Aubree Photography: December 2011

I would like to introduce to you, the newest member of our family, and our true miracle,
BENTLEY JOE
He weighed in at 8 lbs. 5 oz. and 20 1/2 inches long.

We feel very blessed to have him here with us - safe, alive, and doing so well!
It was the birth experience that no one plans on having...

It started Saturday November 26th...
I had been contracting all day and that night Brody & I decided we should head to the hospital. After dropping the boys off at my in-laws, we went. After the regular routine of checking in, getting checked, etc... etc... The nurse decided that I needed to walk for an hour & then get checked again. I couldn't believe it. I was one day (ONE DAY!) away from 39 weeks and already a 4 & 75% effaced. But, embarrassing enough - Brody & I walked the halls for an hour. I was then checked again & told I had not changed (I was extremely skeptical) even though my contractions were 2 minutes apart. She sent me home with instructions to take Tylenol if I couldn't sleep and come back if the contractions were "Harder, like takes your breath away". I was disappointed to say the least...

Sunday, went as usual. Contractions throughout the day & dinner at my mom's house. We came home & got the boys in bed. While watching the news & feeling my contractions become harder, I sarcastically told Brody that we might be going to the hospital tonight. We went to bed at 10:30PM, and after laying in bed for over an hour & feeling my contractions get harder, longer, and closer together - I decided to get up and time them. I had this feeling that I'd get to the hospital & the contractions would stop. I did NOT want that to happen again. So, after seeing on the stopwatch that my contractions were 1-2 minutes apart and lasted over a minute long... it was time to go! I woke Brody & he called his dad to come to our house while the boys slept. By the time Brody was putting on his shoes, the contractions were sooo hard that I had a hard time even standing up. I told him, "We need to go NOW!" Every minute that went by, I had a feeling like I was going to deliver in the car. It hurt sosooooo incredibly bad! And Brody could tell because he was driving 90 mph (seriously!) to get me to the hospital. About 1/2 way there, I couldn't hold my breath through my contractions anymore... I had to scream! They were killing. And a drive that normally takes 1/2 hour to get to the hospital, took us only 10 minutes. (Thanks to Brody's mad driving skills & help from our Father in Heaven.) We drove right up to the E.R. & after 2 questions of what's your name, how far along are you... they realized that they needed to get me to labor and delivery real quick! We were going through the regular check-in & in the bathroom to pee in the cup when a contraction came - the hardest one yet & I couldn't help but hold onto the bar & scream. Luckily, the charge nurse, Meredith, was right there & asked me if I felt like pushing. I said yes & she quickly got me to a room & I ripped my clothes off & barely got on my gown. The nurse that sent me home the night before (yes, her) checked me & said I was an 8 & 80% effaced. They asked me if I wanted an epidural & I immediately said, "Yes, but is it too late? Will it even work?" And then seriously one second later, my water burst! The nurses were running around the room trying to get everything ready for the baby to come, but once they seen the cord come bursting out with my water, the nurse knew she had to act quickly. She started YELLING at me and I felt the immediate danger in her voice. I knew instantly that something wasn't right. I couldn't believe what was happening & it all happened so quickly. She was yelling, "You need to get that baby out right now! You push him out right now!!!! Stop screaming & push!!!" I was in so much pain that all I wanted to do was scream. But, her yelling at me to push put me back into the mind-set of why I was even doing this in the first place. I had a baby that needed me to forget my pain & get him here or else it could be bad. I didn't even know what was wrong, but an image came into my mind of my baby dead & I knew that I could not go on if my baby died. That thought gave me the strength to push harder than I ever had and focused on getting him out regardless of the pain. Three minutes from the time I came to the hospital, my sweet sweet baby was born. I had never experienced so much pain and emotion in my whole life. Some time between the prolapsed cord & Bentley being born, the nurse had called "Code Blue" so the room was completely filled with people there ready to help. They cut the cord & four respiratory nurses grabbed my baby immediately after birth. They began working on him with tubes, suctions, oxygen masks, etc... I kept asking if he was ok. I didn't realize just how serious the situation was & had been.

Well, I could go on and on about my miracle baby boy, but to sum it all up...
He was born with a prolapsed cord (which means the cord came before the baby & every contraction or push, all oxygen, blood supply, everything is cut off to the baby) and in most cases the baby is either born brain dead or still born. The nurse and our hero, Meredith, that delivered Bentley, told us afterwards that normally with a prolapsed cord, she would push the baby back up & they would do an emergency c-section. But, because my delivery was so quick and the baby was too low - there was no other choice. She said "When I seen that cord, I thought we were going to be delivering a still born." I am thankful that I didn't know what exactly was going on. In fact I'm thankful for many things:

I'm thankful for a husband with amazing driving skills that got us to the hospital in time; three minutes meant life or death for our baby. He is our hero. I'm thankful for a charge nurse there that night with the knowledge & expertise to deliver my baby and the quick action she took to get me focused and motivated to push past the pain and deliver my baby safely. I'm thankful for a Heavenly Father that loves my family so much. There is a reason why Bentley is here. Everything happened in perfect timing and in the right way - there is just no way it was just luck or coincidence. I will forever be grateful to my Father in Heaven for all he has blessed me with, especially my healthy, happy beautiful baby boy, Bentley Joe.