Murphy Memoirs: February 2012

Aunt Jessi said for months that baby Quinn would be a Groundhog's Day baby....and she was right!

I had my regular weekly visit with Dr. Anderson on Wednesday afternoon February 1 where I was 3 cm dilated and completely effaced - her comment was "I think this may be your week!" To say I was excited was an understatement, but I did my best to not get my hopes up. I so badly wanted a "normal" labor (go into labor on my own, labor at home for a while, the drive to the hospital, water breaking, etc) - but would soon find out that wasn't part of Quinn's plan. I got home that evening, and told Matt that we should finish packing the bags and getting Nash's things in order 'just in case' things progressed as Dr. Anderson thought they may.

Little did I know I would be woken up around 4 am with terrible stomach pain - not contractions, but I felt like I was going to be sick. I never got sick, but did get up and use the restroom - and was completely shocked/scared/anxious when I realized that I was bleeding and passing large clots (TMI, sorry!) which I knew were NOT normal. I called the doctor on call (it was not Dr. Anderson) with my practice, who was completely unhelpful and obviously was not happy about being woken up at 5 am (when I finally decided to call and the bleeding wasn't stopping). Quinn continued to move and kick around, so I wasn't overly concerned about the health of the baby - but definitely knew something wasn't right. I took a shower (shaved my legs! ha!), got Nash ready and took him to school, called my work and told them I would be late to work because I was headed to the Dr's office first to check out what was going on. On a whim, I threw in our hospital bags....'just in case'.

I arrived to the office and told the nurse behind the desk what was going on, and the next minute Dr. Anderson was pulling me back to a room. She examined me and saw no obvious reason for the bleeding/clotting - I was also dilated another cm to 4 and the baby's head had dropped even more since my appointment the prior afternoon. She thought that the bleeding was either a problem with the placenta or the way my body was reacting to dilating so quickly in a short period of time. Either way....I sort of knew what was coming. "Is your husband here?" she asked. :) Matt was in a court meeting, but I sent him a text and asked if he was ready for a groundhogs day baby and that he should meet me at the hospital - I was being admitted and wouldn't be leaving without a baby. Dr. Anderson told me that she would be there until 4:30 that day, but she thought I would have Quinn in my arms by then!

I made the necessary calls to get our parents on the road to Nashville, and met Matt on the OB floor and started the admissions process. Once admitted (around 10:30 am), they hooked me up to the monitors and surprise to me - I was in active labor! I knew I was having contractions, but they weren't super strong so I had not been timing them. They were 6 to 7 minutes apart! Blood was drawn to be sure there wasn't an immediate problem with the placenta, and there wasn't (thank goodness....we would've been talking about emergency cesarean if so) - so they started my IV and started me on a low dose of pitocin to help my contractions pick up a bit. Around 1:00 pm or so, Dr. Anderson broke my water and then the contractions really started to get strong. I held out until close to 1:45 and asked for my epidural....I did the same thing with Nash's labor - I wanted to feel the pain enough to know I didn't want to feel it! The epidural was lovely, and I progressed pretty quickly over the next few hours.

We kept tabs with our parents and their progress, and it seemed as if my mom may make the delivery this time if Q really held out until close to 4:30. Matt's parents wouldn't be making the birth, but would definitely arrive late that evening. I attempted a nap, but didn't succeed. As I ate my ice chips for lunch, I watched Matt eat a burger. We talked to our awesome nurse about her teenagers and all the exciting things going on in their life. Dr. Anderson came to check on me around 2:30 and I was almost 7 and she said she'd be back in little bit.

By 4:00 when they checked, I was almost 9 and so the preparation began in the room for delivery. About that time, Q's heart rate started dropping and so they pulled out the oxygen mask for me. I was on oxygen with Nash during much of the labor, so I wasn't too concerned. Quinn's heart rate fluctuated for a few minutes but popped back up where we thought we were out of the woods. A few minutes later though, it started dropping again....nothing they could do was really making it rise. I was trying all kinds of positions, the oxygen...when the nurse asked me to give a good push - telling me that to avoid a section, I may need to deliver Q from 9 cm. Didn't sound thrilling, and my "trial push" must've been enough to satisfy her. At this point, they are paging Dr. Anderson who is not responding and the nurses are all starting to become more worried about Q's heart rate than I was comfortable with. It was determined that they couldn't wait for Dr. Anderson to answer her page (let alone get there), and they called for the "shock doc" (the doctor on the L&D floor). I wasn't thrilled about this, but wanted Q delivered safe and sound and from the demeanor of the nurses - that needed to happen quickly.

The next thing I know, Dr. Anderson walks in and says something to the effect of "hey...what's going on???". She was on her way to check me before leaving for the day and heard the shock doc being called to room 17 (my room). She was quite surprised, and I was so thankful to have her there for delivery. She too, was concerned with Quinn's heart rate, and didn't mess around. She had me pushing within minutes of walking in the room. I pushed for maybe 7 or 8 minutes, and before I knew it...our sweet baby Quinn was born at 4:29 pm. Our sweet nurse informed everyone in the room "They don't know the sex, let daddy make the announcement.". Matt was obviously shocked as he shouted "It's a boy!". The love and excitement in his voice at that moment is something I will never forget. Quinn felt like he needed to be just like his big brother and have the cord wrapped around his neck (which is probably why his heart rate kept dropping once he was far enough down the birth canal), but once that was unwrapped - my second born son was placed on my chest. That feeling is something only a mother can understand - the feeling of being completely in love and overwhelmed with the miracle that God has just blessed you with.

The nurses weighed him and measured...7 pounds and 1 ounce and 19 inches long. Matt was so surprised that Quinn was a boy (he swore he didn't see any "parts" during our mid term ultrasound), and he couldn't stop saying "I can't believe it". My mom arrived at 4:32, haha...just missed his arrival! It was so good to have her there, but honestly maybe a good thing she wasn't there for the heart rate drama - she probably would have made me more nervous! While the doctors and nurses tended to Quinn and I, Matt informed our closest friends and family of Quinn's arrival - which soon became news on facebook and elsewhere...so crazy how fast information flies around! Daddy came back to visit shortly after that, and as soon as I was up and around - we were moved to our postpartum room.

Unfortunately, our room was right across from the nursery (which had over 20 babies when we arrived!), so it was definitely not the quietest of places to be. Not that the hospital is a good place to rest anyway, but that location of our room just made that worse. Regardless, we spent the rest of our stay loving on and bonding with our newest little love. We kept him with us the entire stay, and had a few visitors which was nice.

Our parents brought Nash on Friday morning....I couldn't wait to see my big guy! He was THE.PROUDEST.BIG.BROTHER.EVER. Those few moments are seared into my memory forever...he was so proud and so excited to meet 'baby Tin' (the Q sound is hard when you're 2!) that we have been talking about for so long. We didn't have Nash stay for too long to be sure he didn't get overtired and/or upset - but we had a great visit and I was very encouraged by his reaction to his baby brother.

We did everything imaginable to ensure that we could get out of there as quickly as possible on Saturday morning...and we were discharged by 11:30. My parents stayed home with Nash and Matt's parents helped us get out of the hospital. We drove home with our sweet bundle, and began our new life as a family of four!

Now that all of that is down so I can remember all the birth details....here are some pictures from Quinn's first days! Or maybe more than just 'some'...haha!