Cole-Man

I have realized I never made a post about Cole's birth story. He turns 2 this afternoon!

I spent the entire pregnancy worried about him. Everything was fine in tests and movement, but since he was our rainbow baby, I couldn't help but be overly worried. My diet was entirely different, which made (and still makes to this day) gaining weight really difficult. I gained 20 pounds total, which was the least for any of my pregnancies, and he was almost half of that! I couldn't take prenatal vitamins because my stomach wouldn't tolerate any that I tried, so I just tried to make sure I was eating really well. I had the least amount of pain and restlessness this pregnancy which made it by far my easiest pregnancy.

My doctor offered for me to be induced, which I'd never experienced before, so we thought we'd give it a try. It was super nice to have it scheduled! We went in the morning after my due date and got started. I was having contractions by about 8:30 am, and almost immediately after I got hooked up to everything, the nurse noticed that Cole didn't like the contractions. His heart rate plummeted with each one. After about an hour of this, they started me on oxygen. When that didn't help, they started me on fluids. When that didn't help, they had me change positions to see if that would alleviate anything for him. When that didn't help, they gave me a shot in the back of my arm to calm my uterus enough to give him a bit of a break. That helped. I can't remember what time it was by then. Tyler says a lot more happens and is said during my labors than I remember :) When the shot started wearing off, his heart rate started plummeting again with each contraction, and they started mentioning C-section. I opted for an epidural, I wasn't planning on it, but I had never not progressed in dilation before and thought I was going to be there all day and all night! My labors are usually very quick and I've been at a 10 really quickly. I got the epidural and my doctor broke my water, and then things happened quick :) He was born at 3:23 pm on 2/22.

Come to find out, he had tied a "true knot" in the umbilical cord. I'd post a picture of it, but I'll spare you all :)  My doctor made Tyler take a picture of it because she said that's really rare. On top of the "true knot", he also had the cord wrapped around his neck twice! No wonder labor didn't go well for him. It was amazing he did as well as he did. He was choking on and throwing up gunk that had been stuck in his throat for who knows how long for a few days after that. I didn't react to the epidural well, and was dizzy and couldn't sit up until that night. He's healthy, super smart, and now he's my spunky, feisty, "rules the roost" 2-year old!