A lot of people have been curious about Indy's birth story but we've been a bit busy. Now that we have the time we wanted to share.
Indy was 11 days late and we were very anxious for him to come. Mandy's parents decided to come up Tuesday night (7/31/2012) since they thought that Indiana could come at any time. That night Mandy was able to relax enough for her contractions to start. We stayed up all night while Mandy had contractions every 8 minutes or so.
She continued to have contractions throughout the day but they weren't strong enough or close enough together so we had to keep waiting before we could head to Better Birth, our birth center. That night Mandy was sitting on her birth ball eating her mother's beef tips and noddles when her water broke. That was about 6:45 PM on Wednesday. All Mandy could do was laugh. And so our teamwork began with Mandy's mom and I cleaning up the mess.
Indy was 11 days late and we were very anxious for him to come. Mandy's parents decided to come up Tuesday night (7/31/2012) since they thought that Indiana could come at any time. That night Mandy was able to relax enough for her contractions to start. We stayed up all night while Mandy had contractions every 8 minutes or so.
She continued to have contractions throughout the day but they weren't strong enough or close enough together so we had to keep waiting before we could head to Better Birth, our birth center. That night Mandy was sitting on her birth ball eating her mother's beef tips and noddles when her water broke. That was about 6:45 PM on Wednesday. All Mandy could do was laugh. And so our teamwork began with Mandy's mom and I cleaning up the mess.
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| Right before her water broke. |
Mandy's dad and brother watched the Olympics while Mandy labored through her contractions, going on walks with her mom and climbing stairs. We went to the birth center that night and found that the progression was very slow. They sent us home and gave Mandy a Tylenol PM to sleep through the night's contractions so she could be energized for the next day's work. We didn't sleep at all.
Mandy's contractions were getting stronger and stronger and closer together. I had been pushing on her pressure points to make them more bearable. She liked that and couldn't go through her contractions with out the help.
That day we went to the birth center for the most of the rest of the labor. Mandy's dad and brother stayed in the waiting room while Mandy and I, and often her mom, were in the room working on the labor. Everything seemed to be going very well, however it was taking a long time. Mandy finally was able to get into the birth tub around 4-5 PM when she was finally dilated to an 8. She was in the tub for about 20 minutes or so but nothing was progressing. She loved the tub too, because it was really good on her back.About that time the midwives started to get worried that Mandy was reaching the 24 hour period after her water broke. During all of the labor Indy's heart rate was perfectly normal with or without contractions. Now, however, his heart rate would drop dramatically during Mandy's contractions and her contractions were slowly becoming unbearable.
After some consolidation between the midwives and the students they decided that they no longer could give Mandy the care she needed so they transferred her to the Utah Valley Hospital. They came with us to the hospital and explained the situation to the doctors and nurses that were attending to us. Later our doctor told us that they saved him tons of time so he could make a good decision much quicker with reliable information.
They found the same thing that the midwives were finding and were scared for Indy's life so they insisted that we do an emergency C-Section. This was hard to hear but we did it to save little Indy.
Mandy screamed for an epidural the moment we were in the hospital and so they were already numbing her up when we decided to the emergency C-Section. The anesthesiologist was a fun old guy with suspenders that had hearts on them, holding his scrubs up. He took good care of Mandy. I went in with them and watched them pull Indy out of Mandy's stomach. He started to cry immediately. The anesthesiologist took care of Mandy while I went with Indy to watch over him.He had gone into distress while at the end of the labor and released his meconium (tarry poop). This was bad because he ended up breathing it into his lungs while in the womb. The doctors at the NICU had to do some things to get it out, like poking a hold in his lung to suck out excess air that was caught behind the meconium.
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| Mandy seeing Indy for the first time. |
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| The next day she could do skin to skin |
He and Mandy got an infection because of the long labor, over the 24 hour period after her water broke, and needed to get antibiotics. Indy's regimen of antibiotics took a week, Thursday 8/2/2012 to the next Thursday. Mandy was able to leave her room on Monday but stayed at the hospital with Indy to breast feed him. The NICU let her stay in a room for parents so she had a place to sleep.
They both are doing very well. They had a rough start but are doing better than ever.
Jared Indiana Mortenson was born on 8/2/2012 at 8:40 PM MDT in the Utah Valley Hospital by Dr. Gourley and Dr. Glenn. He weighed 7 lbs 2 0z (according to the hospital measurements...) and 20 inches long.
(Our pediatrician measured him at 21 3/4 inches long and 8lbs 3oz on 8/13/2012)
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Flowers from Mandy's Parents.
Jared changing Indy's diaper for the first time. No sweat, though Indy may not have been a fan at first.
Check out Indy's big foot. The size of my index finger.
I had no idea you had a blog. Congratulations, he is so cute! I am glad you guys are doing well. What an adventure you went through. Good luck with everything! I hope he is sleeping for you.
ReplyDeleteWow, Indy has really gotten big since his birth. He is going to be tall! It is so fun to see Jared as a dad. I always wondered what that would look like and now I know. Congrats on your new son, you both did a wonderful job.
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