Judah Alen Pearce

I have wanted to share my birth story with everyone, and I now have the time to write it down.

I was 10 days overdue, and was going to be induced Saturday night if he did not come by then. Well the night before at 1:30 AM I got my first painful contraction. They came every 30 minutes or so for about 6 hours. Then they got closer, and then all of the sudden around 12:30 PM they were 5 minutes apart. I waited an hour and they were still 5 minutes apart. So we decided to head in to labor and delivery. When I got there I was having contractions every 2 minutes that were getting more intense. I was only dialated to 3 though. We got in our room, and I tried everything. The tub, rocking chair, bed. They got so intense and close together all I could do is yell "ow" over and over again. They didn't like how close my contractions were (about a minute) and I was begging for something to help ease the pain. I really did not want an epidural, so they gave me some IV med's. They helped for about an hour, but then the contractions got really bad. I was begging for something else. I decided to get the epidural. (If you know me, I am always trying to go the most natural route, this was a last resort) My midwife told me she though the epidural was a good idea because I was having contractions too close together and they wanted them to slow down. Also I developed a fever, and they started me on antibiotics, and tylenol. The epidural did its job for a while, but eventually my contractions got extremely bad. They went from 0-135 on the monitor, and then stayed over a 100 and just kept going up but never coming down past 100. I was having constant contractions.

My heartrate was in the 150's, and Judah's was in the 180's (they want his no higher then 160's). My fever continued to rise, and my midwife checked me, I was still 7 cm dialated, the same as I was 2 hours prior. She said the word C-section and I instantly started crying. This was the farthest from what I wanted. But she though Judah was stuck, and with the fever and high heartrates, we needed to make a decision. Of course we agreed to the C-section as what is most important was Judah and I getting out of this as safely as possible. I was really scared but Lance was amazing. He stayed so strong for the both of us when I know he was scared to death. When they were prepping for the C-section Judah's heartrate shot up to 210 and stayed there. That was so terrifying, and I was scared I was going to loose my baby.

The C-section itself was pretty awful, Lance watched the whole thing. Once they got him out and I heard some little cries I started crying. I saw them put him on the table near me and they were suctioning him out really well because he had pooped in his amniotic fluid. I only got to see him for a second and he was taken to the NICU because he needed more suctioning and was also running a fever. My poor baby had to have a spinal tap to rule out meningitis. (his dad had one and can contest they hurt really bad) I had Lance go with him, as that was our plan if anything should go wrong. Th Once I was in recovery for about an hour they took me to see Judah really quickly, and then took me to my room and I had to wait 5 hours to see my baby again. I tried to sleep but I couldn't. Finally I got to go to the NICU. When I got to finally hold him it was so awesome. He was the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. He was perfect! He looked like Lance from the nose up and me below the nose. He has his Daddy's hands and feet. He has blondish red hair, and blue eyes (we are waiting to see if they are going to be brown or green) Despite all the wires and IV's on him he was just amazing. I was told he was on antibiotics in case of infection and we couldn't have him in our room with us, it would be at least 24 hours. Well later that day we got the news that Judah would be staying in our room with us and would be there around 6PM. His blood work showed he did have an infection but they were not sure what, so they wanted him on antibiotics for at least 5 days to get rid of whatever it was. His spinal tap came back negative and his blood work got better and better. Finally on Christmas Eve we got the news we would be going home around lunch time. The 5 days in the hospital were rough, my baby was being poked and bugged all day and night, and I could barely move. Lance did such a great job taking care of Judah and I. He was amazing! We also had family that came and helped out, (and let us sleep!) which was great.

Since we have been home we have had some issues with breastfeeding, but with my husbands perseverance and it being very important to me, we got it down, and now Judah only eats from Mommy! I love my little man so much, and could not imagine life without him. I have an amazing husband who takes such good care of us, and is a great Daddy. I am feeling better but still pretty weak and tired (I lost alot of blood, and they almost needed to do a transfusion). I can't wait until I am healed and can be more active. But other then that we are healthy and happy. Judah sleeps so good and only wakes up if hes hungry or needs to be changed. Hes our little blessing from God!