Major's Birth

Hi all!! Thanks for all of your prayers and thoughts during this roller coaster of a pregnancy! So many of you have been asking for the full story…well…here it goes!

I had been contracting for days…weeks just about…and been dilated for weeks as well with no progress. We couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t progressing much since that is SOOO unlike me and any of my other pregnancies….but we found out why….stay tuned….

Saturday the 1st of December. I took a bath…it was so nice. Going down the stairs, fully dried off and dressed, I fell down. Yes…that is right…I fell down the stairs. Only a few of them, and on my rump. I did get a NASTY bruise on my back though that was pointed out at the hospital. However, I felt a small gush of water when I fell and that is when the contractions started stronger and more regular than ever before. That was around 9 pm. At 1:30 am Sunday the 2nd, I called my dad. He and mom came over around 1:45 am. Jeff and I made it to the hospital around 2 am. The ER was being worked on though so we parked in the wrong place and a cop had to tell us to move. I pleadingly looked at him and said, “I AM IN LABOR”! So he got a wheelchair and nervously took me upstairs while Jeff moved the truck. The cop was actually very funny now looking back…some of the things he said makes me believe that he was paranoid that I would have the baby in the elevator with just him. He was very nervous! Anyway, they got me in a room and I still hadn’t progressed much, but the labor was awful. Around 8 am, Dr. Schulte came in and broke my water since I wasn’t progressing, but was in serious pain. I got about an hour of sleep after he broke my water because, surprisingly, my contractions stopped. See what I mean though?? This pregnancy has been SOOOO different from all of the rest…even labor and delivery was SOOOOO different. All of my labors have gotten shorter, all of my deliveries have gotten easier and my babies have gotten smaller. This one was the LONGEST labor, the HARDEST and WORSE delivery, and the biggest kid. Ugh. Anyway, after an hour of rest they came in with the dreaded drug…Pitocin (dum, dum, dummmmm……). I was going for the Scooby Doo effect there with the Dum dums…did it work?? J Anyway, after they started that it got WWWAAAAYYYYY nastier. I HATE that stuff!!!!! I started asking for IV drugs. They gave me a relaxer and some pain meds via my IV. It made the contractions which hardly EVER stopped, a BIT more doable, and I was at least able to sleep between contractions…when I HAD a BETWEEN contraction. A lot of my contractions where right on top of another…so unfair. I have done all of my labors and deliveries without the use of spinal meds or anything heavier than something small in my IV…I figured I could do this one with no problem…since my deliveries get easier…NOT!!!!!!! Major’s heartrate started to drop everytime I had a contractions…it dropped dangerously low. So everytime I had a contraction a nurse would have to do INTERNAL massage on the baby’s head. I don’t think I have to tell you how UNCOMFORTABLE that was for the mamma CARRYING that baby! The last thing you want when you are having a contraction is ANYBODY touching you…let a lone….THAT! So….they also had to put an oxygen mask on me which made me feel claustrophobic, so I made Jeff take it off of my face and just hold it in front of my face, everytime I had a contraction. Poor guy. I was in tears telling them that I couldn’t do it anymore and that I was done…put the kid back in…knock me out…ANYTHING!!!!!! They called for a spinal. But, by the time the doc got there I was already at 9…so I couldn’t have the epidural, but they gave me an Intrathecal. It also is in the back, but it doesn’t take the pain away, it just takes the edge off. It took enough of the edge off that I was able to keep the mask on my face…but it still was very unpleasant. I heard them say that if I needed a C-Section I would have to be put out. I yelled at them to just DO IT!!!! I was SOOOO done by then! Then Dr. Schulte came in and had me start pushing. This was also new to me. All of my kids have kinda just, come out. I haven’t never had to push before, so I wasn’t really sure how, or what to do. Apparently I pushed for an hour. The broken capillaries on my tummy tell that story. The problem was that every time I pushed he would come down a bit, but then he would get sucked back up. I yelled at the doctor to just “Vacuum him out”! Anyway, he came out to his little nose, and Dr. Schulte ended up having to cut his cord while he was still in me because his cord was wrapped so tightly around his neck that he wasn’t coming down any further. Once he cut the cord…that alone was also very unpleasant…I am sure you can well imagine…Major just shot out like a rocket! He had some trouble breathing due to his heartrate plunging and the fluid and blood that he swallowed. His cord apparently wasn’t tied off enough because it came unclamped, causing him to breath in a bunch of blood before Dr. Schulte got it clamped again. Anyway, they bagged him a bit and helped him out. So I didn’t get to see him for about 10 minutes or so…but Jeff went with him and took pictures once they were done bagging him. Then they took him to the scale. My doctor PROMISED me that he wouldn’t be any bigger than Cam at 7-11. They put him on the scale and said, “No way.” So they picked him up, zeroed it again and weighed him one more time. The scale said, 9-2.6 again. They were all amazed because he doesn’t look fat at all. There is no chunk on him…he is just solid and filled out a bit more than the others…but most definitely solid. He just does not look like a 9 pound baby. BUT….his weight and the fact that his cord was wrapped so tightly around his neck is the reason that I had all of those weeks of trouble, and the horrible labor and delivery. BUT…it is over now, he is here and I can’t imagine life now without him. Sleep is fairly non-existent…because he likes to eat…go figure…but he fits right into our Filleman family. He looks just like Jeffy…just like all the others did and do. Jeff says that his genes eat my genes. For some reason the Stutzman genes don’t seem to be very strong. L Should we keep trying for one that looks like me?? I am thinkin’ not…but hey…you never know! So that is my crazy birth story! Mom and Rhonda came and visited a couple hours later, then all of the kids came up to see him. They let me have a Jacuzzi bath and then it was bedtime! We went home two days later with another human being to raise!

Now he is two weeks old and he is starting to KINDA get into a routine. We still aren’t on a SET schedule…but we will get there…eventually. I am just as tired as can be…I feel more tired after this one then after any of the others. I did have to take a trip back to the ER because I was having severe headaches. My doctor thought it was CSF leaking. He thought they might want to patch it. The ER doc told me to give it another day and to push fluids, especially caffeine as that is the old fashioned way to plug those holes. I did that the next day…baby and I were awake quite a bit due to the caffeine! My headache seemed to get better. It hasn’t fully gone away yet, but it isn’t near as bad as it was, so we aren’t going to need to get it plugged…so far anyway…hopefully it stays that way! We also took a trip to urgent care for MaKenna who got pneumonia again…but she is doing much better now, and hopefully Major won’t get sick. So far so good! I will be posting pictures on our family website over the next few days…that website is www.famster.com/thefillemans. Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers throughout our pregnancy!! Blessings to all and MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!

Tonya