I came into L&D on Monday night for lack of fetal movement. The whole weekend was like yanking TEETH to get him to do kick counts. I knew something wasn’t right, but I tried to remain calm. I told my husband to stay with our toddler and I’d probably be back in 90 minutes, like usual.

They pop me on the monitors, pretty routine. I get there around 7:30. My OB comes in and discusses with me how he looks okay, but something is nagging her so she wants to do an ultrasound test. It would take 20 minutes and he would get rated out of 8 for a few things. It was then that we saw the cord draped around his beck and he was holding it in his little hands. He barely moved at all. But everything else looked fine. I got nervous about that cord, though. My oldest was born with it around her neck 3 times.

When I got back to L&D, I didn’t even make it out of the wheel chair. The nurse looked at me and said “hey! You’re staying overnight and having a baby in the morning! He only scored a 4 out of 8.” It’s 11:30 at night, my husband was blowing up my phone (he’s a school teacher and our 2.5 year old wasn’t asleep yet), and my MIL who is closest to us has HFM. I told him he had no choice, he has to do something because baby is coming in the morning. Oof, he was cranky....which I completely understand. We didn’t know it would be so serious.

Through the night, he almost seemed to really improve. The order changed from c-section to another ultrasound to see how he is. Then his heart started doing these strange dips, unbeknownst to me as I managed to sleep. When the doctor came in the next morning, she was like “I don’t feel comfortable sending you for the ultrasound and then home. You only have 6 more days anyway until your scheduled due date and there are more cons than pros to keeping you pregnant. I’m going to go ahead and take him.” My heart fell out of my ass. All I could see was the nightmare that was my daughter’s emergency c-section (that gave me diagnosed PTSD). But the nurses were angels, as was my husband, in keeping me calm and making me feel safe.

When I got into the OR, my heart rate was 150. I was so stressed and scared and upset. But once my doctor and the team got to work, they calmed me so much...unlike last time, I didn’t feel a thing. Our son entered this world screaming! I was so relieved...and then he stopped.

He’s having a hard time breathing. Sometimes normal in c-section babies. But he went from monitoring to having to be in the NICU and may not be able to come home with us. While that hurts, I finally got to see him earlier this evening. He is his father’s CLONE. And doing beautifully according to the nurses.

All in all, another lesson in advocacy for your baby and trusting your instincts! I was 38 weeks and 1 day and this wasn’t my first rodeo. We’re all only guessing as to what’s going on in there. If YOU feel something’s not right, you should absolutely go in. Bless you and your incoming little ones, September mommas!