From the beginning of my pregnancy I had 2 major concerns. The first was preterm labor. I had the twins at 32 weeks and I started having preterm labor at 23 weeks. My doctor wasn't sure if the complications I had during my pregnancy with the twins was due to having twins or if it was just how my body was so they kept a close eye on me and I got a lot of ultra sounds during the first half of my pregnancy. At about 23 weeks things were looking good and I wasn't having any problems so any concerns of preterm labor were ruled out. I was pretty sure I would still go early. Not 6 weeks early but probably a week or two. Andrew and I had to move and we had been waiting to hear back from some jobs to see where we were going to move to. I was due July 14th and I was planning on having a baby the beginning of July. As it turns out we moved the first weekend in July to Stansbury, Utah. (A tiny TINY town about 30 min east of Salt Lake off I-80 on your way to Wendover and about 10 min from Tooele where most of Andrews family lives. I wasn't sure I would make it to moving day before having a baby, but I did. I wasn't sure I would survive moving day without having a baby, but I did. The first week of July passed and we were all moved in and no baby... So, I unpacked, decorated my house, ran around chasing the twins, walked, walked and walked some more! I did all I could to try and induce labor. July 14th came and still no baby! I was scheduled to be induced July 16th. July 16th 4:30AM I woke up with some really strong contractions so we drove to the hospital and sure enough I was in labor! I couldn't believe I had made it PASSED my due date. I was certain I would have a baby WAY before my due date. I was very ready to have a baby.
That brings me to my 2nd concern of my pregnancy. Since I had the twins via C-section I was faced with a decisions between having a repeat c-section and having a VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean). There were risks and bonuses to both. Ultimately I decided to do a VBAC since I wasn't having any of the complications I had with the twins that lead to their c-section.
Matthews Birth Story:
I got to the hospital at 5:00 AM. I had the nicest little lady for my nurse that day. She had been an L&D nurse for many many years. She was very positive that I was going to have a very smooth labor. I was progressing great and she guessed I would have a baby by late afternoon. Things were going great and I was feeling great once I got the epidural (love me my pain meds!). They had me shifting side to side every couple hours to prevent bed sores. At around noon my nurse had me turn sides. The baby did not like this. His heart rate dropped and didn't pick up right away. The nurse had my switch back and his heart rate quickly went back to normal. My nurse had me stay on that side the rest of the day to prevent the babies heart rate from dropping again. I was assured that if anything were to go wrong they had a smooth protocol of to prepare for a c-section and they could have me from my room to O.R. and delivering a baby all in 5 minutes. I was glad to hear that, but my labor was going so well I didn't expect to have to worry about that. At 3 I was dilated to a 10 and my doctor had come in and given me the go ahead to start pushing. I pushed for an hour and when my doctor came to check on me we found out that the baby was face up so he had me stop pushing and lay in a weird position to try and get the baby to turn. So I laid in a terribly uncomfortable position for a half hour. This awkward position twisted my back. When I laid flat again I was in a great deal of pain. I had twisted my upper back and my shoulder blades were screaming with pain. When they checked me again the baby had turned a little and was part side ways part face up. We decided to start pushing some more. Although the pain in my shoulders was great I pushed for another hour. When my doctor came to check me I hadn't made any progress in the past hour. My doctor was concerned I wasn't making progress, but he agreed to let me push for another hour to see what progress I could make and if I hadn't made good progress he told me we might have to look at other options. What I didn't know at that time, but learned later was that I had been bleeding pretty bad and that was also concerning my doctor, but my doctor knew I really wanted to deliver VBAC and not a c-section so he wanted to give me one more try. So I pushed, and I pushed hard! I did not want a c-section. I pushed with all my might. I pushed twice and on the second push the babies heart rate dropped. My nurse had me turn sides (to the side the baby didn't like earlier). My nurse was hoping the change in position would help the baby to get his heart rate up, but that didn't work. It made it worse so she had me quickly turn back. I expected this to go similar to how it went earlier in the day and I was expecting his heart rate to go back up at any second. I eagerly watched the monitor and the little squiggly line didn't go up. It went down, lower, up a little, but then down further and then the monitor got moved during my movement from side to side and the monitor lost the babies heart rate. The next part of labor is a little blurry. Many people came rushing into the room. The charge nurse was calling my doctor and on call doctor to get into my room. Several nurses and med students came in. I didn't know what was going on and I was trying to wrap my head around what was happening. The nurse gave me a shot and told me the shot was going to stop my contractions, and that's when I knew my hopes of having a vaginal birth were coming to an end. Tears welled up in my eyes as I tried to accept the fact that I wasn't going to be able to deliver my baby. You hear stories of how miraculous it is and how special it is to deliver a baby. I tried to hold back the tears as I accepted the fact that I couldn't do that if I wanted myself and my baby to be safe. I was also trying to hold back tears from being scared out of my mind about the safety of my baby. When I looked at Andrew I could see the fears I was feeling in his eyes and I knew he was scared too. The nurse couldn't find the babies heart rate with the Doppler and I started crying. I don't think I have ever been in so much pain or so scared in my life but at the same time there was a little voice in the back of my head telling me 'its going to be ok. Your baby is ok'. So I tried to just take some deep breaths and push the tears away. I did not know this, but I leaned that they can find the babies heart rate on his head by going vaginally and that is just what they did. They stuck a little wire up there and attached it to his head and found his heart rate. It was still low, but I felt an overwhelming comfort that I knew everything was going to be ok. At that time my doctor got to my room unplugged my bed and all the other cords I was attached to and pushed me out of the room. I could tell by how quickly he was moving that things were not good. He didn't ask the nurses if everything was good to go he just came in unplugged everything and started pushing me towards the O.R. and everyone else followed. I watched the tiles on the ceiling pass quickly by as they rushed me to the O.R. The nurse was right earlier when she told me they could have me ready for a c-section in the O.R. in 5 from the time I started having problems. I don't think it even took that long. Luckily by this time the babies heart rate had gone up a little so my doctor let me lay there for another minute or two to make sure I was completely numb. I was mostly numb from the epidural but I still had some feeling and I could feel the sharp pokes when they tested to see how numb I was. I was glad I was able to take a minute and get 100% numb. At this point the only thing I could focus on was the pain in my back/shoulders. Laying flat on my back had increased the pain ten fold and my whole body had started to shake due to the pain. I kept telling the doctors how bad my back hurt but since it was in my upper back it wasn't getting numb. Luckily the anesthesiologist had compassion on me and gave me a good dose of morphine. They were about ready to start when Andrew walked into the O.R. They had him sit up front by my head. I was really glad he was there to hold my hand and rub my head to distract me fro the pain in my back. I'm not sure when the morphine kicked in and the pain went away but before I knew it I heard the sweet sounds of my precious babies cry. The doctor lifted him above the drape so I could see him before he passed him off to the nurse to get cleaned off. I was super happy to see a full head of dark hair! Andrew went over with the baby while they cleaned him off and assessed him. The babies heart rate and oxygen levels were a little low so they took him to the NICU before I could hold him. I wasn't very happy with that because I had been looking forward to holding him right after birth. When the twins were born they took them to the NICU right after birth as well and I didn't get to hold the girls for a few hours. So I waited to hold my little boy while they stitched me up. A kind nurse went back and forth from the NICU to the O.R. giving me constant updates on how the baby was doing. She told me he was doing well. She told me he was breathing on his own without any assistance so that was a good sign but he was grunting a lot which is a sign of difficulty breathing so they wanted a NICU nurse to check him out just to make sure his low levels of oxygen and heart rate were not a concern. As the doctor stitched me up he told me that while doing the c-section he discovered that the placenta had started to abrupt so it was separating from my uterus and that was what had caused my heavy bleeding when I was pushing. He told me that it had just started to separate and so I was lucky they had made the right choice to do the emergency c-section when they did before it got too bad and put me and the baby in too much danger. By the time I was cleaned up and rolled back onto the hospital bed they brought my sweet little boy all bundled up back to me. I was still shacking quite badly from all the pain I had been through and from the surge of adrenaline and other hormones that had just rushed through me. I remember asking Andrew and the doctors if it was ok for me to be holding the baby since I was shaking so bad. I was afraid I was going to give him shaking baby syndrome. They assured me it would be alright. After talking to Andrew I guess I asked them that a couple of time as they wheeled me back to my room. I don't remember that. I just remember feeling really concerned that I was going to give him shaken baby syndrome while holding him because I was shaking so badly. All in all it was a crazy long day. It took us another day or two to decide on a name but we settled on Matthew Andrew Stagg. He was born July 16th at 6:27pm. Yes, a 14 hour delivery. I Dilated all the way to a 10, pushed 2.5 hours and then ended up having an emergency c-section. Every women's worst nightmare of a delivery! But, I count myself lucky because Matthew and I are both healthy and doing well. He weighed 8lbs 7 oz and was 21 in long.
Matthew is the happiest baby I have ever known! When he is not sleeping or eating he is usually smiling. He started smiling (more then just gas smiles) at 5 weeks old. He is such a happy little guy he just can't keep it all in. We are all very much in love with him. He tolerates his sisters pretty well, even when Emma fed him a sour patch kids and shoved it in his mouth because she wanted to "share with baby mattew". He didn't even cry he just gagged a little. Having twin 2 year old sisters hasn't been easy for him. They love him so much and he tolerates them.
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