Lucas's Birth Story- better late than never...

**daria** · 05-22-2012, 11:29 AM

We were scheduled for a repeat c-section on Wednesday April 18th at 9:30 am. We arrived at the hospital at 7:30, and got taken to a room for pre-op. I changed into my gown, got hooked up to the monitors and the nurse started my IV. Over the course of the next hour or so I had blood work done, had my blood sugar checked, had my blood pressure monitored continuously, and met a zillion people who would be in the OR.

Here's the last picture taken of me pregnant:

Shortly before 9 my OBGYN came in and told me that I lucked out and we could start early. I walked back to the OR, got my spinal, got my catheter, and then DH was allowed in.

At 9:21 AM the doctor held the baby up over the curtain and DH announced that it was a boy! They took him over to the nurses, and they cleaned him up, did his APGAR score, etc. DH went over and started taking pictures. A few minutes later everything went wrong. The first thing I heard was one of the nurses saying "Call Special Care". People came flying into the room, and DH walked back over to me looking shell shocked. He had tears in his eyes. Then I heard the words I'll never forget. "Call for a crash cart." I immediately started sobbing. The nurse I'd been working with all morning came over and explained what was going on. 5 minutes after birth, he started choking on some fluid that was caught in his throat and decided to hold his breath. He was turning blue and they were having trouble finding his heartbeat, so that was when they had called for the crash cart, but he had stabilized before it arrived. However, my baby-mommy friendly c-section experience was out the window. Instead of staying in the OR the entire time and then coming with me to recovery, the baby had to go to Special Care for observation.

Lucas Ryan Sheasley was born at 9:21 am on April 18th. He weighed 8 lbs 9 oz and was 20.75 inches long.

He stayed in Special Care until about 3pm when they brought him to me to try to eat. They were trying to avoid having to supplement him, since I had Gestational Diabetes and they needed his blood sugar to remain stable. I got to hold him for about a half hour before they came to take him and put him back under the oxygen hood. He never did eat, he just refused the breast. However, I did a great job managing the GD, so he never did need supplementation. His blood sugar stayed stable the entire time they were checking him. Around 5pm my mom brought Alex to meet his little brother. They went down to Special Care to see him and Alex informed me he was going to bring Lucas back with him. Sure enough, he did. Lucas was released from Special Care prison.

Here's our first family pic as a family of 4:

I found out later his APGAR scores were 8 and 5. 5 is not so good at the 5 minute mark... It certainly wasn't how I envisioned the day playing out, but all is well that ends well.

**JBird3010** · 05-22-2012, 12:24 PM

Congratulations on your sweet little boy! You have a beautiful family! Our stories are very similar. Cammi had fluid in her lungs and decided to hold her breath too. The only thing with my experience was that noone told me what was happening until after i was back from recovery, and then it was my husband that told me. But all is well with both of our babies and that's all that matters!