For those who followed along, this last pregnancy was intense. Even with weekly progesterone injections, a cervical cerclage at 16 weeks, and modified bed rest, there were multiple trips to the ER due to an irritable uterus. Amazingly enough, I was able to keep the cerclage until 36 weeks 6 days when it was removed, right on schedule, on Monday, Dec 21. We all thought that he would come that day but when the cramps and back pain didn’t turn into anything on Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday, I was starting to get disappointed as I was uncomfortable and ready to meet the little boy!
Thursday morning I woke up at 6 AM very uncomfortable with cramps and back pain like I had the previous few days. I went to lay on the couch and couldn’t get comfortable so I finally went to take a shower at about 7 to try and get comfortable. I woke Austin up at about 7:15 as things started to quickly intensify. By 7:35 the contractions were about a minute apart and incredibly painful. We were at the hospital a little before 8 and began the excruciating process of getting admitted and an epidural. By 9 AM I finally had the epidural and was starting to feel more comfortable. By 9:20 it was time to push. Oliver crowned quickly and everyone could see his handsome head of hair. Unfortunately he wasn’t able to make any significant progress after 90 minutes of pushing. When I gave birth to Owen, my 3lb baby, it was a tight fight so we knew it would be a tricky delivery with a full term baby. It was determined that a C-section would be the best course of action to get the baby here safely, so I was prepped. They rolled me back to the Operating Room, increased my epidural, and brought in Austin. While I was being prepped, I had told the Anesthesiologist about Austin’s aversion to blood, so when he came in, we held an intervention and told him he had to sit down and was not allowed to look. Oliver Brooks Pullan was born at 11:28am on 12/24/2020. He was 6lb 9oz and 19in long. He cried and I was able to hold him for a few minutes before I started not feeling well. I passed Oliver back to Austin and the Anesthesiologist gave me some more drugs that knocked me out. Turns out I was bleeding and they were having a hard time closing me up. They brought in 2 units of blood and another doctor from the clinic to help. After I lost about 1400mL of blood they were finally able to get things under control and close me. Luckily, I didn’t need the transfusions and they sent them back to the lab. It took me awhile to feel better but from there, recovery wasn’t terrible.
The next day, the doctor who had assisted in my surgery was doing rounds and released us so we could spend at least some of Christmas with Owen. He had a lot or presents this year, but I think the best one was a baby brother. When we arrived home Owen immediately fell into the role of big brother. He constantly wants to hold Oliver and help out in every way possible. We are grateful for modern medicine because without the amazing staff at Essentia my amazing sons and I wouldn’t be here. Our family now feels complete and couldn’t be happier, or more tired.
