Tristan Brooks Baker: The Adventure of a Lifetime.

 

Thursday, September 1—induction scheduled. But based on my survey of friends, I knew it wasn’t likely that I would get in that day. However, since I did get put on for medical needs, my hopes were high. That day came and went, along with the next three days. Sunday, September 4^th, I called again that morning and she said it wasn’t likely to happen and she knows I’m about an hour away and will make sure to let me know..

4:30 that afternoon, we were getting stuff ready to grill out with the kids, we’d made pasta salad, had burger patties made, and Randy came to the kitchen with my phone and said, “It’s Sparrow Hospital”.

WELP, holy shit.

She said, “I know I talked to you this morning, but we’re wondering if you want to come in for your induction?”….I had already mentally put in the back of my mind so I was a bit in shock and not mentally prepared. But, I asked if two hours was ok and we’d be there around 6:30-7.

I called my mom and she flew over…literally…got here so fast. We attempted to eat dinner and then the rushing around happened. We had bags packed, but it was mostly gathering of snacks and whatnot since I assumed it would be a very long night/next day.

Now, I have had Pitocin before with both of my prior labor and deliveries. Both times, I went into labor on my own, my water broke on its own, and I labored…however, both time, my body stopped dilating at 4 cm and they started Pitocin. So, I felt like I semi-knew what to expect.

Joke was on me.

We arrived at 7:05 and got into triage, but I was taken back to L&D right away and straight into a room—which was honestly a nice surprise. They checked me upon arrival, and I was 3 cm and 60% effaced. Because I was that far along on my own, we were going straight to Pitocin (as opposed to a foley balloon, etc.).

At 8:40 pm, they started the Pitocin and it would be upped every 30 minutes. I was at 3 cm, 60% effaced and at a -2 station.

Contractions started pretty quickly and by 10 I was feeling them rather consistently, although I was apparently having steady contractions upon arrival (they weren’t painful to me yet).

11:00 rolls around and my OB came in to check me: 4 cm, 70% effaced, and still -2. We decided to break my water----and this is pretty much what triggered the next 3 hours.

After this, we waited 1 hour to up the Pitocin again, so at midnight, it was upped again. From 12:30-1:30 the pain increased DRASTICALLY. Like, when I say drastically, I mean it felt like 0 to 80 in a matter of moments. I was trying to hold off to ask for the epidural, just to see how far I could get on my own, but the pain was increasing so much and because my nurse said it would likely take an hour from when I request it to actually receive it, I wasn’t going to hesitate much.

At 1:30, my nurse came in and asked how I was doing with pain. I told her I was ready to put in the anesthesia request…and she asked if I’d like to be checked first to see where I was at. Because if I was CLOSE, she knew I could probably get through it unmedicated. So, we called in the resident to come in and check me.

4 cm, 90% effaced, and at a -1.

ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME was my thought. I had never been in so much pain in my life. I had made it further than this unmedicated before and never was in this much pain. I was trembling uncontrollably, feeling a TON of lower back pain and was just insanely uncomfortable…but, here we are. So my nurse got the request in for the epidural, I signed the paperwork, and we got the saline started that you need to have prior.

As we’re waiting for anesthesiology, the pain becomes almost unbearable. The only way I can describe it is to say it felt like my back was breaking in half. Almost all my pain was in my lower back..and it was unlike anything I’d experienced before.

My nurse came in to switch over the saline and she started prepping the room and the station for delivery. I told her, as she had her back to me, “There is an INSANE amount of pressure. Like, something isn’t right…”

“Do you feel like you need to push?”

“YES.”

I did a half push because I couldn’t NOT push, but no one really knew that except me. She went and got the resident again, she came in, checked me, and said, “UM. We’re at 10 cm and baby’s head it right here.” This was at 2:00 am, so it’d been ~30 minutes since I was told I was at 4 cm.

I could literally feel her touching the baby’s head…

Shit hit the fan from there. Everyone was running around, they ran and got my OB and my feet were in stirrups in a matter of seconds it seemed.

The OB arrived, they handed me the gas mask to help with the pain but I was too focused on pushing. One push and his head was out, one more and he arrived earthside at 2: 26 am. All I remember is the sound of Randy’s voice telling me “It’s a boy. Oh my god, it’s a boy!”

I was in so much shock from the chaos of the last 20 minutes, the pain of having just birthed him, and just joy, it all seems like so much of a blur that I can’t articulate this part well in words. But he was here, the nurses kept handing me the mask for gas and telling me to seal it around my face because I wasn’t doing that…

It was INSTANT relief when he was born. That part of what you read about is no lie. But the next couple hours were nothing that I was prepared for…

So, I’m used to being medicated for the placenta delivery, stitches, etc. I didn’t really think much of it…But this was perhaps the worst part of the delivery. Yes, I had the gas, but for me, I would describe that as more of a mental twilight rather than a pain reliever/reducer. It takes you to another place mentally, but doesn’t reduce the pain.

We started with the stiches. Cool. Second degree tear which is what I had with the others, but getting stitches in your lady bits with no epidural was rather………interesting. To me, it felt like the thinnest skin on your body was being pulled and tugged on and in a rather not pleasant spot to say the least.

We got those down rather quickly. Now I hear my OB say, “We need to work on her placenta”….ok?

Again, I’ve always had an epidural during this and it never was difficult, you delivered this shortly after and it was done. Not this time…

Apparently, my placenta was attached to the wall of my uterus. It was NOT going to come out on its own. For a solid hour, my belly was pushed on, massaged and tugged on to attempt to get it out. With every move, I’m flinching and trying to breathe through it, but it was PAINFUL.

I hear Randy ask, “That’s a lot of blood. Is that normal?”, to which, my OB quickly, but calmly, said “No. It’s not.”

In this moment, I literally wondered if I was going to bleed out here on this table. That probably sounds a bit dramatic, but its where my head went. We’d survived a drowning, baby was here and safe, but would I not make it? Because of my placenta of all things? Like, COME ON.

Obviously, I didn’t bleed out, good news. But anyway, a tool was eventually used to scrape the placenta away from my uterine wall. After it was out, we had to continue to push and whatnot to ensure it didn’t break into any pieces, leaving behind any remains.

Once she was sure, they showed me the placenta, something I’ve never gotten to see before…a true tree of life was there in vessels—a sort of unbelievable vision if you ask me..

After this chaos, we were able to relish in the glory of our son, taking pictures that will forever mean the world to me, soaking in those skin-to-skin moments. Randy also did skin-to-skin bedside and watching my two boys bond in this way will forever be imprinted in my memory.

While it was nothing that I expected, I’m forever changed by each delivery, but this one especially. It had always been one of those things that I wondered if I was capable, you know? Could I do this? Was I actually strong enough to get through not only the physical pain of it, but the mental game of it. Not by choice, but I suppose I proved to myself that I could. And in a weird sort of way, I think Tristan has proved strength to me in several ways throughout our journey together….and that’s probably just the beginning of how this beautiful boy will change my life.