It all began on Sunday September 8th. I was having the worst braxton hicks contractions and couldn't believe that this could go on for another 2 weeks. I had the idea in my head that I would go a week overdue with Carter like I had with Jackson. Thankfully, I was able to go to sleep that night for some much needed rest. I had been so uncomfortable and hadn't had a good nights rest due to aches, pains, and insomnia. Well, that night was no different!
I woke up to some pretty good contractions early in the morning around 3am. I didn't bother waking up Jarred, but did begin to notice that they started to become regular by about 4am. The doctor had told me that since this was my second child the contractions could be 5-10 min apart for an hour or two and that would be signal to go into the office if they were open or head to the hospital. These contractions started coming about 5-10 min apart so by about 4:30am I decided to wake up Jarred to have him help me time the contractions and possibly get ready to go to the hospital. I wasn't completely convinced though because these contractions weren't lasting very long, only about 30-40 seconds and weren't as strong or painful like with Jackson. So at about 5:30am we decided to call the nurses line and get her opinion on what to do. She suggested I try taking a warm bath and relaxing as much as possible to check if the contractions slow or stop and then to come into the office in about an hour and a half to have them check me before rushing off to the hospital. I did this and the contractions slowed to closer to 10 min apart, but they didn't stop and once I started moving around again at all they came on even closer together.
At this point we were gathering up our bags and kept trying to get a hold of Ashlee and Andy because they were going to watch Jackson for us. We couldn't get a hold of them, so we decided to just take Jackson to the doctor's office with us. We arrived at the office around 7:30am and were immediately hooked up to monitors to check the babies heart rate and to time the intensity and length of the contractions. Once we did that for about 30-40 min. Jarred decided to just take Jackson over to Ashlee and Andy's home figuring showing up in person would be okay. Come to find out, they are out of town! I had forgotten that they were coming back to town that evening and I remembered reassuring Ashlee that them being out of town wouldn't conflict with the birth because I was "definitely having the baby a week late anyways." Luckily, my good friend and wonderful visiting teacher, Rachel, was able to watch Jackson with a moments notice for us.
While Jarred was driving around town to get Jackson taken care of, the doctor finally came into the office to check how I was doing. Up until that point, I had only been seen by the nurses in the office. He looked at the print outs of the contractions and said things looked good and that he just needed to check how dilated I was before deciding if we should head right to the hospital or go for a walk before arriving at the hospital. The next thing I know, the doctor says to the nurse, "we've got a problem. I only feel limbs." This kind of freaked me out hearing the word "problem" and then I realized he was saying that my baby was breech. My heart started racing because I knew this wasn't what I had planned on at all. I was dilated to a 4 at this point and was immediately given an ultrasound to confirm the breech position. I was about to ask the doctor if there was a possibility of delivering the baby breech or if we could get the baby to turn somehow when the doctor said that if the baby was in a specific breech position then he could deliver the baby normally, but the baby was unfortunately in the wrong position for that. By now Jarred had finally arrived back to the office and the doctor gave us our options of what we could do. The first option was to just go to the hospital, get an epidural and have a c-section. The second option was to go to the hospital, get an epidural, attempt to turn the baby from the outside and then if it is successful to have a vaginal delivery and if it is unsuccessful to have a c-section. There wasn't really an option to see if the baby would turn on his own because there was too great a chance of my water breaking and the umbilical cord coming down first through the birth canal, which is a life-threatening situation for the baby. I was set on a vaginal delivery, so I opted for option 2. Within a few minutes we were headed to the hospital.
By the time I was checked in, poked (multiple times because I was dehydrated), given an epidural and finally checked again by the doctor I was dilated to a 7. Things began to move really quick now. The doctor knew that because I was so far dilated that there was a greater chance of the external cephalic version (turning the baby) procedure not working so he decided to have me get a higher dosage of the epidural to make it a surgical epidural and to do the whole procedure in the operating room. Speaking of epidurals, I had forgotten that they can make you feel sick and light headed until things even out. My blood pressure kept dropping and took forever to normalize. I loved the epidural and was so grateful for it, but I sure felt like crap waiting for my blood pressure to normalize. I couldn't even talk or open my eyes because I knew if I did I would start throwing up.
I was wheeled into the freezing operating room and moved onto the very narrow operating table with my hands strapped to arm rests that made me look like a giant T. In the mean time people were coming and going getting things set up and Jarred was given his surgical cap and gown so that he could stay in there with me. There was a wonderful anesthesiologist and his resident that helped to keep me calm by explaining what was going on and reassuring me that I would be okay. The doctor came in and started directing the nurses around so they could attempt to turn the baby. This is where I was glad I had an epidural and couldn't feel any pain. They used an ultrasound machine to help them know how exactly Carter was positioned. Then the doctor cupped his hands on the top of my stomach while a nurse helped with the lower portion. He took a wide stance and pulled towards himself with all his might while the nurse pushed. Jarred described it as if the doctor was trying to pull a truck up a hill! I could feel Carter beginning to move a little, but he never made it the whole way. Before we knew it, the doctor was bellowing out, "crash for a c-section!"
My water had broken and this meant that they could not longer attempt to turn the baby because it was too dangerous. This is when things went from wild to crazy, or so it seemed. Thankfully Jarred and the resident who was helping the anesthesiologist really helped to keep me calm. I was nervous and hadn't fully accepted the fact that I was going to give birth via c-section. The anesthesiologist was double checking the surgical epidural by poking my side with a tool to see how high up the epidural was. I was terrified of it not being effective enough and that I would feel them cutting me open. There was drape blocking me from seeing them doing the procedure, so I didn't know when they were going to begin. I told Jarred that I was worried about this and he said that they had already started cutting. Yay! My biggest fear didn't come true! Next thing we knew, the anesthesiologist is telling Jarred to stand up to see the birth of his son. I was amazed that Jarred did stand up and didn't even faint seeing me cut open. He said they pulled Carter out bum first! They had Carter out in a matter of minutes, but he had to be taken quickly by the pediatric nurses because there was muconium in the womb, so they needed to make sure it wasn't getting into his lungs. I heard a quick little baby cry and that helped relieve some of my anxiety. It them seemed as if it was forever before I was able to see Carter again. I was so worried something had gone wrong with him, but I'm sure he wasn't gone as long as I imagined. I was finally stapled and glued back together and the doctor reassured me that I would be able to have a vaginal delivery in the future, which was a nice thing to hear. But, the best was when they finally brought Carter into the room and I saw them hand him to Jarred. It was wonderful to see my husband lovingly hold and kiss our newborn son. Jarred brought him over for me to see him. They unstrapped one of my arms so I could touch him easier while Jarred held him. The strong epidural started to make me feel a little woozy again so I couldn't enjoy the moment as much as I'd liked. The nurses took him back to bath him and such and I sent Jarred with him to make sure he was doing okay.
While they were cleaning me up, they had to do an x-ray on my uterus because they had to do the procedure so quickly they weren't able to do a count of the the gauze and instruments before starting, so they had to check and make sure nothing was left inside me. Thank goodness nothing was left behind! Another crazy thing was that during the c-section I was able to see where the doctor was tossing the bloody gauze onto the floor onto a big sheet and Jarred and I were amazed at how much blood there was. Surgery sure is messy.
My next favorite part of this ordeal was when I was finally all cleaned up and covered in lots of warm blankets and the nurse brought Carter into see me and asked if I would like to hold him as I was wheeled to the recovery room. I jumped (as well as you can with an epidural and just having a c-section) at the chance and was so happy to finally hold my beautiful little boy and smother him with kisses. I was finally able to really relax and enjoy my son without any other stresses going on around me.
Carter Dean Brandt was born on September 9th, 2013. He was a whopping 8lb 4oz and 20in long. He looks a lot like Jackson and even has a similar "old man" hairline from the get go. He is a healthy little baby and we couldn't be more grateful. I can't wait to see him grow up and see his personality develop. We feel so blessed to have him in our family and have loved seeing Jackson welcome him into our family as well.
