Beckett Michael Wilde: A Birth Story

I had been on modified bedrest and Procardia since returning home from our previously documented preterm labor scare (in a nutshell I had dilated to 3 cm, 80%, -2 before my contractions were stopped with a cocktail of terbutaline, magnesium, and procardia. I had gotten a pos. fFN test (after having had a negative fFN test the week before) and subsequently received two steroid shots to mature the baby's lungs). During my seven days on bed rest I'd managed to discover that bed rest is nowhere near as fun as it sounds or looks! My body was more sore from inactivity than it was chasing after my three little monsters all day! The highlights of my week were when one or both boys would come up to snuggle and watch a movie on the computer and being able to read an entire book (several, actually) without interruption, lol.

It was during the afternoon on Thursday the 12th that I really couldn't get comfortable. I was experiencing some extreme and constant lower-back pain which I attributed to two things - one, being sedentary for so long had been making my other muscles sore so it made sense that my back would also suffer from inactivity. And two, little Sprout was in an anterior facing position (I could tell because I could feel little arms and legs in the front of my belly instead of a little backside) and was possibly beginning to engage even further into my pelvis. However, I eventually noticed that the pain was occasionally also radiating to the front and causing me to contract. After about an hour I decided to time the contractions and found that they were about 2.5-3 minutes apart, but really weren't that uncomfortable compared to the constant pain I was still feeling in my back. Around 4 pm I finally got up and walked to the boys' room where Justin was working from home and found him on a conference call. He put the phone on silent and asked me if everything was okay and near tears I replied something like, "My back hurst so bad!" He quietly tried to comfort me as much as he could while he was still on the phone, and then I walked across the hall into the nursery to make sure our bags were all together and to wait for him to get done with his call so I could tell him I thought it was time for us to head back to L&D. I waited a few more minutes and finally called out, "Justin?" He came to the door with the phone and mouthed, "What?" And I answered, "I think we're going to have a baby, can you get off of the phone?" (Insert Justin's best 'are you kidding?!' face here, lol.) He immediately got back on his call and said something along the lines of, "I've got to go, my wife is having a baby."

I called Nellie at 5 PM (we were supposed to go over there for dinner at 6 PM) and updated her on our change of plans. I asked her if we could drop off Eddie and Norah (Jack was with another friend, Tiffany) and then called Tiffany to see if she could drop Jackson off at Nellie's instead of bringing him home. (FYI - I am SO GRATEFUL for great friends!!!) Then, while Justin got the kids' stuff together, I packed some last minute items into our bags and slowly made my way out to the car while Justin loaded the bags. My back was still my chief complaint though my contractions were starting to become uncomfortable, too.

And thus we headed back to L&D. After dropping off the kids we arrived at the hospital around 6 PM and, after 40 minutes in the hospital lobby on hold with the answering service to my OB's office (seriously!), we headed up to L&D without my office's go-ahead and admitted ourselves, lol. By this time my contractions were 1.5 - 2 minutes apart and I went from still 3 cm at check-in (which I had been the week before) to 5 cm, 90%, -1 in two hours. Dr. G was on call and he, as well as our nurse, fully expected our little one to make his/her debut before midnight. Between my breathing through my contractions, he discussed our option of attempting to stop my labor with magnesium, but that since I was already 5 cm's it had a less than 5% chance of working and would probably only delay delivery by a few days if at all. Justin and I adamantly refused the magnesium (due to my reaction to it before) and when Dr. G confirmed that he felt we were making the right decision, we continued on full-speed ahead!

But then around midnight my contractions suddenly started to slow and then eventually (almost) stopped as suddenly as they had started! The nurses had already started to set up the room for delivery complete with the little bassinet filled with diapers, wipes, and extra receiving blankets, the NICU staff had been paged and were on standby (since baby Wilde was preterm), and I had gone from needing to breath through each intense contraction to essentially twiddling my thumbs and wondering what the heck had happened?! I was still contracting, but they were very mild in comparison to my earlier intense contractions and they eventually spread out to about 20+ mins. apart. My back had also ceased to hurt beyond normal pregnancy pain - which led me to believe that our little one had finally rotated from an anterior position to a more comfortable posterior one (thank goodness! Norah was born face-up and I'm surprised my pelvis hadn't been permanently damaged by it, lol.).

Dr. G wouldn't try to augment my labor by breaking my water or starting Oxytocin/Pitocin because I didn't (by choice) have an epidural (which generally slows down labor so it usually goes hand-in-hand with Pitocin). Without an epidural Dr. G said he couldn't do anything to help things along until I was 37 wks. Additionally, Dr. G reminded us that if Sprout could hang on until at least Saturday when I would officially hit my 35 week mark (according to my OB's dates), than he/she would (assuming he/she was born healthy) be able to avoid a required admittance to the Special Care Nursery set up for all preterm babies born under 35 wks. gestation (regardless of how healthy they appear/are at delivery).

So there I was - stalled and contracting at most maybe 5x an hour for the next 15 hours! I wasn't allowed to eat or drink anything but clear liquids, popsicles, and jello (though I did make Justin smuggle me some Teddy Grahams) and I really wanted to go home, but my OB wouldn't release me for fear that my contractions would suddenly pick up again and I'd progress to 10 cm (with a preterm infant) before making it back to the hospital. So Justin and I were left to make preparations for my indefinite hospital stay because I clearly wasn't going to be going home until I had a baby - no matter if it took one day or two weeks. I'm not going to lie - many tears were shed throughout those 15 hrs.! Of course I (we) wanted to avoid the required NICU cutoff, but the implications of a long-term hospital stay were overwhelming. If it had been our first baby I would have been anxious, but the worst case scenario 2 week hospital stay would have been tolerable. However, having three other children at home and a husband who had already used up most of his vacation time completely took 'tolerable' off of the table.

Thankfully, our prayers were answered when around 4 PM on Friday the 13th, my water broke a la Niagara Falls as I stood up after a quick trip to the bathroom. As luck would have it I had just sent Justin home so he could shower, get fresh clothes, and see the kiddos who were with our hired 'mother's helper' at the house. I called him repeatedly, but he wasn't answering and I started getting nervous because I knew I only had 5 cm's left to progress and with my water broken I was expecting my contractions to quickly pick up. Luckily, my neighbor called that very instant to check on me (we love our neighbors!) and I had her run over to the house to see if Justin was there. It turns out that he had been in the shower so she sent Jack upstairs to tell Daddy that Mommy's water broke. He ended up telling Justin, "Mommy broke her water!" Justin understood the message and was on his way back to the hospital in minutes. I had already paged my nurse (Jody) to tell her what had happened and she helped me change my gown (twice!) and cleaned up the floor. I managed to soak several towels before the flooding slowed and was all the while amazed at how much amniotic fluid one uterus can hold! (I know I had the same thought when my water broke at home in a huge gush with Jack, but time must have dulled my memory, lol.)

Justin was back in no time and we waited, and waited, and still my contractions didn't pick up from what they'd been all day! By 7 PM my OB said we needed to start Oxytocin because the risk of infection now outweighed the risk of a preterm infant. I know I could have argued this point because it had only been a few hours since my water had broken, but by this time my body was tired and I was anxious to get the party started. We started with a low dose of Oxytocin and my nurse (Maggie) increased the dose every 1/2 hour until I was receiving the maximum amount. While waiting for the Oxytocin to kick in we rented 'Date Night' to watch on netflix, lol. About 1/2 way through the movie (around 9 PM) my contractions suddenly started getting intense and I could no longer focus on the movie. Justin finished it (at my urging) while I closed my eyes and got into my 'quite zone' whilst the contractions continued to get stronger (and obviously very, very, very uncomfortable with all of the Oxytocin!). I was checked around 10 PM and found to be 8 cm and was relieved thinking it was almost time to push. I kept waiting for the urge, but it never came - just contraction after contraction with nary a break. I asked to be checked again about two hours later just certain I was complete with the amount of almost unbearable discomfort I was in, but had only progressed 1/2 cm to 8.5 cm's. If I was ever tempted to get an epidural it was now, but I knew it couldn't be much longer and I just tried to focus more on my music and take each contraction one at a time. I had declined the epidural/pain meds with Norah (though I hadn't had Oxytocin/Pitocin with her) and I found that while the contractions themselves didn't hurt worse with Oxytocin, the labor was much more intense and hard to cope with because the contractions were so close together that there was no break to look forward to and recover during.

At 12:50 AM (about 50 minutes after being told I was 8.5 cm's) I had a strong urge to go pee (sorry, tmi!). So I waited for a contraction to start fading and quickly got out of bed and unhooked myself from the monitors so I could go to the bathroom. Justin, shocked at my suddenly having gotten up after lying quietly and breathing through contractions for the past few hours, thought this was a bad idea. He was envisioning me delivering the baby while on the toilet and was pleading with me to just call the nurse first to tell her I had to go, but I really had to go or I was going to have an accident. I proceeded to finish my task (what a relief!) and then had a wicked contraction on the toilet before being able to quickly get back to my bed. As soon as I was back in bed I knew I was ready to push. The nurse had just walked in (since I had gone off the monitors she came to check what had happened) and I told her (or panted to her?) that it was time.

Maggie (our nurse) - quickly came to check me and found I was complete and that the baby's head was very low. She asked me to give a practice push when I felt ready and I panted that once I started pushing the baby would be out in just a few minutes because I was a good pusher (self proclaimed :) and such had been the case with all of my other babies. She still requested that I just 'try' one so, considering her forewarned, I went ahead and gave her a 'practice' push. About 2 seconds into said 'practice' push she yelled at me to STOP and very rapidly paged the doctor, the other nurses, and the NICU team who were to be on standby. Meanwhile she told me to just pant through my contractions and NOT push as the doctor was on his way. However, the OB (Dr. S was on call now) was nowhere to be found! I panted through three contractions (the room was almost set up by now, but still no OB to be found) before I decided that no matter what I was going to push during my next contraction. I simply COULD NOT hold it back anymore. The pain of holding back was more intense than words can describe and so, opening my eyes after holding my third contraction back, I clearly and pointedly told Maggie (who was right by me trying to offer encouragement and who's New York accent/demeanor I was thankful for as she repeatedly yelled through the intercom for someone to find Dr. S), that I couldn't hold back anymore and would be pushing during my next contraction. I think she immediately realized that I meant business and was probably mentally preparing herself to deliver my baby.

Almost immediately a new contraction started and I began pushing with Justin holding one leg and Maggie holding the other, but standing more in front of me so she could catch the baby if necessary. At the same time the nowhere-to-be-found Dr. S rushed in and assumed the chair of honor at the foot of the bed while telling me to keep pushing (still the same contraction) because the baby's head was almost out. But my contraction was almost over and I could feel that if I kept pushing I would tear so I told him something like (yelled, maybe - I was still pretty annoyed with him for taking so long, lol), "NO! I'LL WAIT!" And so I waited the few seconds between contractions with the baby's head halfway out, hoping that it would allow me enough time to stretch a little (sorry again, tmi!). As soon as the next contraction started I gave one big push to get the baby's head out (enter my first brief, unintentional, and primal scream of, ahem, discomfort) and then one more big one (insert my second and last unintentional scream) for the rest of him. In total, after 35+ hours of labor it only took about 3 minutes and 1.5 contractions to deliver our little Sprout. He was born at 1:12 AM - making the cutoff to avoid the NICU stay :).

Justin announced, "It's another BOY!" as Dr. S placed him on my stomach and I held and kissed my little miracle for a few brief moments while Justin cut his cord before he was whisked to the warmer on the other side of the room to get cleaned up and to be observed by the NICU nurses. His Apgar scores were 8/9 and there was no doubt that his respiratory system was strong (and loud!) as he cried non-stop. When it was abundantly clear that he had no trouble breathing he was finally wrapped in warm blankets and given back to his Mommy. Prior to this he proved himself a true Wilde Boy as he managed to pee on at least one nurse - just as his brothers had done when they were newborns. He weighed in at 6 lbs. 5 oz. which was a fantastic weight for a 35 weeker (Norah was almost 2 lbs. smaller at her 35 wk. delivery!) and measured 19 3/4 inches (but was later stripped of the extra 3/4" when he was found to really only be 19 inches, lol. Still the longest baby I've had, yet!).

While first warming him and getting his footprints a nurse asked for his name and I, still crying from relief and happiness, looked at Justin. He gave me a look that said, "Well?" And I told the nurse, "Beckett." It was a name that I had found and fell in love with while looking through genealogy records on my maternal side shortly after Eddison was born and when Justin announced that we had had another boy I immediately knew that he was our 'Beckett'! (Though I still love some of our other name contenders. I guess we'll just have to have a more boys...or pets, lol. Umm... But NOT anytime soon!!!)

As for the surprise of not knowing the gender until the delivery - I was so relieved and overjoyed to have him out and to hear him crying that for a moment I forgot about not knowing until Justin announced what he was! And once Justin said it was a boy, I just felt excited to know so we could finally call him by his name. Overall, I think the most fun thing about not finding out was being able to call and announce it to our family and friends :).

I ended up with only a small tear (1st degree - maybe two stitches?) and was up and walking in less than an hour. I may have been tired, but I felt great! And THAT is why I endured the previous hours of immense discomfort (Justin may say torture :) without an epidural or any pain medication. Justin was an amazing coach as he made sure my Labor List music kept playing (which included modern variations of Church hymns, Mo-Tab (Mormon Tabernacle Choir), Simon and Garfunkel, and some classic John Denver. :) He also let me squeeze his hand, kept the nurses on their toes, and gave me words of encouragement even when I know he was nervous himself. Thank you, Just... You're the best husband and Daddy in the world!!! :)

So there it is! The birth story of Beckett Michael Wilde... Our third son and quite possibly the cutest baby in the world :). And now for some pictures from our stay in the hospital...

Yep. This is me having a contraction IN the hospital lobby WHILE on hold with my OB's answering service.

Finally checked-in and smiling between contractions.

Justin - ready for baby coaching round #4!

The day after our admittance (when the contractions had stalled), Justin made me laugh by writing 'baby' after the line marked "pending items" on the board in our hospital room, lol.

Just arrived! Baby Beckett gets rubbed down and dried off under the warmer.

Another son! Mommy couldn't be more happy snuggling with her third little man not even an hour after his arrival.

Daddy's turn to meet and snuggle with 30 minutes-old baby Beckett.

First bath (given by nurse Maggie) at just a couple of hours old.. He hated being naked and having his body washed off, but he loved having his hair washed :).

Beckett at 1 day old. Simply perfect!

A proud big sister!

Jack's an old pro at welcoming new babies into the family :).

Eddie adores his new baby brother :).

Finally home on August 17th! :)