Just So You Know: Quinnten's Birth Story

Let me start out by saying, our little man has arrived! He decided to not wait until his due date (March 1), or even the scheduled induction date (February 25), but rather to arrive in a way his Momma never wanted to experience - NO EPIDURAL - in the early hours on a Saturday (the Saturday that was the last Saturday I had to finish checking things off my to-do list before the scheduled induction) 10 days before his due date.

Now - I'm going to share my version of how things went down. I'll also post Tyler's version and Sheri's version. I can't help but laugh at how similar they all are and yet how funny they are from each persons' perspective.

I was 38 weeks and 4 days pregnant. I had just had my 38 week prenatal visit with Dr. Kathy Langer. She did a cervical check and it hurt...like really, really, really hurt! She had also checked me the week before and it hurt so bad she pulled in the ultrasound machine to make sure the baby was really head down. He was. I'm still not sure why the cervical check hurting would be a sign that the baby wasn't head down, but that's what she checked for. This time, no checking, just an apology that it hurt and a decision to not be seen again in a week, but rather in eight days for the induction and delivery.

Why was I being induced? Well, 1) because my doctor said it was fine to do and a good idea so we could make sure my mom and dad would be able to be here to watch the kids, and 2) because I didn't want the baby to be born on Leap Day. I'm still not entirely sure why that was such a big deal for me, but it was and I wanted to make sure he arrived before that day so I wouldn't have to worry about it.

My 38 week appointment was on Wednesday, February 17 at 2:45 p.m. That night I had some light spotting, which is normal after a vaginal/cervical check. For the next three days the spotting continued, and by Friday it was a little more and a little more red. Plus, by Friday I was also cramping a little bit. I thought that maybe Langer had stripped my membranes. But why? Why would she do that if we were planning to induce me the following Thursday anyway? So I ruled that out.

By Friday night I was still cramping and spotting, but then around 8ish I was certain that I had just lost my mucus plug. I quickly got online and read that "When the mucus plus dislodges from your cervix it's a sign that things are moving in the right direction, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you're in labor." I sent a text to Sheri for reassurance. She suggested that I take a bath and see how I feel in an hour. I got in the tub and I felt my stomach getting those round ligament pains, which I get for my entire pregnancies, so I didn't think too much of them. After a while I did finally download a contraction counter app, but that just ended up confirming that nothing was consistent, so it probably wasn't labor. I stayed in the tub for an hour...and then I just really wanted to go to bed.

Side note: My mom's sister, my aunt Florence, was in the hospital having been diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer on Monday. My mom had been in Ogden visiting her all day and I knew that she was tired and probably already in bed.

Tyler suggested that I pack my bags - you know - just in case! So I did, sort of. I was kind of grabbing things here and there that I thought could really go in my hospital bag, but knowing that the majority of what I would need were things I needed everyday. If I'm not having a baby tonight why pack my bag with everything that I'm going to need here tomorrow? At this point I felt two small gushes of water and I briefly thought, hmmm...did my water just break? I called the hospital. Their response was, "If your contractions aren't six minutes or less and your water hasn't broken there is no point in coming in. However, if your water has broken and you aren't in labor it could lead to infection." So basically it was my call, but I then started thinking that I had just gotten out of the tub, so maybe my water hadn't broken and my contractions are definitely not six minutes or less apart, in fact they were at about 20 minutes, and in no way were they even consistent at 20. I decided that I was definitely NOT in labor,

At this point it was a little before 11 p.m. and I was tired. I kept thinking about how this was my last Saturday to get some things done before the baby was to arrive the next Thursday. My mind started spinning as I mentally stared at my to-do list. I told Tyler how tired I was and how much I wanted to get accomplished the next day and then asked, "Do you think I should take Ambien or just a Unisom?" I'm honestly not sure how I decided, but I took half of an Ambien and went to bed at about 10:45 p.m.

I remember, AFTER taking the Ambien, asking Tyler for a blessing and also asking him to massage my back. And then that is when things become really foggy. I was definitely in an Ambien induced coma...and in LABOR! Tyler had to be my brain, because now looking back, I didn't really have a clue as to what was going on for a couple hours. I remember Tyler telling me to finish packing my bag for the hospital, I remember calling Sheri - at 1:16 a.m. I remember that when Sheri answered she was totally out of it, naturally, and she asked me if I needed to go to the library. I remember that I said, "Yes, I totally need to go check out a book right now." When she showed up, about 15 minutes later, as we walked out the door, I remember saying something along the lines of "this is probably a false alarm so we'll be back soon." I remember getting all the way to the freeway entrance and realizing that I had left my purse and wallet in the other car, and so I made Tyler go back to the house to get it. Why? Well, the last thing the hospital had said to me, when I called to pre-register just three days before, was to remember to bring my picture ID and insurance card on the day I deliver.

At this point is when I remember starting to really feeling labor pains. I'm assuming I had somewhat consistently been feeling them previously or Tyler wouldn't have suggested we rush to the hospital, but remember --- AMBIEN! The first really painful contraction I remember feeling was as we were on the interchange off of I-215 onto I-15. I grabbed the handle above the car window and squeezed as hard as I could. And then I heard myself screaming like I have never heard myself scream before. It was like an out-of-body experience. Seriously! I was thinking, is that really me screaming? Am I really feeling this pain? I wanted to squeeze my hand so tight that my hand would hurt worse than my stomach and back, just to give me a moment of relief.

I was delivering at Riverton Hospital...which is the furthest hospital from our house! Literally. And, I had only driven by it two weeks previous when I found out that that is where I had to deliver due to our change in insurance provider. I had scheduled to do a tour of labor & delivery on Valentines' Day, but we stayed at my parents' house too late and just wanted to get home - so we bagged the tour. At this point in our Friday evening we were wishing we had taken the tour and had any clue as to where we were supposed to go when in labor. All I knew was that we were to go to Tower 3. That's it. That is all I knew. Well, that and the fact that I needed to have picture ID and my insurance card. Right?

Tyler pulled up to Tower 3 at 2:10 a.m., grabbed a wheel chair and I immediately insisted that I needed to go to the bathroom - URGENT!! (Note: if you are 38 weeks pregnant and feel you need to really, really go to the bathroom...don't do it. I nearly delivered a baby straight into a public toilet. Gross!) I wheeled myself in to the restroom while Tyler ran around looking for labor and delivery. Luckily a calm couple was just arriving and showed or told (not sure which) Tyler that he needed to go to the third floor. The next thing I know two nurses are prying me off the toilet and forcing me into the wheelchair.

At this point I remember asking the nurses over and over and over, "I'm still going to get an epidural, right?" I just wanted the pain to go away, I wanted the epidural and I wanted to go to sleep. The nurses were walking really fast...maybe running, but again - AMBIEN! And then they wheeled me into a room where the lights were really bright and they started stripping all my clothing off. I felt like everything kept getting stuck so I was trying to help them undress me, but I think I was just making things worse. My garment top stayed on because while they were undressing me another nurse was putting an IV in my left hand. I was Strep B positive, the same as I was with Holland and Taggart, and so I needed to have antibiotics in my system for at least 30 minutes before delivering as to not pass the infection to the baby, which could be very harmful to a newborn.

One nurse was holding my right hand and telling me to focus on her eyes and saying "DO NOT PUSH." Over and over she kept saying, DO NOT PUSH - DO NOT PUSH - FOCUS ON ME - DO NOT PUSH! And still I'm asking, "I'm going to get an epidural, right?" And then, a contraction like no other and there is no stopping the need to push. The nurse says, "DO NOT PUSH!" And I say, "I have to." And just like that, I feel his head, and then another push and it's obviously his shoulders...and then, there he is in my arms!!! I don't remember hearing him crying, but I remember looking over at Tyler and acting out that he should be taking pictures. I remember that as I looked over at him I thought, why is he just sitting on that couch? He honestly looked like he was in total shock!

This delivery was NOT at all like Holland's or like Tagg's. Each of them were different as well, but this one was in a league of it's own. I had just given birth, without any medication, and fully in an Ambien fog. So now I'll know for next time, wait...I don't think there will be a next time, do not take Ambien if you think that there is any chance that you might be in labor. But then again, had I not taken Ambien and things progressed this fast, would I really have been able to handle it all? I guess we'll never know!

Quinnten Taylor Pace was born Saturday, February 20 at 2:22 a.m. - SEVEN minutes after pulling up to the hospital entrance - delivered by a team of nurses. The on-call doctor arrived 20 minutes later. He weighed 6 lbs. 7 oz, and was 18.5 inches long. Thank goodness he does not have a Pace head! The nurses were so in the zone with this fast delivery that Tyler didn't even get to cut the umbilical cord. Pretty sure I wasn't the only one in shock during this "Stop and Drop" delivery, as the nurses all later told me these types of deliveries are called. Ha ha ha!!

Looking back I find it so funny that I had put so much effort into getting ready for this baby, when in the end hardly anything was "ready" for this baby to arrive. I had an appointment to get my eyelashes done on Monday, and a hair and wax appointment on Tuesday. I had planned to paint my fingernails and toenails the night before the induction. I had scheduled a photographer to be there for the birth so that we could finally have really good and meaningful pictures of the delivery and first few hours after birth. I was almost done with the nursery and had planned to finish it up on Saturday. I had ordered his "going home" outfit and it was supposed to arrive in the mail on Monday, which it did...but we were already home before the mail was delivered.

Life is so unpredictable!