey didn’t like the pitocin and his heart rate dropped.  The contractions got a little bit better but were still pretty bad but not as bad.  

They checked me again around 9:30 and I was a 5.  Then the anesthesiologist got there and got me ready for the epidural.  I was pretty nervous but once it was in I felt much better.  While I was getting the epidural I did have a few contractions but nothing like it was before.  After the epidural, I could just feel a little bit of pressure when I would have a contraction, but I was only having one every 15-30 minutes.  I got the shakes pretty bad which sometimes happens, so it made it so I couldn’t sleep because I was shaking so bad.  My blood pressure also dropped so they put some oxygen on me.  I was laying on my side listening to some classical music just trying to relax.  Ramey kept going off of the monitor so they were going to put in an internal monitor, which goes under the skin on the top of his head.  I really didn’t want that.  They had the package open and everything ready when another nurse came in to check to see if she could get him on the monitor and she did, thank goodness.  She said she doesn’t like to use the internal monitor if she doesn’t have to.  I know that is isn’t a big deal, but I really didn’t want a little thing in Ramey’s head, so I was glad that we didn’t have to.  

Meanwhile Katherine and Ryan got to the hospital and so did my best friend since 6^th grade, Katie.

Around 11:30, they came in to check me again but I hadn’t noticed any contractions and if I was having any they weren’t registering on my monitor, and the nurse thought that surely I wasn’t measuring what she thought I was so she brought in other nurse and had her check me.  She said, “How does June 24^th for a birthday sound?”  There was only 30 minutes left in the day!!! None of us could believe it since I had gone from a 5-10 in 2 hours and was at a +2!  Normally it takes one hour per centimeter.  So I was ready to push, they just had to get everything ready and set up and call the doctor.  My doctor was out of town of course, so Dr. Bishop was going to be my doctor.  I had never met her but all of the doctors are Lakeside are great, so I wasn’t worried. 

Rewind to what was going on with Dad.  He got off his plane and immediately called mom.  He was so mad and upset that my water broke as soon as he got on the plane.  There was a flight back but it was booked and he couldn’t get on.  The people for the airline said there were no other options and that he couldn’t get out.  Katherine and Ryan got on the computer and found a flight to Dallas at 7:30pm.  He got booked on that flight and was in Dallas around 10, I think.  There was a 10:30pm flight from Dallas to OKC.  If he couldn’t get on that flight he was going to rent a car and get back as soon as he could.  At this point we thought I would be in labor for quite a while, we had no idea it would go so fast!  The 10:30 flight was booked.  He was going to offer $500-$1000 to someone to get on that flight, but we realized with security and everything that he couldn’t just get on the flight that way.  Dad told them what was going on and he was so upset that Delta offered $200 and 2 vouchers to anyone who would give up their seat.  No one would.  Dad even tried to put money on top of their offer, but they said he couldn’t do it.  Some woman high up in the Delta family heard what was going on and said they would pay $600 and 2 vouchers for anyone who would give up their seat.  Someone said to her that she couldn’t do that and she said, "yes I can!"  So 2 people volunteered and dad got on the flight.  He landed and called mom at 11:45pm and said he was on his way.  At this point we were prepping me to push.  We didn’t want Dad to speed and get in a wreck or a ticket, so Mom just said, “She is progressing, just get here when you can.” 

After Mom got off the phone, Ramey’s heart rate dropped super low, I think it was in the 70’s (it has been 140s) so the nurse started massaging his head.  They were trying to feel if the cord was wrapped around his neck or compressed against his head but couldn’t feel anything.  Since we didn’t know why his heart rate had dropped so much, we had to wait for the doctor to push.  Normally the doctor just sweeps in the last push to catch the baby. 

Ramey’s heart rate went back up once Liz massaged his head for awhile and everything was okay for the time being.

We heard a knock at the door and assumed it was the doctor and said come in.  We heard “Little girl!” which is what my dad calls me and we all yelled, “Stop!”  Remember I was ready to push and everything was hanging out!  Thank goodness there was a curtain drawn and we stopped Dad in time.  They covered me up so Dad could come in and see me before I pushed.  We used this opportunity to let Sissy, Ryan, and Nini come in to since we were still waiting on the doctor.  

At this point it was about 12:05pm, so his birthday would be June 25^th- the day before Harry’s birthday and 2 days after our 5^th anniversary.  Liz said that I would probably only have to push 5 or 6 times!

Dr. Bishop got there and it was time to go.  Dr. Bishop checked me and said I was a 10 but actually at station 0 and not +2.  She thought whenever they had to massage Ramey’s head he got pushed back up.  So I would have to push longer than anticipated.  I pushed for awhile but wasn’t pushing as much as Dr. Bishop wanted or need me to and after each push Ramey’s heart rate would drop.  Normally if the baby’s rate drops it is during the push not afterwards.  The other weird thing is I wasn’t having many contractions at all.  I would have them every 7-10 minutes.  So instead of pushing 3 pushes per contraction, I was doing 4 because we didn’t know when the next contraction would be.   Dr. Bishop told me that I needed to push harder or she would need to help Ramey come out and I really didn’t want her to use the vacuum or forceps. 

Liz grabbed a towel and held on one end and I held on the other.  I would pull as hard as I could on the towel while she did the same thing and push at the same time.  It just gives you something to focus on and really helps.  

It was pretty funny because Mom was telling me to pull (meaning the towel) and Liz was telling me to push.  Katherine said they were so confused in the hallway.  And Harry got so tongue-tied because they were both saying different things that some gibberish came out of his mouth and we all burst out laughing (even the doctor) in the middle of pushing.  Everyone outside the door didn't know what was going on in the room!

Once I had the towel I only pushed about 5 or 6 times, I think.  His head came out and normally you wait for the next contraction which is a a minute or two later, but since mine were so far apart, Dr. Bishop had me push another time and out he came!

He was so purple at first and wasn’t breathing yet.  They put him up on my chest and I really couldn’t believe that he was here.  He was born at 1:03am. He weighed 7 lbs 5 ounces and was 19 inches long.  They took him over to his little area and I guess had to suction out his lungs twice because he was gurgley, I didn’t know this info for a couple of days and glad I didn’t know at the time.  His first apgar score was a 7 and his 2nd was an 8.

Harry took Ramey to the door so Dad, Katherine, Ryan, Nini, and Harry’s Dad could see him.  Then I got to do skin-to-skin (also called- kangaroo care, which I did a huge project on in college).  After we did this for awhile, Harry went with the nursery nurse to give Ramey his first bath.  He wasn’t too happy about it.  Then they came back and we went to sleep… I think.  I was so exhausted, I don’t remember a lot after his bath.

From the time my water broke to delivery it was 8 hours and 3 minutes!  My mom was in labor with me for 21 hours and most first time moms are in labor much longer than I was.  I think God gave me a pretty easy labor and delivery since my pregnancy was so difficult.  I had been so nervous and afraid I would not be able to push Ramey out since I was so weak and exhausted from the 71 days of bed rest!  But I did it!  I couldn’t believe it. 

Since I had Ramey so early in the morning we basically got an extra day at the hospital, three nights.  We were in the same room that I had Ramey until about 3pm that day and then they moved me to a smaller room with a much more comfortable bed.

Katherine was so excited to see her nephew again that she came up at 8:30am on Monday morning.  She was the first person in the family that got to hold him.  We had a ton of visitors while at the hospital and it was great to see everyone love on our little guy.

Everyone who came in the room (ie. nurses, hearing check lady, photographer, etc) said how much hair he has!  I had dark hair but not anywhere near as much as Ramey.  Harry calls it his “money maker,” lol.

Dr. Adair, our pediatrician came every day to see Ramey and check on him.  She said he was perfect!  She did say that he was still losing weight but could lose up to 12 ounces, which would be 10% of his birth weight.  We had an appointment on Friday, the 29^th for his first visit and she would check his weight again then.

My feet started to swell horribly after I had Ramey.  I had at least 4 bags of fluid so that is the main cause.  But since I was on bed rest my feet didn’t swell like normal pregnant ladies, so mine had to make up for all of it in a day.  They hurt so bad and I asked every new shift nurse about them and the doctor but they all said they were fine.  It just really concerned me because I had never seen my feet look anything like that before and I hadn’t read anything about feet swelling after the baby.  

Ramey and I were also suppose to get a massage before leaving the hospital.  On Monday evening I started asking people about it.  On Tuesday, they said that is normally the morning you leave.  So Wednesday morning, I asked the morning shift nurse and she was on top of it!  She went to find out where the lady was and of course she wasn’t there that day!  I just knew this would happen.   But she said I could call and schedule and appointment for free for Ramey and I.  I just wanted my stupid massage!

They took Ramey to get circumcised around 9:00am on Wednesday (7-27-12).  I had cuddled him all morning because I knew it was coming.  I was not happy at all about it but it wasn’t an option for us to not have it done.  They came and got him and brought him back 35-45 minutes later, he was 2^nd in line to go.  They brought him back and the nurse said he did great.  He cried harder having his diaper changed!  (Which he still hates most of the time.)

We were all ready to go around 10:30am, check out was 11:00.  So we called the nurse and Harry loaded up the car.  She came in and cut off all of our bracelets and made sure they all had corresponding numbers, meaning we all belonged to each other!  Then Harry pulled the car around and we put him in his carrier and went outside.  The nurse was so sweet because we asked her to take a picture and then she got all fancy and said, “Oh, now you go over there, and you do this.”  She was as excited as we were, it was precious. 

All of the nurses for me and for Ramey were amazing.  I couldn’t have asked for a better experience there, minus missing my massage, lol.  It was annoying to be woken up at 6:00am to get blood drawn and vitals taken every few hours, but it goes with having a baby at a hospital I guess.  (not that I would ever do a home birth!)

Mom was waiting for us at home, so I called her once we were in the car.  About 5 minutes later she called me back and said, “Were the cleaners suppose to clean today?” because they had just showed up at the house.  Obviously we needed to reschedule and I had completely forgotten it was Wednesday.  They weren’t even upset or anything, they were so excited I had had Ramey since they had seen me on bed rest.


I'll post some pictures later!

More to come later about being at home…..