Birth Story | Graham Franklin | January 13th, 2020

I can’t believe as I’m finally sitting down to write this that it’s been three weeks since Graham was born!!

After passing my due date of January 8th we decided that Sunday the 12th we would go in and start an induction. For the entire pregnancy, I wanted everything to happen naturally but on my final appointment, I was so excited to finally meet this baby and find out if he was a boy or girl I gave in, rather quickly, and finally had an end date. Jake and I get to the hospital at 6 p.m Sunday evening, get all checked in and the process begins. What an awful process that is, nobody tells you about this or really anything that is of any value. Laying in an awful bed that you can’t get comfortable in but also can’t move around or get up and sit in a chair or couch because the monitors on your belly move and then they have to come in and readjust…. all. night. long. So after 12 hours of medicine, I still wasn’t dilating (at all, zero, none, zilch) and when my doctor came in Monday morning we decided to try another medicine for the day. So 8 more hours of being uncomfortable and sore, unable to get up and move. 5 p.m. rolls around and my doctor returns to see how things are going, I was so excited and thought we’d be able to get things going and have this baby naturally by the end of the day or early morning.

And then she says nothing has progressed, not even a little. I was so upset at the thought of having to lay in this bed for another minute let alone possibly a few more days. So we talked about options and what she thought was going on

– baby is just really comfortable and not moving down.
– could wait it out but might be a day or two more
– baby may be too big and might end up with c-section after laboring for awhile.

And then she spoke the words that for 41 weeks I wanted nothing to do with- “Or we could have a c-section and have a baby within 45 minutes”

Without an ounce of hesitation, I said, “Ok, let’s do it”. I don’t know if it was the suspense of finding out boy or girl or if I was just over having to lay in the worlds most uncomfortable bed for another minute more but the “plan” I had thought about, read about, researched, talked with other moms about all went out the window and the plan at that very moment became, let’s meet this baby.

Once everything was ready I walked down to the O.R. to start the meds. Once they started the meds and where ready to get started they brought Jake in and got started. It’s a really strange feeling not being able to move or feel anything from your ribs down. All I could feel was a little bit of pressure and movement. After a few minutes, I remember the doctor saying to Jake ” do you want to tell her what baby is?” At that point, they dropped the drape for me ( I asked for a clear drape so I could watch them pull the baby out but they were out 🙁 )). And I remember looking at Jake and him saying, with tears in his eyes and the biggest smile I’ve ever seen on his face, ” LOOK! You can’t miss those things” or some variation of that, lol. And while I knew it was a boy from the look on Jake’s face I looked over the drape and saw “those things”. I also remember the doctor saying there was no way he was coming out on his own and he hadn’t even dropped into position yet, along with that he pee’d on everyone on his way out. So at that moment, I was happy that I got to choose to have a c-section rather than have labored for hours on hours to only have to have an emergency c-section in the end.

While all of that happened in about 30 seconds, as soon as I saw Graham I put my head back down on the table and cried and cried, I don’t think I have ever been that happy in my entire life. I had been waiting for that moment since April. I then remember telling the anesthesiologist that “I was feeling pukey” and then proceeded to vomit. But it was even more awful because without being able to use your chest muscles, because you’re numb, it basically just dribbles out of your mouth, TMI I know, but I want to remember all these little details. During all of this, I can hear the nurses telling Jake to take pictures and how perfect and beautiful Graham was. Jake brought him back to me and let me see him while they finished the surgery.

Once we got back into our room it really was all a blur. I know that all the grandparents and my sister were there but I was really out of it with all of the meds. The recovery room bed was 100 times better and I could actually relax. Once the anesthesia wore off I itched for the next 2 days but other than that I felt really good. I didn’t have any complications and survived on Motrin for the pain. It was such an incredible and emotional experience.

Also worth mentioning- Once you get into the hospital to have a baby- anybody issues, or modesty, or shyness you had literally just flies out the window. You don’t care who’s in the room, what body parts are hanging out or who touches what, because in the end and every day after it’s for the sole purpose of your sweet baby.

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