Part 2 of the story is Axton's birth. Please be warned there is some "pregnancy/birth" terminology used here. Hope you're all ok with that :)
At 11:39 (why I remember this detail, I don't know!) and I had a mild little cramp. I went back to sleep, but was awoken by another little cramp 9 minutes later...then another after 9 minutes. I had had contractions like this over the past few weeks, but they had always been irregular. I decided to go downstairs and tell Reg, (who had unwisely chosen to stay up and play video games, rather than go to sleep) that I thought this "may possibly" be it. I cannot stress enough how mild these cramps were...they were nothing...but since they were "regular" I knew they were possibly something. VERY early labour I presumed. Although I still wasn't positive they wouldn't stop like every other time. At this time Reg totally stepped it up and took control. I was in complete denial that this was REAL, but he wasn't fooling around, not with this storm, which was only going to get worse upon us. He called his mother to come watch Holden (what a trooper..she had already lost a night's sleep 2 nights previously awaiting the birth of the twins) and we were out the driveway as soon as we saw her vehicle coming down the road. With a quick "Be careful, the roads are REALLY bad" from her and a "This is probably nothing" from me, we were off on the drive of a lifetime.
My labour continued to be questionable with contractions being VERY mild (nothing worse than menstural cramps) and irregular. I was extrememly comfortable on the drive. I just kept telling Reg "Drive as slowly as you need to...we've got all the time in the world. Safety is #1, etc, etc, etc." The roads were extrememly tretcherous...which Reg would probably say is an understatement. We would have never made it had we driven anything but the big 4x4 truck. It was intense, to say the least!! We made it to the hospital 2 hours after leaving home. (this drive would normally take one) I was still very comfortable and so glad we had made it while I still had lots of time for an epidural :)
Once we got up to Labour & Delivery (they knew we were coming) they asked us to wait outside as there was an emergency situation taking place. They told me "You don't look to be in hard labour so can you just wait out here until we call you in?" Of course, no problem! We waited about 20 minutes until they were ready to take me into the assesment area. Once in there they put moniters on me to see how regular/intense my contractions were. I asked the nurse in charge of me what she thought and she said "We won't know forsure until the doctor checks you but to me it looks like you're in early labour ...don't worry though, we won't send you home in the storm. You can stay here and wait for things to progress." Perfect! Just what I had suspected, lots of time for that epidural!
A few minutes later the doctor came in to check me. As soon as she "got down there" her eyes lit up. The nurse got excited and told me "oooo this is going to be good news" The doctor, after being speechless for a moment looked at the nurse and said "This girl is is 8-9cm dialted...we need to get her to a delivery room right now! If her water breaks we're in big trouble!" As soon as she finished saying that, BOOM, my water broke! This is when everything hit the fan...nurses came running, yanking wires out of the wall, other nurses calling "ruptured memebranes, ruptured membranes!" across the whole unit. This is also the point when I realized there would be no epidural for me - oh my word! How could I be ready to give birth to this baby, yet I basically had no labour? I had a new understanding for the TV show "I Didn't Know I Was Pregnant"! I wasn't ready for this, but I really didn't have long to think about things.
They rushed me across the hallway so quickly, it was incredible. The looks on the faces on the ladies that had registered me just moments earlier were priceless! I was into the delivery room and on the delivery bed just in time to start pushing. Things, although faster than we were all ready for, were still going normally at this point. Turns out we had the same delivery nurse we had had for Holden (which I absolutely adored!) and we were also being joined by a midwifery student from my cousin's class. Things were starting off very well :)
It certainly wasn't long before I had the urge to push, so the nurses gave me the "go ahead". From my very first push it was evident that Axton was in distress. The nurse and midwifery student went from calm & relaxed to intense and worried. They got on the phone immediately to the Neonatal team who were there within a minute or 2. This group of at least 10 people were joined by another nurse and two OB's. One of the OB's took immediate control of the situation, which was not getting any better. (Reg tells me he had been watching the heart rate moniter as Axton's pulse was dropping. One of the nurses noticed him watching and removed the moniter from my belly. The last number Reg saw was 30 - this is not a good number for a baby's pulse to be at!!) The OB's and nurses just kept telling me "Don't stop pushing, this baby needs to be born NOW!" I was pushing, & pushing! I was not even allowed to stop during the breaks between contractions. Finally Axton got into a position where the OB could reach him, thankfully because on top of everything else his shoulder became stuck. She reached in did some manouvering to reposition Axton and then pulled him out. It was February 2, Groundhog Day, 4:28am...our parking pass said 3:28am!
Little Axton had been born, but the ordeal was far from over. He was limp and purple and not making a peep. It was very scarey for me! He was immediatley wisked away to the corner of the room to be attended to by the Neonatal team. I couldn't see him as there were so many people surrounding him, talking very quietly and working on him. There was not one thing I could do at this point but pray and trust. I had done everything in my power for this baby and now it was up to God and the Neonatal team. I could do nothing more. After what seemed like an eternity, Axton began to make little noises, and then fianlly a cry. Not a great cry, but a cry none the less. Axton's lungs were full of fluid from his fast delivery so the team suctioned him out.
He seemed to be perking up by the minute. Eventually the Neonatal team was confident that Axton had made a good enough recovery and so they went on their way. About half an hour after his birth Axton seemed to be recovered and we were able to hold him. His colour was still not great, and he was very sleepy, but it ws wonderful to hold him. I assumed he would be fine now but it was only a minute or two before the nurses realized his breathing was still not good. He was grunting - very much like our little pug dog Zoe. Axton was wisked away again and the Neonatal team was called back for a second time. After more suctioning and observation and about 20 more minutes Axton was given back to me. This time it was for good.
At this point everything was back to "normal". We spent a little while longer in the delivery room and then we were taken across the hall to the ward. We passed through the waiting room on the way out. This is the same place we were asked to wait during the emergency. We had met a woman there who was waiting for someone else and her eyes almost bugged out when she saw me in the wheelchair carrying my baby. It wasn't more than an hour and a half since I had seen her last and at that point I was barely in labour...or so I thought!!
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