Everett Grey Rasmussen (a super long birth story full of t.m.i., don't read if you hate birth stories.)

Everett Grey Rasmussen
born: 11/12/12 at 1:09pm
weight: 8lbs. 2oz.
length: 21in.

The Birth Story

I've already forgotten a lot of details about it. So, for some background,  I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes at around 34 weeks which I would have known about at 29 weeks if my doctors office had called me back about my glucose results, the nurse had told me "no news is good news." So I didn't worry. I went in at 34 weeks and the doctor asked if anyone had called me, no one had. Then he proceeded to tell me that I needed to do the 3 hour glucose test just to make sure I really had it, so I went in and failed all 3 times. Awesome...so glad there were no complications during the 5 weeks I didn't know about it! Luckily it was diet controlled, I had to go to the diabetes clinic and learn how to check my blood sugar and then talk to a dietitian about how to count carbs. At 6 weeks postpartum I will be tested again, hopefully I will pass. There are lots of risks (don't worry, totally had a meltdown at the clinic...tons of fun). One of the risks is that your baby can be huge which can then result in them getting stuck in the birth canal, then they can either break babies collar bone to get them through or do an emergency c-section neither sounded good...bring on the anxiety. I was able to keep my numbers low as long as I ate right. At 37 weeks I had another appointment the doctor tells me they will probably induce me because they don't want me to go passed my due date (apparently the placenta can go bad if your a diabetic and cut off oxygen to baby). Every week after that, they would check me and tell me I wasn't dilating, then each doctor (I went to Valley OBGYN where they have like 10 docs on staff) would tell me something different about being induced or not.

 I was 40 weeks and went in for my appointment, they had told me my blood pressure was high the previous 3 weeks and were concerned about Eclampsia, it was high again, this was Tues. Nov. 6th. The doctor told me they wanted me to go to the hospital and that they would induce me. I went to the hospital and the labor and delivery nurses were confused about why I was there, apparently my doc hadn't been specific about the whole inducing thing. So after 5+ hours of being monitored and getting my b.p. checked every 15 min. they sent me home and told me to have it checked again in 2 days. I went to my obgyn again that Thursday the 8th, they asked if I had done the 24 hr. urine test, I hadn't so they sent me home and said to bring it back the next day. I went back in Friday the 9th to turn in my urine, they wanted to do a blood test as well to check my platelets, they said to call Sat. the 10th in the afternoon to find out the results of my urine test to see if there was protein in it, if there was they would probably induce me. I call in on Sat. and there is no record of my tests, the nurse contacts the doc on call to see if he can find them. He calls me back 3 times and couldn't find them, I'm pretty sure he had me mixed up with someone else. On the 3rd call he has them, says they are OK but not great, he wants to induce me, says the hospital would call at about 6 or 7pm  I didn't here anything so I figured there were no openings that night, we waited all day Sunday, I had finally given up on the idea and thought I would just have to call Monday morning to my ob to find out what was going on. then at 5:45pm on Sun.the 11th, the hospital called and said they would be ready at 6:30pm that night for me to be induced.

We got to the hospital and checked in. It was 7 pm before we got into a room, the room was really nice and good sized. The nurse came in and got me all hooked up, the worst part out of everything while in the hospital was getting the iv in my hand, that was the most pain I felt the entire time. Even in the middle of labor  I was babying my hand, I kept telling the nurse not to touch it or bump it, I'm sure she thought I was nuts. The IV made the epidural look like a piece of cake to get put in. Once I was hooked up, she gave me my first dose of Cervidil, she gave it to me every 3 hours and a total of 3 doses, on the third dose they started the Pitocin and got me the epidural (epidural = pleasant birthing experience) not sure what I was so afraid of. Within a few minutes of starting the Pitocin, my water broke (weirdest feeling ever). The contractions became regular and really close together so the nurse decided to turn the Pitocin off after less than an hour (it was about 6am), and luckily my body did the rest.

Labor progressed nicely and we just hung out and laughed and talked while the nurse go the room ready for the birth. She gave me the option of watching in the mirror, it was cool until I saw the first bit of blood, I told Tim to take it away immediately, lesson learned, ignorance is bliss for me. At 12pm I began pushing, Dr. Broberg came in and out a few times to check and see if I was ready. At 1:09pm I gave one push and Everett was born, I have never felt so much joy at one time.

I wanted to hold him but his heart rate had been high the last hour before he was born so they wouldn't let me yet. The doctor had the nicu team come down before he was even born because he thought there could be a problem. As the nicu doctor and team looked him over all I could do was stare and hope to catch a glimpse of him. I caught a quick look and noticed that his chest was moving a lot as if he was struggling to get air. I asked the nurse if there was something wrong, she assured me that this was really common and that he would have to go down to the nicu and be put on a breathing machine for a little while and that that would fix it. She said that he had Transient Tachypnea and had also swallowed some Meconium making it hard for him to breath regularly. Before they took him the let me hold him for a few minutes before rushing him down to the nicu. Tim was able to go and be there with him and got a few pictures.

Baby Everett in the nicu at Utah Valley

Holding Everett for the first time was wonderful, I knew him, he was perfection. Once I got all fixed up, they wanted to move me down to recovery. Our nurse took us by the nicu to see him for a little bit. I was feeling really sad and worried about him until we walked passed babies that were so tiny and so sickly. I began to feel extremely blessed to have such a healthy baby. His pediatrician came to our room after he had looked him over and told us that he had really low blood sugar which is common in babies born to mothers with gestational diabetes so they gave him some formula and told us we had to stay on a really strict feeding schedule to make sure it didn't drop again. He also said that his breathing would be fine but his congestion would take a while to clear up so we would have to suction him before feeding him and any time he seemed stuffy.

Finally, Everett was brought to our room, I was so glad to have him close again. We spent an extra day in the hospital so they could monitor him and run more tests. After what seemed like an eternity and very touch and go they released us. Coming home felt so good, it was wonderful to sleep in my own bed again and have  our new baby there. We love Everett!