Monday was an interesting day. Lisa had a Dr’s appt, and was getting pretty uncomfortable from the pregnancy. The Doctor had told her that due to her discomfort and nausea, she wasn’t continuing to progress in dilating, and Faith’s size (estimated at 7.5 lbs), that it was time to deliver the baby. So, she came home, hopeful that labor would be induced really soon. A few hours later, after checking the Doctor’s schedule, they called back and said that a week from today, next Monday, was the earliest time. Lisa was devastated. She was already concerned about Faith’s size, and waiting another week she was fairly certain that Faith would be just way too large for a natural delivery and a Caesarean section would be required. But, we trusted God for the timing, and were very hopeful that it wouldn’t take until the scheduled date on 5/3. That night, we had our weekly Bible study. We asked everyone to pray for God’s timing, and the hope that delivery would be earlier than 5/3. Our friend Mary shared how she had been eager for delivery of their child, and at a Bible study, and a friend showed her a stretch and that night, she went into labor. Lisa declined trying out the stretch. She was hoping for the best, but had pretty much given up on labor happening naturally and was ready to call the doctor’s office on Tuesday to see if there was any possible way to move up the scheduled date. Everyone continued to pray though for God’s timing and Faith’s arrival.
Monday night, at about 12:40 AM, Lisa woke up. Her water had broken. She woke me up, told me the news. She still hadn’t really started any contractions. She called her doctor, and they asked us to come in to the hospital. If everything went well – we were going to meet our daughter today. I had been warned by a couple of friends to make sure I take a shower before going to the hospital – this might be your last chance in a few days. So, I ran in and quickly took a shower. Lisa started getting our pre-packed bag out to the car, fed Sally (she’s really good at remembering all of the practical details like that), and she started having contractions. They were following the 5-1-1 rule – 5 minutes apart and one minute in duration. Now we knew that it was time.
We loaded up and headed for the hospital. I drove very carefully – close to the speed limit but a little faster. Lisa was telling me things were moving pretty quickly, and no stops allowed. I dropped her off at the entrance to the emergency room, and then went and parked in the parking garage. I got all of the bags, and went in and caught up with Lisa. She was getting admitted. They were just about to print our bracelets, when the computer system went down. 2:00 AM sharp – and there was a scheduled maintenance period starting. Luckily, we were admitted just before this happened and were able to get escorted up to the labor and delivery floor. Lisa got changed into a gown, and they hooked up the fetal monitors. Everything was looking good. The contractions were still a minute long, and about 5 minutes apart. She was also 4 cm dilated. Things were looked good and proceeding normally. She also wasn’t in a lot of pain.
The contractions continued to get closer and closer. We were timing, and they were starting to come about a minute apart, and a minute long. The nurse came in and checked, and Lisa was about 6.5 cm dilated. Things were progressing, and although Lisa was feeling a good amount of pain, it was still manageable. It was about 3:30 AM. The contractions were continuing and starting to get more intense, and staying about the same interval. Lisa looked at me, with kind of a sick look on her face, and said, I don’t think I am going to be able to handle the pain much longer. We called in the nurse and told her we were going to need some help with pain management. She offered Lisa either narcotics or an epidural. She chose the epidural, and they put in the call for the anethesiologist. The time between the decision and the anethesiologist arriving was just excruciating. Lisa was almost non-functional she was in so much pain. The contractions were coming almost non-stop, with no rest in between. Lisa is one of the strongest and has one of the highest pain tolerances of anyone I know, so I can’t imagine what she was going through. Finally, the anesthesiologist arrived and they were able to get the epidural started. After about 10 minutes, the contractions were getting into the realm of manageability where Lisa could at least sit still and wasn’t in agony, and then after about another 10 minutes, she was almost back to normal and you could have a conversation with her.
Now was the lull. We were waiting for her to dilate to the full 10 cm to begin pushing, but with the pain under control it gave us a good hour or 2 to rest. Everything was going smoothly.
At about 8:15, the nurse came in, checked Lisa, and she was fully dilated. Now was the time to begin pushing! We started 3 times every contraction, for 10 seconds each. Faith just wasn’t really moving, and Lisa wasn’t feeling much. Lisa asked if they could turn down the epidural so she could feel more and be more effective pushing. So, they summoned the anethesiologist again, and he slowed the rate of the fentanyl to the epidural. We waited 20 minutes, and Lisa started pushing again. Faith was moving a little bit this time, and things seemed to be proceeding. Lisa’s contractions were also very long, so there was time for 4 10 second pushes each contraction and that seemed more comfortable to Lisa. So, we tried this. Faith seemed to be coming down a little bit each time -or at least me thought. So, we kept up this routine for almost 2 hours. At the end, we could start to tell that something just wasn’t working. I kept expecting to be able to see her head crowning. Towards the end, we were starting to see some stress on Faith. Her heart rate was faster, and the crash during the pushing seemed to be getting lower. This was getting to be really tough on her. They summoned the doctor. She came in, Lisa tried one more set of pushing, and the doctor saw that Faith just really wasn’t descending. We were given the option of either trying a vacuum or having a C-section at this time.
Lisa and I had taken the birthing class, so we had some familiarity with both of these techniques. We were both really naively hoping that we weren’t going to be faced with this decision, and hadn’t really made up our mind in advance about what we would do if faced with these. I didn’t know what to do. Lisa wanted to try the vacuum first, so we said let’s go ahead and give it a try. They got it out, and we tried pushing for a few more contractions with the assistance of the vacuum. Faith just wasn’t coming, and was really starting to show signs of stress. So, the decision was made that the last resort left to us was a C-section. I called both of our parent’s. Larry and Ellen were already at our house watching Sally and just waiting there. So, I asked them to hurry over. When the last option was the C-section, Lisa waved me over and asked me to promise no matter what happened, that I would stay with Faith. She wanted to be sure that she would be watched over. It was heartbreaking for Lisa, as I know her greatest desire with this birth was to hold Faith right away and start feeding and bonding with her. That now wasn’t an option. I didn’t want Lisa to be alone after such a traumatic experience as the surgery – especially if Faith wasn’t completely healthy. So, I was hoping Ellen would be able to go back and be with Lisa in recovery while I was in the nursery with Faith. I then called my parents who were on the way up to inform them what was going on and to make sure they would be close by. Then, I had to hurriedly pack up our things, change into scrubs, and be by Lisa’s side during the surgery.
While all this was happening, I didn’t hear that Faith was under a great deal of stress and now they were starting to worry if she was going to survive until the surgery. This was now an emergency C-section to try to save Faith. They wheeled Lisa over to the operating room. To our relief, Faith started to recover and look stronger on the way over. They were still worried, but the prognosis was looking to more likely be positive. I found my way to the operating room, and was asked to come in.
This should have told me something as to the urgency, but when they were sterilizing Lisa’s belly with the iodine, the doctor was asking that instead of the normal air drying process, that it was highly desirable that we blot it dry and start the surgery.
Lisa and I were just in terror right now. Lisa’s sister Lori and husband Jon had had some horrible complications with their child Liam a couple of years before, and ultimately had to have an emergency C-section and Liam eventually died as a result of the complications. Our situation was just seeming too similar. The anesthesiologist comforted us, and told us that C-sections go fairly quickly, and we would be with our baby very soon.
After a few minutes (seemed like an eternity), they told me that I could stand up and they were just getting ready to extract Faith. I stood up and saw the doctor pulling Faith from Lisa’s belly. I held my breath – she was just a little gray and not making any noise. It just seemed like forever. Is she ok?
Finally, we heard a cry. Faith was alive. They cut the chord and took her over to the warming table and started toweling her off. She had a little vermix, and a lot of purple and red slime to wipe off. They also tooka lot of the amniotic fluid out from inside her mouth. But, she was alive, and she was doing well so far. Once she got toweled off some, they wrapped her and let me take her over to Lisa. We took a couple of quick pictures. We were both just overjoyed with relief. We were parents and our daughter was alive.
We got a few minutes together as they were starting to remove the placenta from Lisa and stitch her back up. Then, it was time for Faith to go to the nursery and start her examination and get her first bath. So, I pushed her down to the nursery. The nurse started and gave her a vitamin K shot, and she pricked her foot to measure her blood sugar. Everything so far was looking good. Next up was the temperature – it came back as 99 degrees.
Next up was the bath. We went over to the sink where a towel was waiting. Faith didn’t enjoy the cold rag, but she was very happy when there was warm water run on her.
Next up I got to hold her. Finally, a second blood sugar reading, and then I was able to take her to the recovery room and be reunited with Lisa. On the way up to the recovery room, I ran into Lisa’s parents in the waiting room. No one would take Ellen back to be with Lisa. 
I let them see their granddaughter, and then we went looking for the recovery room. We eventually found a very nice person who showed us the way, and we all got to see Lisa briefly. I got Faith out of the rolling cradle, and gave her to Lisa. Lisa was able to hold her, and try the first feeding. It was just delayed probably 45 minutes from the original, optimal plan. I was also able to get my parent’s called and let them know the details and ask them to abandon Sally and come over the hospital to be with us all.
Larry, Ellen, and I went down to the room we were going to be staying in, and moved all of our stuff in. By that time, they were ready to let Lisa back down to our room, so I went back up to recovery. They wheeled Lisa in, and I wheeled Faith down. Faith got a second round of tests in the nursery (another shot and 3rd blood sugar I believe). Everything was still looking good. I saw Mom and Dad arrive, and was able to bring Faith over to the window so they could see her. Finally, the testing was over and I was able to take Faith in to be introduced to everyone.
It was a harrowing experience, but we are blessed with a beautiful daughter. Faith Randall Carlson was born at 12:03 PM on 4/28/2009. She weighed 8 lbs, 11 oz, and was 20.5″ long. She is named in honor of my brother Randy, who was my kidney donor in December. She is an incredible blessing, and we are looking forward to the new normal of having a daughter in our house. She is already showing signs of being as stubborn and active as her mom and dad.