Theo's Birth Story

Well, it’s been almost 5 months since I had Theo and I’ve been working on this blog post for about 3 months so... that maybe tells you a little about how things have been going. Also, please ignore the fact that I haven’t written a blog post in over a year! 

I have a lot of thoughts about how my pregnancy and postpartum was that I want to get out but it’s also kind of scary to admit a lot of the things I’ve been thinking. I’m going to save that for another post. For me, writing down my thoughts has always been the way I work things out. “Writing crystallizes thinking” is for sure true for me! I don’t remember who said that quote but it’s stuck with me since I heard it. Anyway, I’m just going to start and hopefully this will turn out ok. And if no one reads the whole thing that’s fine too but I feel like I need to write this for me and if someone can relate to it or find something in it for them then great! Here we go. 

At my last OB appointment, I scheduled my induction for April 4th. I got induced at 41 weeks with Peyton and I originally wanted to try to go into labor on my own this time. Since we were moving and I was so stressed about everything, I changed my mind and decided to get induced so that I could be a little more prepared and lower my anxiety a little bit. I also wanted to make sure that I had a doctor that I liked for the delivery since my office has a bunch of doctors that I would see. Really there was only one doctor I wanted to avoid. More on that later. 

On April 4th, I called the hospital at about 8am to see when they wanted me to come in. They said they were really busy and low on staff because it was spring break so they kept telling me to call back every few hours if they didn’t call me first. Every time I called, my heart rose and sank and I got more and more upset. So much for lowering my anxiety. I cried a lot that day. I was just so ready to be done and I felt like I was never going to have this baby. I know, very over dramatic of me. 

At about 7:30 or 8 at night, I called the hospital one more time with no real hope that they were going to tell me to come in. To my surprise, they told me to come in at 10! Woo hoo!!! I just wanted to get in the hospital I didn’t care that I was exhausted and it was so late. We packed up our stuff and took Peyton to my in-laws to spend the night. I could spend hours talking about my thoughts of Peyton and those last few times before she wasn’t our only child but I’ll save that for another time. 

We got to the hospital and got settled in our room. My nurse was really nice and reminded me of a family friend whom I love so I felt really comfortable with her. I think it’s super important that you feel comfortable with your delivery nurse because they really are your best friend and biggest supporter while you’re in labor. She got my IV in with one try, which made me love, her more. I did bleed all over the floor for some reason, but at least I only had to get poked once haha! 

They started me on Pitocin at 11:40 and I got my epidural right after midnight. When I got my epidural with Peyton, it was a weird experience (you can read about it here if you want) but it didn’t hurt at all. That wasn’t the case this time. He kept hitting a nerve and it kept making my leg Charlie horse and sent shooting pains through my whole body. My back is hurting just thinking about it. I kept thinking, “Does this guy even know what he’s doing?! Am I going to be paralyzed?!” But then he finished and I was happy to see him leave. 

It was time to wait. I told the nurse that last time I didn’t progress at all on Pitocin until they broke my water and I went from 3cm to 10cm in about 45 minutes. Which was me trying to nicely say, “Please send someone in here to break my water so we can get this show on the road!” Well, for 5 hours on Pitocin I was stuck at a 3 and 70% effaced. So at almost 5am on the 5th, the doctor came in to break my water. 

The doctor that came in was the only doctor I didn’t want to see at all my whole pregnancy. I had a bad experience with him last time and I think I had some PTSD because just thinking about him made me want to cry. Anyway, it ended up not being that bad. He was probably only in the room for like 10 minutes max and then his shift was over! Hallelujah! I was so nervous he would be the one delivering so I happily watched him walk out of my life hopefully forever! 

With the shift change, I got a new nurse too and she was wonderful. Her name was Tisha and she was a literal angel and made me feel so comfortable and strong and brave. I love her still to this day! 

Now on to the real waiting. I tried to sleep but that didn’t really work out because the blood pressure cuff would go off and cut into my arm every 15 minutes. Also, I kept getting really light headed with every contraction, but the nurse said everything looked fine... but still. Lots of nerves. 

My mom and sister came around 8:30 or so to wait with us. My sister is a photographer (check her out!) so I wanted her to be there to capture some moments for us. Best decision ever! I love the pictures so much! 

I was progressing pretty steadily and at about 9 I was fully dilated. The nurse said they were going to let me “rest and descend” which pretty much means they let the baby move down by himself without having to push. The doctor on call was now Dr. Bennett so she came and checked me and said she would be back later when I was ready to push.

My nurse brought me a peanut ball to put between my legs to help everything move along. She kept calling it “Bob” because it looks like a minion. But Bob was the best and helped me progress so fast!

I felt like I was waiting forever. Dr. Bennett was stuck in a C-section so I waited a lot longer than usual once I was fully dilated. I just wanted to get the baby out!

I’m not sure what time it was but maybe around 10:30 Scoty started to notice some blood on my sheets and in my catheter bag. I figured it was just normal bleeding stuff but LUCKILY he went to find the nurse to see if it was ok. She came in and checked me out and didn’t really say much. But a couple minutes later she came back with the doctor and they said they better get me ready to push. So everything started to feel very real! Everyone started rolling in beds and baby birthing things and other nurses came in. It was time! 

Dr Bennett delivers babies on her feet instead of sitting down so she rose the bed way up and I thought it was pretty funny to be up on this huge bed for everyone to see. Modesty is pretty much out the window at this point. I didn’t really care who was seeing what. I just wanted that baby! 

Finally at like 11 it was time to push! I did a few practice pushes but the doctor told me to stop. She didn’t take her eyes off me, and started talking quietly and very fast to the nurse telling her to grab a bunch of different things, including forceps and my heart sunk. I could tell something was going on because everyone got really serious and started moving faster and grabbing different tools. I asked what was going on and she said the baby was posterior (face up instead of face down like they’re supposed to be) and I had a placental abruption. I said I don’t know what that means but she didn’t answer me. In my head I started freaking out because everyone was acting so serious so I knew something was wrong. I asked her about forceps because I didn’t want to use them but she said she was going to need to use them if I couldn’t get the baby out fast enough because of the abruption by she was going to try not to use them so I needed to make my pushes count.  

From my understanding, a placental abruption is when your placenta pulls away from the wall of your uterus and you start to bleed. Apparently it’s pretty serious (hence the mood in the room) and if its not taken care of quickly I could have bled out and died... so there’s that. Which is why I’m so glad that Scoty went and got the nurse when he noticed the bleeding! If it were just me, I wouldn’t have said anything and things might have ended up a lot different. 

Anyway, at this point I was pretty freaked out because no one was telling me what was going on. I told myself I needed to just focus on pushing so that I wouldn’t need forceps and I just wanted to get it over with because everyone was being scary. With good reason in the end but like I said, no one was telling me anything. After a few pushes they said my oxygen levels kept dropping down to like 89% so they put a mask on me and I went back to pushing. 

Luckily I only pushed for about 20 minutes and at 11:25, Theodore Daniel Stobbe was here! 7lbs 11oz and 20.5” long! 

!!!WARNING!!!! 

This next picture is pretty graphic. Not like... pictures of.. my stuff graphic but just pretty gory. Theo was covered in blood since I was bleeding so much and I thought it was interesting. Usually babies are covered in other stuff but not a lot of blood. It also helped me understand why they took him away from me for so long. 

You ready? 

Really don’t look if you don’t want to, just blur your eyes haha! 

Crazy huh?? It looks like something from an old horror movie to me! Birth is a weird, scary, incredible thing!

Ok ok the other pictures won’t be so graphic I promise! 

So right after he was born I didn’t really get to see him. They held him up for like 2 seconds and rushed him over to the warming bed to check him out. So I just sat there trying to catch glimpses from across the room when the nurse wasn’t blocking my view. I was still feeling a little panicked from the whole ordeal and still not really understanding why I couldn’t hold him right then because they asked me if that’s what I wanted to do… and I did...so give me my baby! JK but really. 

They were trying to pump blood out of his stomach since he swallowed a bunch but they couldn’t really get much out. As I was trying to see over everyone to see if my baby was ok, the doctor and my nurse just kept telling me how great I did. Which is honestly what I needed to hear because it was such a weird and confusing experience and I wasn’t sure what was happening for most of it. They were probably saying a lot of things and praising me because they knew how freaked out I was but I’ll take it anyway. I think every mom should be over praised after giving birth anyway!

Finally after what felt like forever they brought Theo to me. I have a love hate view of laying the baby on your chest after. I love it because of the snuggles and the closeness but I also don’t love it because I can’t see my baby! I always like when other people hold my kids so I can see them better.

One of the first things I noticed was his GIANT ears! They were so big they were resting on his shoulders! So cute and perfect! They told me his head looked kinda crazy but that it would fix itself quick. And it did! But he for sure looked pretty scary for a while. Scoty took a picture of him where he straight up looked like Darth Vader when he takes his helmet off in Return of the Jedi.

See??

Anyway, that’s pretty much it! We got moved to our new room and Peyton came to visit us! I missed her so much and I just wanted her to meet her new baby brother. She was so sweet and cute with him! She loves babies so I knew that it would be great! She just kept saying how cute he was and giving him kisses. 

Oh man, if you stuck around this long, you’re a true friend and deserve a treat. I owe you cookies. Life is still pretty crazy but after almost 5 months I feel like we're kinda getting the hang of it!