Our Birth Story

Monday, June 24^th, 2013

June 23^rd was my estimated due date and it was also the day of the largest full moon of the year. Unfortunately, this didn’t help jump start my labor. So one day past my due date, June 24^th, we had a doctor’s appointment. I was still progressing but fairly slow, not much progress from our last appointment the week before. Dr. Platt decided to do a membrane sweep to see if that would help get things moving. We scheduled an induction for Thursday, June 27^th if Baby Z didn’t decide to come earlier.

After the doctor’s appointment, I was feeling pretty crampy and I started to feel some pretty irregular contractions. These were the first contractions that I had really felt. I wasn’t really feeling any Braxton Hicks or anything before then. These irregular contractions continued throughout the evening and night.

Tuesday, June 25^th, 2013

At about 1:00am, I started to feel some regular contractions. They were lasting anywhere between 30 seconds and a minute and half, happening every 4-6 minutes. We had been told at our appointment that baby was most likely sunny side up, so facing the wrong way. Because of this, all of my contractions were being felt in my lower back. After about an hour of contractions, Austin called the hospital to tell them what was going on and they suggested that we head on in. We were able to watch a really sweet lightning show on the drive in. Although I don’t think I was able to enjoy it as much as normal since I was breathing through contractions every couple of minutes.

We arrived at the hospital at about 3:30amand right away I was hooked up to monitors to watch contractions and check the baby’s heartbeat. The heartbeat was great and the contractions were still regular. I was still slowly progressing at this point. I did spend some time off the monitors which meant I was able to walk around but I was feeling some pretty intense back labor. Around 5am, Dr. Marshall (the other doctor in our office and the one on-call that night) was called and told about where I was at. He gave the go ahead to let us stay at the hospital. It was official – we were going to have a baby! This was a relief but also a little scary that after nine months of carrying this baby inside, we were going to be meeting him/her soon! It was go time!

Shortly after 7am I decided to start some IV pain meds, after six hours of back labor. I really don’ handle pain well so I was pretty proud of myself for lasting that long. I received that every one hour for three hours. During those three hours I was able to get some sleep but towards the end of each hour, I would feel the pain getting intense again. Around 11:00am, I decided to go for the epidural – something I was always open to having. :) So the anesthesiologist came up to set the epidural. She also put a new IV in my right hand because the one on my left had fallen out. I have to admit that getting the IV put in my hand hurt worse than getting the epidural. I had progress a little bit more at this point but still fairly slow. Once the epidural set it, my contractions were reduced to barely noticeable. I started to feel more pressure in my lower abdomen at this point, but nothing painful. I was also able to take some longer naps now, which was great! I was mostly being woken up by the nurses to check on things. My contractions and the baby’s heartbeat were still doing great.

Around 1:00pm, Dr. Platt came in to check on us. She decided to break my waters to help things keep progressing. She said everything was looking good and that hopefully I would start progressing a little bit more quickly now. After a couple of hours however, my contractions started to slow to about 5 minutes apart, so pitocin was ordered to help. I was given the lowest dose to start out and see what would happen. My contractions started to get a little closer together but the pitocin dose was upped by one around 5:45pm.

Around 7:00pm I started to feel more pressure with each contraction. There was no pain, just the pressure. At 9:30pm, Dr. Platt came back in to check on me and wasn’t too impressed with my progression. She decided to switch to an internal monitor to help gauge the strength of each contraction and to help determine if more medicine is needed. At 11pm, I had progressed, but very little.

Wednesday, June 26^th, 2013

At 12:00am, we did another check and I had progressed a little more. I asked for a boost in my epidural because I was starting to feel some sharp pains in my lower back again. At 12:50am, Dr. Platt came in and told us that it was time to start pushing! After about 30 minutes of pushing, I was able to take a break. What I didn’t know until hours later was that during the pushing, the baby’s heartbeat had dropped to the 80’s. Luckily, Austin knew better than to tell me this at the time it was happening because it definitely would have made me stressed and anxious.

At 1:45am, Dr. Platt came in to inform us about her concerns for the baby and mom. I had actually fallen asleep for a bit so I was a little bit shocked because I didn’t know that anything was wrong. But after I got done pushing, baby’s heartbeat shot up to the 180’s/170’s. Baby also wasn’t descending properly and was still not in the best position. Baby was getting stressed during the pushing and from the medicine. So Dr. Platt recommended that we move forward with a c-section and because we didn’t want to take any risks for myself or the baby, we agreed. A c-section was definitely the last thing that I wanted. Not only because I wanted to experience the miracle of birth, but because I was scared of the procedure and the recovery. But Dr. Platt was great about walking through each of my concerns with the procedure. Austin was also great about helping me stay calm throughout this time.

We decided to call our parents at this point to let them know we’d be heading in for the c-section. We definitely thought the extra prayers would be helpful and help calm me down!

Around 2:15am I was taken back to get prepped for surgery. Austin was allowed to come back for the procedure and sat by my head the entire time, keeping me distracted from what was happening. Having him talk to me the whole time was exactly what I needed.

At 2:48am, Jacob Alan Zaruba was born into this world at 8lb 6oz, 20 ½ inches long. Austin was actually able to take a look over the curtain and he was the one to tell me it was a boy! I love that he was the one to tell me that news! A few seconds later, we heard Jacob cry for the first time. I think it was at that time, it became real. Our baby was here. And his cry was an amazing sound. Austin went to Jacob as they did their tests and he was able to cut the umbilical cord. After he got done with that, he turned to look at me and even through his mask, I could see the smile on his face! What a proud dad! Austin left with Jacob to go to the nursery as they finished their tests on him while surgery was finished with me. Finally, around 3:15am, Jacob and Austin came back to the room where we were able to be a family for the very first time! It was love at first sight. It’s hard to believe that in a matter of minutes, our entire lives had changed. Our focus had shifted to this tiny baby, who we were now responsible for. What a whirlwind of emotion!

Looking back, the rest of the day was a blur. It was in all honesty, the longest but most rewarding day of my life. I had been in labor for about 26 hours. But at the end, I was awarded the most beautiful baby boy. And I could not have done it without Austin. He was by my side the entire time. And even while I was sleeping, he was awake, too anxious and excited to sleep. He was supportive in all the right ways, getting me everything I needed and encouraged me when things got hard. I am so proud of the man he was that day. He could not have been a better husband to me.  And now everyday I’m falling more and more in love with these two amazing men in my life.