Our story

Last week after reading a birth story of a couple's second child, who was born with Down Syndrome I had the biggest cry, the story was beautiful. Having an uncle with Down's, I know how special he is, I can't imagine what my grandmother went through, my Mom seeing her baby brother the first time, he's 2 years older than me, we traveled together once, it was a fun trip, one I'll remember forever, he is definitely a precious gift from God, I love him dearly.

This prompts me to write my birth story, I turned off my rss feed to facebook, I want to write this out for my husband and Caden (he'll maybe read it when he's 30 and had his own baby :) and for you, close blog readers. It won't be well written, that's not me, but it is our story...

It was Saturday, January 24th 2009, I was expecting my period around the Wed, Thurday of that previous week, it hadn't come. So, Quinn and I decided to buy a couple pregnancy tests, we took one test that Saturday, there was one solid line and another light line appeared, 2 lines means you are expecting. We were thinking we were probably expecting, but I said we should take another test in the coming days as it would show stronger as the days went on. Quinn was excited, I think he said something like how exciting it was to know you've created a baby (not his exact words). I was nervous. Nervous about having a baby, I've always known it is a lot of work to care for a baby, I guess I questioned my capabilities but I kept reminding myself, it's not just me, it's both of us, Quinn is with me, we can do this. Sunday we went to church and heard the news of another couple expecting. Congratulating them was so strange knowing you probably had the same news to share, but we would be waiting. The following week we took another test and again 2 lines appeared, one slightly fainter again, but a little more bold than the previous week. We knew, Baby Bogusky on the way. A few weeks in I started experiencing morning sickness, a lot of food was revolting to me, I gagged easy while brushing my teeth. I brought up, my husband, bless him, wouldn't let me clean up my throw up mess when I missed, told me to go lay down, he took care of it. Thankfully I only brought up, maybe 10 times. I felt right from the beginning we would be seeing baby Bogusky in 9 months, it was never a question if something would go wrong, I had this feeling that I knew this was God's plan for us at this time.

It was hard keeping the secret from parents, we decided to tell them around the end of February, they were excited for us, as we expected. Telling friends and other family members was fun, all the creative phone calls, in person conversations, emails (emailed our friends the "Guess What?" email in Sudan). The pregnancy was "normal", our first ultrasound at 19 weeks went well, it was amazing seeing a fully formed baby inside. There was a lot of movement, Caden was a mover inside the womb. The US tech said he would keep us running. The placenta was low lying as it should have already moved up by 19 weeks, so they wanted to do a second ultrasound at 32 weeks to ensure it was high before the birth.

The pregnancy went as expected though. Started feeling better with food in the second trimester, it definitely felt like the "honeymoon" trimester. The third trimester was good too, I didn't start feeling tired til the 9th month. Thankfully I was off work at the start of the 9th month. I got ready for baby and spent the month going for long walks. October 1st of the due date, that day came and went, baby was cozy on the inside. We had a doctor appointment, of course he wanted us to go for fetal assesments, ensure baby was doing ok, not getting too big. We had two fetal assessments before Caden was born, all was well. Doctor gave me two weeks from October 1st to have the baby or I had to be induced. I was not happy about being induced.

On Wednesday morning, October 14th, Quinn went off to work. I started having lower back pain, constant back pain that morning. I decided to go for a walk anyway, hoping to get things moving. Quinn called me on his 10am break, at noon and at his 3pm break to chat. I decided not to mention anything to him. I was sure this was it, so I knew he would be taking off work starting Thursday already and if I mentioned anything Wednesday, he would leave work immediately. I felt there was really no reason for him to be at home, it was only back pain yet. In the evening when he came home I told him what was going on. We spent the evening at home, I sat on the exercise ball for comfort and Quinn rubbed my back. Wednesday night, I didn't sleep much, maybe 3 hours in total, the pain of course worsening. By Thursday morning, there were mild back contractions, we were both up at 5am as I wasn't sleeping anyway. We showered and got ready for the day ahead. I had been having contractions all morning, I prolonged going to the hospital as long as possible, I think the contractions were approx 5-10 minutes apart when we decided to go in at noon. We let our parents know we were going in to the hospital.

If I hadn't gone into labour by that Thursday, I was on the list for an induction, we got to the hospital before they called. In triage, they checked me out, I was barely 3cm dialated. Normally at that stage they would've sent us home, however I was already 2 weeks overdue, so they kept us at the hospital. We were admitted into our own room and settled in for the night :).

From noon until 7pm, the contractions got stronger, we walked the halls, bounced on the exercise ball, Quinn rubbed my back, lots of owee, owee, owee. They offered me gas (nitrous oxide), it did little to ease the pain. I asked for an epidural.

Sidenote: At our prenatal classes, the men were told (away from the women)...if your partner asks for an epidural, ask them if they want to try maybe 5 more contractions, as a way to see if they can be prolonged from the epidural, but if your partner is adamant about an epidural, to let her have it.

The nurse asked me to go to the washroom first, as I had to do that before the epidural. There, I pleaded with Quinn, said I couldn't take it anymore, they were too strong and of course, he agreed :) At 8pm, the OB checked me out, said I was maybe 5cm. They decided to break my water. The OB discovered meconium (pooped inside). The anesthesiologist came in and hooked me up, I thought it would be more painful than it was. I guess relative to contractions, the epidural insert was a cinch.

Oh, the beauty of the epidural, I wasn't able to leave the bedside...really, they wanted to closely monitor baby's heartbeat and the contractions, especially since they discovered meconium. It was either the exercise ball or the bed. Apparently I slept that night, so Quinn tells me, I don't remember going to sleep or waking. I almost still don't believe him...lol. At midnight, the nurse checked me again, I was fully dialated, she asked me if I had the urge to push, like a bowel movement, I said I felt nothing (downside of the epidural). She decided to turn down the oxytocin and hope I would regain feeling. Within a short amount of time, my back started to ache, there still was no urge to push which the nurse wanted, my lower back was aching intensely. I told this to the nurse, said I couldn't take the back ache, she turned the oxytocin back up. At 4am, I told the nurse, I want to push, just tell me how and I'll try it out, even though I didn't have the "BM urge". So, we tried for about an hour, there was some movement and descent, not a lot. I think the nurse gave up on me, she called the OB in. The OB finally arrived at 6am, actually the intern. After his examination, he concluded, the baby was sideways, facing to the side of my body. They would have to use forceps to turn him. Then they would proceed to help pull him out while I pushed. If turning baby did not work, they would have to go to C-section. I asked if they could use suction instead, I thought that would be better for baby than forceps. (looking back, I don't know why I asked, I don't think suction would turn the baby as easily as forceps! I was tired and dazed I guess!)

For this procedure I had to be moved to the OR in the event the C-section was necessary. They moved me to a different roller bed and wheeled me down the hall, past Quinn's parents who had a very worried look on their face and into the operating room. During this transition I finally had the urge to push, it was hard to hold back. The froze me from neck to feet, and the intern with the OB went to work. Turning Caden was successful and within minutes of the start of their work, they were asking me to push him out.

Out came our baby boy, Caden Quinn, the docs handed him off to the nurses, they wanted to clean him up before he took big breaths, as they didn't want the meconium to go into his lungs. Then he cried, so sweet. After birth, the docs fixed me up and in the meantime the new Daddy got to hold his sweet boy. The nurses asked his name, Quinn told them Caden. They asked for the middle name, Quinn couldn't get that one out. I finally told them, Caden Quinn. We were all moved to a recovery room. Caden had to go through his first round of tests, Caden also started eating very quickly and well! Soon after his first blood test, we were told he had low blood sugar, abnormally low for a newborn. Probably due to stress in the womb. This upset us somewhat, because there was a chance he would have to be admitted to NICU, on IV, we were nervous, saddened and scared. Caden breastfed some, they also supplemented with formula, he needed lots of food quickly to try and get the blood sugar in check. Caden had to be taken to NICU to further test his blood sugar, I told Quinn to go with him, I would be ok. The parting was bittersweet for him (I think).

I had to regain all feeling after the anesthesia came off and of course, had to pee before being able to go back to our room. I was also able to eat finally. Caden and Quinn came back in between tests at NICU, those were some tough moments. Quinn, in agony, had to watch them poke and prod for all the blood work, of course in his heel, poor boy. After some time, we were all able to go back to our room, even though Caden had yet to pass a blood sugar test. We would just have to go to NICU for tests in between feedings. Caden was born at 6am and I think by 2pm he finally passed his blood sugar. We were so thankful! Our parents came in of course and we had some other company. Such a mix of emotions from the morning, a beautiful day when we held our blessed baby boy in our arms. Amen!

We are grateful for you Caden, you are my beautiful baby boy, I love you.

Love,
Mommy