Jase's Story

I woke up early Monday morning feeling kind of crampy in my stomach and my legs were really achy. I got up for a second and when I get back I just laid down on my side. I just really wasn't feeling very well. A few minutes later my nurse and two doctors walked in the said the monitor showed that the baby's heart rate had gone down a little.

They were concerned that since there is hardly any fluid that the umbilical cord may have come down. They checked and that didn't seem to be the case. At this point the heart rate was back up and doing OK. I told them that I wasn't feeling well and so my nurse checked my temperature and it was little bit high, but not too bad. One of the signs that I could have an infection and need to deliever the baby is having a high temperuter which means a fever. I continue to just lay there either freezing so bad that my teeth were chattering or so hot I was sweating.

My nurse came back took my temperature again and said it was continuing to go up. She went to talk to my doctor and came back in telling me that they needed to deliver the baby because I showed signs of infection. At that point, a rush of emotion came over me. I wasn't sure how I felt. I was relieved because this is what I have been waiting for, but I wasn't sure how big the baby was and how he was doing and how the infection may affect him. I was told that sometime in the next hour they would take me down to Labor and Delivery. Then it would probably take all day to get through labor and deliver him and as long as he did well with everything, then it should just be a normal birth. I called Jeremy and told him what I had been told, but that he probably had awhile because it would take all day.

They take me down to L&D and start getting me ready there. Jeremy shows up just before they start me on Pitocin. They have a tube in me that is pumping saline up around the baby so he would be cushioned during the contractions. They get all that going and Jeremy and I are just there talking. All of the sudden we see the baby's heart rate plummet and about 5 people come running into the room. They start turning me from side to side trying to stabilize the heart beat. They finally get it back up after what felt like 10 minutes (I think it was only like one or two) and then they tell me he's not going to tolerate this. We have to do an emergency c-section. I think they had me prepped and ready to go in about 15 minutes. Thank goodness Jeremy came when he did or he may have missed it!

The C-section went really well. The doctors and the anesthesiologist were great. They chatted with to me to whole time and it was no sweat getting him out. In the room right next to us was a team from the NICU that was ready and waiting for him. As soon as he was here they walked him by us briefly and then took him over there to get stabilized. He pinked up really quickly and took a few breathes on his own, which was very encouraging.

He was soon hooked up to all of his monitors and IVs and resting fairly peacefully.

A few hours later I was able to go down and see him and I actually had a chance to hold him. I had only seen zoomed in pictures at this point and so when I actually saw him I was surprised at how small he really was. To be honest it's a little bit intimidating.

All seems to be going well at this point. We are just waiting to see how he reacts to everything and what the future brings. I actually have a few more picture to post from today, but I just need to get a hold of them and then I will do it.