where your heart is: September 2011

Carson Allen Francisco’s Story

On Thursday September 22^nd, 2011 I ended up at the Doctor’s office at 2:40pm. I had had some spotting that I thought was probably normal being in my third trimester of pregnancy but they wanted to make sure that everything was okay so they had me come in for an exam. They told me that my cervix was tight, my water had not broken but that it looked like I had a yeast infection which Is common in pregnancy. They told me how to treat it and sent me home telling me that I could come in on Monday for my next appointment or that I could skip it if I wanted. I went home and spent the rest of the day hanging out and playing my Zelda wii game(haha). Blake came home from the pharmacy and we went to bed after a movie and some talking about 11:00pm. At 1:30am I woke up with kind of a start and noticed that I had liquid between my legs. Frustrated with myself I got up and changed my pants and laid back down to go to sleep at this point I was starting to notice that my lower back was hurting a lot more then what has become normal for me in the last few weeks and I continued to leek small amounts of fluid during the pain. Fighting with myself as to wether or not it was worth it to call the hospital (after all I had just seen the doctor and she had said everything was fine… maybe this was just part of the yeast infection) I knew that if I called the hospital the only legal thing they could tell me is to come in for an exam. So at 2:30 I woke Blake up and asked him for his opinion…being half asleep he was not very good for it. So I asked for a blessing to help me sleep and make it through the night. He did give me a blessing I told him I was going to go back to bed and sleep. Just then my pain spiked again and again I lost fluid. I went to the bathroom and Blake(finally awake) grabbed the phone. They told us to call our doctors office on call number. Blake told her what was going on and she asked to talk to me. She did not sound like she thought I was in labor but when I told her that the pain had woke me up and that when it peeked I just pulled my hair trying to breath, she told me to go to the hospital and get checked just in case I was in labor (haha ya right). I was upset because I knew Blake had to get up in the morning and got to his rotation and they were just going to send me home telling me I had a yeast infection and to get some sleep, but we went. On the 30min trip to the hospital I realized the pain was coming every five minutes pretty much on the dot. Now I was really scared, I was only 34weeks 5 days pregnant. We got to the hospital and they went to check to see if my water had broken they went to take a sample but laughed when they got between my legs and said yep your water is broken we don’t need a sample. They checked my cervix and I was dilated to a 4… A 4!!!! How the heck did that happen, I thought. It was now 3:30-4:00 in the morning I was admitted and moved upstairs where it took 2 people and 4 tries to get my epidural in the nurse told me I was getting color back in my face apparently before the epidural I was turning a nice color of gray and having a really hard time remembering to breathe.

Side note our “Preparing for Childbirth” classes started two days before I went into labor, therefore I had no idea what to expect or how to get through this. We did not have a bag packed and Blake went home after I got epidural to grab some “stuff” (clothes, Camera…)

By 10:30 in the morning my epidural was not working very well and they had to help me breathe through my contractions because I could feel them with some great intensity, I don’t want to know what they would have felt like without it. Trying to figure out what was wrong with my epidural the nurses decided to check me and realized I was dilated to a 9 they called the doctor to come check me and decide on my pain management. She came and checked me and asked me to give her a push and see what would happen. It was now 11:00 in the morning I gave a push, Carson came down the birth canal and she told me that we did not have time to mess with me epidural, I was going to have a baby. My reaction… I burst into tears (he is too early and I am too scared for this) the doctor hurried to get ready for his delivery and Carson Allen Francisco was born at 11:30am. So 10 hours after waking up with what I thought was a urine leak and a bad yeast infection I gave birth to a beautiful 6lb baby boy.

Because he was breathing and turning pink I got to hold him and cry while they cleaned him up a little and then Blake got to walk him down to the NICU where he is now.

Baby Carson is doing great he is breathing and regulating his own heart and keeping warm all by himself. These are big tasks for such a young guy. Because he spends all his energy on these things he is not eating very well and has a feeding tube. He will be in the NICU until he can eat on his own, also his jaundice levels are getting higher and he will probably have to spend time tomorrow under the lights but 80% of babies born at his gestation have to do that so he is doing GREAT!!! And we look forward to his growth and are so glad that he is so healthy and strong.

We Love you little man

Jamie