Baby Sweets Birth Story

It has been one month today since baby Sweet was born. I thought its about time to share his birth story. Super long, sorry!

How do you put into words one of the most amazing experiences of your life? I have been trying to figure that out for the last week. I guess I will just try by writing about that day.

I woke up at 5:50 AM and called the hospital to check and make sure they were still ok for us to come in and they were. I text B "they are still planning on us, see you at 7 mama!" She text me back "Yay ok! Holy crap! :)"

I hurried and got ready (that is one reason I love inductions, I even got to curl my hair) and woke up hubbs to get ready. I kissed my littleones goodbye while they slept knowing they would be in good hands with my sister and we were off! It felt so unreal driving to the hospital knowing I was giving birth to a baby that day. This whole thing has just been sureal. Like I go through the motions but none of it seems real. We arrived at the hospital and met B and N in the lobby, took a pic and off to check in. When we got to the desk we explained to them that I was the gestational carrier and that they were the mom and dad. This would be the first time of many that this fact would be pushed aside. No one at the hospital quite knew what to do with our situation. We had tried to talk with them about it a few months ago and they made it seem like they would figure it out once we were actually there. But here we were and still no one knew what to do.

Our sweet nurse took us into the room and had me change into that lovely hospital gown, asked me a zillion questions, hooked up my IV and started monitoring the baby's heart rate and my contractions. I let them know that I would like my epidural before they broke my water because in the past once my water breaks I dilate fast and baby is here within 45 minutes. She checked me and I was at a 4, they started the fluids and pitocin. I told them I would need lots of fluid before my epidural because in the past my blood pressure has gone down really fast when I get it if I don't have a ton of fluid first.

The doctor from the office upstairs came down and said he would break my water, luckily my nurse told him I wanted my epidural first, yay for a listening nurse! Soon after that the anethesiologist came in and gave me my epidural. Hubbs loves to watch and this anethesiologist was really nice and explained everything to him, not so sure I liked hearing about what was really happening back there. B stayed up by me and N waited in the hall. My blood pressure did great and the anethesiologist said he gave me the epidural a different way then I am used to (usually it is effective immediately) and that within 20 min it should be in full effect.

After about a half hour I told hubbs that I was pretty sure it wasn't as strong as I would like. I mean hey if I am going to have an epidural I don't want to feel the pain, right? At this point I could still move my feet, legs, hips, etc. I explained to them that I could squeeze my butt cheeks and feel it, not a good sign of a working epidural. Mainly I just felt that tingling feeling but not numb. In the past I have been able to feel the pressure of contractions and when to push and when baby was born, just not the pain. I really like it that way :) I was a bit nervous about the whole epidural not working properly thing. B kept teasing me because my heart rate would go up when we would talk about it.

I wanted to tell my nurse but she hadn't been in the room for a while. The hospital was doing a training that day and our nurse had to keep leaving to attend parts of it. I was quite irritated because it seemed to slow everything down quite a bit and made me question the type of care baby and I were getting. That makes me sad because my last two little ones were born at that hospital and I LOVED it and felt very cared for.

Finally she came back in with my Dr who was there to break my water, it was about 10:15 AM at this point and I was in between a 4 and 5 so not much progress. He asked if I wanted him to wait until they fixed the epidural or not but I told him no and to go ahead and break it. After my water was broken we thought everything would go quick like with my previous births. Unfortunately baby's heart tones kept going down with my contractions so the nurse would have to stop the pitocin. I was laid down, put on my side and given oxygen. Baby Sweet got a heart monitor put on his head so they could track him better. Also the anethesiologist came back and fixed my epidural, yay!

Around 11:00 AM everyone decided to show up at the same time (B's mom, step dad, sister, stepdaughter, dad, step mom and my parents and Jean) We had quite the amount of people in and out of our room from that point on until little baby Sweet was born. Every one was so excited. It was fun to have Jean there and ask her questions about how things were and what they did differently.

Well after a few hours of slowly upping the pitocin and then turning it back down because baby's heart tones were bad and one instance when my blood pressure went way down (the anethesiologist came running in and had to give me some medicine to bring it back up quickly) my Dr decided it was a good idea to give me a amnioinfusion. This is where they put water back up in my uterus to see if it would help with baby's heart tones/dips when I would contract. They were thinking he is laying on the cord so when I contract it squeezes it too hard. They water will help with the pressure. At this point we had no pitocin going and I was only dilated to a 5 still.

After about 30 min my Dr came back in to see if that was helping and if we could start the pitocin again. Well guess what, I was at a 10 and had been contracting on my own! I knew we were getting close because I had started to feel the urge to push. After that things moved quick. Everyone was out of the room, nurses and tables were brought in. This was it!

Of course things weren't perfectly smooth. Baby Sweet was facing up so my amazing Dr. had the ultrasound machine brought in so they could try and turn him. Hubbs was up by my head and helped hold my leg, the ultrasound machine was next to him, behind the ultrasound machine/Hubbs B stood and back in the corner on a couch N waited. ( I am sure it was not the most comfortable thing for N to be in there through some of it and I totally appreciate that he stayed in the back trying not to see much).

Through the next few contractions my Dr. had me push slightly while he turned baby Sweet head down, so glad it work! After that his next concern was still baby Sweets heart tones, they kept going dipping and I could tell they were worried. My Dr warned me that at some point he may have to use the forceps if we couldn't get him out fast enough. Well I pushed super hard for about the next 5 to 10 minutes through contractions and we made really good progress, I forgot how exhausting it is! Hubbs was so supportive and encouraging, I love that about him. Well all of a sudden my Dr said we needed to get baby Sweet out now. He grabbed the forceps and with one more push the little miracle was here!

I had made sure to discuss with my nurse/Dr that baby Sweet be taken to the warmer table first, not put on my tummy (I wanted his mommy to be the first to hold/touch him). My Dr lifted him up so I could see him and then handed him to the nurse to take him to the warming table. I looked at Hubbs and started to cry, then I looked over at B and seriously the world stood still. Being able to see the look on her face, tears in her eyes as she heard her babys first cries will forever be a mental image that I hold close to my heart. I don't think I have ever seen such joy, happiness, releif and love on someone's face before. I started bawling. We were all crying. You wanna know the first thing B did then, she ran over to me and hugged me and thanked me. Then she through her arms around Hubbs and thanked him. I asked her what she was doing and told her to get over there and see her baby. Hubbs mentioned to me that after witnessing this he could see what I had seen all along, this outcome and how happy they are. This moment is what made this whole journey for us completely worth it.

It was also amazing to watch her and N see him for the first time and hold him. Then they let me have a turn holding him.

Baby Sweet

2.28.13

7 lbs 20 1/2" long

The next few days were fun having both our families come meet baby Sweet and visit. It was also so fun to get to witness B and N with their new baby. They are such good parents and are so extremely happy to finally have their little baby! I am feeling great and am so happy for them. It was everything and more of how I imagined it.

The hospital definitely had no clue what they were doing with a surrogate baby. B and N were supposed to have the baby bracelets, Baby Sweet was supposed to go by baby Sweet but the hospital had him down as mine, they had me sign all the documents having to deal with baby Sweet. We went through all the legal work so he would be theirs the moment he was born. We were hoping they would be able to have their own room at the hospital but it all just confused the staff. B and I stayed in my room and everyone would come visit. We tried giving our legal papers to the staff numerous times but no one wanted them or would listen to us. When it all came down to it the hospital even made me sign the birth certificate telling us that we would have to get it changed through vital records. Basically the hospital didn't know how to handle it, and had us do all the wrong things.

It was a huge mess when we left the hospital. I should have never signed the birth certificate and vital records had a hard time correcting it. At one point they were even saying B and N were going to have to adopt their own baby from me. We weren't about to let that happen, that's why we got the pre birth order before he was born.

 The hospital now is having a hard time trying to figure out how to bill everything. On their records they only had a sweetsbabymama baby at their hospital belonging to me. Well legally he is baby sweet, a baby sweetsbabymama doesn't exist. At the time it all seemed stressful and upsetting to me, especially just having a baby, being hormonal and having the director of the hospital tell me I have to sign a birth certificate and documents for a baby that isn't mine. Legally we left the hospital and baby Sweet was mine going home with another mama. It is a good thing we were friends/family or it would have been a lot more awkward and could have been a bigger mess.

It was all worked out in the end and everything is good but there was a lot of stress and things to work out that shouldn't have happened.

And now.... pictures!