Weston's birth story

The week began like any other, wondering whether this week we would get to meet Weston, our third baby boy. Monday morning I went to my NST like I did every Monday. The boys and Mike went with me to the appointment since Mike wanted to take them to Home Depot after to get the things we needed to plant our vegetable garden.

I noticed during my NST that I was having some contractions, not for the first time that week, but for the first time while I was being monitored. I also noticed that every time I would have a contraction, Weston's heart rate would dip. Sometimes it would go down a lot. It kinda started to worry me, afterall this is why they do NST's. If the heart rate dips that is how they can tell the baby is under some kind of stress. The boys were getting a little wild and I knew that they would be taking me off the monitors soon, so Mike took the boys out of the office and they would wait for me outside. A few more minutes went by and the Dr. came in to look at my NST. Right away he also noticed the decels in his heart rate. He told me that he would call Dr. Lickness and talk with him about what was going on but he was going to suggest to him that I be induced. So, I finish up my apt there and headed outside to find the boys and tell him that I may need to be induced. Dr. Lickness agreed with Dr. Cedars and wanted to see us back at the hospital that afternoon at 5. He checked me at the office and my cervix was completely closed and the baby still felt very high, so he knew that we had some work to do to get this labor going....

One of my fears during the end of my pregnancy was my water breaking and us having to rush to the hospital in case my labor went super fast like it did with Austin. I envisioned having to get my bag all finished being packed and get the boys all ready to go over to my Dad's. God forbid it happen in the middle of the night while everyone was sleeping. I was seriously starting to stress a little about that. So, knowing that i had to be back at the hospital at a certain time made it nice for the preparing part. I told Mike that we could still go to Home Depot after, he had been looking forward to doing that with the boys all week and I didn't want to disappoint him. I also knew that all the walking I could do was probably for the best knowing what I had coming that evening. I was so anxious and excited, knowing that we would get to meet our little boy finally and also scared that my body wasn't actually ready to go into labor yet.

Finally the time came and we packed everything into our car and dropped the boys off at my Dad's. As we left the house, my emotions kicked in and I started to cry knowing that the next time I would see the boys, we would have another boy and they wouldn't be my only boys anymore. We said goodbye to them and headed back of to SLO to Sierra Vista. We got checked in at the hospital and they put me on the monitors right away. Dr. Lickness's plan was to use Cervadil, which softens and opens your cervix. Then start pitocin when my cervix was softened. I was still contracting regularly after arriving and Dr. Lickness didn't feel it was necessary to use anything to get labor started. It appeared to him that it had actually started. Due to the fact that I was on insulin during this pregnancy, I was immediately put on an I.V. of insulin. Apparently this made my labor pretty high risk and because of that, I had to have my blood sugars checked every hour until the baby was born. I knew that I woulnd't be getting much rest that night, but I was hoping that the baby would come rather quickly and it would all be over with. From the beginning I had told the nurses that I wanted an epidural this time. With Austin I never had time to get one and it was the most primal experience ever. I knew that my body was not ready to feel that pain again. They checked me a few hours into the night and i was already dialated to 2. This was actually good news because we hadn't done anything to speed things along and my body seemed to be progressing on it's own. Sometime during the night my labor seemed to stall out, I didn't seem to be having stronger contractions and I knew that labor wasn't speeding up at all. I was up almost all night long, trying my hardest to sleep in between the times our nurse would come in to test my sugars. I think I maybe got an hour total. It was pretty brutal. In the morning, Dr. Lickness came in and was surprised to see that my labor had slowed down, he thought for sure that my body would just respond and we would have this baby. He checked me, I was still only 2 cm... No progress. He tried breaking my water and since the baby was still so high, he had a really hard time breaking it. They started pitocin. A few minutes later, I felt like I was peeing the bed, he had actually broken my water. I thought for sure this could kick things into gear and labor would finally progress!!! Especially with the pitocin being added to the mix. The contractions never really kicked into gear like I thought they would. In fact, the pitocin wasn't really making me progress either. When Dr. Lickness came in to check on me during lunch, I was till a 2. ughhhh....

They continued to up my pitocin every half hour. Around 5, it seemed like the contractions were getting stronger. I knew that these ones had to be doing something. Finally at around 10 or later, I knew that I needed my epidural. Things were getting intense and I just didn't want to risk not being able to have it. I thought things were moving right along. When she checked me before I had my epidural I was still only 3 cm. All the work and nothing really had changed... So frustrating. After i had my epidural, I fully anticipated falling asleep and letting the pitocin finish it's job. After about an hour a nurse came in told me that I needed to turn on my side, that Weston's heart rate was dropping after having a contraction. Nothing we did seemed to change that. Dr Lickness came in and made the decision to take me in for a c-section. It was scary and not at all what I expected or wanted, but nothing was worth risking the health of our baby. So, to the O.R. we went.Weston Henry Byrum came into this world with his cord wound tightly aroung his neck. April 27th 2011 @1:58am 8lbs 6oz 20 1/2" long...Words cannot express how much we love him. More to come on the relationship that was instantly formed with his sweet big brothers.Our life is complete!