Just Another Day

Renz Ransom Lyman decided to make an unexpected early appearance. Here is his birth story.
Midnight December 18th my water broke. I was admitted to the hospital and hopeful of a long uneventful 6 week stay. Things seemed to be going as planned....but things can change rather quickly. 4pm Thursday, December 30th Sadie came to visit and bring me more goodies. :) While we were visiting I started having a few irregular contractions. By 5:00 I was having regular contractions every 5 mins. I called Mark and told him to come in. I was afraid that the baby would come. The nurses hooked me up to the monitor and the contractions continued evey 5 mins until about 9:30 that night. By 10:00 they had stopped completely. The baby seemed to be doing fine still. The resident on call came and checked me and I wasn't dialated or effaced at all.
I went to bed and slept all night. Mark left around midnight.

5:00 AM Friday morning I woke up and new something wasn't right. I called the nurse and again they hooked me up to the monitors. I started having contractions every 5 mins just like the night before. After about 30 mins on the monitor the nurse unhooked me and left. She paged the resident and said she would be back. Very quickly the contractions got much much worse. I sat in the rocking chair and just rocked back and forth trying to make it through each one. I called Mark and told him to come. It seemed that the doctor would never come! Finally my CNA came in just to check my temp. She looked and me and asked if I was okay. All I could say was "no". She left and returned quickly with the nurse and resident. As soon as the resident saw me she told me I needed to get down to labor and delivery. It was around 6:15 AM when she checked me again and found I was dialated to a 5 and 90% effaced. The baby was coming and seemed to be coming fast. They began to prep for the c-section. Because of so many prior c-sections and fear of a lenghty surgery, they did both a spinal tap and an epidural. Mark still wasn't there. I think that was the worst part, not having someone to hold on to through it all. All of the doctors and nurses were just the on call staff. I really felt very alone and scared...in addition to a lot of pain. About 7:00AM I was in surgery. Probably 15 mins later Mark walked in and grabbed my hand. Such relief! I would not have made it with out him. 7:25AM they told us we had another boy. It was really very strange. They baby didn't make a sound and they didn't show him to us at all. They rushed him straight to the NICU. I think the surgery lasted over an hour and a half. It seemed like forever! About the time I was sure I couldn't stand it any more they told me they were finished. It was a rough surgery. Lots and lots of scar tissue.


After about 2 hours in recovery (my temp and blood pressure were low) they pushed my bed into the NICU so I could see my baby for the first time. I was able to reach in and hold his tiny foot. I was releived to find that he was doing really well. He seems to be a strong, healthy little boy in spite of being 10 weeks early. For that I am very very grateful! The nurses in the NICU are amazing. I can't imagine working with such tiny fragile patients. Today they showed me how to change his diaper and check his temperature. I was also able to hold him while they fed him for the first time. I am still very nervous around him. I feel like I will break him. It is like having my first baby all over again. He will be staying with the NICU until his due date (March 12th). Its possible he will come home earlier but that is the date they told us to plan on. I appreciate all the love and prayers of family and freinds and am thankful for all the help we have recieved during these past weeks!

Posted in: on Saturday, January 1, 2011 at at 6:39 PM