Birth Plan Goes Wild..

Thank you Jamie for inviting me to guest blog today. What a wonderful chance to reach out and meet some new friends in the blog world. For those who do not know me..I am Amy and I have a blog called Our Daily Blessing..Life. Not only am I new to the blog world but I have never been a guest blogger. I hope I do not disappoint Jamie..or end up deleting her blog by accident...ha. Shoot that is not even funny..scares me to even joke about it.

So when Jamie and I talked about what I should blog about she said it was up to me...hummm...she is a brave lady. After doing some thinking about my crazy life I decided I think everyone would enjoy knowing what a crazy, wonderful, blessed, movie like delivery I had with my sweet 4 year old Cole.

Being the mom to 4 children you would think my DH and I would think that there is not much that could get us "stressed" when having baby number four. WRONG..

Living in Florida it is a given that we have hurricane. In fact living so close to the beach..11 houses we have gotten use to half watching the news and saying we will believe it when it comes down the street. Well Sept 2004..made a believer out of us.

Florida made history in Sept 2004 with FOUR hurricanes to hit in one month....and I had a baby in the middle of one and got to spend a week in lock down at the hospital. Yep...and that is only the half of it...lol

So here I am big...really big and PG . Like very soon to be mommy out there I had it planned how it would be when I had the baby...Let me share the plans..
I would gain only 15 pounds and have a birth plan typed and include a fast birth with no drugs.... My fridge would be well stocked. My baby shower done and the baby clothes washed and put away in my perfect nursery. My house clean...and well you know everything done.

Now let me share with you my reality having Cole. When I was 32 weeks pg and well ..ummm..well past the 15 pounds gained weight...the weather man said there is a hurricane coming. Emily says ...mommy do you think it will hit us. I say..oh Emily no way..BITE MY TONGUE AND SLAP ME...yep...here comes the storm. So I have to decide what to do fast..but obviously not fast enough because by the time I figured out what to do..there was no place to go. Every other person in Florida decided to stay in the hotels ...so here we go..three children..me and DH and a cat and two greyhounds in a van...with all my photos and my baby bedding. Yep..you know I had to take my baby bedding cause it was perfect and I needed it. LOL. So we drive and we drive and we drive. We finally go and stay with my mom for a few days and make a nice visit out of it.
As we are driving home I notice I am not feeling so well. In fact I have a stomach ache. Well maybe it is a little more then a stomach ache. I will just rest. I happen to mention to Jim that I might be having braxton hick contractions but I was sure it was okay. Being the sweet and loving man he is ..he says as serious as can be..If you do not stop having the contractions I am going to pull off and leave you at the first hospital I find. Notice he did not say he would stay..LOL. So I rested and drank some water and all was good. Thank goodness or I would of been left at some hospital off I-95.
We come home to a house that is dark..hot..smells awful..no hot water..all food is gone bad...and Jim had to kick the front door in for us to even get in our house. But I have my baby bedding so all is okay.
The next day was a dose or reality. We went and stood in line to get ice from the Red Cross. It was amazing to watch our small beach town pull together . Police are everywhere. Fema is driving up and down the streets handing out food. The MRE's dried food packs. Reed was thrilled.
Off and on I notice I am having braxton hicks contractions again. I end up calling my DR and they have me come in and see the DR. My awesome Dr has me do a Non stress test and sure enough I am having contractions. So off to labor and delivery we go. After some IV medication and some fluids I was good to go ...which was good I still had 8 weeks to go in my PG.
Off and on for the next week I had pre term labor. The DR put me on meds to try to hold off labor. With rest this seemed to do the trick. Little by little I was thinking my plan of the perfect delivery would happen.
Then we watched the weather again...storms and storms and more storms. Emily says..Mom are they coming this way. I said..no honey. She looks at me and says mommy you said that last time. So I go into great detail telling her the odds of another storm hitting us. I tell her that the last one was a fluke. yep..I should of never of said that.
The next day I end up in labor and delivery with contractions. I am thinking that the DR will change around my meds and all will be okay for a few weeks. The nurse gave me a shot and the contractions stopped. Then she says The DR wants to see your first thing in the morning. Jim and I go home and plan to see the DR the next morning. I notice all night I am having contractions off and on..but not the magical number per hour to get me back at the hospital.
The next morning Jim and I go to the DR and he says..lets do a NST and have a talk...the NST showed contractions once again. The DR gave us a pep talk about mother nature being stronger then the meds..and he felt it was safer to go ahead and deliver then keep stopping it and chance a infection. So he wanted us to go to the hospital get ready for our baby to be born. I was a bundle of nerve and excited...
So off we go and get ready. After hours of laboring..it was decided I needed a repeat csection. Due to Cole being 6 weeks early the room was filled with people and there was a lot going on. But at least Jim was there to be with me..well he was for a few seconds..
Here I am...Jim tells me he feels odd...I look at him as they are cutting me open to get my precious premature baby boy out and say to him in the most stern voice I can..JIMMY you better not...yep that was all I got out..The man passes out. See he never listens to me..never. The DR was so funny. He says as serious as can be.one two three he is out..let's keep going. About this time they get Jim to his feet again and he says I am fine..then he says..oh I hear buzzing..and down he goes again. Dang him..So poor Jim has to go lay down..Amy is alone..No pictures of her sweet baby boy being born..No one to hold her hand..NO ONE to say..Are you okay Amy..NO NO NO. Just everyone saying..is the dad okay. As they wheel me to recovery I see him laying down in a room with a fan on him..If I could of gotten up and yelled at him I would of. Did I not tell him to NOT pass out? This just goes to show he never listens to me.
Okay so no baby pictures. That was NOT in my plans but it will be okay. Then Cole had to go to the NICU. Even though he was a big baby he was a young big boy. Okay..that was okay too. Because after talking to the NICU DR it was best he was out. Not part of the plan but it was okay...Cole was born.
So they send Jim home because he is worn out from passing out...lol..and they want me to get some rest. I decide I really need to see Cole. So I talk the nurse into taking me to the NICU ...what a sweet beautiful baby he was. As we are coming back in the wheel chair..I threw up all the way down the hallway. Maybe the nurse was right..I should of rested ...that was not part of the plan.
The next day my mom calls and I say when are you coming. She says..well I can not come till I see what the storm does. Now..let me just add that being that this was my 4th csection..I was hurting and on a lot of meds. I say Momma..the storm is over...it is time to come. She explains to me there is a new storm ...on it's way..yep the same storm I told Emily that would never come. Guess what. yep.
The next day..the evacuation order comes in for the beach so my inlaws take the kids and leave. Here I am..in the hospital with a preemie baby and a hurricane on it's way again.
The hospital starts getting ready and all heck breaks lose. People are flooding into the hospital to cover shifts. They are putting the shudders on the windows..except on my floor because..oh they got damaged 2 weeks prior in the last storm. People were sleeping on the floor of the hospital..they allowed family of the staff to stay there. The power went out and we were on generator. No TV..No Internet..Do I need to tell you that this was not a part of my birth plan?
As the storm passes..I start to get anxious about the house. Was it okay. Did it make it. Was there work that needed to be done. And I also knew that I would need to be discharged without taking Cole home with us.
So with a lot of tears and sadness Jim and I pack up my room and try to leave the hospital. After having to climb over people sleeping on the lobby floor..we finally find a guard to let us out of lock down. I hated to leave ...but I was discharged .
As we go across the causeway to the beach side we have to dig through our bags to find our licences to show we really live beach side. Because of the storm they have closed it off. Reality is seeing the national guard with guns directing who can go where.
As we get home..I walk in..no baby...no power..no food...no water.. a week of rotten food from no power....nothing like this was in my birth plan. We find candles and we cooked some defrosted TV dinners on the gas grill. I figure that it will all be okay. How bad can it get? Oh it can get bad...
I wake up and my boobs are about to burst open. Yep my milk is in. And since I nursed 3 babies already..my body knew what to do. So I have this wonderful electric breast pump..and NO POWER. Panic sets in..I am sweating like a pig..sticking to the sheets...Boobs are pounding and hormones are raging.
Jim goes to our neighbors house who are having a party and says I hear your generator..can my wife come and use her breast pump? HUH? LOL. So they say yes and off I go to the garage..and I am high on pain meds..they are drunk on wine and I am pumping both breast in a strange garage of someones house with people peeking in saying ..wow what is that. Someone even asked if it was some type of dialysis. Did I mention there was drinking ?
Is now a good time to mention that this was NOT part of my birth plan?
That minute I decide we are going to the hospital...Oh ..no..there is a curfew..bridge is closed. So I decide I am buying a generator..No there is not one to be bought...So I decide that my mom is going to buy one and bring it with her from SC..but she calls everywhere and there are NONE to be bought...they have all been sent to Florida..Well...atleast my mom can come now and make me some food. That was part of my birth plan..my mom would cook for me. What ? Oh just something. So my mom comes and goes to every store in town ..no meat. There is no meat in the store. There is no cold foods..just boxed food. Hummm....
Okay about this time I figure out that my birth plan is not going to work..LOL. None of it...
The day the power was back on and my mom showed up..the DR called and said..your baby boy is ready to come home...
But after all of that...wanna know what was important ..and the best ..and in the end made up for everything?