Reagan Grace Evans' Birth Story~

My last meal~

Welcome to the World Reagan. Born June 19th, 2010 7 pounds 4.5 oz and 20 3/4 inches long~






First Family Picture~

Reagan and Mommies favourite nurse~

Reagan and Dr. Vanhorne~







Reagan Grace Evan’s Birth Story~

Jake and I arrived at RAF Lakenheath Hospital at 1pm on June 18th, 2010. We had been staying down at a hotel a few blocks from the hospital since June 2nd, 2010 just waiting the arrival of our little girl.

I called into the hospital for the 6th time in just over 2 weeks because our little one was even less active on this day than before. They told me to come in and they would hook me up to the monitor. This monitor measures the baby’s heart beat, movement and contractions. I figured that just as all the other times before they would tell me things looked great, and we would be sent on our way home. As Jake and I sat in one of the birthing rooms he watched some TV and I listened to the thumping of our little girl’s heart. I don’t know if there are many other great sounds in the world, than the sound of your baby’s heartbeat when you’re pregnant. I was hooked up to the monitor for 20 minutes and then Dr. Vanhorne came in the room. She was a small petite little lady that looked very young, and had amazing bedside manors. I was thrilled to be dealing with a girl doctor. I have to say that when it comes to having a baby I feel that a girl understands a bit better than a man. How can a guy relate when you say, “It feels like period cramps.” Let face it guys just don’t have the same equipment as girls. Dr. Vanhorne said that the baby looked amazing on the monitor, but she wanted to check and see how my fluid levels were. She asked if I had been check for this recently, which I hadn’t. As she did the ultrasound on the little machine she measured the amount of amniotic fluid that I had. Then much to my surprise she said that my I had Oligohydramnios, which is low amniotic fluid. She said that my amniotic fluid is considered dangerously low and that they would be inducing me today. She said that keeping the baby in would not do any good, but only cause harm at this point because of how little fluid I had. I asked if I could go back to the hotel and get my bag, she told me that I would not be going any place, but Jake could go.

I gave Jake the list of additional things that he needed to grab along with my hospital bag. While Jake was gone I did the loads and loads of paperwork. I did the paperwork about my heath, if I needed a living will and then met with the anesthesiologist. The anesthesiologist went over how the procedure would go when it came to my epidural and the risks that are involved. I could not believe all the paperwork that was needed. I then got hooked up to my IV and started to get pumped with fluid.

The doctor came in to check me before they hooked me up to patocin to see if I needed to have the catheter inserted to stretch my cervix. She said that I was at 3cm dilated and 50% effaced. She said that she didn’t think at that point the catheter would be of any use. She did strip my membrane and let me tell you, this was the 3rd time I have had this procedure, but this time it hurt. I was hooked up to pitocin at 2pm, which was an hour from the time that we arrived at the hospital. The doctor told me that I would probably be in labor for the next 24-48 hours. I was having contractions every 2-3 minutes and the labor pains were not bad at this point. Jake arrived back from getting all our stuff, and himself something to eat. We gave our birth plan to the nurse, and there were only a few things that the doctor was not okay with, which were: the fact that I needed to make sure when we got into active labor I needed to take my contacts out, also they didn’t carry erythromycin (the eye drops for the baby) and Vitamin K orally was not available in the United States. She said that the rest of my birth plan looked fine and they would try and go along with the plan to the best of their ability.

I was pretty thrilled that they told me I could still eat some food. Jake was sweet enough to share half of his subway sandwich with me. We watched Rescue Me for the next few hours and I tried to rest as much as possible. Then at 5:45pm my water broke, (on its own) and I really must have been low on fluid because it was about the equivalent of maybe 1 cup of water. The nurses came in and check me, but she said the swab came back as not broken. I guess she was wrong because the doctor told me later that this was indeed my water breaking. It makes me wonder now if all the times I had been to the doctor in the past and they had checked, if I was indeed leaking water then. I must have some special amniotic fluid that can’t be detected. After my water broke that was when the contractions really started to hurt.

I got checked again at 7:45pm and I was at 4cm and 100% effaced. They told me I could have my epidural then, and I was all about jumping on it. At 8pm they started the Epidural. At this point I was having contractions that lasted for 2 minutes with only 30 seconds of down time. Thanks you patocin. The anesthesiologist came in and started the procedure. I was slouched forward far over the bed and Jake was in front of me holding on to me. He wasn’t looking so good I guess and the nurse asked if he wasn’t to sit down. He tried to be strong for me, but when I mumbled the words, “You can sit down if you want” he jumped at the chance. I didn’t care who I was holding onto at this point because I was in a good deal of pain. The anesthesiologist had to prick me twice in the back because I was just not going numb. Then after she was done I told her that I could still feel things on my right side. She told me that it was just an irritated nerve, but I was not so sure.

I went along with the fact that I had an irritated nerve. I could feel all of my contractions on the right side of my body. Then I got checked again at 10:50pm and I was at 9cm and 100% effaced. The nurse then decided that she would call back the anesthesiologist and have her check what was going on. The anesthesiologist came back in and gave me some more drugs and finally at 11:30pm my epidural was finally working. It wasn’t what I thought it would be because I still had control over my legs, but it felt like they were asleep. It was that heavy feeling you get when your foot or hand falls asleep. I was just thrilled to know that I was not going to have to push our baby girl out feeling half of it. I give credit to all the moms who go without drugs, but I was not going to be one of them. I knew that I wanted to get an epidural from the beginning of my pregnancy.

At 11:30 the doctors came back in and checked me and said that I was 10cm dilated and she would be back in a while. I figured that at this point I would be pushing for the 2-3 hours like they had told me. The nurse asked if I was okay and could handle waiting to push. She said that we would let the baby fall down more. Then at midnight on June 19th, 2010 I started to push. It was 3 pushes with each contraction. I had to take a break at one point because our little girl’s heartbeat would speed up. They normally watch because sometimes the baby’s heartbeat will drop, but our little girl got a little over excited. They put some oxygen on me called for the doctor to come back. I pushed for a total of 31 minutes and at 12:31am on June 19th, 2010 Reagan Grace was born. Jake sat quietly by the side of the bed while I was pushing. I knew that I didn’t have enough energy to push for 2-3 hours so I made sure that I pushed with everything I had. When she came out they said, “A nice clean baby for Dad.” They knew that Jake is not a fan of blood and she had non on her. She did have the cord wrapped around her neck though.

When Reagan was out they placed her on my chest and started to clean her off. She just was not breathing correct and shortly they took her over to the baby station in the room. I remember just being like, “Take her.” I was scared and not exactly sure what was going on. I just wanted to hear her scream and cry. I had worked so hard to bring her into the World and wanted her just to be okay. Jake walked over as they were suctioning her mouth and nose out. They just could not get her to cry and breath correct, so they informed me that they would have to take her to the nursery. I can’t tell you know scared and exhausted I was at the same time. I could not believe this was happening. I just kept telling myself to stay calm and that everything would be okay. Jake and Reagan left and I was stuck in the bed.

It seemed like forever that they were gone, which it was for a new mom. I got to see my baby for only a few short minutes before she was whisked away. I just wanted my legs to get unnumbered so I could go see what was going on. The nurses told me they would check and see how things are going, but I waited and waited. Jake finally came back in and told me that she was doing a lot better and weighed 7 pounds 4.5oz. It had been 2 hours at this point and the only thing I wanted was to bond with my baby and nurse.

Finally the pediatrician came in and told me that she was doing fine, but was having issues with transition. He said that you normally see this in C-section babies because they don’t get to push the fluids out of their lungs. What had happened is that I pushed her out so fast and the fact that the cord was wrapped around her neck that she didn’t have the chance to get all the fluid out of her lungs. He said that they would be monitoring her, but that things looked like they would be fine.
At 3:30am Reagan finally came back to the room, and I was so happy to see my little girl and know that she would be okay. I could not believe how much you can love someone that you just met. I was shocked at how big she was and that just a few hours ago she was inside of me. I could not believe how having this little girl made me love my husband even more than before. I can’t describe the love that you have for your child and husband. There is something just so special about bring a life into the world. I told Jake that I would be pregnant and go through labor a million more times just for her.

That is my birth story. I will update in the next few days about everything after she was born, and the first week of her life. We did have some struggles, but we are blessed that things are going great now and we are home.

~Candice