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birth story-- xander

My pregnancy with xander was challenging to say the least. I was absolutely terrified that I would lose him. when they did my blood work and ultrasound initially, there was no heart beat. The Dr. said I would either miscarry, or there were twins that hadn't separated yet. I went back a few days later to check my hormone levels, and there was one beautiful little heart beating on the ultrasound. I hadn't realized I was holding my breath until I heard the words "you see the heart right there?".
A few weeks later they offered testing for genetic abnormalities. We agreed to do the blood work, and received a call a few days later from a nurse saying "your baby tested positive for downs syndrome. (this is not something that can be determined through that part of the testing). my heart broke in two. I was devastated for my sweet baby. He or she would have such difficulties in life. When we went to the doctor she offered a slew of different testing to see if my baby was indeed positive for downs syndrome. we opted for a 3D ultrasound at a specialists office in a bigger city to check him out. When we went for the consultation after the ultrasound they told us he had less than a 1% chance of having downs syndrome. We were relieved.
a few weeks later, my stomach started hurting enough to warrant an ER trip. They thought it was my appendix. The Dr said they would likely have to do surgery, and my baby would not likely make it through. We prayed so hard for those 14 hours. It came back as a gall bladder attack. I was put on  a low fat diet, and released from the hospital.
at 16 weeks we found out we were having a boy. we were so excited.
at 34 weeks I started having contractions. I went to the hospital, and they gave me meds to stop them. this happened about 4 more times before I actually had him.
At
37 weeks, we found out xander was breech. he was feet down. we scheduled a c section for 39 weeks.
at 38 weeks, xander flipped to head down, and we discussed having him naturally. My Dr told me that my body was not going to grow enough to let him thrive, and my body would not cooperate through birth. (she didn't know that, no one could know that) she made it seem like I was putting my son in danger by having him naturally, so I opted for a c section anyway.
At 39 weeks, I went in for a scheduled c section. my whole family was there.
When we got to the hospital, I waited for 4 hours to go back to the OR. the nurses were incredibly rude.
When we got back to the OR I was scared to death. The spinal block only numbed half of my body. I had to argue with the nurses that I was not feeling pressure it was pain as they were pinching me. The doctor wanted more spinal block to be put in, but the anesthesiologist said It could paralyze me, and suggested I be put to sleep. The dr argued that she couldn't get the baby out in time if they put me to sleep. the anesthesiologist was kicked out of the OR, and a new one came in and gave me another spinal block.
When they started cutting I was trying to breathe, and couldn't feel my lungs filling. instead of assuring me that I was breathing I was met with a demand to stop pushing (as if you can push whenyou are completely numb.)
when they finally got me cut open all the way I heard the doctor say "where's the baby?"
I remember thinking "what do you mean wheres the baby? he was there a second ago."
he had scooted himself up into my ribs.
kody says at this point they dropped the bionic elbow to get him out. jumping on my ribs, and pushing down with their forearms to scoot him out.
 the next thing I remember is them calling time of birth 2:08 p.m, and waiting what seemed like forever to hear him cry.
they cleaned him up and brought him beside me for a brief moment, then I slipped out of consciousness and they took kody and the baby to the nursery. they took a long time to sew me up (which we found out later whoever did ithad no idea what they were doing)
it took 3 hours for me to be back uo to the OB unit and be with my baby, nobody would tell me anything about him, and they wouldn't tell kody what was taking so long for me to come back to him.
in the end I was handed a 6lb 11oz baby boy and I was so happy to be him mommy.


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