Cory's Birth Story (July 26, 1993)
5:06 p.m. x 2004-07-22
I was invited to my dad�s new wife�s family reunion to meet her family. I had been feeling a bit uncomfy but couldn�t quite pin-point what was making me feel so weird. This was my first pregnancy and it had sailed along with no problems whatsoever. As I was standing around meeting new people this older lady came up to me and patted my tummy and asked if I was feeling well. She said I looked rather ghostly white and insisted on me sitting down. So I sat during most of the family reunion. I had been having some braxton hicks contractions but never once thought I could be in labor because I had another month and a couple days yet to go.
Later that day I went shopping with my mother and grandmother for baby clothes. As I was walking around I had some horrible pains in my tummy and what I called crotch pains. One of the sales lady walked by looking directly at my tummy which was tightened and it looked as if the baby�s butt was sticking out my side with each tightening. I told my mother and grandmother I was really tired and ready to go home. So we did. I laid around the rest of the evening and the pain and tightening went away. I felt fine and Cory�s father asked me to go to the movies. We went to the drive-in and watched Indecent Proposal and Cone Heads. I started getting the pains and tightening again. They were getting a bit painful and hard to breath through so I started keeping track of the contractions by keeping an eye on the clock in the car. They were 7-8 minutes apart. I was certain that everything was fine.
On the way home I told Cory�s father that something just wasn�t right and I was getting worried. I told him that I was having what seemed like contractions, pain and pressure down below. He dropped me off at home and I told my mother how I was feeling. I laid in bed and waited on Cory�s father�s phone call to let me know he was home safely. About 20 minutes after I laid down he called and I had to pee so bad that I took the phone with me while I was talking to him. When I wiped I noticed mucus-like bloody stuff on the toilet paper. I freaked. I seriously started panicking. I hung up the phone, didn�t even say bye, and ran to my mother who was getting ready for bed. I told her that I was bleeding. She didn�t believe me. I told her to go look in the toilet. She came back from my bathroom crying and said to get a bag ready because we were going to the hospital.
We got to the hospital and got weighed, all hooked up and vitals checked. Everything looked fine. The baby was fine. No dialating. The nurse said it was normal to see my �show� and was sent home. She said they were Braxton Hicks contractions. As we were walking out of the hospital we managed to get to the end of the building and I started in having painful contractions again. So bad that I could barely stand and I held onto the side of the building. My mother said we were going back in. I told her I was fine and we went ahead and went home.
I had painful contractions 7 minutes apart all night. I had no sleep whatsoever. I woke my mom early the next morning and told her I needed to go to the hospital. I was having horrid crotch pains, contractions and felt like throwing up. I was barely able to breath during the contractions.
Well, we got to the labor and delivery room and I was weighed, vitals checked, all hooked up to monitors, no dialation. Everything looked good. The baby was fine. Once again I was told these were B.H. contractions. I was ticked! I told the nurse that if THIS was just B.H. contractions then I didn�t want to know what actual labor felt like. HeeHee! She laughed and said I�d do fine and discharged me from the hospital.
Walking down the hallway to go home I could barely walk in pain. At this point my mother was unsure what to think. She thought maybe I was just putting on a show for attention or something. Yea, sure.. with tears and all. I made it to the end of the hospital building and just sat down. I told her I wasn�t leaving that spot. I hurt too bad and it felt like the baby was about to fall out. She insisted we go home and rest and then come back that evening if I was still hurting.
We went home and ate (which was a mistake because I got sick) and I rested as much as possible between the contractions. My mother came to my room to check on me and I told her it was time to go to the hospital and this time I was NOT leaving!
We called Cory�s father and told him to come to the hospital to help try and keep me calm because by this time I was a basket case with all this pain. I was admitted after going through the usual checking of my cervix and being on monitors. The nurse said she would have the doctor come in and talk to me.
After waiting hours the doctor finally came in with a student doctor (which was rather cute!) and said he was going to give me an amnio to check on the baby and see what was going on. Oh, did I mention I was three centimenter dialated this time?
After waiting several hours I was wheeled into a room where I was to get the amnio. My mother and Cory�s father came along to hold each hand. I was terribly scared! I was having contraction after contraction and they were coming on stronger and stronger and closer together. This is when I found out I was having a BOY!! The doctor looked around on the ultrasound to see if something was going on and didn�t see anything. He said the baby looked great. He wiped my tummy with that brownish looking gunk (disinfectant stuff) and then the doctor stuck the humongous (I swear that thing looked huge!) needle into my tummy while watching on the ultrasound. He pulled out the fluid and it was black. BLACK! He said, �Oh my!� And proceeded to clean up my tummy without saying a word. I can�t remember much what happened after that other than my mother backed him up into the corner of the room because he wasn�t saying what was wrong or what was going on with me and the baby. He whispered to her that it was old blood. That my amniotic sac was filled with blood.
I was then wheeled to my room (not knowing what was going on) and hooked back up and was told that I would be having my baby boy soon. I was given Pitocin to speed things up and my water was broke. Man! That was horrible!! I had no rest for like two nights and here I was about to deliver my baby boy NOT knowing what the heck was going on. Nobody would tell me! I guess to keep me calm but it didn�t help. I was a basket case!
So I gave birth to my beautiful baby boy (Cory Alan *****) one month to the day EARLY. He wasn�t due until August 26th but was born on July 26th. He weighed 5lbs. 13oz and was 19 1/2 inches long. I was so in love with this little baby before he was even born but words cannot explain the love I felt for him when I saw his beautiful little scrunched up face as he was whisked away from me after the delivery. I wasn�t allowed to hold him. He was taken quickly to be checked out. I delivered the placenta and was cleaned up and then given meds for pain and was told to rest and told everything would be fine. I fought sleep because I wanted to know what was going on with my baby.
My mother was told to call my family and tell them to get to the hospital in case something was really wrong with Cory. At this point they had no idea what caused the black blood. Of course I wasn�t told about the black blood until AFTER Cory was delivered. I remember going off on my mother for not telling me. I mean, I had the right to know!
Early the next morning Cory was brought to me. He seemed fine but the nurse told me that he was being sent to a children�s hospital for observation. I cried and cried and cried. I held my perfect little baby for as long as they would allow me to. He looked PERFECT! I didn�t believe anything was wrong with him! My whole family showed up and I can�t believe how they all fit in that little room but I heard tons of aaaww�s and oooooh�s and everyone was crying.
I kissed my baby good bye as they wheeled him off to the life flight. I was going crazy because they would not allow me to ride with him to the children�s hospital. I was discharged from the hospital and refused to be wheeled out to the car in a wheel chair. I insisted on walking. I was ticked off at everyone. Here I was leaving the hospital after delivering my baby boy but was leaving WITHOUT him in my arms.
I went home, took a shower and insisted on going to the hospital to be with my son. Cory�s father and grandmother picked me up and we drove 4 hours to where my baby was in the hospital. He was the biggest baby in NICU! And every time I looked at him he was even more beautiful! After being in the hospital for 7 days everything checked out to be fine with him. The doctors thought that maybe he had something wrong with his bowels and that could have been causing the blood but everything was fine and they insisted on keeping him in the NICU until he no longer had blood in his bowel movements.
I ended up sick and in the hospital with an infection after Cory was allowed to go home because I had not delivered all of the placenta. What caused all this bleeding was my placenta had torn.
Thank goodness my baby boy was healthy!!
Wow! This has really been a LONG entry! But I enjoy sharing the birth of my son. No matter how old he is.. he will ALWAYS be my baby. :) He has brought much love and joy into my life. I was a teen mother. I was 18. I had many people look down at me for being young and unmarried but I just kept my head held high. :)