Mason
James Scott
Born
August 17th, 9:16 am
Northeastern
Nevada Regional Hospital
6
lbs., 7 oz., 20 ½ in. long
Thursday
night, the 15th of August, I was up a lot with really bad back
cramps. I couldn’t get comfortable in
any position and it was uncomfortable to even stand. I eventually got to sleep and it felt like
I’d barely slept when I had to get up to go to work Friday. I decided that it was time to get this baby
out so I left the house early and went to the high school track to walk. I’d been walking a mile in the mornings a
couple times a week and Friday could only manage ¼ of a mile before my bottom
half felt like it was breaking in half.
I decided that was enough walking and headed to work.
I got to work early and my boss asked why I was
there so early. When I told him that I’d
gone walking and felt like my parts were going to explode he suggested I go
walk more and let them explode. I joked
with him that I probably didn’t want to do that at the high school track since
the football team and cross country teams were there practicing; he agreed.
I was somewhat uncomfortable throughout the
day and a bit cranky to go along with it.
I wasn’t having cramps or contractions, I was just uncomfortable. I had lunch with Brianne and her boys and
spend the rest of the day sitting and getting up to alternate between ouch and
ooofta. When 5 o’clock rolled around I
was one happy girl. I’d decided to go to
dinner with Grandma and Aunt Becky and try the new Coffee Mug because its Grand
Opening was that day. We met for dinner
right after work and I was able to eat half of my dinner. I had to go to the bathroom pretty bad but
nothing exciting happened when I did.
When I sat back down at the table I was really uncomfortable with back
pain and had to kind of slouch to feel okay.
We finished dinner at about 6 o’clock and Grandma and I walked out to
our cars together. I had to stop a
couple times going across the parking lot because of pains in my lower girly
parts and Grandma told me I had to call her when I got home because she didn’t
like how I was walking. I agreed to call
and got in my car. Once I was in the car
Felicia sent me a text message asking me to go see if her truck was locked
because they were on their way to Salt Lake.
I drove over and checked and then drove straight home. As I was coming in the house my house phone
was ringing; Grandma was checking to see why I hadn’t called her yet to tell
her I was home. J
I let the dog out and then I sat down on the
couch to watch the Braves game. It was
an intense game, pitchers were hitting batters and the score was tied up. My back was having cramps again and at
Jenilee’s request I called OB to see what to do. They said to try heat so I settled down with
a heating pad, which felt amazing. Finally
the Braves pulled ahead with a walk off home run by Justin Upton in the 10th. It was exciting; I was quite involved in the
game and realized I needed to go the bathroom pretty badly. I got up, noticed the couch had a tiny spot
on it from where I’d been sitting, went to the bathroom and peed. When I got up I had some running down my leg,
which I thought was weird because I’d just cleaned up from going pee…but I
cleaned up again and went on my merry way.
I noticed that I had to go to the bathroom really often but thought
maybe baby was just on my bladder or something.
My “back spasms” were getting worse again and I decided to tell Jenilee
what was happening because we were texting.
She told me that I should call OB again and see what they said. So I called (twice over the course of an hour
or so) and was told that until my contractions (contractions?! Whoa!) were
spaced 4 to 5 minutes apart I could stay home unless I was too uncomfortable. At this point it was 10 pm and I really
didn’t want to wake mom and dad up for what was surely going to be a false
alarm so I was hesitant. My
“contractions” were anywhere from 3 minutes to 7 minutes apart and I figured
they should be more regular than that if it was “real” labor. I talked to my sister Katie and we agreed
that although generally I’m just a wuss and this might be one of those times, I
should call Mom. So, I called and woke
up my parents. Dad answered and asked if
it was time and I told him that I didn’t know and asked to talk to mom. Mom and I decided that we should “go for a
drive” and I got my stuff together to go to the hospital.
On the way to the hospital I was having
contractions and whining that it was too painful and distinctly remember Mom
telling me that I hadn’t seen anything yet.
Boy was she right! Yikes.
We got to the hospital and checked in at
10:30pm on Friday the 16th.
I’d called Ashley Ruffino (my coach and good friend) on the way to the
hospital to see if she wanted to come up and she was on her way. They took me upstairs and put me in a Labor
& Delivery room. I got changed into
my “gown” and laid down for the nurse (Debbie who was married to Mike and had a
daughter named Kimberly Ann who played softball around the same time as me!!)
to check me for dilation and such. She
said I was at a 3 and asked me when my water had broken. This seemed funny to me because I didn’t know
it had and had spent the last bit in the room with mom and dad praying that my
water wouldn’t break in front of my dad and embarrass us both. Nurse Debbie assured me that my water was
definitely broken, I was in labor and I WOULD be having a baby. We figured out that when I had that trickle after
my first trip to the bathroom my water had broken. It didn’t do it in the typical “whoosh” way
but slowly leaked over time. I credit
the Braves winning the game (3-2 against the Nationals) in the 10th
with my water breaking…it was a very exciting moment. I even sent them a message on FB letting them
know what they’d done! No response, but
that’s okay.
So, the contractions were getting worse and
were all in my back. I remember it
feeling like someone was pounding rebar into my spine every time I got a
contraction. Ashley got there and was
like an angel, saying just the right things (its ok, this one is almost over)
at the right time. Meanwhile, dad had
figured out that the room he was standing in with us was the one where
EVERYTHING happened and he ran for it.
He spent the night in the “waiting room” at the end of the hall which
really was just some incredibly uncomfortable chairs at the end of the hall and
refused to come back into the room until things changed…we’ll get there shortly
and he’ll appear again. Mom made her way
back and forth between Dad and I all night, and I remember thinking it didn’t
quite hurt as bad when mom was holding my hand.
Between her and Ashley I figured I might just survive this experience.
Nurse Debbie gave me some wonderful pain
medicine through my IV to hold me over until it was time for my epidural and it
ended up calming the contractions so much it put baby Mason to sleep, which was
counterproductive. So, they took away my
pain meds and put me on Pitocin to start the contractions back up and wake him up. It worked…yowza.
Through the night Mom, Ashley and I managed
contractions, breathing and they spent a lot of time assuring me that no, I
wasn’t dying and yes, it was worth it.
Eventually the magic epidural man (Jim) came and things got a lot better
for me pretty quickly. They had me sit
up, cross my legs and lean forward, arching my back like a cat. I was nervous because he was back there with
a needle and about to put it into my back.
I was sure he knew what he was doing but when I got the twinge down my
left leg it freaked me out and my first thought was “OMG, he paralyzed
me.” I learned then that the twinge was
normal and he hadn’t actually paralyzed me.
He did great and it was over before I knew it. I remember sitting up on the bed, bent
forward with him sticking a needle into my spine…and here comes a
contraction. Great timing. We made it through and when the epidural
kicked in my whole world changed. Ashley
and I managed some sleep in the room and Mom and Dad hung out in the “waiting
room” between stretching their legs and checking on me. There was a huge leather recliner in the room
for Ashley but Mom and Dad weren’t so lucky; the “waiting room” consisted of a
row of chairs that were clearly missing the comfort part of the equation. Luckily a super nice nurse managed to wrangle
up some pillows for them, which helped.
I posted on Facebook that tonight was the night; it was baby time, and
we waited.
Early morning rolled around and things were
progressing slowly. Uncle Dave came up
to check on us as he’d seen my Facebook post and since he usually had coffee
with my parents in the mornings before taking Grandma to breakfast (every
Saturday, what a good boy) he figured he’d just head to the hospital instead
and check on us.
Around 8:00 the nurse checked me and I’d
progressed to a 6, which was great. The
nurse said if she HAD to guess we’d have a baby around lunch time and Mom and
Dad, who’d been on the hunt for coffee in the hospital for hours to no avail,
decided to go get some breakfast and headed out. I laid back and tried to relax. Ashley and I decided we’d get some more sleep
while we could and I had a nurse bring Ashley a pillow. We settled in for the next long haul and then
the nurse came in, quite quickly, and said that baby Mason’s heart rate had dropped
and she wanted to check me again just to see where he was at. In that 15-20 minutes since the last check
I’d dilated from a 6 to a 9 and baby Mason had dropped so drastically that his
heart rate had dropped. The nurse was
concerned enough to call Marian (our angel of a midwife) to come see what was
going on. Marian came and did an
ultrasound and we found what she’d dreaded…baby was head down but was face up. The nurses referred to him as “sunny side up”. The other thing she found was that there was
cord down by his head; she couldn’t tell if it was around his neck or somewhere
else down there but either way it wasn’t good.
She looked me in the eye and said “read my mind”. I told her I read that it wasn’t good and we
came to the conclusion that a C-Section was necessary.
When the nurse had found that I’d progressed
so quickly (before Marian got here) Ashley called mom and dad who had finished
their breakfast and they headed back up.
They got there in time for Marian’s ultrasound and discussion so mom was
with me when I found out that I would be going into the OR to have my baby, not
pushing. I was feeling a lot of emotions
at that point. I was scared because I’d
had a close friend lose her baby at delivery because of cord around his neck
and at this point Marian couldn’t tell me where the cord was, just that it was
down by his head and that wasn’t good. I
was disappointed because I really didn’t want to have surgery. I was excited because this meant it would be
a lot sooner that I’d be holding my son, if all went well. I was anxious, tired, and hungry and so many
other things that in the long run wouldn’t matter. Mom went to tell Dad & called Uncle Dave to
tell him what was happening. Dad decided
that the room wasn’t as scary anymore since I wouldn’t be pushing out a baby in
it and came to see me before I went into surgery. Marian asked me who I wanted with me in the
OR and even though Ashley had been an amazing coach my brain and my heart said
“mom”. Dad was given custody of the baby
book for footprints when they brought baby Mason out and Ashley was given
custody of “Grandpa” and the camera.
They put an oxygen mask on me, did a bunch of
things to my IV, called in Dr. Winch and prepped the OR. They gave mom her OR outfit, which we decided
looked like a Stay Puft Marshmallow guy costume. I made sure to ask Ashley to get a picture of
mom in her outfit because I probably wouldn’t be paying attention and didn’t
want to miss it.
The magic epidural man (Jim was back) was
back to do more magic “no feely” things and was a lot more communicative than
before. It’s not that he wasn’t nice the
first time; he was just not as talkative as I was the first time we met. (Found out later he wasn’t actually the guy
on call and had been called in 4 times after 10 pm…I wouldn’t be talkative
either!) This time he kept asking if I
was ok and patting my hand and telling me it was going to be okay; it was
reassuring and made me feel a lot more comfortable with where I was headed. They wheeled me into the OR and transferred
me to the OR bed (that was a weird experience…having no feeling in my legs and
just kind of floating from one bed to the other…). Jim, my magic anesthesiologist, hooked me up to
a bunch of things and even tried joking a bit.
The first time we met he would give me about a 2 second warning that
something was cold before “attacking” me with it. It went a lot like this: Jim – cold, Kim-
what? And WHAM! This time he knew I
couldn’t feel anything on my belly but kept telling me what he was doing was
cold anyways, just to make me smile.
That was something I needed, big time.
It’s one thing to feel all those crazy emotions in your L&D room surrounded
by your loved ones but when it’s just you and your OR team in that crazy white
sterile room it’s a lot scarier.
Eventually Dr. Winch, Marian and mom came in
and we got started. I had a sheet up in
front of my face so I couldn’t see anything.
Jim and Mom were at my head and the doctor and nurses were discussing TV
shows they enjoyed as they cut me open.
Mom was right where I needed her, rubbing my forehead and telling me who
was doing what. She couldn’t see the
actual surgery but when Dr. Hernandez (pediatrician extraordinaire) came in I
knew it, when she put a blanket over her shoulder I knew it, etc. Pretty soon (after what seemed like forever)
Dr. Winch asked if I was ready and told me that my baby boy would be out in
about 30 seconds. Those 30 seconds,
waiting for that cry, seemed to last an eternity. And then there it, that first amazing cry. He was real, he was out, he was mad and he
was mine.
It turned out his cord was not wrapped around
his neck like I’d been so scared of. It
was over his shoulder and down to his bum.
This was still not good and if we’d tried the push route we’d have ended
up in an emergency C-section anyways.
Turns out my stubborn little guy was not going to come out on his
own. He wanted a grand entrance, and boy
did he get it. Marian, the midwife, said
that when they got me open he was laying there staring at them with his big
bright eyes like “ok, finally you’re here!”
We’d been waiting and waiting on him to come to us, when all along it
turned out we needed to go get him.
Dr. Hernandez and Mom took my Mason out to be
cleaned up, weighed and all that good stuff while they finished with me in the
OR. Dr. Hernandez brought him in to me
and when I looked at him all the bad memories, the hard pregnancy, the morning
sickness, the body aches, the killer labor…it was gone. This adorable little person looked at me,
quivered his chin and I knew I was toast.
It was clear, very quickly, that nothing else would ever matter more
than that little face and my job was not to be Kim anymore; my new job as
Mason’s mom was under way.
After surgery they wheeled me to my recovery
room, where Ashley was waiting. Mason was there shortly after me with his
entourage (Mom, Dad & Uncle Dave) and although I really wanted to I
couldn’t hold him right away. I had a
massive case of the shakes which they told me was a little bit of shock and a
lot of coming off the epidural and spinal.
I couldn’t feel anything but boy were things moving around. I got to do a lot of looking at my son until
my arms calmed down and I was finally able to hold him. Snuggling up my little bundle after 9 LONG
months of waiting for him was about the coolest moment of my life, so far. We’ve got a long ways to go and a lot to
learn but we’re going to be just fine.
Welcome to our world Mason, get ready…it’s quite a ride.
