Our Scarlett

I promised myself months ago that I would have Scarlett’s birth story up on the blog before she turned 9 months old, seemed like a realistic goal, right?! Apparently not because here I am, the day before she turns one frantically trying to get her story journaled. #momlife

Oh our dearest Scarlett. My sweet baby girl. Her arrival into this world was nothing short of  traumatic and miraculous. I’m starting to think that’s just how my babies like to come! Benson was a long labor that ended in c-section, Rex was a VBAC and my epidural unexpectedly stopped working right when it was time to push annnnnnd Scarlett, well, lets just jump right into her story.

I was induced with Scarlett which I have a love/hate relationship with. Love: When you have multiple kids it’s nice to have things planned out with people watching your children, its waayyy less stressful and if you are a planner like me, that’s a win! Also, it's nice to have a definitive end date. When pregnancy is kicking your trash it's nice to know where the finish line is and that you just have to make it until then! Hate: you have lots of time to think about what you signed up for. Each day that passed I would feel more and more nervous (mixed with excitement, of course). I would sometimes focus on the unpleasant things of labor and then the induction date would then seem to loom over me like a dark cloud! I remember when David and I were driving to the hospital, I said, “I don’t know if I feel like doing this today! What about you?! Maybe we should just turn around and do this "have a baby thing" another day? Yeah!?”. It was like willingly signing up for needles, pain and well, all things child birth. Fun, eh?! Not. Especially when you're a big baby like me. And not knowing if the epidural was or wasn't going to work didn't help either, so it was kind of a d-day of sorts, but a really, really exciting d-day – such a weird feeling! But we knew it was time and we were ready. AND it was really important for me to get the same Doctor that delivered Rex, Dr. Bean. So you do what you gotta do, right?! 

We got to the hospital on July 5, around 11am, signed our lives away and got settled. Around 2:30pm I got my epidural and my water broken, so far so good. I wasn't dilating as fast as I did with Rex so things were somewhat slow going. Thankfully the epidural was holding up. I get really bad shakes when I'm in labor - start to finish - like every muscle in my body shakes uncontrollably...not pleasant. I knew this about myself so going into this labor/delivery I had made a plan to really try hard to take deep calming breaths and stay relaxed in hopes that my shaking wouldn't be so violent and exhausting. After an hour or so after they broke my water, Scarlett's heart rate began to dip on the monitor. A nurse would get alerted on her screen and come in and check on me and baby, re-adjust the monitoring belts, have me switch sides/move around and try and stimulate the baby until her heart rate went back up. Unfortunately it kept getting worse after each dip. Each time her heart rate would dip a little bit lower, or it would take longer for it to come back up to normal. My one nurse taking care of us, turned into three nurses. They began to be more quiet, serious and focused - they would stand and talk quietly over by the monitors and not leave the room. You can feel a difference when something's not right. We tried everything to get her heart rate going. Oxygen, internal monitors, movement etc. and every time was a worse dip than the last. You could've cut the tension with a knife! One of the nurses left to call our doctor, indicating that he needed to get here...fast. the nurses felt like Scarlett might need to come sooner than later. My heart was in my throat. It was a very helpless feeling. Her heart rate would dip to the low 60's and was no longer reaching "normal" rates. I remember praying - pleading to please let her be alright. I was trying to stay calm, to will my body to give her what she needed and get her here safely. 

FINALLY, within a matter of minutes, I was dilated from 6cm to 10cm. Thank goodness! The nurses were relieved - we all were! They made fast work of prepping the room. Then Scarlett's heart rate dipped again. This time into the 40's, I still remember that slow, wayyyy too slow, beep from the machine. The nurses all came to me and the monitors, watching. Her heart rate wasn't coming back up, in fact it was dipping lower. And then in a whirlwind of focused chaos, the head nurse, my main nurse from the beginning said, "We need to have this baby - right now! We can't wait for the Doctor!". And just like that it was go time. No stirrups or controlled pushes, no bed reclined in a certain way and no Doctor. Just instant pushing from right where I had been laying. the head nurse was at the ready and within two pushes I had baby girl out. She was not crying and completely blue. They cut the cord and immediately took her over to the baby warmer/table, I didn't even get to see her. They rubbed her and rubbed her and I could finally hear some soft squeaks. David had gone over there immediately with her, best daddy ever! From my bed I kept asking, "Is she OK, is she going to be OK?" Complete and utter desperation in my voice. David came over to my side. A total guarded look on his face, unsure. Which is not normal for my ever positive and optimistic husband. So I said again to him, "Is she OK, is she doing ok?!" Nothing. Bless him. Hindsight, I think he was trying to process, obviously worried for his baby girl, an emotion I didn't know he had until she was born! (the worried emotion, that is 😉). But in my angst, I thought the worst - I hit him, frantic, loud and crying at this point, "tell me, tell me - what's wrong with her??" Again, my mind thinking the worst. My sister came over to my side and with all the conviction in the world told me that she was fine - that she knew everything was going to be just fine and for me not to worry. And then she said, "see, there - you can hear her crying, she's totally fine!" Honestly, I have tears in my eyes writing this. I have never been more terrified in all my life and I will never forget both my sisters, my mom and David pulling me out of it, the greatest support system. So grateful for family!! I took deep breaths and focused on what I could see and hear, she was crying!! Hallelujah!! A few minutes later, which felt like a life time - she got the all clear and they brought her over to me. Oh boy, the crying!!! Ohhhh the crying. I was hysterical. Holding her and bringing her close to me, smelling her, squeezing her, studying her, kissing her. Her perfect color, healthy, alive and well. Our baby girl was here! Answered prayers in every way! During all the commotion Dr. Bean had shown up, stitched me up and got to hear all about her dramatic entrance into this world! 
She's our little fighter, and has been since day one!
Scarlett Ofelia Pyne
Born 7/5/17 at 5:31pm
6lbs 2oz 19.5in long

 


Sooo forever grateful for our nurses that day, they are our heroes. I know they saved Scarlett's life by making the decisions they did. The nurse that delivered Scarlett had been our nurse assigned to us from the very beginning that day (100% divine intervention in my book) and she was the most experienced nurse on that shift with over 30+ years!
 She was everything!! So much love for them all!