The Birth Story

I figured that I better get this down before it all becomes a distant memory!

On Thursday, October 1st, 2009, I did not go into the office because basically I was miserable and tired of sitting at a desk for 8 hours. I worked from home and chatted with Heather on instant messenger and complained of my baby's awkward movements that day and my more than usual braxton hicks contractions. She joked that I would not make it through the weekend without having my baby. "Yeah right", I thought. Around noon, I left our house to meet Melissa for lunch at my favorite local mexican restaurant. After I finished eating, the braxton hicks contractions seemed to subside, so I did get a little bummed and figured at this point, I wouldn't have a baby until after 40 weeks.

I came home and relaxed on the couch until Bruce got home from work around 4:00 p.m. He asked me if I wanted to go for a walk and I agreed, so around 4:40 we went upstairs to change clothes. I bent over and Gasped! Bruce said, "what's wrong?" "I think my water just broke...that certainly wasn't normal." Bruce just stared at me as I hustled into the bathroom. Yup, this was definitely not normal. We hung around and waited to see if it continued to happen and also if any contractions would start. Two hours later, I continued to leak and the contractions kicked in, so I called the on call doctor, who told me to get to the hospital immediately. So, we packed up some last minute things, said goodbye to the dogs and we headed to the hospital.

We checked into the Northside around 7:30 p.m. and they hooked me up to all the proper monitors, started an IV and confirmed that my water did break and we'd be having a baby within 24 hours! YIPPEE!! Shortly after, the nurse checked me to see if I was at all dilated. That would be a negative...maybe a fingertip, but not much more than that. CRAP! My doctor came in and told me that that were going to start me on Cervadil that would start the process of "softening" my cervix and they would then give me some Ambien and Morphine so I could get some sleep and then the next morning at 7 a.m. they would start me on Pitocin. Sounds like a plan to me...but things don't always go to plan. :)

Around 10 p.m., my contractions were coming faster and stronger and I was literally climbing the walls. Holy Hell do they hurt! The nurse came in, took one look at me and said "Honey, that Morphine isn't helping with those contractions?" UMMM, NO, it is NOT helping! She decided to check me again for dilation and surprise, surprise I was already dilated to 3 almost 4 cms! The nurse said, "I better get you an epidural." PRAISE JESUS! The anesthesiologist a.k.a. my new best friend, showed up about 40 minutes later and stabbed me in the back with the best drug in the world! About 10 minutes later I was completely relaxed and able to get some rest. Phew!

A little before 4:00 a.m. I woke up to my nurse and doctor standing over me and my doctor said to me "Carrie, we have a choice to make. It seems as though your baby's heart rate has been elevated in the 180's and 190's for quite sometime and we are not sure what is causing it. Right now, I am leaning towards having an emergency c-section because I do not want to have you labor for a long time and put your baby in anymore unnecessary distress. I am going to check you one more time to see if you have dilated anymore and then I will make a decision." She checked me and I was dilated to 10 cms and our baby was ready for me to start pushing. My doctor left the room and came back minutes later and said "we're having a baby via c-section tonight." I asked, how much time we had until we went to the OR and she answered "30 minutes". Oh hell! We made 2 phone calls, one to my parents and one to Bruce' and they started wheeling me down the hall.

I was prepped in the OR around 4:30 a.m. and 14 minutes later I heard Bruce say, "It's a BOY!" and I got the first glimpse of my beautiful baby boy. He was just splendid, wonderful, PERFECT.

Noah Allen Calkins born October 2, 2009 at 4:44 a.m. weighing 8 lbs 0 oz and measuring 20.5 inches.

The c-section wasn't all that bad! I recovered nicely and my doctor did an amazing job with the incision. We are all healthy and happy and completely enamored.