Our Miracle Baby - The birth story

Birth Story

McCoy Tyler Ivins

July 21, 2013

On Friday, July 19^th, I had Dr. Curtis Black strip my membranes. It did nothing that day for me except make me feel like I had ridden a horse for a week straight. I did have two contractions that night, but they came and went just like that.

 On Saturday, I was done with life pretty much and just wanted to sit and hang out. So I did. I packed the baby’s hospital bag hoping that would give him extra incentive to want to come out. I sat all day outside on a chair and watched the girls play in the rocks and ride wiggly cars. I was so worthless; I barely even fed my kids. I gave them a bowl of cereal at 10:30 and let them have treats and snacks to munch on all day. At about 4:30, I decided nothing was going to happen, so I picked myself up and started to fix an early dinner since we hadn’t eaten anything. I got dinner going which in turn started some contractions. After dinner and still have constant non-painful contractions, I told Tyler to get me on the mountain on the bumpiest road he could find. Of course, that wasn’t a problem because he wanted to go check on the cows anyway. We got up on the mountain and Tyler was doing everything possible to make my ride miserable and uncomfortable. By the time, we got up on top of the rock slide, I was started to have some pain and discomfort with each contraction. I tried to put one foot on the rock slide to hike up and just couldn’t. So I started pacing to keep the contractions going. At this point, I was sure that I was going to give birth on the mountain because I was in PAIN! Tyler and the girls got down from the rocks, and I said “We have to go…I am having good ones now!” While on top of the rock slide, Tyler spotted some cows, so as we were passing them while I was literally crying (because my pain tolerance sucks) Tyler says… “So should we get these cows out later or right now?” with the eye like now would be the best Hun…but you decide. I said I don’t care, so he jumped out as fast as he could before I had time to change my mind. I drove the truck down the road a little while and got out and started walking down the mountain road because my contractions were starting to ease a little bit. My back pain and the tension in my body hadn’t relaxed, but I didn’t want to take any chances. Tyler came and picked me up and by the time we got home, my contractions were coming less strong and way apart. We got the kids into the bath and jammies. Tyler left to go unload hay at the field, while the girls watched a show and I got in the shower. After sitting and talking to Tyler when he got home, he made me a cheese tortilla and he thought in his mind “don’t put salsa on it so she doesn’t go into labor” and I thought “don’t put salsa on it so I don’t get heart burn.” So Tyler blames the tortilla that he made me. He thinks it threw me into labor. I got into bed and as I was getting into bed, I felt this horrendous contraction go through out my body and in an instant, my back pain was back, my body felt old and I was having contractions every 6 minutes. I laid there for a while and finally decided to get up and walk around. Mean while, Tyler said let me know when you want to go. I told him to sleep for a few minutes. After walking around for 40 minutes, I text Tara Grover at 12:15 to see if I was crazy to go. She talked me into and I told her to come over in about 30 minutes so she could stay with the girls. I went and woke up Tyler and said I wanted to go, but I was going to get a few things and to start getting ready. About 15 minutes later, after I had gotten ready and was packing a few things, I went and woke up Tyler again and asked him “if he wanted to take me to the hospital or if I should call someone to take me?” He finally got out of bed and starting getting ready – he had worked all day on golf carts and was physically drained – but still. Tara got over here. I had Tyler take a picture of me and I might as well have asked me to get him a million dollars. He was so put out. We got in the car at 12:52 am. We went Dr. Black’s house and he wanted to stop and have him check me to see if we really needed to go to the hospital. Then we went past Nicole’s house and all her lights were on, so he LITERALLY called her to ask her if she could take me. After he told me he was so tired for the 4^th time and that his back hurt, I let him have it. I told him to suck it up and get over it that we were having a baby tonight and he couldn’t get out of it and to stop crying or else I was going to be really pissed. He stopped. As we were getting into Monticello, he started laughing and said we didn’t go over 55 mph the whole time. I told him that I noticed how fast we had been going…and that it had taken us a 35 mins to get here when it was normally a 20 minute drive. We laughed about it.

As we were walking into the ER at 1:30 am, Tyler was like “It just doesn’t seem like we are having a baby!, this isn’t how it seems in the movies! We shouldn’t be laughing and joking about everything…we are supposed to be frantic and running around cause we are having a baby!” We just laughed. We rang the door bell and walked in. We told the nurse, we didn’t know what we were doing even though this was our 3^rd child. We just laughed the whole time getting checked in. I think the nurses thought we were crazy. We just have never done the whole “baby thing” we always have been induced.

At 2 am, I was admitted because I was in deed having constant contractions and dilated even more from Friday, so Dr. Black started me on PIT. I didn’t have one contraction from 2-3 am. I thought maybe Dr. Black felt bad for me so he just admitted me, but I guess PIT can slow your contractions for a while. From 3 – 4 am, the contractions started picking up so I let them know to call Brad Young the anesthesiologist since it would take him while to get there and set up.

Brad got there about 4:30 am and we started the epidural at 4:45 am. Brad asked me if I had scoliosis….I thought that was a weird question to ask and then it dawned on me about my SI joint, so I told him I had problems with that and he said “ok, ya, now that makes sense.” He was having a hard time evening lining my back out to mark where to put the needle in cause my spinal cord WASN’T straight. He said “I can tell that you have been in pain for the last little while” I was glad someone had sympathy on me because I had been in miserable pain. Anyway, it took him 30 minutes to get the epidural in and working cause he had to do some maneuvering around. He had to twist and swerve so it kind of hurt to put it in. It only worked on one side, so they had to do some more maneuvering with it to get it working on both sides of my legs. They finally laid me down and it was working all nice. Apparently, my blood pressure dropped because they put oxygen on me but I had no idea till they told me a minute later. Once they left, Tyler and I slept till Doctor Black got there about 6:50 am and broke my water. (At this point, no one but Tara knows we were at the hospital…that was kinda fun to have our own little time and secret that we were in the hospital and no one was bugging us) But then about 7:30, we decided we couldn’t keep the secret anymore and at least thought we would let our parents know what was going on. I called my Mom (who was in Escalante for the Griffin family reunion…she didn’t answer so I called David and Channy to let them know and to tell my Mom). I called DeAnn and she didn’t answer, so I called Michael and Michele’s house because they were there, and talked to Michael. I told him and then talked to DeAnn. When I told her to come home cause we were going to have a baby, she said “well you have to go to the hospital first!” I told her we were in the HOSPITAL!!!!  Dr. Black came back at 7:50 am to check me and said I was at a 5 and they would give me a couple of hours to sleep.

At like 8:28 am, I woke up feeling this tremendous pressure and some commotion going on in my belly. The only way to describe it was like I was going to explode out of my rear end. I thought either something is wrong or I am ready to push because this baby wants out. I thought well, the nurse is coming in at 8:30 to up my PIT so I will wait till then to tell her what is going on. I woke up Tyler and said “either something is wrong or this baby is coming now!!” Of course, he was like whatever you’re not ready; you’re only at a 5 and went into the bathroom. (The nerve…seriously) So the nurse comes in like at 8:32 am, and I tell her something is wrong or I am ready so I asked her to check me. After she did something on the machine, she finally reaches in to check me and she is there awhile just feeling around. Then she calmly and nicely says…”I am going to get the Doctor.” So I looked at Tyler and said “See…I told you.” Anyway at 8:40 am, Dr. Black comes walking in and asks if he can check me. I told him sure. So he reaches in there and immediately says “Oh my gosh!” By the tone of his voice and the look on his face, I knew something was wrong. So my quick response to him was “What the hell is wrong?” I immediately felt bad for swearing at my doctor but I was panicked. He looks at me and Tyler and said “We need to do an emergency C-section, this baby is breech.” I started crying instantly. It was just such an intense moment that was all I could do. Dr. Black said let me tell you all the risks involved to try and deliver this baby vaginally and not to mention it hasn’t been done in this hospital since Dr. Goone (30 years ago). I told him in between breaths that it was OK, I just wanted the baby to be OK but I really didn’t want to do a C-section cause I had just labored all night, but we would do what we had to do to get the baby out safely and quickly. Tyler kept saying “It is OK, we can do a C-section, and it will be OK.” So as Dr. Black was leaving to go call the OR team, he asked Tyler if they wanted to give me a blessing. I will forever be grateful that in that moment, Dr. Black was thinking of that and that my husband without even stumbling over his breath answered a fervent yes. He didn’t even ask me, he just said yes.

Dr. Black came back in and said he had text Kelly Jeppesen (my neighbor) to help assist him in the C-section and they had called Brad at his Elder’s quorum meeting to get him back in here to help with the epidural and the other nurses and people were getting the operating room ready. He asked me my name, but all I could do was cry so Tyler had to tell him. Dr. Black consecrated me and Tyler gave me a quick blessing of everything would go OK with me and the baby the right thing would get done and the baby would be safe. Dr. Black then checked me at 8:45 am, right after the blessing and he just said “This baby is coming now. There is no time for a C-section.” He ran to the door and yelled down the hall, “This baby is coming now! Get everyone in here.” All I could do at this point, from that declaration is cry even harder. I was a WRECK….a DISASTER. Tyler tried his dang best to console me. I am sure he was completely stressed, but up until this point, he was 100% there for me and not showing his emotions to me to try and be strong.

(This whole time, you could tell Dr. Black was stressed and tense, but there was never one time in the whole time that I felt like he wasn’t in control. The only way to describe him was he was cool, calm and collected. But he definitely was giving orders and taking control of the situation and telling everyone what they needed to do. I felt like my room was a little army of ants marching to the queen’s beat. He never led on that he was really stressed like he admitted later.)

So within 30 seconds, there was Tyler, me, Doctor Black, Brad Young, my nurse, the baby’s nurse, and two OR people in the room. Dr. Black is breaking down the bed and someone is putting my legs up on the props. Dr. Black said to someone call Dr. Jeppesen, he is not going to make it over here. So they yelled down the hall to have someone call him. At this point, Brad kind of took over at this point to help assist Dr. Black and was my other “attending physician.” He was so nice and so positive throughout the whole experience. It was nice that he was there.  I looked at Dr. Black has he is throwing on his scrubs and said “How many times have you delivered a vaginal breech birth?” He looked at me and said “You want an honest answer?” I said yes. He replied “You will be my first.” I was shaking-crying uncontrollably at this point. I am sure if Dr. Black would have thought about it, he would have been offended that I started crying even harder. It was just an intense moment for me. But thankfully Dr. Black was focused on the baby and getting him out.

So Dr. Black goes up in there and is talking out loud and for this momma, I was completely dialed into what he was saying and his body language. I was glad that he was talking out loud, so I knew what was going on. Tyler was right there in my face talking right to me and rubbing my arm. Dr. Black pushed is bum back up in there so he could get his legs out first. He was in there fishing for awhile, when I heard “Got one leg.” Then he went fishing again. He was in there for while and finally said “His other leg is up by his face, so I need you to push so I can get his other leg brought down to get it out.” I tried to push; I don’t think I was that much help. All I did was take a tiny breath and just squeezed my belly. I was too busy crying. After a minute, I hear “Ok, I got the other leg down and its out.” Then the only thing that brought joy to my heart during my whole delivery was I heard Dr. Black say, “Ok he just peed on me, I have never been peed on first when delivering babies.” I did laugh a little. Then “Ok, I need to get the arms out. I need you to push; they are up over his head.” He got his arms down and out. Then Dr. Black says “Ok, for the hard part. His head…I am going to need you to push for me.” I pushed (rather squeezed) and Dr. Black was jerking around up in there and what not and all of a sudden baby is on my belly….NOT breathing. All I could hear was Dr. Black saying “Breath baby breath.” Brad is whacking this baby on the back and Dr. Black is suctioning his mouth out. I was hysterical. All of a sudden, I heard sobs coming out of Tyler and I look up and he is hysterical. It really was the most intense and crazy moment we will ever experience in our lives. McCoy had “blood” coming out of him, so I asked what it was and Dr. Black said it was just the stuff he swallowed coming out and not to be alarmed. After about 20 seconds, McCoy let out this tiny little cry and you could feel the entire room sigh a breath of relief. Brad took him over to the table to work on him a little more, but he let me see him and give him a kiss before he took him. They started rubbing him down over at the table and had the heater on him. They were still suctioning and then started giving him some oxygen. McCoy’s Apgar score was a 7.8, so considering the circumstance that was great for me! Meanwhile, Dr. Back is getting the placenta out and saying to himself “That baby is a miracle. Seriously a miracle we got him out like that.” Over and over again. I don’t know all the risks involved, because I am no doctor and quite frankly I don’t want to know…but McCoy is a miracle. So much wrong could have taken place, but it didn’t. We were being watched over and protected from Heavenly Father himself and a few other angels. After we got McCoy back, when I saw him again…I knew he was a McCoy. He just looked like a McCoy to me. A little while later, Dr. Black came in to check on the baby and us. He told Tyler I am still trying to calm down. I am still just as tense as I was earlier. That was crazy. Tyler said we were too but everything was looking good as far as his oxygen levels and his body signs and language so there was nothing really to worry about. We got McCoy circumcised the next morning and his PKU and shot taken care of and was out of there by noon. The girls came over to see him at the hospital and were completely ecstatic to be there. Chez was a little stand off-ish but not to the baby, just to me cause I “looked” different with my IV and being in the hospital bed. Aspyn was on cloud 9 telling me “Thank you for having this baby so she could love him forever!” And asked if “We could keep him forever?” Yes..Yes… little girl. We will keep this little boy with us forever and ever because we are an eternal family. And a very blessed one too.

Side note:

*We didn’t have our camera when I gave birth. We didn’t bring in any of our stuff, because honestly we didn’t think we would be staying to have a baby that night. After Dr. Black told me the baby was coming the first thing I panicked over was that I didn’t have my camera. I told Tyler to go get it and he wasn’t budging to go get it. He said it was OK not to have it. I was mad for like 5.7 seconds and that’s when everything started happening, so soon the camera was forgotten and it definitely was not a priority after that. I was still sad we didn’t have it for when I got McCoy back so we could have taken some good pictures instead of cell phone pictures. Oh well.

*About 6 months, I just started having this feeling that something would go wrong with something of this pregnancy. I wasn’t sure what it was, but when Dr. Black said we need to do this emergency C-section and this baby is breech, all I could say was “I knew it, I knew something was going to not be right.”

*Umbilical cord was 90 cm long. Super long, super healthy this turned into a blessing that helped the baby and helped the delivery go a lot smoother.

*At my 3 day check up, my doctor let me know that I had two scars on my placenta the size of limes. He wasn’t sure how or why they were there, but one was really close to my cord and that if it would have been any closer, I would have had a stillborn birth. This whole pregnancy was pretty much a miracle I am learning. All the things that could have gone wrong that didn’t. We are so blessed.

*I strongly believe there were angels in the room with us helping. The whole experience was spiritual, once you stepped back and looked at it from hind sight. Going through it, was obvious rough and I wouldn’t even wish it on my enemy to do it over again. My doctor told me that he felt guided, directed and prompted the whole time. It made me so happy and relieved to know that I have a Doctor who in the critical times, would think about giving me a blessing. I was too much of a wreck that Tyler was trying to calm me down that for Dr. Black to make that recommendation was pretty special. And then for my husband and my doctor to lay their hands on my head to give me a priesthood blessing was pretty cool. I know for certain no questions that the Lord was watching over us and protecting me and my family that day.

*I believe McCoy really is a miracle baby, the more I think about or learn about what could have gone wrong, the more I have to shut it out of my mind. The fact that the hospital hasn’t done a vaginal breech delivery in 30 years and that my Doctor hasn’t ever done one either just gives me the chills. From the cord, to the scars on the placenta to his head being tiny enough and McCoy being skinny and lanky was a miracle…also me being 2 weeks early was a miracle.  In October of 2012, we went to the temple just to go and I was sitting in the Celestial room and I thought to myself, I should ask for something. I said in my mind, when should we start trying for another child and instantly, not a second later I heard you will have one now and the overwhelming calm came over me that now was a good time to get pregnant. Well, I got pregnant the next month. I just think with being prompted that another child would come soon to us, the pregnancy went great even though it could have turned out differently and the labor and delivery was as good as to be expected given the circumstances that there is a bigger purpose for McCoy. It may only be for one person in this world, or for our family or for something more, but I believe with my whole heart and soul that McCoy truly has a purpose for being on the Earth in our home at this exact moment. He has something to do. The Lord wants him here and I couldn’t be any luckier than to be the mother of this child.

*People are talking about this delivery. The story is going around town. A lab tech came in the next morning after us having him, telling me that he heard about the delivery from the people on the ambulance that came in that morning.  I have had people when I am out and about just saying “I heard about the delivery!” Dr. Black said he has had people he didn’t even know come up and want to talk about it and how crazy it was. One of my friends heard that I had McCoy in the hallway on the way to the OR room, that I didn’t make it to the surgery room and had him in the hall. TOO FUNNY!