Logan's Birth Story

2 weeks later :)

June 14, 2011

One day shy of 37 weeks, I was headed to St. Anthony's for my weekly check up. I had been experiencing nausea, headaches, and dizziness all week. I assumed it was the heat, but I was anxious to get confirmation from the doctor.

While my nurse was taking my blood pressure, she had a concerned look on her face. Oh no. Immediately after, she told me that we needed to go to a different room. I was a little freaked. She took my blood pressure again. Confirming that it was extremely high. She had me lay on my left side and told me she would send the doctor in as soon as possible. After what seemed like fooorever the doctor came in and checked my blood pressure again. Still very high. He finished the examination. I was dilated to a 2 and 65% effaced..progress! He had me lay on my left side for awhile longer then checked my blood pressure again with two different cuffs. Still high :( He put me on strict bed rest and wanted me back on Friday morning to see if there was any change.

I called my mom on my way home and told her what had happened. She seemed a little more concerned than I was. Hi my name is Sarah and I'm invincible. She gave me strict orders to go straight to her house. Of course! She didn't trust me to be on "bed rest" at my own house (which...bless her heart, she was right) So that's what I did. Luke & I headed straight to her house. I layed on my left side all day. I don't even think I got up to use the restroom. Around 5 p.m. I was getting a terrible headache & feeling pretty dizzy again. I didn't even have to say anything and my saint of a mother knew something was wrong. She took my blood pressure & go figure...it was through the roof.

She called my doctor and he immediately advised her to take me straight to the hospital so they could run some tests on me. I was flabbergasted. I literally did n.o.t.h.i.n.g. all day long, how could it be so high?? Is the baby going to be ok?? Could this be it?? So there we were...headed back to St. Anthony's for the second time that day. On the way up Trav & I were 'trying' to make light of the situation. Ahh, little different making this drive without contractions this time eh?

We got to the ER around 5:30 p.m. and they took me straight up to Labor & Delivery's Triage. Sure enough...my blood pressure was sky rocketing 187/106. After running some blood work and a 1000 questions a doctor came in to do an ultrasound. Right away, I just knew something wasn't "ok". This ultrasound was no an "Aww look at my cute little baby" this was a "Is my baby going to be ok" ultrasound. Terrifying!

The doctor put some images up on the screen & explained to me that at 37 weeks there should be at least 80% fluid in the placenta & I only had about 50%. He told me that he was going to call my doctor & see what he wanted to do. At 9 p.m. a nurse came in & said Dr. Salinas gave instructions to induce me. They told me it wasn't safe for me or baby anymore & we needed to move things along. Talk about making a pregnant lady's blood pressure go up. I didn't know what to think. As ready as I was for this day, it wasn't supposed to come this early. And what about my baby. O.M.G. if something happened to him, I would die.

At 9:30 p.m. they hooked me up to Pitocin. I have heard horror stories about this medication so I was rather nervous.The labor started out slow. My blood pressure wasn't going down, the headaches/dizziness kept coming, but the pain was much more mild than with Luke. After the Pitocin reached it's juice power at 20, my nurse offered me the epidural for the last time. Yes, please! Especially with the hopes that it might make my blood pressure drop!

The epidural was torture. I'm not sure what it was. I don't remember it hurting that bad nor taking that long with Luke. Crazy! After the epidural was all set, a doctor came in to break my water and informed me that there was hardly any fluid. So he put in a internal monitor to keep closer eye on Logan. Which was also a new experience for me. This is what I get for not being nervous whatsoever for this labor. At this point I was only dilated to a four, but 100% effaced. My nurse told me that how far I was dilated really didn't mean much. Being the second baby I could go from a four to a ten in five minutes. The contractions were steady, every 2 mintues apart. Sweet, this isn't going so bad after all.

As soon as the epidural kicked in and the pain had eased, I started to doze off. Five minutes later, I woke up to nurses and the doctor putting an oxygen mask on me, checking the screen, turning me on my left side..my right..on my back. I was kind of out of it and wasn't really sure what was going on. Especially with that darn oxygen mask, I couldn't even hear what they were saying.

My blood pressure was still high and the baby's heart rate was dropping :(

I was given a shot in the arm to stop my contractions completely. The doctor on call explained to me that I had Toxemia, otherwise known as Preeclampsia. He said that my placenta was the root of the evil & we needed to get the baby out. He was going to call my doctor, and informed me that he might order a c-section.

Stay calm. Stay calm. Stay calm. My worst fear...surgery.

When the doctor came back in, he held my hand and told me that Dr. Salinas would be here in a few minutes & he would like to go through with the c-section. The flood gates opened. I couldn't control myself. It felt like a nightmare that I coudln't wake up from. All I could think about was Logan, God please let him be okay and Luke. ((My dad passed away during a routine, out patient surgery. A surgery that had been performed millions of times. There was a small error & he never came home. The last time I saw him alive was him waving to us as he was being wheeled away in a hospital bed with a cap & gown on))

Luke & Logan. My strength and my weakness.

So there I was. A blubbering, shaking, dizzy mess being wheeled off to my first surgery. I gave my mom a kiss and Trav told me he would see me in a couple minutes. There were bright lights and shiny tools. Oh, that put my mind at ease.... I looked up at the clock right before they put me on the operating table and it was 6:33 a.m. Then Trav came in. Awww, my poor Travy. He was scared shitless. I don't think he has ever seen me in a weaker moment. I don't know if he was more scared about the situation or my reaction to the situatioin. There is no one else I rather of had by my side. He was absolutely wonderful.

I'm not going to go into the whole 'surgery' part. I don't ever want to relive that again. Nor do I think you want to hear the disturbing details...

At 6:49 a.m. on June 15, 2011 Logan Bradlee Roscow had arrived SAFELY. The first words out of my mouth were "OMG you are SOOOOO tiny!!!!" In my mind I was thinking that I just hadn't seen a newborn in awhile and forgot how small they were. Ha!! How wrong I was. 4 pounds 7 ounces. 18 inches long. 10 fingers, 10 toes :)

Right after I had heard how much he weighed, I started to panic a little. Seriously. 3 weeks early, only 4 pounds. This can't be good. But it was good. Travis got to cut the umbilical cord. They did his foot prints. Even wrapped him up and brought him over to me so I could get a good look at him. Ahh, the second best moment of my life! Now I had a face to the person I loved so much already. A familiar face at that. Resembled another handsome little boy I know :) Same lips, same nose, even the same red mark on the tip of it (that eventually went away) My baby boy. My second child. I was alive, Logan was safe...we did it!

*We had pictures of all of this, but my lovely husband 'accidently' deleted them on our way back to the recovery room.................. It's ok. One day when Logan is older I will be able to explain to him what a dingleberry his father can be at times and promise him that he wasn't adopted*

After a few minutes of soaking him in, his nurse told me that he was perfectly healthy just very tiny. It was protical with his weight to keep him in the NICU for 24 hours just to make sure he was maintaining his temperature and eating correctly. I reassured Trav that he HAD to go with Logan to make sure everything was extra okay and to show him off to everyone.

The NICU sounds scary, but in this case it wasn't at all. We got to go visit him whenever we liked, for however long as we liked. He really was/is completely healthy, developed. Just minature :) Miracles really do happen. And that is what he is. My miracle baby <3