A Date With Chance

So, last Tuesday morning, August 31, we woke up to quite the surprise. My water broke at 5 am! I think I was completely shocked. Jose had to convince me that a trip to the hospital was necessary. I called the on-call nurse and she told me I would most likely be having a baby that day! I was 35 weeks and 5 days along.... so we quickly packed the "hospital bag" and loaded up the kids.

A few hours later, I still hadn't started having contractions so after much consultation, we felt it time to start inducing the labor. We started the potosin and I began to have contractions...we had a very vigilant nurse who noted that the baby's heart rate would drop with almost every contraction. She was very concerned about this being too much stress on him---especially if this was happening before I got to the stage of real labor. So, two different times they had to rush in, stop the Potosin, and try various methods of moving me around to try and change the positioning of the cord.

On the last attempt, they decided to raise my potosin levels one small increment at a time, and wait for 30-45 minutes in between. The baby did better this time and I was able to progress more. However, several hours later, around 10:15 pm, the nurse and Dr. came in urgently after I'd had 3 big contractions and the baby'd had 3 big heart dips.

The Doctor was anxious to check me---possibly I'd dilated to an 8 or 9 I remember the nurse happily saying. However the tone in the room changed quite quickly--yes I'd dilated, but only to a 4 (9 hrs later) but this wasn't the problem. She found the cord being squeezed between the baby's head and my cervix. A problem that could result in the death of the baby within minutes.

What happened next is all quite a blur and took place in probably 3 minutes....I whisked away into the OR, with everyone rushing around, the nurses trying to keep the head off the cord, the OBGYN getting everything ready. The Anesthesiologists had me "out" in a minute--though that minute felt like an eternity! I could hear the metal tools being prepped, the Dr's frantic voice waiting for the anesthesiologist to hurry up.... (Because of my spinal cord stroke, I couldn't have an epidural--which meant that if a C-section were to be needed, they'd have to put me out completely with general anesthesia)...and I was lying there just hoping they'd get me out in time to then get the baby out.

Next thing I knew, and about 45 minutes later, I was with Jose again, staring in a daze at the video camera recording of our precious little boy, Chance.

It turned out that Chance was fighting another battle as well. He was extremely pale---due to a loss of blood. The nurses couldn't even get a drop out of him. Due to either an abruption of the placenta or a blood vessel in labor, he'd lost enough blood to need immediate blood transfusions.

I was able to pass by and see him for a few minutes before they had to continue stabilizing him. He has had a long week--with lots of testings, tubes, etc as he has lived in the NICU...but today we get to bring him home! We can't wait.

Had the Dr. not come into check Chance when she did, we could of lost him. We know God watched over us all during this experience and provided the way for him to be safe and protected. Jose gave me a blessing when they started inducing me---and I was told that thru this experience we would see the love and power of God thru His Priesthood. And so it was.

We thank God for giving us this Chance. Chance Jose Hernandez, born Aug 31, 10:20pm, weighing in at 5.4 lbs and 18.5 inches long!

(pics coming tomorrow)