Our Birth Story

After nearly 10 months of development inside of Michelle, it was finally time for Baby Charlie to make his grand entrance into this world. The story of Charlie’s birth started a couple of days earlier with a trip to the OB/GYN on Thursday afternoon. Aaron and Michelle went to see her doctor at 3:30 in the afternoon and by 4:30 we were headed home with labor officially induced through the use of a Foley Bulb. I bet you’re wondering, “What the heck is a Foley Bulb?” I know I was…

It is just a fancy water balloon that is inserted into the Cervix and then inflated. It basically jump starts dilation and therefore labor. Well, at least it’s supposed to…

The next morning, Friday, December 20th we loaded into the car with our hospital bag in hand and headed to Providence to see how things were progressing and continue moving the labor process forward.

After meeting with Michelle’s doctor around 10:00 AM, they started M on Petocin, a drug that helps to induce stronger contractions. An important note to consider, you should definitely get an epidural if you plan to induce with Petocin! We spent all day and night in early labor, with increasing doses of Petocin, but labor wasn’t advancing the way the doctor wanted. Every few contractions, Baby’s heart rate would drop too low for comfort and they would turn off the Petocin.

This was a pretty frightening time for me as a first time father. Since C’s heart rate was fluctuating so drastically, the nurses and staff were quite concerned about his wellbeing. They wouldn’t come out and say it, in an effort to keep us calm, but it was clear by their behavior that they needed to be vigilant with this delivery. Several times throughout the day, Michelle would be sound asleep and whole teams of nurses would suddenly rush into the room, moving her from one position to another constantly monitoring C’s Heartrate.

Dohickies and thingamabobs. They put all sorts of things inside of M throughout the process, between 02 sensors, Fetal Heartrate Monitors, and Contraction Sensors, there were wires all over her. Add-in IV’s in her arm, and ultimately an epidural in her back, she wasn’t moving much. So much for the exercises we learned in Birthing Class (Link to Follow)…

After several attempts to get labor to progress, the doctor suggested that it might be time to find another way to bring Charlie out.

By that point, Michelle was ready to meet him, and didn’t have much strength left after a very long day. (Labor lasted a total of 23 hours, and 45 minutes) We agreed with the doctor that a C-section was the best and safest option.

I have never had so many things happen so quickly in my life. It’s as if the whole experience was in slow-motion. Since M already had an epidural in-place, the anesthesiologist turned up the juice, and took away all feeling from the shoulders down. As the doctors and team of nurses, so many nurses, got M ready, my own personal nurse/babysitter got me scrubbed-in and scrubbed up, then shuttled off to wait for a few minutes while they finished getting M ready.

I was fortunate to be allowed to sit at M’s head through the cesarean delivery. It was a surreal experience to have my loving wife paralyzed from the chest down, and being actively operated on while I held her hand. Charlie really didn’t want to come out, and even with the c-section, M’s doctor had to use a vacuum extractor on Baby C’s head in order to remove him from her womb.

The procedure went well, but was unexpected and stressful. Thankfully it all worked out and Charlie was happily introduced to the world weighing in at 6 pounds, 5 ounces, and measuring in at 20 1/2 inches tall!

Recovery from the surgery was pretty hard on M, and as a result, I did everything I could to make her comfortable and take care of Baby Charlie. I’ll be following up soon with details on the first few days at home. Be sure to follow along!

If anyone has questions about our delivery or concerns about their own upcoming birth, I would be happy to share anything that I learned along the way!

So long for now,

Aaron A.K.A. AlaskaDaddy

Follow me on Instagram: @alaskadaddy