Well, I think it’s time I finally post my birth story! I went in for my scheduled induction on February 11th at 41 weeks 1 day.. We started with a foley bulb to help me dilated and then moved to pitocin to help progress me further. In total, I labored for 22 hours. During that time, baby boy Wyatt was having tons of decels and the nurses kept coming in to flip me from side to side and put me on oxygen. There was talk about a potential need for a c section if he continued having the decels but my doctor never made the choice to go ahead with that. Right when I hit 7 cm my nurse told me to take a snooze because “you’re gonna be pushing soon and you’ll need your energy!” So I took her advice and laid down..: 15 mins later I felt this intense pressure in my bottom and I thought to myself “is this the pressure everyone was talking about?” So I hit my call bell, and sure enough I was 10cm! Time to start pushing! So we get the doctor, get the room all set up, and I start pushing. Baby boy was still having tons of decels so we couldn’t keep pushing like we wanted to. Had to keep taking breaks and flipping sides and doing oxygen. Finally, once baby was crowning, he had a huge decel and his heart rate was only in the 50s. I ended up with a 2nd degree episiotomy so my doctor could get him out emergently. He came out screaming and crying and ended up being just fine.

... fast forward to our first night....

Baby did great immediately after birth. He latched on perfectly and nursed for 40 whole minutes while we did skin to skin. I was on top of the world and so in love!!! All throughout the first night he continued to nurse well and was just overall the perfect little baby. We snuggled so much that first night.

The next morning I had just finished breast feeding and was swaddling him when I noticed his lips were blue....

I unswaddled him and his entire body was Grey and lifeless. He wasn’t breathing. I immediately called the nurse and said something is wrong here and we need help! She whisks him away to the nursery and when she comes back she said “baby wasn’t breathing very well so were gonna have the doctor come take a look”. I said yes okay but is he okay now? And he was. He was already back to normal. Anyway... the pediatrician comes to see him and then comes to see me, not knowing that I am an ER nurse, and starts talking to me like I am an idiot. He basically says “this is normal newborn transitioning behavior”. I said really? Not breathing and turning grey is normal? Interesting... 🙄 So I said you know what.. no offense but I’d like to speak with a neonatologist now bc I don’t like how you’re talking to me and I know something is going on.

.... so the NICU doc comes down, does an assessment and says “great job mom, you just saved your son’s life today. You are absolutely right, he does need to he admitted, and he needs to be in the NICU until we can figure out what’s going on here”. So we are admitted... and during the first night baby boy had multiple episodes again if not breathing. So scary to watch your little tiny perfect baby being resuscitated over and over and over again. He had so many tests done that night! EEGs to look for seizures... normal. Cardiac echo to look for heart defects... normal. Finally, they did a CT head that showed a minor brain bleed that is the cause of all of his symptoms. Thankfully the neurologist is very confident that the blood will reabsorb on its own and he will have zero lasting effects, but she did say that this was most likely caused by the emergent delivery and the fact that I should have had a c section but did not bc my doctor didn’t want to.

Baby is on the up and up... but we are still in the NICU. BUT... he has had his breathing tube removed, he’s getting breast milk tube feedings and we are going to try breast feeding today! I’m hoping and praying we get to come home soon. My little boy is such a fighter. 💙💙💙💙 Moral of the story..., always advocate for your babies! If you feel something is wrong, don’t stop until you get the answers and care your baby deserves.