Three Bs in a Pod

Friday July 29^th would be the day. Mandy had been to the doctor on Tuesday who said the baby should come any day now, he/she is ready. We kept waiting, thinking Tuesday might be the day… then Wednesday might be the day… then Thursday might be the day… waiting on our world to change. We loaded up Friday morning for an 8 am induction, drove the 15 miles to the hospital, unloaded our stuff and went through the doors toward Labor and Delivery. I pushed the call button and the nurse responds, “Good morning, may I help you”…..Mandy replies, “Hi we are here to have a baby.” It hit me then….WE ARE HERE TO HAVE A BABY….I FAINTED…Just kidding, I didn’t faint, but it did hit me…The Nurse led us in, took us to the delivery room and we began a long day…. Mandy was suited up shortly, I was all settled in my corner of the room, camera was out and ready….Mandy was getting hooked up to all sorts of machines, I had strategically placed phones, chargers, cameras, books, snacks, etc in their places……and as a focal point I set a crucifix and a Holy Family Icon on the shelf where Mandy could see…..these would soon be our saving grace. After a series of questions and signatures, we were ready…..the Doc arrived and gave his orders to begin the induction and we began…..while the Doc was there, he and the nurses did give us a few warning situations and briefed us on a few “Malfunctioning” inductions/labors just so we would be prepared if nurses and docs came in during the process and started giving orders…..at about 9:55 the Drugs started and we were in process…..the nurses advised that Mandy should be able to feel mild effects within about 30 minutes. Five minutes later, Mandy said wow my hips are on fire…..this is already working….Two minutes after that 6-7 nurses rushed in, spouting off orders and pushing buttons; things got risky and scary really fast. I stood there trying to keep composure as they gave Mandy instructions and moved her all over the place. I hear words that I never thought I would have heard that day “C’mon Baby, C’mon Baby” and “ Call the NICU….Prep the OR….C’mon Baby, you can do it…..Flip over, deep breaths of oxygen…..Page Dr. McDonald…..Joshua, get her rings and bracelet off we will likely move to the OR and get this baby out.” Mandy and I were of course scared…..what was supposed to be a joyous day quickly had taken a turn to “worst nightmare” status. Not that there was an extremely high risk of anything….but hearing those words for our Briones Team and being a first time delivery, we could only think the worst and pray for grace. The whole thing took 7 minutes…..and finally……relief. We hear, “There you go baby, its coming down. It’s coming down…..It’s coming down…..It’s back to normal…..The heart monitors begin to beep at a normal pace and our stress levels begin to decrease….

At this point the Dr has arrived and the he and the nurses begin to explain what had just happened. Mandy’s body didn’t respond normally to the Pitocin (drug to induce) and basically Mandy had one long contraction that would not let up, therefore squeezing the baby too long and causing a loss of oxygen to the Baby and his heart rate to fade. Typically this can be solved by moving mom into all different positions to relieve the contraction….but shouldn’t take 7 minutes, hence the possible C-Section and need for NICU. We went from normal to risky fast….and we would need to start over with a much lower dosage of Pitocin to induce….Mandy went from a 2 to a 4 in a matter a minutes. The doctor had originally hoped we would be dilated 4 by 12:00 and have the baby by 5:00pm. With the change in plans, he broke her water, and we thought maybe this baby would come before noon with a quick and easy birth. I even called the grandparents and told them they better hurry to the hospital because she was progressing so fast. Long story short…..hour after hour went by with not much progress. A few hours later we were still at a 4, and a couple hours after that we were finally at a 5……by this time contractions were rough and painful….Mandy was great through it all….and we worked as a team and it was rough but fun as we knew the outcome would be beautiful. Mandy got an Epidural at around 3:30 that afternoon with the hopes of relaxing a little more and getting that baby to move along. Still nothing a few hours later…..and with that came a shift change of nurses and our doctor. We had hoped for our Doc to delivery Baby B, but knew that if Baby didn’t come by about 6:00 – 6:30 PM the chance of that were slim as he had been on the floor for over 12 hours and had to go. At the same time, we knew that our family had been waiting many hours and Beth and Chris Everett had postponed their departure to Austin in hopes of seeing Baby B. We knew what a gift it was to have everyone there, and we prayed the baby would come before they had to leave. Yet the realization that we might not have the baby until Saturday started to sink in, and we were mentally prepping ourselves for a 24-hour labor. In spite of bribery and guilting, we were unable to convince Dr. McDonald to abandon his evening plans, and we accepted that there really are no “birth plans” when it comes to having a baby; it’s all in God’s hands.

The amount of Pitocin continued to increase. We continued to wait. Around 8:00, a new nurse arrived to check fluids and vitals. In her check, she discovered that Mandy had not been connected to the Pitocin since the incident that morning. Apparently somewhere in the chaos they took her line out of the IV and had plugged it up back into the bag, so the Pitocin had been dripping down into the line and running back up into the bag the past ten hours, a clear explanation why labor was progressing so slowly. We were disappointed and frustrated at what seemed like wasted hours… all we wanted was to see our baby. Yet, thanks be to God she found the mistake before it went any longer. They reconnected Mandy to the Pitocin at the lowest dosage since there was uncertainty to how the baby would respond as the previous experience cautioned. About seven minutes later, it was a replaying of the scene from the morning. Several nurses, oxygen, reversal injection, similar talk about the baby not doing well and preparing for a c-section. We looked at each other fearful – why was this happening again? Someone, please tell us the baby is okay. I repeatedly told Mandy the baby would be okay. Holding back tears and on to each other, we prayed. The baby’s heart rate stabilized. I called our family in the waiting room to tell them what was happening. It was decided that we would go ahead with a c-section as soon as the doctor on-call arrived. At this point we just wanted them to get the baby out safely. The preparations began for surgery. They gave me scrubs and told me to change. We waited for the doctor. I looked out the window and saw Chris running around – the Everett’s were still there and were now probably a half-day behind schedule for Austin... a true testament to the kind of friends we’ve been blessed with. We were overwhelmed with love, especially at such a critical time.