Gabe's arrival

WARNING: Males and some females may not want to read. A birth story is never pretty.

A lot has happened since my last post. I gave birth to a sweet little baby boy named Gabriel William Gentry. He entered this world in a very creative way, so we know already our hands are going to be full with him. He is a bit of a dare devil and stunt man.

On Wednesday, August 15th I went to the doctor at 3:30. I was 3 cm dialated and fully effaced. I really didn't want to have to go to work on Monday, so my doctor went ahead and stripped my membranes because that can sometimes start contractions. Let me tell you, stripping of membranes is not pleasant at all. I had already been having strong contractions for 2 days but nothing regular. I went home hoping that something would occur and feeling extremely uncomfortable. Ty was on call and didn't get home until about 7:30. We went to eat at Western Sizzlin because I wanted their salad bar. I was having several contractions, but still nothing regular. We arrive home, and I have this sudden urge to finish hanging the lanterns in Gabe's room. I'm vacuuming, mopping, and doing laundry. I pack Ty's bag for the hospital. The whole time I'm having pretty strong contractions, but I wasn't paying attention to length or time in between. Ty notices that I'm having to stop often because the contractions are so intense. At 11:15, we sit down to watch Tommy Boy, and he starts timing contractions. At 11:30 we've decided it's time to leave for the hospital because the contractions are less than 4 minutes apart and are lasting for about a 1 1/2 minutes.

We get to the hospital by 11:45. They check me and I'm 5 cm dialated. They ask me if I can walk to the delivery room, I tell them yes, but quickly change my mind. I turn around and run to the restroom to throw up. My salad bar came back up the other way. That was an embarrassing surprise to me. I'm already in the hospital gown at this point, so I'm exposing myself to everyone. I quickly get over this exposure embarrassment. Everyone has to look at you at some point, so you get to the point when you just don't care. The nurse decides I need to be wheeled to my room with a barf bag. I get checked in and they give me Staydol while I wait for the epidural. The Staydol made me extremely loopy. I couldn't make complete sentences, my speech was slurred, and I answered normal questions incorrectly (i.e. my maiden name was Dills instead of Diles). Ty corrected all of my mistakes. By 1 a.m. I had my epidural and was dialated to 7 cm. In case you are wondering, epidurals are wonderful. I didn't even know I was having contractions. I slept off and on until about 5 am. My doctor was on his way to the hospital and I was dialated to 10. However, my water still had not broke. Several nurses attempted to break it but they couldn't. They decided to have me push to try and break my water.

At 5:05 I started pushing. My water broke on the first push and then I see complete fear in my nurses faces. When my water broke, Gabe's heart rate dropped down into the 50s. They started trying to massage his head to raise his heart rate and they turn the monitor away, so I can't see it. The doctor came in not long after this. He's wearing a baseball cap and generally joking around, however when he sees the monitor he is all business. His baseball cap comes flying off, and he's asking all sorts of questions about Gabe's umbilical cord and other questions. I start to cry because I can see the fear on everyone's faces. I'm told that if his heart rate doesn't come up soon, we'll have to do an emergency c-section. I start to push hard core, but because we have to get him out quickly, my epidural is not wearing out fast enough, so I can't feel to push. Well, Gabe's heart completely goes off the moniter. Meaning, there is no heart rate registering at all. The doctor says, I'm going to use forceps and if the baby doesn't come out on this push we're doing a c-section. All of the doctors and nurses are in the room on standby reading to perform the surgery. Of course I'm becoming extremely nervous and scared about my baby boy. At 5:48, I push and see Gabe being pulled out. The next thing I see made me start bawling. I see Gabe's full body in the air, his head in the forceps, and then he slips out of the forceps into the catch pan. I did not know the catch pan was there, so I think Gabe has fallen to the floor. Ty thinks this as well, so he drops to the floor to get him. I think he has passed out. So, I'm lying on the bed not hearing my baby cry thinking he has fallen to the floor, knowing that they couldn't find his heartbeat, and that my husband has passed out. I'm basically hysterical. When Gabe fell, all of the nurses and doctors flinched and gasped. This scared me as well. I have never seen a doctor move so fast. He scooped Gabe up and started slapping him to make him cry. After 1 minute, I hear Gabe cry, so all was well.

So less than 14 hours after my membranes were stripped, I delivered a healthy baby boy. We still have no idea why his heart rate dropped. Now for some pictures: