Gage Lynn Brower

Well , where to begin? I guess the real beginning of the whole labor and delivery story started on Sat when I thought my water broke. Being the ever generous wife I had sent Cody down to Pocatello a day early so he could hang out with his friends and the on Sat I would meet back up with him in Pocatello for my baby shower. Sat morning I was getting out of the shower and felt a rush of water. I figured that was my water breaking so I headed up to the hospital and called Cody on the way- convinced that he would have to drive up super fast to help. Well I got to the hospital and was told that my membrane was intact, I wasn’t in labor, but at least I was dilated to 3 cm. So for the rest of the day I bled on and off and felt some not so fun discomforts in belly. The baby shower was wonderful and I got some wonderful gifts that have already been put to good use. Again, feeling confident that no labor was impending, I had Cody go to his friends house to pull and all nighter again with the computer games. After talking to everyone and staying up way too late I finally went to bed at 2 only to be woken up at 4 for no reason at all. I was in the habit of using the bathroom every time I wake up so I stood to walk down the hall and felt a huge rush of water coming out. I waddled as fast as I could to the bathroom and realized that even though all that water had come out I still had a full bladder and needed to go to the bathroom. That’s when I knew that something crazy was going on. I decided to go back to bed and found that I couldn’t sleep due to these weird pangs in my stomach. I decided to start timing them so I got my book and a watch and found that after one hour they had gone from 7 min apart to 4 mins. By the time that I came into the hospital I was having them every 2. I had the option of trying to drive the hour and a half back to Rexburg so I could have the baby in the hospital I had planned but the thought of driving that far with so much fluid leaking out. Plus Cody made it very clear that he wasn’t all too excited about delivering the baby in the car. So we stuck around and Cody’s mom and sister Kaiann brought some cards over and we played games for a bit till the contractions started getting bad. So I decided to get an epidural when I hit about 4 centimeter after about 6 hours of labor. The interesting thing is that the moment I arrived they put me on pitocin just to help things move along but it seemed to not be progressing me very fast. So I got medicated and the doctor who stuck me was very nice. In fact everyone on staff at Pocatello were the most attentive, wonderful people. Especially the doctors and I think they are the hardest ones to find. Anyway- the epidural finally started working until an hour later when pain and contractions started coming through. The anesthesiologist gave me a booster and told me to stay on my left side. Unfortunately Gage’s heartbeat would slow every time I did so I just had to work through the contractions. So the doctor came in to talk about c-section possibilities because my dilation was slow. He said we’d give it an hour and then check again. Well after an hour I was at an 8 and after the nurse left the pain got really intense and I started to feel a lot of pressure. I called the doctor back in who told me that I was at a 10 and was ready to go. My mom was about 10 minutes away driving up as fast as she could. She had caught a flight at 9am that morning when I told her that my water had broken and she rented a car in Salt Lake to drive the rest of the way to Pocatello. So I had my sister in law get on the phone and tell her to start breaking traffic laws. As luck would have it she arrived just as I started pushing. I thought she had barely made it but unbeknownst to me I had an hour and a half of hard pushing ahead of me. My epidural still wasn’t working right and the anesthesiologist was in an emergency c-section so he couldn’t come and help me. Turns out that several things worked against me in getting the baby out of my body. 1^st off I have tilted tail bone that makes passage around it difficult. Gage still has the scratches on his face from passing by it. 2^nd I apparently have a very narrow birthing canal and 3^rd Gage had been with so much pressure on his head for so long that his head had swelled up considerably. So I pushed and pushed and I can really understand the idea that having a baby is like running a race. I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs between contractions and I seriously wondered several times if I would pass out from lack of oxygen. Each push saw minimal results and I heard “you’re almost there” for about 45 minutes straight. My mom and Cody were such a help in pushing, telling me when the contractions were starting and more importantly letting me know when they were ending. As luck would have it the anesthesiologist showed up about 30 minutes before he was born and he was able to give me another booster to take the edge off. At one point the doctor told me that if I got an episiotomy he could have Gage out in just one more push. As tempting as the offer was I was really scared of getting cut. I think being able to see myself in the mirror made me reluctant to do it so I opted to go without and Gage was born just 10 minutes later. When he came out he was all grey and purple and not crying. I remember being so relieved but also very worried why he wasn’t crying. They had Cody cut the cord and they placed him on my chest for just a moment before they whisked him away to give him oxygen. He seemed so big to have come out of me and felt so cheated that everyone else was able to be up and moving around looking at him and I had to stay there and get stitched up. I didn’t tear on the outside but there were several lacerations on the inside. I never did ask how many stitches I received but it took at least 20 minutes to finish them all up. By then they had taken Gage to the NICU for oxygen treatment. He was grunting and whining softly (obviously a sign of the horrible trauma he had to endure). They also ran several tests to make sure that the severe bruising on his head wasn’t bleeding into his brain. So finally 4 hours after having him I was able to go to the NICU and see my little boy. And he is so beautiful! Even with his abnormally large swollen head he is the sweetest little guy you’ve ever seen. I stayed at the hospital for 2 days and brought him home. My mom has been here helping out and I can’t ever repay her for the service she’s given and the support she’s offered. Such a champ! Gage has had really bad Jaundice for the last couple of days and that has been very scary for us. He has had an ultraviolet light pad that we keep to his back at all times. He also wasn’t feeding very well so the lactation gal from WIC came over last night for a home visit and brought a hand pump. It turns out that she was heaven sent because it was while she was here that we learned just how bad his jaundice was and it turns out that he needed to be getting a lot more to eat than he was getting. They actually defined his condition as failure to thrive and that qualified me to get a rented double pump from WIC for free. It has been so nice because the hand pump was terrible with my carpel tunnel. Actually it hurt so bad that I had Cody pumping me all last night. Romantic- I know. Talk about seeing your wife in a whole new way! But thankfully we got some more blood results taken today and he is improving so we’ll be able to stop using the light pad by Saturday. I’ll be so happy to hold him again without a huge power machine attached to him and the pad. Well I’m going to leave the stories at that since I think this is about 3 pages long already. Enjoy the pictures and sorry they were so long in coming. Thanks to everyone for their support and help!