In Labor and in Denial-- Skyler 6

Jan 15th
My pain started getting worse and worse at about 5 minutes to midnight. I was in denial until it was completely obvious that I was having contractions. They were already 2 to 3 minutes apart. I finally told Chris that I was having them and the nurses came in. He told me that they were probably gas pains. Even though I wanted to shoot him at that moment, I realized he was just in denial too. I had already gone through the stages of denial before I told him. He wasn't quite ready to hear that. Neither of us were. We weren't ready for any of this. I had planned on taking birthing classes with him. (There he would have learned not to say things like that :) Heck, I had only read to 23 weeks in my What to Expect When Expecting book because I didn't want to get too excited or too far ahead. I had planned to take a nursing class and hopefully a parenting class. I couldn't help but look at Chris and say, "I'm not ready for this."

They wheeled me over to labor and delivery. They put an oxygen mask on me. They gave me my first steroid shot to develop the baby's lungs faster. They also gave me Magnesium something through an IV to help prevent neurological damage for the baby. The side effects of the Magnesium were pretty nasty. I felt like I had the flu and had hot flashes. I was sweating. It was painful going into my body. I had to have a catheter because the Magnesium can affect your kidneys. Needless to say, I was miserable.
By this point I was 80 percent effaced and dilated to a 2. As if things couldn't get worse, they did an ultra sound and showed that Skyler was breech. The doctor then explained that if we didn't do a c-section, his head was most likely going to get stuck in the birth canal and he would die. At that time, Skyler's heart rate began to drop dramatically. They came in to tell us that he was basically dying and that there was no point in watching his heart rate anymore because it was like watching him die. They told us that even if we did a c-section at this point, he probably wouldn't make it anyway. Chris and I said a prayer and we just couldn't feel good about doing the c-section. We told the doctor we weren't going to do a c-section but I told her not to turn the heart monitor off. They could watch it but I wouldn't.
Even at this point, I started to cry again but stopped. The thought came to me again that there would be plenty of time to mourn him if he died. I thought, what more could I do for him? I had done all I could and it must be the Lord's will that he dies.
It was about 5:30 am at this point. My contractions were now far apart and the side effects of the Magnesium had worn off. Miraculously, the doctor came in to tell us the Skyler's heart rate had gone back to normal. They didn't know why, but he was stable again. My labor wasn't progressing anymore and I convinced the nurse to get rid of the horrible catheter. By 9:00 am the next day, they knew that my labor wasn't progressing and moved me out of labor and delivery and back into my old room.