Birth Story

I wrote this birth story about 2 weeks after we had Grant...it's fun now to look back and read it, when the memory of his birth was so fresh in my heart. I thought I'd share it with you.

Grant Owen
Born on January 10th, 2007, at 36 1/2 weeks
7 lbs, 1 oz

There are memories in every person’s life that are so deeply ingrained into her memory that she can still sense that long-ago moment vividly, as though that one moment in life has been frozen forever in time. We all have those memories where we can still hear the song the radio was playing, still smell the cologne of a loved one, and still sense the emotions surrounding us.

One of those frozen-forever memories for me was a sunny summer day last June – the 1st, to be exact. I was in Indiana, visiting my family to celebrate my mom’s retirement from 30 years of full-time teaching. I had eaten lunch with my sister-in-law that day, and driving home, I had the passing thought that my cycle was about a week late. After almost 3 years of dealing with infertility, I passed the thought off, rationalizing it with just the fact that my body was, once again, just messed up.

On the way home from lunch, however, something – and for the life of me, I can’t figure out what – made me stop at Target and buy a pregnancy test. And, yes, I peed on a stick right there in the Target bathroom. I can still remember holding up the stick and seeing the blue “+” appear even before the control line appeared. And, even after almost 3 years of obsessively P’ing OAS, I dug the directions out of the trash in the restroom because I thought I was reading the stick incorrectly! Sure enough, I had gotten my first positive in 2 years!

My brain suddenly stopped working…all I could think was that I had to get a hold of Matt, who, due to work, had stayed in Iowa while I was in Indiana. I thought I didn’t have my cell phone with me, so I tried calling Matt collect. After a comedy of errors of trying to connect with him, and thoroughly freaking him out (why would I be calling collect?), I realized that my cell phone was in the car. So, I can remember walking through the doors of Target and Matt asking me if I was okay. I can distinctly remember telling him those words I had so longed to say: “I’m pregnant.” He was shocked. SHOCKED. We had been told that we had a less than 4% chance of conceiving on our own, and had even discussed doing IVF.

So, that small little “+” sign on that stick changed the course of our lives.

For the next 4 months I became incessantly sick with “all-day” sickness, even being hospitalized due to dehydration (hyperemesis). On September 19th we found out we were having a little boy and were absolutely ecstatic.

The second and beginning of the third trimester were pretty uneventful, and I felt great! Then, mid November, we moved from Iowa to Indiana. Physically and emotionally it was hard to move at 32 weeks pregnant, but we survived.

Then, in early December, I started swelling. And I mean swelling – I looked like the Michelin woman! My blood pressure started increasing, and I started spilling protein in my urine. Matt and I spent Christmas Eve in labor and delivery and I was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia. My OB was aware the pre-e can turn serious (and, actually, my own mom had pre-e with me and was within minutes of seizing because no doctor caught the symptoms), and told me that we would just try to make the pregnancy last as long as possible. I was put on semi-bed-rest, and Mattt, a First Responder on the Fire Department, took my blood pressure about 30 times a day.

Then, Tuesday, January 9th, I awoke and just did not feel well. Matt had a breakfast meeting with a friend that lasted all morning, and I was on the couch the whole time. My head was killing me, and I just knew that something wasn’t right. When he came home and saw how I looked, he immediately told me to call the OB. I did and she wanted to see me. When her nurse took my blood pressure, her eyebrows raised, and she went to get another blood pressure cuff. Sure enough, the reading was right – 160/110. The protein in my urine was off the chart and Matt and I wondered what would happen. I was laying on the examining table when the OB came in, patted me on the back and said, “it’s time. It’s just time.” She sent us over to L & D to start the induction process. Matt and I were a little shell-shocked - I can remember hugging him in the elevator as we rode up to L & D and telling him that the next time we left the hospital, we would be 3. The nurse inserted Cervidel, a gel to ripen my cervix, hoping to get it softer for the induction process. We were expecting a 2, maybe 3 day process before Baby would make an appearance.

They told me to enjoy a good meal Tuesday night, as it might be my last, so DH went all out. He got my favorite Mexican food, my favorite pastry from Panera, and my favorite icecream from Cold Stone. We propped everything up on my hospital tray, eating together with the anticipation of our first child’s birth upon us.

The next morning, January 10th, Matt went home to get a few more things and to catch a nap after a fitful night of rest in the hospital. Then, around 9:30 on January 10th, suddenly my hospital room became invaded with nurses. An oxygen mask was slapped on me, a nurse did a rough internal exam to try to stimulate baby’s head, people were pressing on my very pregnant stomach, trying to stimulate the baby. Apparently his heart rate had fallen to a scary level and was very slow in coming back up. An anesthesiologist came into my room, telling me all about a spinal block and having me sign papers. And then a nurse told me something that made me realize it was serious – she said “Get your husband here now.” Scared and feeling alone, I called Matt, talking through the oxygen mask and said, “you need to come. now.” Apparently he broke land-speed records getting back to the hospital, where a pair of scrubs was tossed at him. My OB had arrived and made the definitive decision to do the emergency c-section, because baby was just not doing well. I was quickly taken to the OR, and after only about 15 minutes, Grant Owen made his appearance into the world!

Matt and I were immediately in love with him, and he’s a very mellow, content little baby. Who knew that one little blue plus sign could change your life so much?

Isaiah 25:1
"O LORD , you are my God; I will exalt you and praise your name, for in perfect faithfulness you have done marvelous things, things planned long ago."