Oscar's Birth Story — Amy Farfan

I had a baby recently. This is his birth story - however it starts a week before his birth - so let me take you back:

It was a normal Tuesday and I had my normal 32 week OBGYN doctor’s appointment. All seemed well. My feet had been starting to swell but I was in my third trimester so my doc wasn’t too worried about it.

The baby was measuring at the 66th percentile, so a little above average. She said that meant he would be about 7 or 8 pounds at his due date. She also let me know that because of my age and the fact that we had to do IVF to get him to this point, he is still considered high risk so instead of letting me go all the way until my due date of October 16th - she would be inducing me on October 9th the week before my due date, if he hadn’t already made his appearance. They also did a 3D ultrasound and he was sorta blocking his face with his hands but I did get to see a really good picture of his nose and it was SO CUTE! I couldn’t wait to see him in person - little did I know I wouldn’t have to wait much longer.

The next day at about 10am I got a call from my doctor’s office. The protein in my urine was much higher than it should be. They told me that I needed to start coming in every week for monitoring and I would be doing a “non-stress test” when I came in the next week. I might have pre-eclampsia so I would have to have lots of more bloodwork too. With this new information she was now planning on inducing me at 37 weeks - so September 25th. My doctor also told me that I needed to start monitoring my own blood pressure every morning when I woke up and every night before bed and I had to call or come in if my blood pressure got too high.

This really freaked me out so I ordered an at home blood pressure cuff for pick up from Target and stopped to get it on my way home from work that day. I did not sleep well that night even though my BP was within the normal range that evening. My anxiety was definitely kicking in.

That night Jose and I started to make big strides in our preparations for our little guy’s arrival. Wednesday we made a list of everything we needed to get done before the baby arrived and ranked the list in order of importance. Thursday night we packed our hospital bags and got the crib ready, just in case. Friday after work we cleaned off the bassinet (it had been in my grandma’s basement, probably since my brother was a baby) and ordered new sheets for it. Saturday we had Infant Care Class at the hospital, which gave us a bunch of good resources and it was fun to hang out with Jose all day and imagine what it would be like to take care of our baby. Then we went to Target after class to pick up a few essentials: Newborn and Preemie sized clothes, witch hazel, food for ourselves, etc.

Then Saturday night, my blood pressure check was pretty high - right below the limit line where I’d need to call my doctor. The dog had jumped on me out of nowhere while the BP machine was running so I thought I might have been scared so I waited 5 minutes and took my BP again. This time it was above the limit. Now I thought I was freaking myself out and waited another 5 minutes and took my BP again. It was a tiny bit lower but still above the limit. I decided all this measuring was freaking me out and decided to lay down, wait an hour, and then check it again. This time when I remeasured, I was below the limit, not by much, but it was below so I decided to go ahead and go to sleep.

I woke up on Sunday at 4am feeling pretty anxious and took my blood pressure - it was over the limit. I laid back down for 2 hours, took my BP again, still over the limit. At that point I’d had too many high BPs to ignore. I called my doctor’s office’s overnight number and they told me to come in right away. I got to the hospital and they started monitoring me and the baby right away. My blood pressure was very high but they said the baby was doing fine. They gave me Beta-blockers and magnesium sulfate to help bring down my BP as fast as possible. That made me feel weird - I could feel the tingle of the beta-blockers spread across my body as they went in and the Magnesium hurt going in my IV and made me stay awake and anxious. They also gave me a steroid shot to help the baby’s lungs develop faster. The on-call doctor came to talk to me but it wasn’t my normal doctor so he didn’t want to make a plan until we talked to her on Monday.

My doctor came by first thing in the morning on Monday. She looked at me like, ‘What the heck?!’ It made me laugh. She’s a good doctor - very personable. She said with my BP as high as it was and the protein in my urine as high as it was - I definitely had preeclampsia. She told me that I would have to deliver Oscar ASAP but while letting his lungs develop for as long as possible. She said she was hoping to wait until next Monday, one week. That would have put his birthday on Labor Day (which seemed fitting). They gave me another steroid shot to help the baby’s lungs grow faster. At that point all we had was hope that my BP would stay low enough to let the baby keep cooking for another week - I was only 33 weeks pregnant at this point so they wanted to get Oscar to 34 weeks.

At this point I have been being monitored regularly and the baby was being monitored constantly. Every time I moved the baby’s monitor would move off the baby and the nurse would come in and readjust and have to find the baby’s heart rate again. Even when I didn’t move the baby would move and then they’d have to readjust again. It was getting rather annoying. Late at night on Monday, the baby’s monitor showed that he wasn’t moving as much as the doctors and nurses would have liked. The overnight ultrasound person came in and did an ultrasound and was trying to count how often the baby was moving - and he didn’t really move at all and he wasn’t doing the amount of practice breathing that he should have been doing. The ultrasound person was not very kind and also had to tell us this scary information - we did not like her. However my nurse at the time, Maddie, was very kind and reassured us that they would do everything they could to keep the baby in for as long as possible. The ultrasound person told me they would redo the ultrasound later in the morning with an actual ultrasound tech - apparently she was the on-call doctor. I took a quick shower and then they put the regular baby monitor back on at about midnight.

At 2am on Tuesday morning the doctor and my nurse came into my room pretty quickly and announced that it is time to deliver and it would be via c-section. They rushed around getting things ready and said they were going to call my doctor and see if she could make it in for the delivery.

I think I went into shock. It was like I could see everything happening around me but I couldn’t quite process it. Things were happening to me that I had no say in. The nurse shaved me where they were going to make the incision - no one ever tells you that when they talk about a c-section. They wanted to give me another IV since the one I currently had was starting to hurt. They tried my other arm and failed, then tried my hand and that one worked well.

I asked the doctor that was there if I had time to call my dad. She hesitated but my nurse said to call right now. I called and my dad didn’t answer, obviously-it was 2am, so left a weird discombobulated message and told my dad to call Jose if he needed to since it seemed like everything was going so fast and I wouldn’t have my phone.

My doctor did want to come and do my surgery which I was SOOO grateful for. If that mean doctor had to do my surgery I think I would have flipped out. They said she was about 15 or 20 minutes away so we could wait for her. When she arrived she came into my room and gave me another one of those ‘What the heck?!’ looks and I just nodded and shrugged. Then it was time to go to surgery. They took me back to the surgery room and had me sit on the table. I was given a spinal block and then I laid down. They waited and made sure I couldn’t feel anything and then they went and got Jose. Then they started the surgery.

It was the weirdest feeling in the world - being awake while you know doctors are cutting you open. My brain couldn’t process what was happening with my legs and I kept having the sensation that my legs were floating like balloons and bouncing up in they air. It sorta felt like the bottom half of my body was high or something. But then they started tugging on my body - my upper half could feel the tugging and pulling and then all the sudden they asked if I wanted to see Oscar and I said ‘Yes!’

They held him up above the drape where I could see him. He was so tiny and white but then he started crying the loudest baby cries I’ve ever heard! I was so glad to hear them since we weren’t sure how he was doing inside of me. Of course I started crying. After they held him up for me to look at for a little bit they took him to his little bed and started checking him out to make sure he was ok. I could still hear him crying but couldn’t see him anymore. Jose went with him and took pictures for me while I was getting put back together and stitched up. I heard them double check that none of the tools were left inside of my body and then I was pronounced done with surgery and taken to my postpartum room. They must have taken Oscar to the NICU by then. The details are a little hazy for me to remember.

My dad and step-mom were there with me and Jose was with the baby. It was a weirdly large room. Later they told me it was the model room that they take people to on tours so it had every option available for giving birth. I was still feeling really weird from my spinal block and whatever drugs they had given me, mixed with the insane amount of adrenaline and anxiety from being rushed into surgery. I felt like I was in a daze but I couldn’t sleep. Jose came and got dad and Debbie and took them to see the baby - with my blessing. I wanted someone to be with the baby and keep him company since I couldn’t go.

I felt like I was in that dumb room forever. My blood pressure was still really high and my urine output was really low. The doctors and nurses kept telling me when I would be able to go and see my baby and then changing the time to be later because my numbers weren’t getting better. I was getting really discouraged and frustrated and sad. I wanted to see my baby. I hadn’t even gotten to touch him yet.

Finally at about 1pm I got wheeled into the NICU. I finally got to touch my baby! He was the most perfect, precious, wonderful thing I’ve ever done. I couldn’t believe how small he was in the incubator. Jose and I got to ‘hold’ him which consisted of putting our hands on him inside the incubator through port holes in the box. I remember it being really hard and uncomfortable getting my arms to line up right with the port holes.

I of course cried - mostly because of how happy I was to be able to touch him and how wonderful it was to see him in real life. But also because of the whirlwind of a day I had had up to that point. I was finally able to take a breath. I couldn’t believe how many wires and tubes were coming out of and going into my baby. I was scared for him and I wanted him to be ok. I felt relieved that the nurses were nice and they seemed very confident that Oscar was going to be ok.

After a little while they took me back to my room. It was a normal mom/baby room and it was the one I would be in for the rest of my hospital stay. A friend of mine brought me and Jose dinner from Red Robin that evening and I took her to meet my baby. I was and am so proud of him - he is my greatest accomplishment and I was happy to show him off. Jose and I also went back to see Oscar later that night I couldn’t get enough Oscar time!

That Tuesday was the longest day of my life and I still can’t quite believe that I delivered my October baby on August 29th!