Bennett's Birth Story...Finally

So I wanted to post this a year ago but I had typed out the full length version and wanted to wait until I edited it down.  Well I started to do that and then decided aww forget it.  If its too long or Too much information for you then don't read it.  I just wanted to make sure it was on here in case I lost the copy I have and since I use this as a kindof journal anyway here is it.  It was long, it was hard but it was soooooooooooo worth it. I would do it a million more times the same high maintenance, pull out all the stops way if it meant I would get a million more Bennett's!  He is so incredible and we love him so much! And now he is a walking, talking, laughing, running sweet little boy.  He is growing up way to fast.  It doesn't seem that long ago.  It was great!!!

July 1, 2010 started like any other day. Robbie headed off to work and Harley (who had come down for a few days) and I were planning on running some errands. When I got up around 9:00am Harley was still sleeping. I noticed a little bit of show and then went downstairs and ate some breakfast and did a few things around the house. Harley got up and ate some breakfast and the two of us talked about our plans for the day. We decided to go to Target, Babies R Us and then head over to the movie theater in Simsbury where we would be meeting Robbie to see the Twilight Eclipse movie. (which Harley had really been wanting to see, we would have seen it the day before but the tickets were $3 less if you saw it before 4:00pm so we decided to wait. Plus we wanted Robbie to come and he worked until 4 the day before). Anyway ABOUT 11:45 I felt a pretty big contraction low in my abdomen, it was similar to contractions I had felt before. So I just kindof stood still and went with it then moved on. At about 12:30 I felt another big contraction. I hadn’t really felt contractions that close together before so I made a mental note of it in my mind. Harley and I headed over to Babies R Us where we bought some cute little hats, a new boppy cover and a fourth of july bib for the baby, in case he came before or on July 4th. As we were walking around the store I had more contractions. They were pretty irregular until about 2:50 when we were headed into the theater to get tickets for Eclipse. Then they started to be between 5-10 minutes apart. My doctors had said to call when they were five minutes apart for an hour. Since they were still a little random we decided to go see the movie. Robbie met us there and we sat down in our seats. The movie started at about 3:45 and my contractions started to become more regular (5 minutes apart) 5:40 when the movie was pretty much over. Throughout the movie they were about 10 minutes and Robbie kept asking if we should leave. I told him it would be a while and that the movie was a nice distraction. I would just squeeze his hand really hard and he would record in my cell phone the time of the contraction. At about 6:39 we had gotten home (after having contractions 5 minutes apart while driving home….very exciting!!) and I called the Dr to tell them I had had contractions 5 minutes apart for a solid hour. The answering service gave the DR the message and she called me back. She said with the contractions and the amount of bleeding I should probably head in to check and see if I was in labor…this made me a little less motivated thinking that I could possibly be sent home. But I knew it would be best to make sure everything was ok. All the while I was filling my belly with what could possibly be my last meal for 10’s of hours. Homemade café rio leftovers!! YUM! We headed to the hospital , Harley walked me in while Robbie parked. I had a bunch of contractions on the way in. We were laughing and smiling though wondering why everyone was staring at us. We made it up to triage at 7:40 and I checked in, taking pauses for contractions. They brought me into a room and checked to see how dilated I was - I was only 1.5 I was so worried I would get sent home. I couldn’t believe I was still a 1.5 after 2 weeks and all these contractions. At 8:30 after going to the rest room I stood up and all of a sudden a huge gush of fluid came out! It kept coming and coming. I was excited because I figured they couldn’t send me home now! So we knew this was real and that our baby would be coming soon. We were very excited.



At this point they moved me into a labor and delivery room. My parents came down from Boston to pick up Harley, then they were going to spend the night at our apartment and wait for the baby to be born. My Mom came in to see how I was doing. At this point the contractions were horrible. The nurses kept saying that because my water broke my contractions were worse because the cushioning wasn’t there. I found out later that it was also bad because the baby’s head was right on my tailbone. They checked me again and I was only a 2. The contractions were about a minute or so apart at this point. They asked me if I wanted some drugs to help me through the contractions. They said that since I hadn’t progressed that much that I would be in for a long night. They said that I needed to get some rest and that wouldn’t happen with these types of contractions. I didn’t want the narcotics because I know they can affect the baby so they suggested that I get the epidural. I agreed to it seeing that they told me it would be another 12 to 14 hours before I had the baby and I was having a hard time even breathing through the contraction. My Mom stayed in the room with me while Robbie went out to the car and got the rest of the things that we had packed for the hospital. He got our hospital bag, Robbie’s bag and his coach snacks. Harley and my Dad came into the room and we talked for a few minutes and then they went to our house and told us to keep them updated. I was worried about the epidural but everyone helped me feel better about it. They came in to give it to me. I had to of course stay very still. As they were giving it I felt a really sharp pain in my back on the right side. They kept asking me about it, and if I could feel it. I kept jerking every time I felt it which made me really worried that something would go wrong and it would hit me in the wrong place. The doctor giving it to me had no personality, he was very stiff and not friendly at all. The head doctor came over and tried to help, he held my shoulders and kept asking me questions. They taped it up and started the fluid. I laid down. I was really worried about pulling it out but they kept reassuring me that there was so much tape on it that I couldn’t possibly move it. I continued to have contractions while the medicine sunk in. Then I started to feel it working but only in my right leg. I no longer felt the contractions on that side but I continued to feel them really hard on the left. I kept telling my nurse as she asked me how it was setting in. The anesthesiologists were still there for the beginning of that but they said to let them know if it didn’t end up going over to the left. Since it didn’t they called them back down. I had Robbie give me a blessing that it would work because I didn’t want to get another one. The doctor brought in a more concentrated dose of the medicine. I didn’t want him to give it to me, I was very worried about taking it. He said he needed to check my blood pressure first in order to give it to me. When he checked it he said it was already too low and he couldn’t give it to me. I was glad but still upset that I had gotten it and it wasn’t working all the way. The nurse told me to lay on my left side to see if the medicine would drip over to that side. I did so. Eventually it started to get into the other side and the contractions subsided. Throughout the rest of the night and the next day the epidural went from one side to the other. I never really felt like it was working completely on both sides. Robbie and I tried to get some sleep. It was very hard for me to do. I kept trying to rest but whenever I couldn’t hear the baby’s heartbeat I got worried and would change my position. I also kept worrying about pulling out the epidural. Robbie was able to sleep a little bit which was good. The nurse kept coming in to check on me and see how things were going. The time passed pretty slowly. At about 6 am they checked me again and said that I was dilated to a 6 and fully effaced. That made me excited. At about 8:30 the babys heart rate was dropping and not coming up as quickly as it should be following contractions. The nurse was worried and gave me oxygen via a mask immediately. It made the baby’s heart rate come back up and made me feel a little bit better as well. The baby was doing better so that was a relief. By 9:30 I was fully dilated and fully effaced and the baby was at a +2 position. This is when I began to push. The epidural continued to be picky about how and where it was working. I was able to feel the contractions which isn’t typically what happens with an epidural so I knew on my own when it was time to push and when it was time to rest. The nurse and a med student were there with us. Robbie was on one side of me the med student on the other and the nurse was telling me to push harder or breathe. I felt like I wasn’t really making any progress. It really hurt and I could feel a lot of what was going on. It felt better to push but at the same time I felt a lot of pressure on my tailbone and down low. At around 11:00 Dr. Kuiper came in at one point and said he wanted to do an ultrasound to see where the baby was positioned. When he did, he again confirmed that the back of the babys head was on my tailbone which is a very painful and most likely impossible way to deliver. He suggested that we try and turn the babys head so he could fit better. I then pushed through contractions while he turned the babys head. He was able to do so and I continued to push. A new nurse came in at about 11:15 or so and switched with my other nurse (Sonia) the new nurse was named Renee. She wanted to switch things up a bit. I felt bad that Sonia had been with me for 12 hours and the baby had still not come. I pushed for a while longer and was able to make a little more progress. At one point they discovered that there was maconium in my uterus and that there was a possibility that the baby would inhale it. They told me that they were calling a team of pediatricians to be there at his birth to make sure they took care of this. They then took my temperature and saw that I had a fever. This made them more concerned about an infection in me and they ordered some antibiotics. I continued to push and was completely exhausted. At one point the nurse suggested that they use the vacuum extractor to help me push the baby out. I immediately felt like I should say yes. The doctor and a resident started getting things ready to use the vacuum. The first one didn’t work and they needed to get someone to bring another one in. When the next one was brought in they were able to get it to work. They had to give me an episiotomy at this point as well. Then they pulled the baby while I pushed and were able to get him out fairly quickly. At this point everything was happening so fast. I knew that the babys head was out when I saw Robbie peek down there and then turn to me with tears in his eyes and say he is here. This motivated me to push again and with more force as the rest of the baby’s body came out. They quickly cut the cord and


Passed the baby over to the pediatricians who quickly began to aspirate the baby and hook all of these contraptions up to him. They kept listening to his heart and getting the fluid out of his lungs. They used a recusitation bag and kept working on him. Then I heard them talking about the cord and saying it was wrapped around his neck very tight. They kept working on him and I kept waiting to hear his little cry. It felt like forever. Finally I heard some little squeaks and then after another eternity a loud cry. The doctor then said, “Oh there you are” Then as I looked over he was peeing on the doctors. It was so cute. They then asked Robbie if he wanted to come over and cut the cord. He did so then the doctor looked at me and said he wasn’t liking the baby’s breating pattern so it would be a little longer. They were delivering my placenta at this point and then sewed me up (which took about 20 minutes as I had a 3rd degree tear, not just an episotomy). During this time they were finally able to take the baby off the table and weigh him. He weighed 7lbs 9 oz. They kept asking me what his name was and I said I just want to hold him and see him first. (Even though I already knew) Finally after they weighed him they placed him in my arms. I lost it at this point. I just sobbed while I looked into his perfect eyes. Robbie was next to me. He kept looking from my eyes to Robbies and back to mine then to Robbies. It was so cute. I felt like he really knew us. He started to wimper a little I softly sang him the song I had sung to him so many times while he was inside me, “I know that my savior loves me” he quieted down. I knew he recognized my voice. It was so adorable. It was truly love at first sight. Everything was so worth it. It was amazing to finally have this perfect boy in my arms. All those tears of worry and concern were rewarded with this perfect blessing. We named him Bennett Zachary Cornwall. He is a dream come true. Everything seemed like such a dream. I still can’t believe it is real and that this little prince is mine forever. He is so adorable. I kept saying to Robbie he is so cute he is so cute. Even before I could hold him.