{birth center turned to hospital transfer and cesarean} March 4, 2011 {Elizabeth & Bryan welcome their son.}
So Lucas’s Birthday Weekend was such an amazing, unplanned journey. I went for a long walk with my good friend and neighbor, Jennifer Cook. We walked a good hour and a half and then we came home… I made her a drink and I made myself an orange juice. Then I went to get Bryan from work, we ate dinner (BBQ pork and salad), and headed to bed. I started having contractions around 9pm and I was a little nauseous and I said I thought it might be time. He said it probably isn’t and rolled over and started snoring. So, about 11pm I was lying in bed watching Grey’s Anatomy and felt a weird ‘pop’ in my abdomen…. I waited until a commercial break and got up to see what was going on and there was a huge gush of water.
I ran to the bathroom and started to get really nervous. I got our camera and started recording… I woke Bryan up with a camera in his face telling him my water broke. He jumped up and immediately started preparing for our journey. I called my midwife and she said to call her back when my contractions were stronger and closer. So, Bryan ran me a hot bath and I laid in the bath while he shaved my legs (had to be presentable for Luke’s big day!) He then packed the truck and shaved his own face (again, we had to look good for Luke). By this time my contractions are consistent 4 min apart and getting stronger and stronger.
I called the midwife again around 1am and we decided to meet at the Birthing Center around 2am. By the time we arrived, I was in A LOT of pain and thought I had to be dilated to at least a 5 or 6… I was ONLY a 2!! And still at –3 station. Joan arrived shortly after and that’s when the REAL labor began. After over 50 hours of childbirth education, over 70 hours of parenting classes, breast feeding classes, baby wearing classes, joining the La Leche League… NOTHING could have prepared me for the pain and agony I was experiencing. We thought the baby was in a posterior position making the labor much more intense. By 4 am my contractions were 2 min apart lasting 1 min so I only had 1 min to recover before contracting again. I was checked again at 4 am and was STILL ONLY a 2 and –3 station so she manually tried to stretch me… I think dying will be less painful.
So, I labored in the shower, on the bed, in the tub, on the birthing ball, back on the bed, back to the tub… nothing was relaxing me enough to let the baby come on down. 5 am comes and still no change, 6 am and still no change, 7 am still no change, 8 am still no change… I really feel like something is wrong so it is decided that we will have to make a trip to Sarasota Memorial Hospital. Upon arriving at the hospital we were very promptly escorted to a private room (probably because I was SCREAMING in pain and scaring all the other moms). The doctor arrived to check me and I was dilated to a 5, but still a –3 station. He ordered an ultrasound right away and found that Lucas was turned head down and transverse. He then informed us that the baby cannot and will not be born that way. He said he believed we would need a cesarean to get Lucas here safely. I asked if the cesarean was a life/death decision to be made now and he said ‘not yet’. I then asked if we could have some time to see if he would turn on his own. He agreed. So, we have 4 hours to get this baby to face anterior or posterior or whatever, just not sideways!!
After 17 hours of hard labor my blood pressure dropped and I spiked a fever. The doctor returned and said we no longer had a choice and that the baby needed out NOW!! Once in the operating room, I was introduced to my nurse named Courtney who wore Eeyore scrubs. I knew at that second this was where I was supposed to be. My best friend, Courtney (who loved Eeyore) died exactly 12 years ago the day my water broke. She held Lucas in preparation for his journey to earth. After being rushed to the OR I was hearing my baby cry 20 min later.
After planning an all-natural birth center birth a cesarean was the last thing I wanted, but none of that mattered now. I was looking at the most beautiful creation God had ever created. He was perfect in every single way. Lucas Bradford Goodman was born March 4, 2011 at 2:34 pm, weighing in at 8 pounds and one ounce and was 20 inches long. Bryan and Lucas waited for me in the recovery room and once I was there I held my precious son for the first time skin-to-skin and I breast-fed him immediately. Nothing could have ever prepared me for the intense love and sacrifice I feel for this tiny human. I feel like I have started to have some understanding of God’s love for us. Bryan and I spent the next 3 days together, alone in the hospital. We talked, we laughed, we cried, but most importantly we bonded with each other and our son in a way I could never explain. Our journey was not the one we planned, but it was one I will never forget and I have no regrets.
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