As we planned for Carden’s arrival sometime on Tuesday knowing the induction would begin that morning, we had lined up grandmother shifts taking care of Jayden so they all would be close by when it was time. Little did we know Carden had a different plan? Sunday, Dec 6th was Jay’s birthday and we were planning a little get together in the Cafeteria at 5:00 to celebrate and for me to see Jayden since it had been a couple days and was going to be mid. to late in the week before I was able to go home. That Sunday morning around 9:00 as every morning, they had hooked me up to the baby monitor; Carden was flat lined, like to see zig zags, with accelerations and decelerations. The nurse called the doctor, I was to stay on the monitor, I started on a Mountain Dew that friends had brought 4 days ago, to see if we could get a little activity out of him. I’m starting to get worried, another hour with no significant changes. Have we waited too late to deliver, this is the first sign that an infection is setting in and we’ve risked taking a perfectly healthy, though immature baby, gambling on getting to 34 weeks. The doctor orders me to go over to Labor and Delivery where I can be put on continuous monitoring, for they don’t do that at special maternity. So needless to say I was not going down to the cafeteria at 5 to celebrate Jay’s birthday with the family, they would not even let me off the monitor to take a shower. That afternoon the baby was starting to show variability, zig zag lines, what we like to see but I had a significant increase in contractions now 4/hr. The doctor came back in late that afternoon to take a look at the readings, which she was much happier, but basically I’m not going back to my old room and will be in labor and delivery until the baby arrives. Contractions continued off and on through the night and were getting much stronger but no real pattern. Morning arrived I had an ultrasound to check on baby’s position, vertex, head down and pointing the correct way, they also did a quick measuring, estimated 3lbs 7oz, wow, he has shrunk again, for he was 3lbs 15oz last week, tells you not to believe it 100%. One of my doctor’s partners came by to see me and he had indicated I could labor like this for 2-3 days or I could go ahead and start the pitocin instead of waiting the 24 hours on my previously set date. My concern was I didn’t want to wear the baby out contracting and having the decels during the contractions, which had been happening off and on throughout the last 3 weeks. Then he would be too tired, forcing us to have a C-Section. He allowed me to take a shower while consulting with my doctor, the nurse volunteered her opinion, and she would wait because I was not in labor. (Not “in labor” I was thinking to myself, what the heck pain was I going through.) After a shower, got back in bed for more monitoring, I asked the nurse what was her definition of “in labor”, she said contractions 5 min apart or cervical changes. Shortly Dr. DeHoff came by and he checked me I was already 5-6 cm and station 0, (nurse began to be more attentive to me) he went ahead and ordered up the pitocin so I would have a quicker labor, not to stress the baby, if I wanted an epidural I needed to get it now or it would be too late. I remember last time being on pitocin and those contractions were much too strong in comparison to these, for I was still calling them a 5 on the pain scale but was starting to second think my judgment. Yes, get me an epidural and I’ve also experienced it would make me dilate quicker, bettering my chances for a vaginal delivery. An hour and half later I was at 7 and an hour after that I was fully dilated and could feel the head. I pushed two times then was told to wait until all the baby’s nurses were there, pushed two more times and he was out kicking and crying out loud. Crying was music to our ears for we were totally prepared for silence and resuscitation. Carden Lee Smith was born on Monday, Dec. 7th at 3:51 pm, 4 lbs 7 oz and 17.5” inches long.
