A Baby Story - The Birth of Mattingly

In general my pregnancy was fantastic. In fact, a few weeks before my due date our doctor thought everything was going so well that they did not think I needed to come in for two more weeks (appointments were typically every week at that point). So we were off to the outerbanks for some sun and beach. Upon return, we had a follow up appointment and one of our midwifes told us that after 'feeling' the baby, that she was head down and ready to go. This was great news and we proceeded to believe that everything was going great all the way through the next appointment as well. At our 39 week appointment our favorite mid-wife performed the exam and disagreed with the previous exams and did not think that the head was down. After an ultrasound, she was able to confirm that our baby's head was up and she was in fact 'Frank Breech'.

The options were (1) try 'version' which is an attempt to turn the baby into the head down position which would be automatically followed by inducing labor to prevent the baby from turning back or getting caught in the umbilical cord; or (2) scheduling a C-Section asap to prevent me from going into labor with a breech baby, which could have all sorts of problems. We decided to try for a natural birth and scheduled the version for 9:30 on Saturday morning. We packed all of our bags and were prepared to have our baby on Saturday!

Upon arriving at the hospital, we were shown to our room and the prep work began. They attached the monitors which kept track of my heartbeat and any contractions, and the baby's heart rate. I was also hooked up to a blood pressure monitor, and probably several other contraptions which I have since forgotten. They then proceeded to insert the IV to which I had a terrible reaction. They called it a 'vagel' reaction (we called it a 'bagel' reaction), and it basically consisted of me getting very light headed and feeling like I was going to pass out, even though I was laying in bed. This reaction caused my blood pressure to plummet and in turn the baby's heart rate dropped. The nurse quickly rolled me on my side and everyone jumped in to get my blood pressure up to help the baby. Paul waved me with the vomit bowl that I had asked for, but did not use, and the extra air really helped. I pulled out of it, but it was extremely scary.

I rested for awhile as they confirmed that everything was ok with the baby and then the doctor and our mid-wife came in to begin the version. They made two attempts which lasted about 1 minute each and Paul coached me through the pain as if I was having contractions.... breathe 1...2...3... They had a game plan and pushed with all their might, but baby would not budge. We then had to begin to accept the fact that we would be having a C-Section. We were asked if we wanted to do it that day, or comes back at the beginning of the week. We decided that with my weak stomach for such procedures it would be best to just do it that day and prevent me from having too much time to think about everything. Also, we had gotten pretty excited to meet our little girl and really did not want to push it off if we didn't have too.

The doctor's then talked to the hospital about scheduling the C-Section, but they were not thrilled about scheduling an 'elective' operation for a weekend. She talked to the anesthesiologist and he agreed to allow the surgery, but it would have to wait until after his more urgent procedures. We were scheduled for 1 pm, but were then pushed back until after 4 pm due to a few other surgeries. However, when one of the nurses checked my monitors she informed me that I was having contractions! She then checked and sure enough I was 2 cm dilated and natural labor had begun. This moved us up in the priority line for the OR and off we went. Things were just happening too fast for me to get scared and I can’t imagine how Paul felt as he starred through the window as I was being prepped. I was told I had a sympathetic response to the epidural. I am not sure what that means, but I was still feeling most of the prick tests, which concerned me until I was unable to move either of my legs and then I knew it was only a matter of time before that feeling moved north. Paul was able to come in and be with me throughout the whole procedure and he actually watched our doctor pull her out by her foot.

We were both pretty excited to know that Mattingly Olivia had entered the world, but she still had a lot of amniotic fluid in her lungs and they had to use a respirator for about a half an hour. I was able to see her for a second, but then they whisked her away. Her APGAR score was 1 out of 10 initially but after they were able to suction some of the fluids she quickly jumped to an 8. They originally wanted to keep her in the nursery for 4 hours, but her condition improved so much that I was able to see her and hold her in my arms after only the minimum nursery time. The nurses were all wonderful and we had a great hospital stay. Mattie is doing fantastic and even more precious than we could ever imagine!!!