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Thomas James Emelko's Birth

I had a great pregnancy...felt good almost the whole time, gained a total of 22#. Although this pregnancy was unexpected, Glenn and I were delighted at how things had happened. At about the same time I got pregnant, I ruptured the anterior cruciate ligament in my knee so even though I wanted to use a midwife I needed a physician at first to clear me for surgery on the knee. As it turned out, I didn't need surgery after all but 6 months into the pregnancy I had developed a trusting relationship with my OB so I kept him on. At week 38 he noted that the baby's head was still not in my pelvis like it should have been and said he hoped it would be down by week 39. At week 39 the baby was still free floating and Barry (the OB) gave me a subtle warning that I may have to have a c section.

I went into labor sometime in the afternoon of July 27th. I say sometime because I wasn't convinced I was in labor. In fact that night Glenn had to convince me that I was indeed in labor. We set off to the hospital about 11.30pm. When we got there the first exam revealed that I was still 1.5 cm dilated, although I was having good contractions. The baby was still not fixed into my pelvis. The nurses hooked up an external monitor. At about 1.30am they noted some heart rate changes with contractions. This was enough to keep me in bed. At 2am there were still heart rate changes, although not severe. At 2.30am Glenn left the room abruptly to get me more ice chips. All of a sudden there are six people in the room, someone is turning me onto my left side, someone else is putting oxygen on me, someone else is turning my IV rate up. Turned out Glenn had noticed a heart rate of 80 with the contraction. Strike 1! I was about 2cm dilated by this time but the baby was still not into my pelvis. After a few more hours and some minor heart rate changes, the chief resident decides to break my membranes. As she broke them I watched the concern in her eyes and the eyes of the nurses and one of the nurses (not knowing I was also a nurse) said "Uh oh lots of thick meconium". Strike 2! I understood the seriousness of this although Glenn (luckily in some ways) did not. By this time I was scared of what was going to happen.

The nurses were wonderful at keeping me informed of the calls back and forth between themselves, the residents, the doc on call and Barry. Barry came in a 6am and did an exam. I was up to three whole cm by this time! And the baby was still not in my pelvis well. Strike 3! We discussed the options of letting me try to labor another hour to see if the baby would get where he needed to be or doing the section immediately. We agreed there was no need to do the section immediately since the baby was not in distress and there had been no other serious heart rate changes. Barry suggested and I agreed that now was a good time to have the epidural put in. The contractions up til now had been uncomfortable but not excruciating.

At 9am I was taken into the OR. It took some time to get the numbness up to where it needed to be. I took them all by surprise when I said Ouch when they were putting the drapes on me. The incision was made and they whisked the baby away. I didn't see him at all because of the drapes. I sent Glenn over three times to see what they were doing with Tommy. Not being a health care person, he couldn't tell but the third time I sent him over he came back with Tommy. I said "Hi pumpkin" which is what I called him in utero and he stared at me. I stared back and reached for his hand. Turns out that they had entubated him and suctioned him before his first breath, which is what the plan was. There was indeed meconium below the level of his vocal cords, but only on the first suction. He was 9# even and 22.25" long. His head size broke the record which is why I couldn't get him into my pelvis let alone through it. I didn't see him until he was 20 minutes old.

After I was taken into recovery I tried to hold him but had trouble since I was still numb. We also had trouble nursing because I couldn't get him into a position that made it easy and he was not latching on. The nurses were again wonderful at helping us but he ended up being bottle fed for his first few feedings. We eventually figured out the nursing thing and he nursed til he was 8.5 months old.

I didn't want to have a c section of course but considering how things were going, it was the most prudent route, especially with the meconium. I still regret not seeing him at the moment of his birth and not being able to hold him much or nurse him til the next day. In retrospect I would not change a thing because above all I wanted a healthy baby and that is exactly what I got!

Glenn Emelko