On Sunday March 25, 2012 I gave birth to a beautiful baby boy. He was 7 weeks early. Here is his birth story.
Friday evening my husband and I decided to have a date night. We decided to go out to dinner and go to the movies to see The Hunger Games. While sitting in the restaurant I felt little "gushes" with every move I made. I immediately thought I was having the unfortunate pregnancy leaking. I went to the bathroom and thought I was good from there. We went to the theater and while in the movie I was having the same sporadic gushing feeling. I went to the bathroom during probably the most climatic scene in the movie and again thought I was ok. I'm not going to lie, I was so embarrassed by this that I didn't even tell my husband what was happening. When we got home I changed my clothes and went to the bathroom where I found that I was starting to bleed. Naturally I thought I was losing my mucus plug throughout dinner and movie and started my "bloody show". I was relieved by this and went to bed knowing there was nothing to fear since I wasn't having contractions.
The following morning I found that I was bleeding a little bit more so I geared up if you will and went out with my mother to meet my sister for a shopping trip. While out with my sister I explained to her what I had been experiencing and she said it sounded like my water had broke. This was something I had not considered since I was still 7 weeks away from my due date. I was feeling fine and had absolutely no pain but the bleeding continued and that was making me more and more concerned. Finally while we were at lunch I decided to call my doctor who instructed me to head to the hospital for examination.
We arrived there about 3 p.m. They hooked me up to a few machines and saw that I was having contractions every 3-5 minutes and I was still feeling nothing. They ran some tests and decided I was fine but wanted to keep me longer for examination. They also ordered an ultra sound and saw that my amniotic fluids were at a normal level. I asked if they were going to check to see if I was dilated and they said they wouldn't to prevent more bleeding. A few hours later the nurse decided to give me some medication to stop these contractions that I wasn't feeling. 30 minutes later she gave me another dose because I was still having them. Guess what happened next? I went into hard labor. The nurse was instructed not to check for dilation but was having a feeling she should anyways. She did and wouldn't you know it, I was 5cm dilated!!! She informed the rest of the staff that I was in labor and ordered my epidural. Needless to say I was IN SHOCK! I just kept saying I can't be in labor, I haven't even bought diapers yet and I have 2 baby showers next weekend!!! I was pretty much a panicked mess until the anesthesiologist arrived and sunk me into a serene hot tub feeling (gotta love those epidurals).
I was really hoping that the epidural would slow down labor so I could get some rest and emotionally prepare myself for what was coming but that didn't happen. Once I went into labor it only took 4 hours to get to 10 and start pushing. I pushed for 10 minutes and out came the most beautiful little boy ever.
The nurses told me that because I was only 33 weeks along I shouldn't have delivered at their hospital but because I was already so far along in labor they couldn't transfer me. So instead they called Mercy San Juan and requested an ambulance to transport my new baby to proper care - the neonatal intensive care unit. It was beyond heartbreaking not being able to hold, snuggle, and nurse my new baby but I knew in his condition he was going into the right care. I watched my baby get wheeled away in a isolette gurney while I waited in agony to be released from the hospital so I could go visit him. I had to wait until I had been there for 24 hours so by 3p.m. the day I gave birth I was walking out the door and on my way to the other hospital.
I knew my entire pregnancy that I would be early. The way he moved and stretched led me to believe he wasn't very comfortable in the womb. There is no way to be certain but I would bet it was his movements that ruptured my water in the first place. Regardless of what happened we were very excited to welcome little Broderick Harley Madsen into the world.
This was when I thought I was just there for observation
Oh wait, SURPRISE!!!
Broderick's stats
His little swollen face
On the gurney leaving the hospital
Sweet angel face
Finally meeting my baby
Daddy takes a turn
Have you ever seen a baby born with a hair style? Ours was!
The cute sign a nurse made for him in the NICU
